Marlins' Sandy Alcantara, Skip Schumaker pave the way for spring training
MIAMI - The familiar sounds of baseball have returned to Roger Dean Stadium, and so has Miami Marlins ace and Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara.
The undisputed leader by example.
"If they want to get better, they have to watch how we work," Alcantara said.
Alcantara is no doubt a workhorse, as he pitched more complete games than anyone in the MLB last season.
That mentality of going deep into games is what new manager Skip Schumaker wants out of his entire staff.
"My idea is most of the pitchers, I want them to go 9 innings. That's the goal. Try to save the bullpen and try to go as long as they can," Schumaker said.
Schumaker and Marlins General Manager Kim Ng were noticeably side by side during much of Thursday's workout.
Getting a look at new additions on the mound like Johnny Cueto, Matt Barnes, and AJ Puk.
Some of those late ad-ons helped turn an otherwise slow off-season into a productive one.
"I think in the end we did what we wanted to do. We got the offense going. We made a trade that really helped the offense in Luis Arraez, the batting champ of the American League last year. We bolstered the bullpen."
CBS4 got a sneak of the full squad today as well and the new coaching staff.
Ng and the players said there's a different energy here under Schumaker, their 43-year-old manager.
"He's old school but he relates to the players a lot because he was recently a player not too long ago. So, he understands what we go through on a daily basis. He's very easy to talk to. High energy. He knows the game. He's been around a lot of good players in the past, so it's been nice getting to know him so far."