ZEBULON, N.C. -- The Florida Marlins have inconspicuously set up a pitching lab in rural North Carolina, about a half-hour outside Raleigh.

 

In the quiet of the Double-A Southern League, they've continued a cloning process that's been in the works for the past couple of years but is now coming to fruition. The Marlins have perfected the duplication of young pitching talent.

 

While a not-exactly-old rotation led by Josh Beckett, Dontrelle Willis and the slightly ailing A.J. Burnett (average age -- 25.33) leads a staff with the best ERA in the National League, the Carolina Mudcats' rotation has been doing some dealing of its own.

 

Even after a recent slump, the Mudcats staff has the second-best ERA in the Southern League. The Opening Day rotation of Scott Olsen (age 21), Yorman Bazardo (20), Josh Johnson (21), Logan Kensing (22) and "veteran" Nick Ungs (24) was as ridiculous as its Major League counterpart in April, leading the Carolina staff to a 2.52 ERA for the month.

 

"Other teams will usually have one or two outstanding pitchers and three or four guys who are average," said Olsen, who is second in the SL with 58 strikeouts. "But we had five quality starters. We have one of the best rotations in Minor League Baseball and we've proved that over the past two or three years."

 

This clearly wasn't an accidental discovery. Olsen and Johnson have been pitching together since 2002 in the Gulf Coast League. They joined up with Bazardo and Kensing in Greensboro in 2003. They met Ungs in Jupiter last season to make the fearsome fivesome that moved up to Carolina to start out 2005. This is clearly not your typical Minor League staff.

 

"I was with three of them last year. I could tell it was something special," said Johnson, who is eighth in the league with a 3.12 ERA. "We have confidence in all our pitchers, so every day we feel we can win.

 

"We're out there watching and if he pitches well, I want to go out there and pitch well, too. It's not a one-up thing so much but that we all want to be right there with each other. It's good, friendly competition."

 

"The competition among teammates exists," Bazardo added. "But the real competition is trying to move up to a higher level."

 

Bazardo was prescient. Kensing, who made his big-league debut late last season, had been called up May 18. The day after discussing his interpretation of competition, Bazardo got "the call," with Kensing coming back to Carolina.

 

"It was apparent with Logan last year," Johnson said. "He just kind of took off. Our season was over, but we figured it could happen again this year.

 

"You see him go up there and see him throw well and you say, 'Wow, I can do that, too.' Someday it will."

 

The confidence this season stems not just from Kensing and Bazardo, though that does show that even with a young staff at the highest level, there have been opportunities for Marlins prospects to help out the parent club. There has been a history of Florida's willingness to leapfrog guys up from Double-A, like Dontrelle Willis and outfielder Miguel Cabrera in 2003.

 

"We're one phone call away," Olsen said. "You just want to be ready when you get that phone call. You just prepare yourself for when that day comes, whether it's tomorrow or next year."

 

The group undoubtedly moved closer to call-readiness this spring, when they got to attend big league camp and pick the brains of the "older" pitchers on the Marlins staff, as well as true veterans like Al Leiter and Todd Jones.

 

"They'd come up to me and say stuff and let me know things I was doing with my delivery, things I was doing to tip my pitches," Johnson said. "It kind of blew my mind. It was really cool."

 

Johnson clearly took those lessons with him when he took the mound on Opening Day, tossing a gem that set the tone right off the bat.

 

"First day of the season, Johnson went out and threw five-plus innings and gave up two hits," Olsen said. "I wanted to go out and beat him, and whoever pitches after me wants to go out and do better than I did. We definitely feed off of each other." "I knew it was going to be a competitive time out here," Bazardo said. "There are a lot of good pitchers, so I'm keeping focus and trying to stay ahead of them."

 

Right now, Bazardo is the one ahead. But every member of the staff is prepared to be the next one to help the Marlins.

 

"Whenever they call my name, I'll be ready," Johnson said. "I'm not really worried about when it is. I'm just going to keep going through what I'm doing now."

 

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/...t=.jsp&c_id=fla

We really should call up Ungs soon, he's getting old.

From the stats department:

 

In the first month of play (April - May 8th), Ungs left the game with 8 runners left on base. The relievers who followed him only stranded 4 of those.

Ungs will probably be an organizational player for the rest of his career.