Introducing: Weekend Roundup

Ed. note: Every spring, in order to avoid repeating the same rehashed story lines, beat writers for every major league team write 300-word profiles of a whole host of new faces invited to Spring Training. These stories run the gamut from retreads hoping to extend their career one more year to marginal minor league prospects to new free-agent signees getting comfortable with their new teammates. Most of these stories are forgettable, but will give the reader at least one interesting anecdote or point of view. Every week of Spring Training, we'll be posting the best or most interesting of these stories from the Miami Herald, Sun Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, and other news outlets, for your weekend reading pleasure.

Florida Marlins' Kris Harvey Trying to Follow in His Father's Footsteps, by Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald:

When the Marlins drafted Harvey out of Clemson in the second round of the 2005 draft, they had him targeted as a hitting outfielder.

And for a brief while, hit Harvey did. He smacked 15 home runs at Single A Greensboro (N.C.) in 2006 and 12 more at Single A Jupiter in '07. But after being promoted to Double A Carolina in '08 and getting off to a rough start -- hitting only .148 -- Harvey phoned pop to say it was time for a career switch. He wanted to pitch.

"I didn't want to waste time anymore trying to hit," he said.

Harvey, by then wearing a Fu Manchu mustache like the one his father wore with the Marlins in '93, was given permission to change positions.

Meet Scott Strickland, by Joe Frisaro of MLB.com:

"They've been trying to get me the last three or four years," the right-hander said. "For whatever reason, I've always gone somewhere else. Every year, they've tried to sign me, and I've always gone somewhere else. I don't know exactly why. Whether it was money, or whatever else [Dave: It was money, obvs.]. This year I didn't wait to compare offers. I was like, 'You know what, these guys came to me quickly like they've always done, and I'm going to sign.' "

Florida Marlins Pitcher Jose Ceda's Accidental Shooting Finally Revealed To Team, by Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald:

Jose Ceda brought a painful secret with him when he showed up to spring training last season with the Marlins, fresh off a trade from the Chicago Cubs. Ceda -- unbeknown by the Marlins until Sunday -- had shot his best friend with a handgun in the Dominican Republic.

The friend survived, and the shooting was ruled an accident, according to the 23-year-old pitcher and his agent, Paul Kinzer. Details of the shooting are fuzzy.

But Ceda was scarred emotionally.

Maybin to Stanton: Be Patient With Yourself, by Juan C. Rodriguez of the Sun-Sentinel:

Baseball America this week named Marlins Double-A outfielder Mike Stanton the game's third-best prospect. One Marlin in particular can relate to that kind of expectation.

In 2009, Cameron Maybin was No. 8 on the magazine's Top 100 prospects ranking. The two prior years he was sixth. Maybin's advice to Stanton: "Be patient with yourself. Don't get caught up on when everybody is projecting you to be in the big leagues."

At the insistence of Triple-A manager Edwin Rodriguez last season, Maybin lived by the very wisdom he's now dispensing.

Apropos of that, take a look at Stanton. Still only 20 years old (!), he is clearly still growing.