- It's not a stretch to say Justin Maxwell was injury-prone early in his career. Healthy now, the P-Nats outfielder can leg out plays to first.

By putting the shadows of Hurricane Katrina and his bat woes behind him, Mike Daniel surged this spring, prompting a call-up to Potomac. It's not a stretch to say Justin Maxwell was injury-prone early in his career. Healthy now, the P-Nats outfielder can leg out plays to first.

- It's not a stretch to say Justin Maxwell was injury-prone early in his career. Healthy now, the P-Nats outfielder can leg out plays to first.

- It's not a stretch to say Justin Maxwell was injury-prone early in his career. Healthy now, the P-Nats outfielder can leg out plays to first.

P-Nats outfielder Justin Maxwell talks with fiancee Loren Knight after facing the Warthogs of Winston-Salem June 22. The couple met as students at the University of Maryland. It's not a stretch to say Justin Maxwell was injury-prone early in his career. Healthy now, the P-Nats outfielder can leg out plays to first.

Young fans watch Chris Marrero warm up before his first home game as a Potomac National. Nicknamed 'the kid,' Marrero's bat packs a wallop. It's not a stretch to say Justin Maxwell was injury-prone early in his career. Healthy now, the P-Nats outfielder can leg out plays to first.

Potomac outfielders hold key to Nationals' hope for the future

Date published: 7/3/2007

BY TODD JACOBSON

It's not often that the principal owners of the Washington Nationals, Ted and Mark Lerner, make the 90-minute trip from D.C. to Hagerstown.

So when outfielder Justin Maxwell saw the Lerners--and a contingent of front-office types, from general manager Jim Bowden to farm director Bobby Williams--milling around the Suns' aging Single-A stadium before a game last month, he knew something was up.

It wasn't until Maxwell and teammates Chris Marrero, Mike Daniel and Brett McMillan gathered behind a batting cage that he found out exactly what was going on.

The quartet was being promoted from Hagerstown to Single-A Potomac. Together. Now.

The Lerners were there to deliver the news. They bought the Nationals from Major League Baseball for $450 million last summer and pledged to emphasize player development and the minor leagues as they rebuilt the floundering franchise.

"I thought it was pretty much unheard of," Maxwell said. "For all of us to get the news from the Lerner family and Jim Bowden and everybody, it was kind of an honor."

Clearly, the symbolism wasn't lost on the 24-year-old University of Maryland graduate, nor on anyone in the organization.

In promoting Hagerstown's entire outfield--Maxwell, Daniel and Marrero --the Nationals sent ripples through their minor league system. It was once among the jewels of all of baseball but was long neglected during Major League Baseball's 31/2-year stewardship of the franchise.

Finally, there was something to get excited about.

"We definitely feel like it's coming up and we're a part of it," said Daniel, a seventh-round pick in 2005 out of the University of North Carolina. "We want to get there and turn the organization around. We want to work hard and just make an impact at the big league level. It's a lot of fun just trying to do that."

So on that June day, Marrero, Maxwell and Daniel played their final games with the Hagerstown Suns. With McMillan, a first baseman drafted out of UCLA, joining them, they piled into two cars, taking turns driving to Winston-Salem, N.C. They were to catch up with the Potomac Nationals the next day, another step up the Nationals' minor league ladder.

"They were all having great years," said Williams, who took over as Washington's farm director earlier this season. "We can't wait to see them progress the rest of this year."

'The Kid'

Date published: 7/3/2007