Martinson earns Carolina League Player of the Week honors

Many around minor league baseball, and scouts I talk to, believe high Single-A Potomac Nationals shortstop Jason Martinson deserves to be playing in Double-A. This week he demonstrated he certainly deserves attention for his play at Potomac, earning Carolina League Player of the Week honors. Martinson started the season hitting .303 (10-for-33), with a .429 on-base percentage and a .788 slugging percentage through nine games. The 24-year-old Texas State product had a pair of doubles, one triple, four home runs, and 11 RBIs, scoring nine runs. He keeps this up and they will find a way to get him to Harrisburg. * Injuries are testing the depth of the minor league system. First it was Matt Skole. Then Steven Souza. Now it is Eury Perez. Top prospects in the organization are going to down at an alarming rate. The Nationals made 11 minor league transactions on Monday alone. All of the injuries were in competitive play, ranging from balls fouled off a foot to hamstrings to running into outfield walls. Unfortunately, these injuries will occur. It is going to happen in a sport like baseball when there are a lot of moving parts and baseballs being thrown and bats being swung. Some good news today as outfielder Wander Ramos (not related to Wilson Ramos) has returned to low Single-A Hagerstown and has been activated. So with injuries to starters at Hagerstown and Potomac, a ripple effect occurs with guys from extended spring training getting a chance to come up and play earlier than might have been expected. Now we get to see guys like Hunter Bailey, Matt Foat, Justin Miller and Shawn Pleffner - who may not be household names with Nationals fans just yet - play. Depth is critical to every organization and if these guys can show they can play and be involved in each game by making things happen on the field, it is a better learning environment for all the prospects and progress can be made. If guys are not making contact and not making the plays on defense, then innings can drag on and less is accomplished. It will be fun to see how some of the guys that are just getting their first taste of pro ball play in what might be a week or two window to shine.