Originally Posted by MLB.com

JUPITER, Fla. -- Growing up in Miami, the Marlins had an eye on Gaby Hernandez when he was a standout pitcher at Belen Jesuit Prep School.

Jim Fleming, Florida's vice president of player personnel and scouting, made several trips to scout Hernandez when he was coming out of high school in 2004.

Ultimately, the Mets drafted Hernandez in the third round of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft.

Already familiar with Hernandez's history, the Marlins coveted the right-hander when they made numerous trades following the 2005 season. On Dec. 9 of that year, Hernandez was dealt to Florida along with outfielder Dante Brinkley for catcher Paul Lo Duca.

Actually, the Marlins kicked around acquiring Hernandez in another big move. He was discussed in the trade that sent Carlos Delgado to the Mets for Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit.

Now 20, Hernandez is one of the several highly-regarded prospects in big-league camp. The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder understands he is getting a nibble of life at the Major League level. But when the season opens, he fully expects to be at Double-A Carolina.

"I'm just trying to make an impression with the staff and the front office," he said. "I'm just trying to stay as long as I possibly can. I'll probably just go down to Double-A, grind it out, and see what happens."

The Marlins are keeping a careful watch on all their young players who are experiencing big-league camp. Hernandez turns 21 on May 21, and if he performs at Double-A, there is a realistic chance he will be called up sometime around midseason.

For now, he is building up arm strength and working on fundamentals. If his bullpen throwing sessions are any indication, he has a promising future based on his fluid delivery and lively fastball.

"Gaby is an extremely intense and talented guy," Fleming said. "He's very locked in to pitching, and he's what we thought he was."

Hernandez is slated to pitch an inning of relief when the Marlins take on the University of Miami on Tuesday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium.

"In high school, we liked him when he was coming through the draft," Fleming said. "We had the luxury of seeing him [in Miami]. And because I saw him so much, we paid attention to him when he came through the [Mets] system."

Hernandez appeared in 21 games with 20 starts for Class A Jupiter a year ago. He finished 9-7 with a 3.68 ERA, logging 120 innings. To get in some extra work, the team requested he throw some innings of winter ball.

For Carolina in Puerto Rico, Hernandez made 14 starts and was 3-2 with a 4.14 ERA before being shut down.

The Marlins had two objectives sending him to Puerto Rico. First, it was to add some extra innings, and secondly, they wanted him to fine tune a cut-fastball in game situations.

Along with a 92-94 mph fastball, Hernandez throws a curveball, changeup, sinker and cutter.

"This early, I'm more concerned with gaining arm strength," Marlins pitching coach Rick Kranitz said. "Sometimes that offspeed stuff, the slider/cutter comes later. I'd rather see the feel of the changeup and the fastball command, than I would with the slider and all that. To me, that's the last thing to come."

In terms of first impressions, Kranitz sees Hernandez as a pitcher with tremendous upside.

"He looks like he's pretty polished for a young pitcher," Kranitz said. " When you're a young pitcher, you say, 'Who does he remind me of?' I can tell you he looks like he's a got a pretty good feel of what he's doing. He's pretty sound, and his stuff really looks very good."

Some traits Kranitz looks for in prospects are fastball command and a knowledge of pitching.

"For me that is huge. In the game, when they try to throw it away, it goes away," Kranitz said. "When they try to throw it in, it goes in. You're ahead of the game when you've got guys who have that kind of feel at an early age.

"Then they can take the next step. A lot of guys never get the chance to take that next step. It takes them longer to graduate to doing things to make them Major League pitchers."