Chris Marrero, the Nationals #1 pick last year, is blowing them away in A ball (The Post). His father does not hesitate to throw the names Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols in comparison. Marrero has been known to head to RFK on off days to chat up current Nats about the game.

Colin Balestar, currently at AA-Harrisburg is the Nats top pitching prospect (The Wash. Times). It took him a while to develop his change-up (The Free Lance-Star), but it has paid off. Balestar will represent the Nationals at Major League Baseball’s Futures Game next month in San Francisco.

Brandon Watson‘s return to Washington (The Post) has been circuitous. He might not be here for long either.

Nats pitchers don’t want to be the one who serves up home run 756 (The Wash. Times) to Barry Bonds. The embattled slugger is on pace to break Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record around the time the two teams meet in August.

Leavale Speigner tells his hometown paper that being let go is “just part of the business.” He also tells the Thomasville Times Enterprise:

“I’ve had success now at the big-league level,” Speigner said. “It was a roller-coaster ride, but I’ve had success. So, hopefully the next time I go up or get picked up now by another team, I won’t be in awe of pitching to big league hitters. That learning curve isn’t as big anymore.

To be fair, he has had success exactly once. That being said, I feel kind of bad for Speigner, I don’t think he should have been asked to start, but then again, who else could have been there?

Matt Chico does a Q&A with nationals.com.

Ryan Zimmerman talks about defense (The Wash. Examiner), but only touches on his throwing errors in the second to last paragraph.