Welcome to the MLB Star Power Index -- a weekly temperature reading that tells us which players are owning the baseball conversation right now. While one's presence on this list is often a positive, it's not necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you're capturing the baseball world's attention for one reason or another. The players listed are in no particular order.  

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Stephen Strasburg
WAS • SP • #37
World Series
ERA2.51
WHIP1.047
IP14.1
BB3
K14
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Stephen Strasburg, World Series MVP and, yes, postseason legend. If you're one of those inclined to thunder your negative opinions about Strasburg from high atop Mount Judgment, then know that Strasburg and his playoff body of work are here to tell you to descend said mountain and resume sitting quietly. 

Yes, he's the one whose results rarely matched the stuff, at least to hear you the lame-wad tell it. He's the one whose native frailties and appalling lack of  je ne sais quoi necessitated wee workloads and affronts like the "Strasburg Shutdown." Know this, though: Playoff Stras is here to bury thine assumptions and then desecrate the shallow grave in which they decay. 

Playoff Stras across eight career postseason starts and one relief appearance now loudly boasts an ERA of 1.46 with 71 strikeouts against seven unintentional walks in 55 1/3 innings. Among pitchers to throw at least 50 postseason innings, Strasburg's 1.46 ERA ranks fifth all-time. The names ahead of him -- Mariano Rivera, Sandy Koufax, Christy Mathewson, and Eddie Plank -- are Hall of Famers and legends, one and all. In that must-win Game 6, Strasburg became the first starter to pitch into the ninth inning of a World Series game since Matt Harvey in 2015. Who hath spoken? Playoff Stras hath spoken. 

Relevant to all of this is that Strasburg has an opt-out in his Nationals contract and can become a free agent this coming offseason. Given the strength of his 2019 regular season -- a 138 ERA+ and a 3.25 FIP in an NL-leading 209 innings -- he seems likely to use that opt-out. And he's going to get paid. The rate-based results have never been in question, but stamina and health have. Strasburg, though, has allayed some of those fears with his age-30 campaign. Throw in his postseason body of work, and he threw 245 1/3 innings in 2019. The last pitch of his season -- the 3,943rd pitch of his season -- registered 95 mph in the ninth inning of Game 6. Then in the afterglow he hinted at being available out of the bullpen in Game 7. Given that nothing predicts future health like health in the season prior, teams are going to see Strasburg as someone familiar with ace-grade results who's now proved capable of an ace's workload. Then he'll be paid as such. 

"Haters are my motivators," Plutarch once wrote. To be motivated by the haters, however, you must first hear them. Stras and most especially Playoff Stras never heard your aspersions in the first place and necessarily paid them no mind. How could he have heard you? You have such a stupid, squeaky voice. 

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Alex Bregman
BOS • 3B • #2
World Series
BA0.207
R3
HR3
RBI8
SB0
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First, let us praise Astros third baseman Alex Bregman for being a difference-maker in the just completed World Series. His overall numbers weren't quite up to his usual standards, but he slugged .517 with three home runs in those seven games. Let us also praise him for lugging his implement of destruction all the way to first base following his home run in Game 6. Please turn your attention to the embedded color television below:

You'll note that Bregman in the video above is being praised for his flourish and his role in the "We Play Loud" MLB spot is being highlighted. That's good! Baseball needs to make room for expressions of personality and even bravado. Bregman's bat carry inspired Juan Soto -- perhaps the best example of exuberance combined with coiled patience in the game today -- to do the same. And we do mean "inspired":

No, it was not an act of vengeance-based taunting. Soto saw something cool and decided to try it himself, and it produced one of the most memorable moments of the entire series. Afterward, though, Bregman for reasons sufficient unto himself performed an act of contrition: 

If Bregman decided of his own volition to apologize, then, sure, fine, whatever. If, however, he was compelled by outside forces to pretend that he did something terribly terrible, then come on already. Either way, perhaps the marketing slogan should be amended to: "Play Loud! (But egads not that loud.)" 

It's fine to find some of this uninteresting. For instance, I find bat-flips and home run trots to be fairly dull (this is not the case for the emerging sub-genre of bat carries), but they're decidedly not sources of offense. Carry the bat if you want, man. Play loud, the focus group bellows, but don't apologize for having played loud. Bregs, you go nothing to apologize for.

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Juan Soto
NYM • LF • #22
World Series
BA0.333
R6
HR3
RBI7
SB1
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Just a few paragraphs ago, this scribe referred to Nats cloutsman and outfielder Juan Soto as "perhaps the best example of exuberance combined with coiled patience in the game today." Let us now stand proudly by those remarks. 

Soto just recently turned 21 years of age, and despite having arrived in the majors for good at the age 19 he owns a high-level OPS+ of 140 across two seasons. Even being in the majors at all during your teen years is itself a sign of future greatness but to also thrive against the best pitching in the world? That's the sign of a generational talent, which is what Soto is. For a while, it seemed Soto wasn't quite getting his due as a hitter, but then he batted .333/.438/.741 with three home runs in the World Series. In case you were unaware of Mr. Soto's presence as one of the best hitters in baseball, he loudly announced it on the game's biggest stage. 

It's not just the power that makes Soto special -- he hit 34 home runs during the 2019 regular season. It's also his precocious discipline at the plate. He's freshly 21, and already he's one of the those hitters who at times knows the strike zone better than the pitcher on the mound and the umpire behind him. In 1,153 plate appearances, Soto has drawn 174 unintentional walks while seeing 4.24 pitches per plate appearance. That patience at the plate is why Soto is going to be a dominating hitter for the next decade-plus. 

Let us also praise him for turning something as mundane as taking a pitch into a laudable act of performative individualism. You know about the "Soto Shuffle":

Now, though, let us home in on a moment from Game 7 in which Soto treated working a walk as an example of Sportus Triumphus Maximus: 

Amen, Juan Soto. Amen, I say. Walks are generally not entertaining. If, however, you regard working a walk as having fought for the right to party, then walks rise above the banal. 

Do you take umbrage at such a thing? If so, then take leave of society and walk through a verdant forest preserve, returning only when are you are ready to be better.  

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Gerrit Cole
NYY • SP • #45
World Series
ERA3.86
WHIP1.000
IP14.0
BB3
K15
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Gerrit Cole, pitcher for the Astros? No, I say unto thee: Gerrit Cole, member in good standing of Team Gerrit Cole. Cole crafted a dominating season for Houston and twirled the Astros to victory in Game 5 of the World Series. Cole, however, is now bound headlong for free agency and because Astros owner Jim Crane is choosing not to invest sufficiently in the team, Houston isn't going to re-sign him. 

Following Game 7, Cole, to his enduring credit, wasted little time in transitioning from Astros moundsman to Undersecretary of Give Me My Money. Exhibit A: 

In the end -- talking about the very end here -- we are all representatives of ourselves. Shortly thereafter, Cole -- rather than opt for the hat of his former employer who refuses to pay him -- donned what is surely known across this land as The Actual Salary Cap: 

Before yelling about this in the town square, know that Cole after Game 7 called it a pleasure to play for the city of Houston and also posted on social media a warm message of appreciation for Astros fans. Maybe he was a little miffed that he wasn't used out of the bullpen in Game 7, but Cole seems to carry no salt for Astros rooters. Now, however, his mind is upon the money in large measure because the money is upon his mind. 

Do you take umbrage at such a thing? If so, then take leave of society and walk through a verdant forest preserve, returning only when are you are ready to be better.