STANFORD >> As a fantasy baseball manager, I’m always looking for the next big thing.

I was scouring the internet for prospective talent ahead of our annual prospect player draft last February, when a larger-than-life figure jumped off my computer screen: “Rintaro Sasaki, Japanese Prep Phenom, Commits To Stanford,” Baseball America reported.

Within a few days, the dominoes fell. Every major media outlet from here to Timbuktu had a story on the slugging sensation’s commitment. It was then that I knew this was my guy. I developed an immediate mancrush on an 18-year-old who has shown a profound ability to crush.

In case you’ve never heard of him, Sasaki is a power hitting first baseman who opted out of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball draft — as the projected No. 1 pick — after he hit .400 and walloped a Japanese record 140 HRs during his high school career. He opted out of the draft so he that he could play college ball in the U.S. and become a MLBer all the faster.

Sasaki has been around the game his entire life. His father, Hiroshi, coached him at Hanamaki Higashi High, as well as MLB stars Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi.Reports not only mentioned Sasaki’s propensity to orbit the baseball into different stratospheres, they noted his tremendous plate discipline.

Despite his lack of stolen bases, Sasaki seemed like the perfect player for my fantasy team, especially since my team name is the “Campbell Crushers” and has been since the league’s inception two decades ago.

A few weeks later, I drafted Sasaki. It was then when my wait as a fantasy baseball manager began. The wait for him to shine at Stanford, to become draft eligible and get selected, to produce in the minors, be promoted to bigs, and, hopefully, shine in the bigs. Then and only then, will he get activated onto my active roster. Still, he’s a Crusher.

Cardinal coach David Esquer knows there are millions of baseball fans like me. He also knows that the self-driven Sasaki, now 19, has already put enough pressure on the shoulders of his 6-foot, 275-pound frame.

“I know a lot of people expect him to jump out there and be dropped on a college baseball diamond and hit immediate success, but, I do warn everyone, it’s difficult to be a good freshman. It really is,” Esquer said. “It’s hard to find your way immediately on the diamond. I think we feel confident, if anyone can, he can. But, that being said, we’ve had first rounders, whether its the Nico Hoerners or Tommy Troys of the world who have left this place future major leaguers and first-round draft choices and their journeys don’t always start on that immediate ascensus to stardom. Sometime its a journey, sometime there’s some adversity there. There’s a learning process, a learning curve, and then they get to their ultimate destination, which is tremendous performance, which is because of their talent.”

Plenty of people, myself included, were concerned that Sasaki’s prodigious power numbers would take a dip against higher velocity American pitching, but shortly after Sasaki made the journey overseas, he put my mind at ease.

It’s a small sample size, but Sasaki picked up 109 bats on U.S. soil last summer, first with Trenton Thunder of the MLB Draft League — he homered in the second at-bat of his first game — and later with the Greeneville Flyboys of the Appalachian League. On the summer, he batted .257 with 12 extra-base hits, including seven round-trippers.

In the fall, Sasaki transitioned to Stanford, and was challenged again.

Jimmy Nati, a junior infielder for the Cardinal who hails from Sydney, Australia, can relate to Sasaki’s journey. He struggled in a new country as a freshman in ’23 before making significant steps forward last season. He said he learned from his early failures and is confident that Sasaki will overcome the hurdles he faces.

“I think it took him a little bit to get comfortable, but when he did, he’s unbelievable,” Nati said. “It’s fun to watch. Even at training the other night, he didn’t have his greatest showing, and I kinda said, ‘Hey, man, it’s tough. We make training hard so that the game is easy.’ That’s what our coaches harp on, but he’s going to be very good. I know he’s got a lot of expectations and I know that’s not going to be the easiest thing to handle. It’s not easy for any big prospect to handle, but he’s going to be just fine. I guarantee you, and he’s going to have a big, bright future ahead of him, as well.”

Sasaki, named Baseball America’s 2025 Preseason Freshman of the Year, opened his collegiate career over the weekend and helped the Cardinal (4-0) earn a sweep of host Cal State Fullerton.

There weren’t many struggles for the newcomer. He has a four-game hit streak and is batting .389 (7 for 18) with two doubles and a share of the team lead in RBI (eight) as the cleanup hitter.

What he doesn’t have, yet, is a home run. I expect that’ll change this weekend, when he makes his debut at picturesque Sunken Diamond. The Cardinal host Washington (2-2) in a four-game series that begins Friday at 2:05 p.m.

I plan to check in on the man-child at some point this weekend. Heck, I may even watch from beyond the outfield fence in right field, waiting to catch his first college long ball.

Wherever I’m stationed, you can bet one thing, that he’s going to hear someone yelling, “Let’s go, Crusher!”