Kazmir, Maybin, and pitching

Scott Kazmir pitched on a rehab assignment in Durham last night. He was sharp, hitting 94 on the scoreboard gun several times and making just one mistake, which Diory Hernandez took over the Blue Monster in left. Kazmir’s strikeout pitch wasn’t working all that well - he had just three Ks, getting Brandon Jones twice and JC Holt once - but broke a couple of bats and induced a fair number of weak grounders and fly balls. Other than Hernandez’s HR, the only other hard-hit ball was a deep fly off the bat of Barbaro Canizares, which Fernando Perez hauled in at the warning track. Kazmir was expected to throw around 85 pitches, and actually threw 81, 50 for strikes. For Rays’ fans, he will be starting Sunday in Fenway.

We’re a month into the season, and I’ve seen the Mudcats play six games. The Marlins loaded the franchise this year, placing #1 prospect Cameron Maybin in Carolina along with the cream of Florida’s crop of young pitching arms, and skipping two position player prospects, OF John Raynor and 2B Chris Coghlan, past Jupiter - something Florida rarely does. Already, the Marlins have promoted P Burke Badenhop (probably the least known of the prospects acquired from Detroit for Cabrera and Willis) to the big club, and it would not surprise me at all if Chris Volstad showed up there soon as well.

Maybin is the guy with all of the hype, but frankly I’ve been less than impressed with what I’ve seen so far. He can fly, ‘tis true - in one of the games he hit a deep fly off the base of the wall in center, and even though the CF played the carom perfectly Maybin was at 2B by the time he picked up the ball, and made third easily. He looks decent defensively in CF, and his strike zone judgment is acceptable, from what I can tell (although he isn’t seeing a lot of good pitches to hit). But he takes a LONG time to load and fire on the swing - that’s the main reason why he strikes out so much - and when he makes contact he’s as likely to hit a weak grounder as he is to drive the ball. His in-play BA is as high as it is in part because he’s had a fair number of infield singles. I’m not buying yet.

The pitching, on the other hand, has been outstanding. Volstad doesn’t blow the ball by people, although he can pony up and get the K when he needs to; he keeps the ball down and moves it around very well. From what I’ve heard, he came very close to making the Marlins out of spring training, and given their propensity for moving pitchers up from AA he’s certainly first in line. Ryan Tucker and Aaron Thompson have more upside, and Tucker in particular is showing signs of fulfilling his potential following two so-so seasons in the lower minors. Both have been consistently in the low 90s on the Mudcats’ (slow) gun. Thompson needs better command overall, Tucker needs to trust his stuff more, but both have adapted fairly well to their first exposure to AA. Brett Sinkbeil (Mr. “Tall and Fall") is a little further behind, but he’s had better stuff than I expected, and good control of it; I don’t especially like his mechanics, and he’ll probably be an injury risk going forward (he’s missed starts in both of his minor league seasons). There probably aren’t four better starters on any one team in the minors anywhere. The questions here, as always, are (a) health and (b) how long Florida will keep these guys here.

Jacksonville’s coming to town Memorial Day weekend. I expect that Kershaw will still be there when the Suns arrive - as I said before, I don’t think LA will be in any big rush to call him up - and I’m looking forward to seeing him again. He struggled with location in his one start here a year ago.