Nice Article on GC Marlins Rookie Team

Marlins' rookies play 'out back'

By Mike English

Courier sports editor

June 30, 2004

You have to walk out past the Jumbotron, the Florida Marlins Clubhouse and the batting cages but that's where you'll find free professional baseball at Roger Dean Stadium.

"Out back" is where the Gulf Coast League Marlins play their games this summer.

The GCL is the Marlins rookie league entry and it's where the team's future stars will come from.

"They come from colleges and high schools across the country," said manager Tom Cossins. "Some of them we drafted last year and ended up signing just this year.

"Most of them come out of the draft. This year it seems we have more college guys than high school kids. We don't have a lot of free agents yet. Usually we'll pick up a couple of them as the season goes on."

The Marlins top two picks in this month's draft, pitchers Taylor Tankersley (27th overall) and Jason Vargas (68th), both ended up in the team's Class A short season team in Jamestown, N.Y., but third pick, high school outfielder Gregory Burns (98th) and fourth pick, another high school center fielder Jamar Walton (128th) from Greensville County (Va.) High School, are Gulf Coast Marlins.

"Most of them are good college players and real good high school players. We have quite a few good Latin players, too," said Cossins, who said his Spanish is 'improving.'

"We have some good talent," the coach said.

"It's tough putting a team together in a week but what I try to do right out of the gate is to get them thinking in terms of being a team," Cossins said. "Without a team, there's nothing to hold them together.

"It's way too hot and way too tiring for them not to be a team. If you have a bunch of individuals out here, it's going to be a long summer."

One of the rookie Marlins didn't have far to travel. Lynn University second baseman Beau McMillan, the Marlins 39th pick (1,178th overall), is a West Palm Beach resident and a Cardinal Newman High graduate.

"I played ball at Lynn University down in Boca Raton, they scouted me out, picked me up and that's it," McMillan said.

"I'm really excited about it," he said. "I'm a really big fan of the Marlins. My roommate at Lynn, Greg Brown, he graduated the year before and ended up coming up here and now I get to play with him -- he's actually on the Hammerheads."

Playing pro ball is something McMillan, 22, has been "dreaming about forever.

"It's a dream come true. I'm ready to get going," he said. "It's tough, but I'm enjoying it.

"We get up at 6:45 a.m. every day and we're out here until 2 or 3 in the afternoon -- but I love it."

It's basic training for baseball, said Cossins, who has been with the team for two years.

Players started showing up on June 14 and they had one week to work before their first game.

"We do a lot of fundamentals," the coach said. "We got all of our bunt defense in, stuff like that, all the things we do throughout the organization.

"This level of the game, for me, is about getting the game in place," he said. "Getting it on a working level and hopefully things you are teaching them catch up to what they are doing physically.

"It's a lot of teaching."

The Marlins hold English classes for the Latin players, Cossins said.

For many of the Latin and high school players (there are 13 teenagers on the Marlins roster), this is their first time away from home and Cossins and his staff have to become surrogate fathers for the youngsters.

"That's a big part of it," Cossins said. "These guys are away from their families for the first time, they're in a hotel with no supervision, but they do have a curfew and a bed check so it's not like they're out there running crazy.

"They have to make their own choices off the field and that's part of the development, part of finding themselves socially and professionally."

Mixed in with the rookies are other minor league players on rehab assign or send down to work on specifics.

The Marlins play in the GCL East along with the Dodgers, Expos and Mets. Unlike the Florida State League, there are three GCL divisions including Northern (Yankees, Braves, Tigers and Phillies) and Southern (Pirates, Twins, Red Sox and Reds).

They Marlins only play the other teams in their division.

The GCL Marlins are carrying 38 on the roster but that fluctuates during the season. Players will be moved up during the season and other newly signed players will be coming in during the course of the summer.

"If guys perform here and the organization sees fit, they'll move out of here in a hurry," Cossins said. "Last year, midway through the year, we lost seven guys."

Games are Mondays through Saturdays at noon. Admission is free. The Marlins will play a 62-game schedule through the last week of August.

"I thought they were going to sneak some night games in for us this year but it doesn't look like it," Cossins said.

"This level is just about grinding it out -- just going for it and these kids do that. It's amazing how much work these kids do. It's exactly what they dreamed about and it's what they thought it would be."

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