It is a special day when a player makes his Major League debut and today right-hander Elih Villanueva (ranked as the 14th best prospect in the Marlins system by Baseball America entering 2011) got the start for the Florida Marlins in the first game of a double header in Philadelphia. Villanueva was the 2010 Marlins minor league pitcher of the year after posting a record of 14-4 with a 2.26 ERA over 28 starts for Double-A Jacksonville. This season Villanueva began the year in Triple-A New Orleans where he made 13 starts going 4-5 with a 5.23 ERA. The 24 year old south Florida product who graduated High School in 2004 from Westminster Academy in Ft. Lauderdale went on to play college at Florida International, Miami-Dade Community College and Florida State University before being selected in the 27th round of the 2008 amateur draft by the Marlins.
UPDATE: The game did not go the way that Villanueva and the Marlins would have liked as he pitched 3 innings allowing 8 runs on 5 hits while walking 5 on 91 total pitches as he struggled with his command. The Marlins lost the game by a final score of 8-1. Villanueva was optioned back to Triple-A New Orleans following the first game of the doubleheader.
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