After a month of the minor league season, two of the Nationals top prospects — outfielder, Chris Marrero, 18, and starting pitcher Colin Balester, 20 — got off to auspicious starts confirming everyone’s opinion of the two talented youngsters.

However, the real story after the first month of the minor league season has been the emergence of new prospects as well as former top prospects who temporarily experienced some failures due to injuries and are now in the process of regaining their prospect status.

Slugger Josh Whitesell, the first baseman for AA Harrisburg is now hitting a robust .360 with five homers, 14 RBI and a .452 on-base percentage. Scouting Director Dana Brown has always labeled Josh as a sure-thing major league bat and his performance is certainly backing that up. With continued improvement at first base, his value continues to rise.

Mike Daniel’s impressive spring training brought rave reviews as former major leaguer Lenny Harris compared him to a young David Justice. Daniel has started the year batting .300 with five homers and 23 RBI for Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League.

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Florida scout Tony Arango (who is the supervisor who gets credit for drafting Marrero) continues to produce young prospect bats as Marvin Lowrance got off to a .291 start with four home runs and Dee Brown starts the year by hitting .336 with a .413 on-base percentage for the Potomac Nationals of the Carolina League.

With former major league pitching coach Spin Williams taking over as minor league pitching coordinator, we are getting instant results from our young pitchers.

Williams along with major league pitching coach, Randy St. Claire, raved to me about two left-handed pitchers during spring training.

We have two lanky left-handers with good deception: John Lannan who is 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA at Potomac and Cory Van Allen, who has made four starts for Hagerstown, has 24 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings pitched and no walks! Both have backed up the judgment of our two top pitching coaches. Van Allen uses an excellent curve to get batters.

Alex Morales is turning heads after his 95-mph fastball helped him start the year in the back end of the Potomac bullpen with only four hits and 21 strikeouts in 16 innings pitched. He’s already been promoted to Harrisburg. It’s not just his fastball, either: His nasty slider is also a strikeout pitch.

A former top prospect, Mike Hinckley, and a former No. 1 pick, Clint Everts, had lost their prospect status over the last couple of years due to injuries and subsequent sub-par performances. One of the most exciting parts of the 2007 baseball season for the Nationals has been that both of these fine young pitchers are finally healthy and are beginning to regain their prospect status. In fact, Hinckley, whose command has improved, is off to a 4-2 start at Harrisburg with a 2.97 ERA after six starts allowing just 27 hits in 34 IP. Everts is 1-3 with a 3.46 ERA at Potomac.

The future of the Nationals will depend on the success of the development of young players both for the major league club as well as for trades and when potential becomes prospects, and old prospects regain their form it can be very exciting and in the long run very rewarding.

As told to The Examiner’s John Keim.

Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden provides an exclusive column to The Examiner each week, ranging on topics from the Nats to the state of Major League Baseball.