Archive for July, 2009

From MLBTradeRumors: ESPN’s Peter Gammons reports that the Marlins “appear to be moving closer” to a Nick Johnson trade. Last we heard, the Fish offered pitcher Ryan Tucker to the Nationals and asked Washington to pay part of Johnson’s contract (he has $2MM remaining). At the same time, Danny Knobler of CBSSports says the Marlins are growing frustrated with the trade talks and may move on. Analysis to come if it happens. Needless to say, we may finally see an end to the BoniLine! UPDATE: Joe Frisaro tweets that the Marlins might not finish a deal before the deadline is [...]

Culminating in tonight’s tough loss to the Braves, the Marlins wrap up an overall solid series, taking two of three from Atlanta and continuing their winning ways. There was a lot of drama and interesting stuff going on during the series, so there was plenty of ammunition for Blogservations. Let’s get right to it. Jeremy Hermida’s baserunning gaff was completely unacceptable. I sucked in Little League (though in my rookie year, I had a 90% BB% and led my league in OBP from the ninth spot in the order!), so I don’t often talk about the fundamentals of the game. [...]

Links! (Nothing witty or polite today) – First off, we’re going for the sweep tonight against the Braves. It’ll be Rick VandenHurk for the Fish countered by one of the best starters in the game right now in Javier Vazquez for the Braves. It’ll be tough, I don’t like our chances all that much, but a solid start and good pitching might be the difference with the Braves terrible offense. – Lots of talk about the Marlins and Heath Bell. Talks have included either Sean West or Andrew Miller going one-for-one for Bell. I’ve said that the Marlins can’t afford [...]

Big change coming to our very own division, with the addition of now-former Cleveland Indians lefty and last year’s AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee into the mix for the Philadelphia Phillies. Now an already well-stacked team is going to get even better by replacing replacement level (or worse) production at the #5 starter position with Lee, who according to tRA was worth 19.5 runs above average so far this year in the American League. Quick analysis: Why has Lee been such a better pitcher in the last year and a half than he was a few seasons back? A [...]

Due to my lease ending on Sunday, I’ll be at my old place until Friday evening, mostly to do some work while I’m still around my college’s campus (not graduated just yet) but somewhat so that I can watch some more baseball and have access to the Internet to give you guys some Marlins-related content. For now, just a BoniLine on tonight’s solid win. Emilio Bonifacio: 4 PA, 0 H, 1 R, WPA/LI: -.108 Best Performer: Hanley Ramirez: 4 PA, 2 H, 1 3B, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, WPA/LI: .213 Big day for Hanley, but special recognition goes [...]

Before I get to updating stuff, I’d like to once again remind everyone to subscribe to Marlin Maniac. To the 14 people already subscribed, thanks for helping me out and spread the word to your fellow Marlins and statgeek fans! —- 2. BigBoynBroward Says: Hey Maniac, where you at man??? No post before this enormous Braves series?? You must be studying again lol…….Huge win tonight!!! I am glad you noticed, BigBoynBroward (I’m a former Broward inhabitant as well, used to live in Weston). A quick notice before I go on. The next few days are going to be update light. [...]

Before we go into trades, make sure you don’t trade the Maniac away for any other blog subscription. Please subscribe to Marlin Maniac for your Marlins maniacal needs. —- The first part of a resposne on FishStripes became an idea for a post I’ve been brewing up in my head for quite some time. I’ve avoided being that guy who makes rampant trade speculation that is mostly unwarranted and comes off as a plea to the front office and a pipe dream rather than a realistic proposal. I wanted to look more in-depth at a player to whom I think [...]

I know we all want the BoniLine to end and for Bonifacio to sit, but we don’t all want the Maniac to be benched, do we? If you like what you see, by all means, subscribe to Marlin Maniac. The Maniac thanks you for your delicious subscription clicks with hearty doses of Marlins analysis. —- No Blogservations on today’s game, except to say there was a lot of high drama for a blowout. The odds of winning, even as the Dodgers cut the lead to two, was still a paltry 4.8%, though that was much higher than the 0.6% that [...]

Please remember to subscribe to Marlin Maniac if you like the stuff the Maniac is writing. If you don’t, why are you here? Actually, please come back! —- Lately, I’ve been seeing quite a few people desperate to see Gaby Sanchez and what he can do. This should come as no surprise, since the Marlins currently have a scrub playing third base in Emilio Bonifacio and Marlins fans have heard enough of Sanchez to wonder whether the grass is greener on the other side. It should be, given that the grass on this side is stomped on and browned from [...]

Remember, if you like the analysis you see here, please subscribe to Marlin Maniac. It will do us all a tremendous favor. Plus you’ll get this stuff ON-DEMAND. Who wouldn’t want me on-demand? Or rather, who wouldn’t want my writing on-demand? —- I don’t have a whole lot to say about this game, other than it was a disappointing loss. However, there was some good and some definite bad, and we probably should discuss that. Fredi and his bullpen strategy again. I believe astute Marlin Maniac reader Adam pointed this out in the previous Blogservations piece on last night’s win. [...]