The top ten Nationals prospects going into the 2009 season, according to Baseball America, are:

1. Jordan Zimmermann

2. Ross Detwiler

3. Chris Marrero

4. Michael Burgess

5. Jack McGeary

6. Derek Norris

7. Destin Hood

8. Adrian Nieto

9. J.P. Ramirez

10. Esmailyn "Smiley" Gonzalez

Thoughts? Gripes? They must be high on Hood's potential/tools because he was rather unspectacular last year, statistically.  Nieto and Ramirez had stronger GCL debuts, and Smiley was also much more solid.

I like that they haven't given up on Detwiler.  He had a lot of adjustments to make last year - he was more raw than you'd want a guy picked that high out of college to be - but he started to turn a corner near the end.

I was a bit surprised that they ranked Marrero ahead of Burgess, but I guess they afforded him the same perspective as Detwiler and noted his improvement before the injury.