Inside Nova reports that Nationals top position prospect, and number two prospect on The Nats Blog's Prospect Big Board, Derek Norris, will sit out the next few games:

Catcher Derek Norris, ranked second among Washington prospects by industry magazine Baseball America, did not appear in Thursday’s game and may miss two-four games after nerve irritation appeared in the hamate bone he broke last fall.

That injury forced Norris to miss the Arizona Fall League, a circuit prospects attend to further develop their skills after the season.
Cathcart said Norris suffered the injury sliding into second base during spring training.

Norris saw a hand specialist and no structural damage was revealed.

This is a slight sign for concern for the Nationals but by no means any reason for alarm. Norris represents a future middle of the order bat and is perhaps the catcher of the future. The Nationals would like him to develop as quickly as possible at the plate, but that will be hard to do without gaining in game experience throughout the season.

SYRACUSE CHIEFS - AAA

In their opening game of the season, the Chiefs scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Lehigh Ironpigs 8-7. The Chiefs' ninth inning rally began with a one-out solo home run from Roger Bernadina to tie the game. After a Kevin Mench single (after which he advanced to second on a fielding error), an intentional walk by Josh Whitesell, and a walk by Eric Bruntlett, shortstop Pete Orr hit a single to centerfield to drive in Mench for the winning run. Orr, who also stole a base, was 3-4 on the day with a double. Second baseman Seth Bynum chipped in three RBIs, including a two-run homer. Bernadina and pitcher J.D. Martin also tallied two hits apiece, with Martin also throwing 6.2 innings while surrendering just two runs on one hit. Reliever Joel Peralta was credited with the win after pitching a one-run ninth.

HARRISBURG SENATORS - AA no comments

When we last left Bryce Harper, he was batting an astonishing .420/.514/.864 with eight homers and 32 runs scored on the season. To be honest, I thought for sure this would be the high point, that the league would finally catch up to the 17-year-old slugger playing junior college ball. Instead, Harper went out and had the best weekend of his young college career.

In back-to-back double-headers on Saturday and Sunday, both against the College of Eastern Utah, Harper went 7/14, hit four homers and scored seven runs. This brought his season totals to .431/.528/.931 with 12 home runs, 35 RBI, and 39 runs. His slash's combine for an outrageous 1.459 OPS.

Harper again showed his defensive versatility, and with it perhaps taunting scouts with his unique talent and draftability. Harper played two games at catcher and two in centerfield this weekend, and is quickly showing he's not the best catcher in the draft, but arguably the best position player.

HARPER VIDEO VS. COLLEGE OF EASTERN UTAH

When we last left Bryce Harper he was batting .408/.451/.712 with six homers and 20 RBI through 20 games in his first, and likely only collegiate season. In seven games since he has managed to raise his numbers to .420/.514/.864 with eight homers and 32 runs scored.

Take a second to digest that, he is getting on base at better than 50 per cent of the time he goes to the plate and is slugging well over .800. To put that in perspective, the major league leader in slugging last year, Albert Pujols, only slugged .658. Harper also has an unthinkable 1.379 OPS as a 17-year-old...with a wood bat.

Harper has continued to show versatility by playing all over the field. Interestingly, he has started in centerfield his last two games and has appeared in the outfield in seven of his last nine games. Could it be possible Harper is advertising that he could be just as valuable to a major league club in the outfield as he would behind the plate? The Nationals just recently severed ties with their supposed right fielder of the future, could Harper fill that hole in a few years?

Vegas Scout Video

The Washington Nationals optioned Stephen Strasburg and re-assigned Drew Storen to Double-AA Harrisburg today, putting an end to what had been an exciting glimpse of the future in Viera. With only 14 combined innings pitched, the two first round draft picks of 2009 gave Nationals fans some strong hope for the second half of the 2010 season.

Storen will start the season in Harrisburg where he pitched 10 games last season. The 22-year-old bullpen hand will likely only see a few appearances in Harrisburg before getting the call to Syracuse. If he performs well there, he could conceivably be the Nationals set up man by late May, and their closer by the end of the summer depending on Matt Capps' and Brian Bruney's success. Storen has little left to prove at the Double-AA level, the righty pitched 12.1 scoreless innings there last season, allowing only three hits and striking out 12.

Storen has had mixed success this spring against Major League opponents, and at times looked slightly overmatched. This of course is to be expected, the future closer is only 22-years-old and less than a year out of college baseball. In five innings pitched this spring he struck out six, but walked three and gave up three earned runs with three hits. In the minors he will need to work on hitting his spots and cutting down on mistakes. Without overpowering stuff, Storen will need to be able to get ahead in the count and award no free passes.

A look at Storen's projections show that there is little agreement on how ready he is to pitch in the majors:

CHONE: 29 G, 1-2, 5.88 ERA, 7.62 K/9, 5.19 BB/9, 5.25 FIP
ZiPS: 29 G, 2-1, 3.78 ERA, 8.64 K/9, 3.24 BB/9, 3.92 FIP.

The CHONE projection suggests that he still has a way to go in harnessing his control. As you can see their 5.19 walks per nine innings pitched is far higher than the ZiPS projection of 3.24. The higher FIP projection is also a result of missed spots which results in harder hit balls. ZiPS however thinks he should be ready to contribute right away. Either way, Storen will go down and work on his control, and will be up ready to make his mark soon.

Strasburg too will likely start the season in Harrisburg, his first official minor league stint. In nine innings Strasburg was absolutely electric this spring. The 21-year-old struck out 12 batters, walked only one, and allowed only two earned runs. More impressively, as Adam Kilgore points out, none of Strasburgs outs left the infield. Of his 27 outs he struck out 12, had one pop out, and forced 14 ground outs.

Of course there is still work to be done with Strasburg. His 12 strikeouts came against few top major league hitters, and he allowed two homers yesterday on what were likely a result of missed spots. For Strasburg it's the age-old problem, when you throw incredibly hard, the ball tends to fly pretty hard off of batters bats when they catch up to the smoke. This problem can clearly be seen in the eight hits Strasburg let up in nine innings of work. None were off of solid contact, but they all found their way through the infield off of 96 mile-per-hour fastballs. The best way to fix this is for him to try and be more deceptive with his off speed pitches and pitch to contact slightly less.

Buster Olney of ESPN pointed out an interesting point; so far this spring Strasburg has looked relatively uncomfortable working out of the stretch. The reason? He's not used to pitching with batters on base. While that answer may seem like a joke, it's just the truth, in his years at San Diego State he was so dominant that he hardly ever had to pitch with runners on. It's an important skill to work on and it's something he will no doubt try and develop while in Harrisburg and Syracuse.

Minor adjustments aside, it is clear that barring a some sort of catastrophe or major set-back, Strasburg will be brought up as soon as the arbitration clock is set back. This means in about two months people will be lining the centerfield gate to see last years number one overall pick pitch in Nats Park. If the Nationals are able to play .500 ball until then, who knows what sort of spark Strasburg could provide.

Justin Maxwell is an athletic five-tool college athlete who at the age of 26 is still trying to put it all together. Maxwell was drafted three times in his amateur career before finally deciding to sign with the Nationals in 2006.

The six-foot-five outfielder experienced a very successful early college career at the University of Maryland. Coming from local Sherwood High School, Maxwell played in 44 games in his freshman campaign, and despite only hitting .239, he got on-base at a promising .393 OBP. In 2003, Maxwell exploded in his sophomore season with a line of .317/.385/.550. He also smacked 10 homers, 12 doubles, and swiped 11 bags. With numbers like that, Maxwell turned many eyes going into his junior year, only to battle injuries for the rest of his college career. Maxwell was only healthy enough to play 7 games in 2005 after missing all of 2004, but he still showed enough potential to be drafted in the fourth round by Washington.

Maxwell started his professional career with mixed success in the summer of 2006. As a 22-year-old in low A ball Maxwell hit a disappointing .269 and showed poor power with a slugging percentage of .376. However despite his struggles to drive the ball he was still able to show his patience by getting on base at .346 and speed by stealing 20 bases. In 2007 Maxwell rebounded as he combined for 27 home runs and 35 stolen bases between AA Hagerstown and A+ Potomac. His performance even earned him a cup of coffee in Washington at the end of the season where he earned his first career hit in the form of a grand slam against the Florida Marlins.

In 2008 Maxwell shattered his wrist diving for a ball in the outfield. The injury put an end to what was a promising start of the season. Through 43 games in AA Harrisburg, Maxwell had reduced his K% from 30.8% to 19.2% and was walking at a career high 17.5%. Maxwell's on base percentage was again solid at .367 which was good considering his .233 batting average. His low average was probably a result of his poor .243 BABIP, however his power numbers were up with a .226 Isolated Power.

2009 saw Maxwell return to some of his old habits in AAA however. His K% rose to the highest in his career at 35% and his walk percentage dropped down to 12.3%. Even with his BABIP at .340, Maxwell was only able to bat .242 with a decreased .154 ISO. The outfielder earned a 40 game cup of coffee at the end of the season with the Nationals and had almost identical numbers to his AAA splits.

For Maxwell to be successful at the next level he needs to cut down on his K%. A .340 BABIP is unsustainable and his great strength and power potential wont matter if he strikes out too much in the majors to make himself valuable. He does have the tools to be a good MLB outfielder because he has the patience to get on base, and he has very good speed on both the base paths and in the field. At the age of 26 he's no spring chicken and he may running out of time, however he will get a chance to make the Nationals out of spring training and a chance to improve on his weaknesses.

It's likely now or never for the former-Terp.