Nationals' Minor Leaguer Derek Norris Has Improved His Prospects

HOUSTON, July 10 -- Almost everything about Derek Norris's upbringing geared the catcher to crush baseballs. A shed on his parents' property in Goddard, Kan., was fashioned into a batting cage with two pitchers' mounds. Norris always played with kids two years older than him, just to keep pace with his brother. Norris loved catching, but once he got to high school, his team happened to have two future Division I catchers. So Norris played third, and just kept hitting.

"Everything was about hitting," Norris recalled on Friday.

When the Washington Nationals drafted Norris straight out of high school in the fourth round of the 2007 draft, they considered him an unvarnished prospect. "He wasn't a high-profile kid," acting general manager Mike Rizzo said. "He'd just started catching that summer."

But ever since -- especially with a stunning stretch of production this month -- Norris has developed into Washington's top minor league prospect, in large part because he's hitting better than ever and hustling to catch up on his defense. Now a 20-year-old with Class A Hagerstown, Norris, through 81 games, has a .317 average (287 at-bats), 20 home runs, 64 RBI and a 1.013 OPS. Almost every one of his offensive statistics leads the South Atlantic League. During a four-game stretch this week (July 4-7), he hit six homers and knocked in 11 runs.

"It was really something different," Norris said of that zone. "It wasn't really so much that the pitches looked like beach balls or anything. It was just everything throughout my body just felt smooth. When I stepped into the box, my hands, everything felt in sequence."

For the moment, though, Norris is far more concerned about his defense than his bat. After the 2007 draft, Norris picked pro ball over a scholarship to Wichita State only when he learned the Shockers didn't do much one-on-one instruction with their catchers. This offseason, he hired a personal strength coach to work on his lower body strength, all to endure the grind of catching. Norris now keeps a mental checklist of catching to-dos: Keep the chest square; don't fall forward when blocking balls. Asked about his goals for this season, Norris said he wants to see an improvement in the Hagerstown staff ERA.

"I know I can hit, but I want to play defense," said Norris, the only Nationals' minor leaguer listed among Baseball America's latest ranking of the top 50 prospects. "That's really my key goal. That's really what is gonna move you up. Every team needs a good catcher, and if you don't have a good catcher your team is screwed."