You can stop holding your breath, counting the days, and bracing yourselves.  The earth’s axis didn’t shift due to the unexplainable awesomeness of Stephen Strasburg throwing a baseball on Tuesday.

The highly-touted Washington Nationals prospect (who really is pretty badass) was a little nervous out there against the Detroit Tigers, having some occasional location trouble during his spring training debut.  Otherwise, the 21-year-old righty was awfully impressive.

Strasburg allowed two hits and threw 27 pitches in all — 15 for strikes — including a crazy 81 mph breaking ball to Brent Dlugach.  (Who?  He wants to be a shortstop when he grows up.)

Last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick ended his bitchin’ career at San Diego State with a 13-1 record to lead all Division I pitchers with a minuscule 1.35 ERA  and 195 strikeouts over 109 innings.   As ridiculous as those stats are, and with all the hype surrounding this kid, he still seems wise beyond his years.

“It’s a lot of craziness going on, a lot of hype, a lot of anticipation,” Strasburg said. “It’s all over with, it’s in the books. It’s all about getting better now and trying to learn as much as you can.”

Will his maturity and talent be enough to earn him a spot in the Nationals’ rotation though?  If manager Jim Riggleman had a nickel for every time he’s had to answer that question, he’d probably be able to pay a good chunk of Strasburg’s $15.1 million, four-year deal himself.  He did say on Tuesday that the kid is just like everyone else: trying to make the club.

The truth of the matter: the Nats suck and they need all the help they can get at this point… unless they’d just rather keep raking in No. 1 draft picks every year until they’re completely unstoppable.  Watch out Pudge, they could have a brand new catcher next season!