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 Jim Thomas | Monday, June 19, 2006 at 12:30 am

 Spring training is when most young players get a chance to develop.

But Savannah Sand Gnats catcher Brian Peacock got a head start by working out
with former major-league catcher Randy Knorr in the offseason.

Peacock made the 45-minute drive from his home in Palmetto, Fla., to Tampa
two or three times a week for two months to get tutored by the former Sand
Gnats manager, who played in the big leagues for 11 years as a catcher.

"We'd work a couple of hours a day,'' Peacock said. "I'd get a lot of swings
in and just talk a lot about the game. I think it's helped me going to the
plate with a better approach.''

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Peacock has hit above .280 for most of the season and
has been chosen to play for the Southern Division in the South Atlantic
League All-Star game, along with pitcher Gene Yost.

The 47th annual event will be held Tuesday in Eastlake, Ohio, at the home of
the Lake County Captains.

"I've just been trying to get good pitches to hit, work myself into a good
hitter's count and take advantage of them,'' said Peacock, who was batting
.263 with nine home runs and 29 RBIs in 53 games going into Saturday night's
game against Charleston (S.C.).

Knorr, who was hired Friday as the bullpen coach of the Washington Nationals,
said Peacock's selection to the All-Star team was awesome.

"I've been watching him all year,'' Knorr said. "I look at all the reports
about him every day. I think he's one of the guys in the organization who has
a big future and may help the big-league club some day.''

The former Montreal Expos, now the Washington Nationals, selected Peacock in
the 39th round in 2004 after his sophomore year at Manatee (Fla.) Community
College. He could have gone back into last year's draft, where he was
projected to be a fifth to eighth-round pick, or gone to Auburn. But he chose
to sign with the Nationals instead.

"Auburn's a great school,'' Peacock said, "and it would have been fun to go
there and play in the (Southeastern Conference). But my dreams and goals
weren't to play college baseball. They were always to play pro baseball and
work my way up to the big leagues.''

After signing with the Nationals as a draft-and-follow last June, Peacock
struggled at rookie-level Gulf Coast, batting just .219 with no homers. But
he's been the Sand Gnats' most consistent hitter this season, batting .302 in
April and .280 in May before slumping to .171 this month.

"Brian's having a very good year,'' Savannah manager Bobby Williams said.
"He's been a key guy for us in the middle of the lineup. I really like the
way he swings the bat aggressively.''

Peacock attributed his improvement at the plate to his sessions with Knorr.

"We really worked on cutting my swing down, not trying to overdo it.
Sometimes you get too excited. You get runners in scoring position, then you
miss and go back to the dugout, knowing you got yourself out.''

Knorr said the main thing he worked on with Peacock was getting him to play
under control.

"He does everything fast,'' Knorr said. "Basically, that's his whole game.
You've got to find a speed that works for him. You don't want to be too slow,
but you don't want to be too fast.''

Peacock said he feels "like a totally different catcher'' after working with
Knorr and then with Nationals roving catching instructor Bobby Henley,
another former major-leaguer and former Sand Gnats manager (2004), during
spring training.

"I actually started out on the Triple-A team'' in spring training,'' Peacock
said. "That's where Henley was. He said he wanted me with him. If I wasn't
playing, I'd sit in the dugout with him, talk about every single pitch, every
single situation, just learning the game.''

Williams said he didn't get a chance to see Peacock until there were about 10
days left in spring training, "but that was enough time to see he had some
ability and could be one of the catchers on our team.''

Despite his impressive showing, though, Peacock entered this season slated to
be the No. 2 catcher behind Erick San Pedro, a second-round draft pick in
2004.

But San Pedro has been limited to 22 games this season by injuries, spending
three weeks on the disabled list with an ankle injury. That allowed Peacock
to get more playing time and his performance has opened some eyes in the
Nationals' organization.

He hit the first home run of his career in the second game of the season
against Asheville on April 8 and had two homers against Augusta on May 8. In
a seven-game stretch from May 5-12, he went 11-for-28 for a .393 average with
four homers and seven RBIs.

Knorr isn't surprised at Peacock's success, even though he wasn't listed
among the Nationals' top 30 prospects by Baseball America going into the
season.

"I can't answer for anybody else,'' Knorr said, "but I was pretty impressed
the first time I saw him. Just the fact that he would drive an hour three
times a week to work out. He showed me that he really wanted it. He's got the
one thing you can't teach and that's heart.''