When the story is written on what has been a pretty remarkable 2006 season for the Yankees, there’s going to be a special place reserved for Chien-Ming Wang, Robinson Cano, and Melky Cabrera, all 2005 rookies who performed at a level well past what their most ardent admirers could have expected. They didn’t save the Yankees’ season — this is simply too talented a team to need saving, and even without these three the team would be, at worst, in the usual dogfight with Boston. What they did was turn an excellent team into a great team, restoring the sense of vitality and excitement that just hadn’t been felt in the Bronx over the last few years, no matter how many games the Yankees won.

This story, though, isn’t just being told in New York. As the regular season begins to wind toward its end, it’s really remarkable, looking it over, just how enormous the impact of the 2005 crop of rookies and debuts has been. Minnesota’s Francisco Liriano and Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon, had they not been felled by injuries, could well have finished 1–2 in American League Cy Young voting; as is they’re the brightest young pitching talents in the game. Starters like Pittsburgh’s Zach Duke and Anaheim’s Ervin Santana aren’t yet stars, but have turned in solid seasons with ERAs in the mid-4s. Oakland’s Huston Street and Chicago’s Bobby Jenks are two of the more reliable closers around as sophomores. Jenks’ teammate Brandon McCarthy, who last year looked like the best long-term bet of them all, has been quietly effective serving an apprenticeship in the White Sox’s bullpen while waiting his turn to crack one of the game’s deepest rotations.

That’s just the pitching side — players like Chicago left fielder Matt Murton and former Met Mike Jacobs, now in Florida, have established themselves as solid contributors, while Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder has established that he will be a star and Atlanta’s Brian Mc-Cann, who’s contended for the batting title most of the year, showed why he’ll be the cornerstone should Atlanta rise again. You may also have heard about that first baseman in Philadelphia.

Most years have, in retrospect, a better class rookies and debuts (not the same thing, due to baseball’s arcane system for classifying rookies) than they seem to at the time. What’s unusual about last year’s class is the quickness in which they’ve developed. Still, take all of the above players—two Cy Young candidates, an MVP and 60-homer threat, and the three young players who turned the Yankees back into the Yankees—and you still won’t have accounted for all the talent out there, including what are, potentially, the best of them all.

Remember when the Yankees had made their worst mistake since trading Fred McGriff by passing over St. John’s closer Craig Hansen, who went to Boston, for a high school shortstop? The shortstop went to Philly in the Bob Abreu trade, while Hansen lost his job as Boston’s ace closer of the future to Papelbon and endeared himself to no one with a lousy 33.2 innings in which he ran up an ERA of 5.88.

Remember Seattle ace Felix Hernandez, the new Dwight Gooden, making his debut at 19 last year and instantly shutting down the American League? With three plus-plus pitches and the mind of Greg Maddux, we were told, he would be the top pitcher in the circuit as soon as this year. Instead he’s proved somewhat homer-prone and to be mentally closer to 20 years old than 40, settling into predictable patterns and getting frustrated on the hill. While he’s improved in the second half, lowering his ERA to 4.60, he’s not looking right now like an ace, but more like a Duke or Santana, a good young pitcher and little more.

Then there’s Atlanta’s other future cornerstone — Jeff Francouer. With his freakishly short and compact swing and ability to hit balls pitched anywhere near the plate, his lack of discipline was supposed to be a problem that would solve itself. Instead, he’s turned in the least productive 24 home run, 95 RBI season imaginable, walking only 18 times all year, posting a sub-.300 on base average, and looking very much more like the new Juan Encarnacion than the new Vlad Guerrero.

This sort of dismissiveness, though, misses the point entirely. Between the speed of the media cycle, the fact that we follow prospects from birth these days and so think of them as ancient veterans at 22, and the rapid success of their peers, it’s very easy to forget just how hard it is to take that final step from prospect to star.

Craig Hansen is still in his first full year of professional ball. Felix Hernandez is not yet of drinking age. There’s nothing much wrong with Jeff Francoeur’s plate approach that wasn’t wrong with Jose Reyes’ two years ago. These three still have all the time in the world to not only be stars, but to be the best closer, starter, and hitter to first make his name in 2005.

Everyone gets a bit spoiled from time to time with regards to young players, New Yorkers especially of late. It’s one thing to be spoiled, another to take things for granted.There’s as much young talent out there as there has been at any one time since guys like Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin, Will Clark, and Kevin Brown were making their bones.It’s a grand time, and the best may still be to come.