Stephen Strasburg is starting the year in the minor leagues. He will not be taking part in Saturday’s exhibition game between the Red Sox and Nationals. No matter.

He will still be the largest presence in the Nationals organization. The rocket-armed right-hander’s reputation is such that he will be discussed even when not on the mound, as the baseball world awaits his big league unveiling – almost surely in the next couple of months – with immense curiosity.

The breathlessness about a pitcher whose professional career is limited to the Arizona Fall League and one spring training might seem excessive. But at least one member of the Red Sox organization knows better. Strasburg’s talent is such that he has already proven capable of indirectly transforming careers. Such was the case for Red Sox pitching prospect Stephen Fife.

Fife was in his junior year at the University of Utah when a matchup against Strasburg and San Diego State changed his career path. With about six weeks left before the draft, Fife was a fairly obscure pitcher. He recalled talking to scouts from a handful of teams, but the expectations were low. Perhaps he would get drafted around the 10th round or so if he continued to perform well.

Strasburg, then a sophomore, was an emerging phenomenon. He had dozens of scouts serving as groupies, whispering the remarkable tales of a pitcher who could command a baseball he unleashed in excess of 100 mph.

And so it happened that Fife, who was on the bump in Tony Gwynn Stadium on Friday, April 11, 2008, suddenly found himself in front of a different audience than the one that customarily sat in on his starts.

“It was the spot to be to watch a sophomore phenom hit 99 and carve it up,” said Fife.

Fife had heard the stories about Strasburg – that he enrolled at San Diego State in poor shape (“He went in there as a freshman and couldn’t hardly run 300 yards without throwing up and he was overweight,” Fife said), but had quickly set about remaking himself.

In his freshman year, Strasburg had shown obvious promise. He threw 93-95 mph, Fife recalled, and was named Freshman of the Year in the Mountain West Conference for his work as the San Diego State closer. But in his sophomore year, by the time that he matched up against Fife, Strasburg was a different animal.

That was plainly apparent that Friday night against Utah, when Strasburg quickly set about the business of furthering his collegiate legend. He struck out the side in the top of the first, thus starting a pattern of U-turns by Utes hitters.

“I knew he was good. I didn’t really know how good until that game. I quickly figured it out,” said Fife. “I was talking to my buddies that night and he sat at 98 to 103, I think we had him at. He was 99 in the ninth, 103 after 60 something pitches.

“He’s just foolishly good. He’s the best pitcher I’ve every seen live. I saw Randy Johnson pitch, and he had a funk. But you don’t often see a guy repeat his delivery through nine innings and sit 99. There are not many guys like that. The action he has on his pitches, his slider that night was like 85 to 89. You had guys swinging at fastballs chest high and guys swinging at breaking balls eight feet off the plate. He’s a special player, he’s freakishly good.”

Strasburg threw 128 pitches in a complete-game shutout, allowing Utah just one hit and one walk. He obliterated the school and conference records by striking out 23 that night, a performance that left his coach – Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn – in awe.

"Seeing somebody punch out 23, I think I'll remember that till the day I die," Gwynn told reporters that night. "Twenty-seven batters come up to the plate and only four guys put the ball in play. I don't think you'll ever see that again."

But despite his otherwordly dominance, Strasburg was not the only one who was dealing that night. Fife was matching him inning for inning, zero for zero.

Through six innings, Fife was working on a four-hit shutout. He had a sharp mix that night, his two-seam and four-seam fastball and curveballs allowing him to compete with Strasburg.

Not that it necessarily seemed that way even with the two locked in a scoreless tie.

“I just tried to keep my team in it. I didn’t know the magnitude of what he was doing until I got out of the game,” said Fife. “I just battled my [butt] off to try and win the game.

“I was told later in the season that he made me look like a Little Leaguer. I was sitting 92-94 that night and people were like, ‘Who hell is this kid? He’s throwing a damn good game but he looks like he’s throwing 82 when the other guy is out there throwing 103.’”

In the seventh inning, the Aztecs broke through against Fife. It was a sad sort of rally, really, that undermined the unexpected tete-a-tete. After Fife notched his fifth punchout of the game to start the inning, he permitted a leadoff infield single and then walked one batter and hit another to load the bases. He then got a grounder to third, but DC Legg’s fielder’s choice error allowed an unearned run to score.

Fife was pulled, and ended up taking the defeat in Utah’s 1-0 loss to San Diego State. Yet while Strasburg’s record-setting performance was the unquestioned headline event, the less-heralded Fife has changed how he was perceived. He worked 6.2 innings and allowed just the one unearned run. The baseball world -- including the Sox, who were already among the teams following the right-hander -- took note.

“He obviously stepped up huge in that game, which raised his status in our eyes,” said former Sox amateur scouting director Jason McLeod, now the assistant GM in San Diego. “We had a few guys see him later at the MWC tournament and he threw the ball well for them as well.”

Suddenly, Fife started moving up prospect boards. The Idaho native built upon his strong performance, and vaulted himself into the early rounds. The Sox ended up selecting him in the third round of the 2008 draft, and Fife has performed well in the minors, striking out more than a batter an inning and producing high groundball rates.

Fife pitched at two levels of A-ball last year, recording a combined 3-5 record with a 3.71 ERA and while striking out 8.9 per nine innings and delivering an outstanding 6.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio for Greenville and Salem. He is slated to open the 2010 season with Double-A Portland, a significant accomplishment given that he has thrown just 126 minor league innings (about 30 more than fellow Portland starter Casey Kelly).

Though less prominent than some of the other Red Sox pitching prospects, he has impressed in each of his minor league stops, and by next year, there is a decent chance that he could be knocking on the door to the majors.

That is a testament to Fife’s talent. Yet for him to arrive at this point in his career, chance -- in the form of a Nationals phenom -- also played a role.

“I had talked to five teams before that game and the next game at New Mexico there was 20-something scouts. The next week at home there was 35,” said Fife. “If I didn’t face him hat night when there was so many people to watch him and not me, then I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. It’s the coincidence of what happened. I don’t want to [say] Stephen Strasburg made my career but I wouldn’t have gotten exposed if he wasn’t as good as he is.”