Michael Burgess was named by Baseball America as the number one prospect of the entire Gulf Coast League, a great honor for the teenage outfielder and the Washington Nationals.

Chris Marrero was voted best hitting prospect in two different leagues and is presently learning first base in Instructional League. When he takes batting practice with Burgess, everybody stops and watches as the balls tower over the outfield walls like missiles.

In three straight drafts, our scouting department has drafted three major-league potential middle-of-the-order bats with Ryan Zimmerman (2005), Marrero (2006) and Burgess (2007).

Burgess, 18, finished his first professional season playing for both the GCL Nationals as well as our Vermont affiliate in the New York Penn League finishing with a combined batting average of .318 with 11 home runs and 42 RBI over 198 at-bats. Marrero, 18, playing for both Hagerstown and Potomac finished with a combined .275 average with 23 home runs, 88 RBI in 477 at-bats.

This story continues below
Advertisement

So it was a very successful year for two teenagers with bright futures for the Nationals.

Both of them will get a chance to quickly improve on those seasons, too. Both are playing in the Instructional League in Viera, Florida, which began Monday and runs through Oct. 10 and is led by Vice President of Player Development, Bob Boone and Farm Director Bobby Williams. Players go through drills during the day and also play games; the Braves, Mets and Cardinals are in our division.

The program allows for players to get specialized instruction and is the most optimal time to work on players’ individual weakness with the organization’s best instructors. There are 48 of the team’s best prospects along with 18 staff members. We want to work with Burgess on the start of his swing and we want to focus on Marrero’s defense at first base.

Top pitching prospects including Josh Smoker, Jordan Zimmerman and Bradley Meyers, get exclusive time with our organizations top pitching coaches.

This is the first time the organization has had instructional league since moving to Washington, D.C. and the program is sure to develop players faster, in some cases allowing them to skip leagues and other just getting to the major leagues a year earlier. It helped players such as Barry Larkin and Derek Jeter.

Instructional League is another step forward for player development and the Nationals’ future.

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.