Cards vs Marlins spring gamethread 3/20

Last time out, Lance Lynn looked as ready for the season to begin as I am, striking out ten Braves, including eight in a row. He'll look to continue that success today against a rather toothless Miami Marlins squad.

Jon Jay is batting second again, for the fourth time in the last eight games. I think it's becoming likely he stays there during the season when he's in the lineup, at least to start the year. If you're into reading spring tea-leaves, they're saying Jay and Wong bat second against righties and Bonny Jhonny bats second against lefties.

As Michael Jong, editor of FishStripes, detailed here, the Marlins offense should be a little improved from last year, but not necessarily in ways that will help the team long-term.

Hitting, the questions seem to be:

-Is Giancarlo Stanton a star or a superstar this year? It's important because there's a good chance they try to trade him next year when he becomes arb-eligible. What kind of package can they get?

-Can Marcell Ozuna hit major league pitchers who know how to attack him? He's had a rough spring.

-How good will Christian Yelich be? He was a premium prospect and now has an opening day job at just 22.

-Will Derek Dietrich get some playing time? I watched the Marlins a good deal last year, and he looked like he could develop into Dan Uggla light.

So why did I watch the Marlins a good deal last year? Because Jose Fernandez is special. You know that baseball archetype of the grinning good-hearted boyish hotshot with skills straight from Zeus? Here it is.

I say he makes an argument for best pitcher in baseball this year.

I'll take a brief look at the rest of the Marlins rotation in one of the GT's with the fishies next week.

Lineups:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Lineup at MIA (3/20): Carpenter 3b; Jay, rf; Holliday, lf; Craig, 1b; Molina, c; Peralta, ss; Descalso, 2b; Bourjos, cf; Lynn, rhp.</p>&mdash; St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cardinals/statuses/446627331633729536">March 20, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MarlinsST&amp;src=hash">#MarlinsST</a> lineup vs Cardinals: Yelich CF, Dietrich 2B, Stanton RF, Jones 1B, Salty C, Ozuna LF, McGehee 3B, Hechavarria SS, Fernandez P</p>&mdash; Miami Marlins (@Marlins) <a href="https://twitter.com/Marlins/statuses/446636833951080448">March 20, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This strikes me as a team that could be a lot better than expected if things break right, but could be a train-wreck if they don't.

By the way, I am hoping to get some FishStripers to stop by today. Michael Jong came over in 2012 for a joint gamethread, and a good time was had by all.