Fish Bites
By Michael Jong
A little bit of early afternoon linkage from Marlin Maniac. On with the show.
– First off, a preview of tonight’s series finale versus the Orioles. The matchup on the mound will be Sean West for the home team and former Cub Rich Hill for the Orioles. Hill has been as inconsistent as ever for the Orioles, while West gave up a lot of runs to the Yankees in his last outing but was OK from a peripherals standpoint. Let’s see if the Marlins can’t finish off a fourth straight sweep of the Orioles in Interleague Play.
– As reported yesterday, Matt Lindstrom is going to the DL and is out for at least six weeks with strained right elbow. With the relief corps dwindling in number, I’d say the Marlins can’t afford to have anyone go down with injury, even if it is the struggling Lindstrom.
– Joe Capozzi writes in Palm Beach Post blog that Emilio Bonifacio silenced his critics last night. The play on the stolen base was nice, and it showed off Bonifacio’s ridiculous speed. The fact that the “vocal minority” was chanting for Gaby Sanchez, currently still residing in Triple-A New Orleans, is no coincedence, and honestly, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. Bonifacio went 1-for-4 and didn’t hit anything remotely hard. It’s going to take more than a nice play to silence any critics.
– Joe Capozzi mentions this in his piece today: ESPN.com’s Buster Olney thinks the Marlins have entered the race for Mark DeRosa. MLB Daily Dish (great site by the way, you guys should keep an eye on it), thinks this isn’t a bad idea. I tend to agree, provided the cost is right. But not for second or third base. Career, DeRosa has proven he’s well below average in the infield positions, and there simply isn’t any need to prove that any further in a Marlins uniform. However, in about one season’s worth of innings (1177 innings) in right field throughout his career, DeRosa is +19.7 runs, mostly on the back of a +11.1 runs in right a couple years ago with Texas. This is of course an absurd number, and I would not be surprised if he’s more of a +2 run outfielder if he played the position on a full-time basis. Still, that’s a large advantage over both Chris Coghlan and Jeremy Hermida out there, and it would conveniently allow Coghlan to switch back to the infield at either third base or second base. Giving DeRosa adequate rest, perhaps by moving Coghlan back to left field and playing Gaby Sanchez at third on occasion, would give the team a much better hitting and defensive situation.
The question is what they’d have to give up, and as long as the Marlins don’t have to trade anyone of more worth than Ryan Tucker, the team should consider pulling the trigger.
– Speaking of acquisitions, Juan C. Rodriguez asks if the Marlins should consider Luis Ayala, recently released by the Twins for complaining about his bullpen role. There’s a myriad of problems with this grand idea, so I refer to you to this excellent post by Dave Cameron of FanGraphs for the answers. In short, Ayala isn’t just Just Another Guy. He is a living, breathing, example of replacement level, or at least he has been the last three years. No need to be paying some knucklehead money to come in and pitch like a Triple-A guy.
– Sabermetrics business ahead. Here’s a fun Driveline Mechanics graph of two guys and their WAR’s. You’d be surprised whose WAR is whose.
– Finally, everyone’s making a big fuss about David Wright’s BABIP. A big to-do, even in the mainstream. I hope this stat catches on, because it’s so important nowadays in understanding why a player appears to be “struggling” or not.