Baez, 24, and Castro, 25, are the 48th minor-league players suspended this season. Neither is considered a top prospect in Washington’s farm system – though Castro has a .296 average for Double-A Harrisburg and Baez has nine homers for the Senators with 28 RBI. 

One player who most certainly is a top prospect is reliever Drew Storen, selected No. 10 overall by the Nats in June’s amateur draft. The Stanford product signed quickly and overcame some early struggles at low-A Hagerstown. Now, Storen seems on track for a September callup if Washington decides to go that route. The soon-to-be 22-year-old – his birthday is next Tuesday – met with the media on Thursday afternoon before heading back to Woodbridge, where he has a game tonight with Single-A Potomac.

Storen, Washington’s second selection in the first round after No. 1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg, has 36 strikeouts in a combined 22 2/3 innings – that’s 16 appearances between Potomac and Hagerstown. Storen has fanned 25 batters and walked just one in his last 10 games. That walk? The only one issued in his pro career so far. That’s a pretty good way to get on the super-fast track to the big leagues.

Are you happy with your performance so far?

Storen: “I’m just very excited about how things are going. Very happy about how I turned things around. I kind of struggled in the beginning trying to get back in a groove pitching in a game again. I’ve been doing my thing. Just going out there and throwing strikes every time and hopefully will keep finding success. Then if I get moved, I get moved.”

Do you see yourself pitching in Washington by next month?

S: “That’s my goal, obviously. But I really don’t plan on anything. I just kind of take it pitch by pitch. I don’t control that and I know that the Nationals are going do what’s best for me and if they feel like I can be a good fit up here then they’ll put me up here. It’s not something I try to concern myself with too much.”

How do you balance being maybe a fast track guy with taking the necessary steps to develop in the minor leagues?

S: I really do just concentrate on taking those steps to develop and really get better each time. Like I said, if there’s a spot up here in the big leagues then that’s what I want to do. But if I just go out there and get better each time I should be able to put myself in position to help them win at this level.

Why did you struggle early on at Hagerstown?

S: I really wasn’t doing anything different than I did at school. It was a combination of not throwing in a game in a month and an adjustment to pro ball, too. In pro ball, guys don’t really care how hard you throw. And I just had to pitch a little more, make sure I got the fastball down in the [strike]zone a little bit. That was really the main adjustment that I had. Fortunately, there were some veteran guys down there in Hagerstown that were able to help me out. [Pitcher] Travis Reagan, he had come down from Potomac about a week or so into my stay down there and he helped out a lot.

You had a long streak without walking a batter. That had to give you confidence.

S: For the first 20 or so strikeouts it didn’t really come up. But then I kept getting asked about [the streak] and so then it kind of got in my head a little bit. So it was kind of nice to get that off my back. But it was something funny. It’s actually something I take a lot of pride in, too. And so it worked out. But it was kind of good to get that monkey off my back.

That is what you’ll have to do to succeed in the majors anyway, right?

S: Absolutely. It’s something that’s a key to success out of the bullpen for me. I try to get guys to earn their way on base. If you give a guy a free pass it usually comes back to haunt you – especially at the end of the game. So it’s really something that I [want to do]. Ironically, the guy I finally walked did score so…it was one of those things.

What kind of pitches do you throw?

S: I throw a [fastball], a curve and a slider. Have a change-up, too. But I’ll only show that every once in a while. As a guy out of the pen, a fourth pitch isn’t something you normally see so I don’t use it too much. But I really try to work for more of my fastball. That’s really something I’ve kind of worked on since I’ve gotten to pro ball is trusting that fastball down in the zone a little more.  

Has there been anything you had to learn at the minor-league level that has surprised you?

I learned how to sleep on a bus a lot better than I thought. No, honestly I didn’t anticipate how good the hitters were. You assume you’re going to a wooden bat [situation] and that the hitters wouldn’t be as good because I’m used to facing aluminum [bats in college]. But there’s really not that much difference because they really are that much better hitters. They really kind of compensate for having wood bats. You have to learn how to pitch in the minor leagues. I’ve learned a lot from those older guys.

How quickly did you realize that?

That period was actually my second pitch of pro ball that went about 500 feet. I fell 1-0 behind the guy – it was my first batter so I was kind of excited to be out there – and I was in front of a big crowd at Hagerstown. So I thought, ‘Alright, I’m going to throw my best fastball by him here.’ He hit it way over centerfield and it was just one of those ‘Welcome to pro ball’ moments. And I asked the guy doing the radar ‘How hard did I throw that [pitch]?’ And he said it was 96. I thought ‘Wow, that’s pretty hard.’ But it was belt high. In college you can kind of get away with that sometimes. But that was really when I was realized that I needed to make some adjustments with my fastball.