All the hype surrounded Nationals first round pick Ross Detwiler after the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. Fourth round pick Derek Norris went under the radar. He can't hide any longer. He made a name for himself this season and was named the Nationals 2009 Minor League Player of the Year.

He joins Justin Maxwell (2007) and Leonard Davis (2008) as past recipients of the award. The Goddard, Kansas native, Norris turned down a scholarship to play at Wichita State and signed with the Nationals in 2007. He immediately become one of the Nationals top catching prospects. He hit .286 with 30 doubles, 23 home runs, 84 RBI and 78 runs scored in 126 games with the Single-A Hagerstown Suns this season. He paced full-season Washington farmhands in home runs, walks (90), on-base percentage (.413), slugging percentage (.513) and OPS (.926). He was selected to play in the Arizona Fall League but fractured his left hamate bone while working out in the Instructional League.

He is built like Russell Martin, a short, stocky catcher with a powerful stroke at the plate. He doesn't have a time table for making it to the Majors, as those never seem to go as planned anyway. He will likely start the 2010 campaign with the Single-A Potomac Nationals and he has no intention on switching positions. 

"No, I'm not looking to change any positions," Norris said. "I know my numbers look a little shaky at times, as far as passed balls and errors but I think that if I keep progressing from year to year I'll achieve what I want to achieve."

The Player of the Year award adds to the laundry list of accolades the 20-year-old received in 2009. The right-handed hitting slugger earned both midseason and postseason South Atlantic League All-Star honors. Norris was named the SAL Most Outstanding Major League Prospect. He was recently cited in Baseball America's annual Best Tools survey voted upon by league managers as the Best Batting Prospect and Best Power Prospect in the SAL. While this was a banner year for Norris, there are many more accolades to come in his baseball career.

Going into the 2009 season, Nieves was expected to fill his previous role as the Nationals' backup catcher. When Jesus Flores went down with an injury 29 games into the season, Nieves' role increased and he became a platoon catcher with teammate Josh Bard.

Prior to joining the Nationals, Nieves made his Major League debut with the San Diego Padres in 2002 and then later spent time as Jorge Posada's backup on the New York Yankees. While he is regarded as a solid defensive catcher, his offensive numbers have kept him from becoming a starter.

Though he finished this year with a .259 batting average, Nieves actually performed slightly better than his numbers suggest. His BAbip, or the batting average on balls in play, was .311. This shows that, when Nieves does make contact with the ball, he hits it well.

What Nieves can improve upon are his power numbers. Going into the 2010 season, he only has two career home runs--his first coming in the form of a walk-off winner to right field on April 25, 2008 against the Cubs at Nationals Park.

Nieves was slowed down at the end of the season by a pulled hamstring but is on the mend and preparing for 2010. With Flores expected to recover by next season, Nieves looks to return to his role as a veteran backstop. It's a role he has flourished in.

In his five seasons with the Nationals, Jason Bergmann has learned to adapt. This righty spent time as a reliever and a starter before being converted back to a fulltime reliever in 2009. Bergmann started this year on the Opening Day roster but went back and forth between the Big Leagues and Minor Leagues, eventually making it to Washington for good on July 4.

Bergmann pitched well for the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs. In 19 relief appearances he went 1-1 with two saves, four holds and a 1.16 ERA, while posting a .212 batting average against. He appeared in a career-high 56 games for the Nationals in 2009. Overall, he went 2-4 with a 4.50 ERA and ten holds with the Nats.

This year, Bergmann raised his K/9 ratio to 7.5, up from 6.2 last season meaning he struck out more batters relative to the innings he pitched. On the flip side, his BB/9 ratio also went up from 3.0 last year to 4.7 this season, something Bergmann can definitely bring down for next year. His BABip, or batting average on balls hit into play, was .311 compared to his opponents' batting average of .270. This shows that, when batters hit the ball off of Bergmann, they hit it well, so he needs to work on reducing contact on his pitches.

"I'm not worried about throwing a perfect strike," Bergmann said. "I'm throwing a good pitch with conviction and knowing it's going to be a quality pitch."

No matter what role he finds himself in, Bergmann has always worked to improve and succeed. For instance, this year he worked on mixing his pitches better. This allowed the Nats to use him in more pressure situations, where Bergmann thrived. He finished 2009 with 10 holds and only allowed 14% (7/50) of inherited runners to score, which is below the league average of 30%. Look for Bergmann to continue to grow as a Big League ballplayer in 2010.

  Shairon Martis led off the 2009 season with an impressive 5-0 run over his first seven starts. This included a complete game win over St. Louis on May 2 where he struck out six, walked one and allowed five hits.

Martis has been a strong pitcher, even from a young age. As a member of the Netherlands 2006 World Baseball Classic team, Martis pitched the only no-hitter in WBC history against Panama. After originally being drafted by San Francisco, the Nationals acquired him in a trade for Mike Stanton in 2006. He made his Major League debut for the Nationals on September 4, 2008 at 21 years, five month and six days old.

While he finished the 2009 Major League season with a winning record, the record was more indicative of the production from the offense during the games he started (6.48 RSA in his first seven starts) than his ability to shutdown opposing lineups. Martis had some mechanical issues throughout the season that led to a Minor League demotion

Martis improved in the Minor Leagues, increasing his K/BB to 2.22 and lowering his ERA to 4.96. At 22, he is still one of the youngest pitchers with Major League experience and has a bright future.  

Right-handed pitcher Garrett Mock played many roles for the Nationals this season, beginning the year with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs. He then joined the Nationals bullpen where he made 13 appearances between April 20 and May 18. After another short stint in the Minors, he was recalled for good on July 16 and joined the Nationals starting rotation.

In between his two Major League stints, Mock was back in Syracuse with the Chiefs, this time as a starter. He dominated the International League in that stretch, going 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA. He earned International League Pitcher of the Week honors after going 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in two starts during the week of June 22. The highlight of that week was throwing a three-hit, 10 strikeout complete game shutout versus Columbus on June 22. Mock struggled a bit once he was called up and didn't get his first win until his fifth start on August 8. Overall, he went 3-10 with a 5.62ERA (0-2 with 6.92 ERA as a reliever and 3-8 with a 5.40 ERA as a starter.)

Looking closely at his numbers... While his ERA this year was 5.62, his FIP (fielding independent pitching) was 4.32. FIP measures a pitcher's skill based on the things he can control (home runs, strikeouts, walks and HBP) while removing the things he can't control, such as the defense behind him. Mock is actually over a run better than his ERA dictates. His K/9 ratio is 7.09, just slightly higher than the league average of 6.99, and a solid number. However his BB/9 ratio is 4.34, almost a full walk over the league average of 3.46. Why is this a problem? It puts runners on base which creates a situation that is difficult for Mock to get out of. Batters are hitting .317 against him with runners on base, while they are only hitting .299 when the bases are empty. Mock is also in more situations with runners on base (50% versus a league average of 45%). Keeping his walks down will help him avoid these situations and improve his performance overall.

Mock, 26, is still young and has time to work on his control. He impressed people this season and could be a candidate for the rotation going into Spring Training.  

Catcher Jesus Flores is a crucial part of the Nationals' plans for the future. Flores made his Major League debut in 2007 at the tender age of 22. The Nationals selected him from the Mets in the 2006 Rule 5 Draft, meaning they had to keep him on the Major League roster for the whole season or give him back to the Mets. He soon proved he had what it took to become the Nationals catcher of the future.

Jesus Flores was supposed to have a breakout 2009 season and cement himself as the Nats everyday catcher. It didn't quite go as planned. He missed the majority of the season with a broken right clavicle when he was struck with a foul ball in Arizona on May 9. Flores hit .311 with four homers and 15 RBI in 26 games before the injury. He tried to play in September but after three pinch-hit at-bats, he was shut down on September 12. Flores also missed the final month of the 2008 season with a sprained left ankle.

Flores only appeared in 29 games for the Nationals this season and after his brief September return, Flores was diagnosed with a torn right labrum. General Manager Mike Rizzo said the injury was not directly related to the broken clavicle but it did creep in during his rehabilitation. Dr. James Andrews surgically repaired the injury on September 16 and the timetable for the recovery is three to six months. The Nationals are optimistic about Flores returning by the start of Spring Training.

"I think his future is still bright," Rizzo said. "I think once we get this injury fixed, we get him on track. I still think we've got a 25-year-old starting catcher."

"It's hard to measure defense. Defense can be looked at so many different ways--whether you take away runs or you get to a bunch more balls or maybe it's something else." -RZ

Today is Adam Dunn's birthday. Happy Birthday Adam!!!

The Nats were rolling on June 19. The starters were wheeling and dealing with a 3.11 ERA for the month of June and they had just returned from a series victory over the Yankees in the Bronx. Next up: the Toronto Blue Jays at Nationals Park. The game didn't involve a rain delay but it was a rollercoaster ride of highs, lows and missed opportunities. The two clubs combined to go 2-for-15 (.133 BA) with runners in scoring position. The Jays left 13 men on base while Washington left 16. But in the bottom of the 11th with the game tied 1-1 and the bases loaded, Adam Dunn drove an 0-2 fastball to right field for the game winning hit.

It was the Nats first walk-off win and extra inning victory of the season. Dunn got it done all season long. He led the Nationals with 15 game winning RBI and 30 go-ahead RBI. He has a great batting eye and is extremely patient at the plate. He saw an average of 4.32 pitches per plate appearance, good for fourth in the Majors. He wasn't signed to make spectacular plays with his glove. The Nats didn't expect stellar defense out of Dunn--a trade off for the tape measure blasts to right--but he was a pleasant surprise in the field after moving to first base when Nick Johnson was traded to the Marlins on July 31. At the plate, he was a tenacious, home run-raking, RBI-producing clean-up hitter--your best bet is to walk him. He was on pace to hit over 40 home runs for the majority of the season but finished just short of the mark with 38 bombs. He wasn't able to extend his streak to six straight 40 home run seasons, but he didn't care. He cares more about wins than individual numbers. He finished the season with a .267 average, 105 RBI, 116 walks and an on-base percentage of .398.

Last offseason, the Nationals were looking for a power bat. They found one in Dunn. Dunn is entering the final year of his two-year contract and at the young age of 30, he could have a monstrous 2010 season.