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.
Burke Badenhop, Brian Sanches battle for final spot in Florida Marlins' bullpen, by Joe Capozzi (Palm Beach Post):
He got married, helped a friend write a book about financial planning and started co-writing a movie screenplay with his agent. ("It's a comedy," he said, "so if the Farrelly brothers are out there listening, we'd love to have a shot.")
Bullpen prospect Jennings "mentally past" 2010 drug suspension, by Juan C. Rodriguez (Sun-Sentinel):
"It was something you would never think [was banned]," said Jennings, no relation to the club's vice president of player personnel of the same name. "I bought it, took it for a month, ran out, bought it again, and two months later…that's what happens. I'm not going to say I was stupid, but I wasn't smart. For me to find out there was something banned in it would have taken probably a couple of hours of research. You have to go through the ingredients and find all the different names that the ingredient has. Ingredient A, you add a tiny bit of something else, it becomes ingredient AXY."
Time is now for Florida Marlins’ Nunez to show his pitch, by Manny Navarro (Miami Herald):
It was the new pitch he was supposed to use last season to keep hitters from sitting on his 96-mile per hour fastball and change-up.
But before Leo Nunez really developed the confidence to use a slider last season, the Giants’ Aaron Rowand crushed it.
Skipworth developing slowly but surely, by Joe Frisaro (mlb.com):
Skipworth's development hasn't always gone smoothly. At low Class A Greensboro last year, he batted .249 with 17 homers and 59 RBIs. He struck out 132 times in 397 at-bats.
Skipworth gained some more seasoning in the Arizona Fall League, where he appeared in 15 games and hit .267 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 60 at-bats.
"In hindsight, I feel I'm in a really good spot," he said. "I feel really good. My body feels good. I feel real good in the development standpoint, because I feel I've gained an immense amount of knowledge. From my first camp until now, it's a night-and-day difference"
Read more...
