It's always hard to follow a miamibaseball post, as he usually hits the nail on the head, in his own way...As I see it, both Beinfest and Fredi have stated all along it was an open competition in the small and skewed sample size of 1 Spring Training. And it was, amongst a group of not ready for or not good enough for prime time players. To me I always thought it was really between Sanchez and De Aza. De Aza won. I'm sorry for Sanchez and hope for the best with De Aza. If we get a neutral payoff on defense and offense it's better than trading a pitcher for a slightly plus option. Not this year anyway. Let's start the season already.

Im glad snachez is gone i worried that they would make the centerfield in spite of his horrid performace , as to the doubters give the kid a chance it is not as if we had anyone better to play center field

JUPITER, Fla. -- Center field is now settled.

 

The biggest surprise in camp, Alejandro De Aza, has won the Marlins center field.

 

The 22-year-old De Aza played 69 games at Double-A Carolina last season, and now the speedy Dominican Republic native will be the lone rookie on the Marlins' starting Opening Day roster.

 

"Alejandro De Aza is going to be our center fielder," manager Fredi Gonzalez said Wednesday morning. "He plays the game the right way, and I'm very happy for him, and I'm very happy for our club, too."

 

De Aza was batting .351 (13-for-37) with four doubles, one triple and four RBIs this spring entering Wednesday's game. He also has four stolen bases.

 

The Marlins intend to make the jump to the big leagues go as smoothly as possible for De Aza, who will bat eighth. Gonzalez noted that against tough lefties, the lefty-hitting center fielder may not be in the lineup.

 

Gonzalez already has thought through a scenario where if De Aza had to face Mets' hard-throwing lefty closer, Billy Wagner, the Marlins may opt for a pinch-hitter.

 

"We sat him down, and I told him, 'I don't want you to go out and hit .380. ... Go out and play your game, and play the way we're playing. If we need you to carry us for a month, we're in trouble.' I said, 'Let the other guys worry about driving in runs and winning ball games. You just go out there and play your game, and go from there.'"

 

When Gonzalez broke the news to De Aza early Wednesday morning, the 22-year-old was visibly nervous. Gonzalez had thought about kidding with him, but quickly decided to tell him he would be the starter.

 

"I brought him in and closed the door, and it was just him and me in there," Gonzalez said. "I let him know right away because I didn't want it to linger because he was nervous. When I told him, he was excited, like he should be. This is something he always hoped for and dreamed for, and he should be.

 

"I was going to mess with him a little bit, but when he came in, he was so nervous, the poor kid."

 

With De Aza securing the center-field spot, the Marlins have filled in their two biggest Spring Training needs. On Monday, they acquired Jorge Julio from Arizona for Yusmeiro Petit. Julio will take over as the team's closer.

 

De Aza won the job over Eric Reed and non-roster invitee Alex Sanchez.

 

Reed also enjoyed a strong spring, batting .351. Sanchez was batting .163 (7-for-43).

 

The team did factor in concerns about De Aza making the jump to the Majors without a substantial amount of Double-A experience. "Obviously, we took that into account, and we've done that here before," Gonzalez said. "He's not going to have concerns. I'm going to have all the concerns. We're going to bring him around easy, and let him do all the little stuff."

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/ar...b&fext=.jsp

 

I am not sure if this was posted.

So does that mean Borchard is the backup CF?