Notes on today's game

PBMarlin · March 13, 2005

I made it to Roger Dean today to watch the Marlins take on the Nationals. Here are a few observations about the game.

1. Beckett had a superb 6 inning performance. Other than building up pitch count, he is opening day ready. His breaking ball is very sharp and he is getting it over consistently. It is nasty and practically unhittable. He is holding back a bit on his fast ball. Spotting it well and generally in the 93-94 mph range. He touched 95 once from what I saw on all the guns around me.

2. Cabrera is having a tremendous spring. He opened up the first inning with a monster shot to right center. Showed some nice patience to draw a walk and hit a nice single to RF his 3rd AB.

3. Delgado didn't look too comfortable at the plate yet. Had some trouble with breaking balls, barely fouling off a couple that Schneider couldn't hold on to.

4. Gonzalez is still Gonzalez. Not showing too much patience as he was swinging at balls outside the zone.

5. Lowell struggled at the plate as well. Didn't have any solid contact.

6. Kensing had a very impressive 7th inning. Went 3 up 3 down with 2 K's on a very nice slider. His fast ball was clocking 93-94 and he was spotting it very well.

7. Frank Castillo managed to get out of the 8th without damage. He's not a hard thrower with a fastball in the mid to upper 80s. Was fairly consistent spotting his change up.

8. Mecir struggled a bit with his control. His screwball was very cool looking. I was surprised the first time I saw it. It tails away from left handed hitters. He got it over about 1/2 the time. He was somewhat the victim of poor defense by Josh Wilson and Admin Barnes, and got touched for 3 runs.

9. Justin Wayne's outing was a disaster. He couldn't throw a strike to save his life. He didn't throw a single pitch over the plate during warm-ups and it didn't get any better after that. He had two back to back wild pitches, one of them was about 4 feet off the plate. Mercifully, Wiley came and got him after he walked the first batter on 4 pitches. He may have just bought his ticket to the minor league camp.

10. Chad Bentz came in and did a nice job. He really impresses me how he can handle the ball and glove with one hand. He has pretty good stuff and should be effective this year.

11. I almost forgot to mention Pierre. Although he couldn't play due to a tight calf muscle, I believe. He spent the entire game at the top step of the dugout cheering the other guys on.