Rob Neyer has this to say about the NL Wild Card as we head into September:
Speaking of the wild card, there are really only five teams seriously involved in the conversation, which seems to happen most years and makes me skeptical when “people” say the wild card results in a big attendance boost. In the American League, only the Red Sox and the Rangers are serious contenders. In the National, it’s the Giants and the Rockies and the Marlins (and the Marlins have to be considered a fringe candidate, as they’ve actually been outscored this season).
The fact that he mentions [...]

Title says it all. We needed this series, and we more or less gave it away to the San Diego Padres. The first game, the horrific Chris Volstad loss, was over before it even began, but Game 2, the Ricky Nolasco start, was salvageable before the bullpen threw it away. The Marlins were very lucky that the San Francisco Giants went ahead and swept the Wild Card leading Colorado Rockies and kept the Marlins within shouting distance of the Wild Card chase. As you can probably already tell, the division race is no more.
Sean West saves the Marlins from embarassment.
It [...]

OK, this was frustrating. No team should be giving up nine runs to the San Diego Padres, especially not a so-called “contending ballclub.” The loss to the lowly New York Mets on Thursday was acceptable, given we already took two of three and these things sometimes happen. But to have a game where you throw out your third best starter, Chris Volstad, and he not only bombs, but bombs so horrifically that he forces the bullpen to go 7 1/3 innings of relief work against the worst offense in the National League is despicable.
This is not an analysis. This is [...]

Guys, Tom Tango needs your help! If you’ve watched enough Marlins games, either live or on the tele, please send in a scouting evaluation of the players we have on defense. It’ll help get the Marlins some recognition and some insight on the team’s defense. Early reports have really bad defense going on, but if you didn’t see that with your eyes, get on the ball and help out the cause.
Show some love for Brett Carroll and not-love for Dan Uggla! Vote as soon as you think you’re ready. And remember, READ THE RULES! It’s very important.

MGL slaps Fredi in the face:
Anyway, here is an odd lineup to say the least. What possesses a manager to make an order like this? Any ideas? The current batting averages gives you a clue I think as to why the manager has this order. If that is the case, that is one of the more egregious misuses of BA and batting order you will find. I don’t know much about the FLO manager, but this suggests that he doesn’t have a clue (as to how to determine which players have what value going forward).
Florida Marlins
Player AVG HR [...]

Earlier this morning, I pointed out that Hanley Ramirez should be in the running for National League MVP this season. Of course, now I’m going to tell you that despite that, I would rather have the old Hanley Ramirez from last season than this one.
Here’s where you might think “He’s a moron, Hanley’s been awesome this year! How could you want last year’s Hanley instead of this year’s? I’m not reading this stuff anymore!” Before you do that, note that that isn’t what I meant. If it was, I would not be making the argument that Hanley is having an [...]

There’s a contingency that says it could happen. Rob Neyer on the topic:
I knew, in a sort of off-handed way, that Hanley Ramirez is enjoying yet another brilliant season. But after looking at his actual season, I’ve come to believe that he must be the most underrated player in the major leagues and that probably nobody else is really all that close.
<snip>
Maybe [Albert Pujols] really is the best player in the National League. He probably is. But there’s a .365-hitting shortstop with power, playing for a contending team. Shouldn’t we at least take a deep breath and think a few [...]

The Marlins, over the course of the month of August, have suddenly breathed life into a mostly lifeless offense. Previously, the team was led by Hanley Ramirez and a ragtag band of struggling starters (Dan Uggla, Jorge Cantu) and guys who didn’t belong as starters (Emilio Bonifacio). All of a sudden, the offense woke up in August, culminating in that marvelous double-digit hits streak that was ended in Houston last week. As of yesterday night’s win over the New York Mets, the Marlins stand with a team wOBA of .328, good for 15th in baseball, 5th in the National League, [...]

Last time I tried to use Pitch f/x, I took a look at Renyel Pinto’s changeup, a pitch that doesn’t resemble any changeup that I know of. The pitch had massive sink and vertical break into lefties, yielding a few interesting results. Pinto threw the majority of his changeups either low in the zone or pretty much in the dirt. This resulted in a high whiff count, on the order of 42% of the changeups swung at, but it also resulted in a high ball count, yielding only a 44% strike percentage. This confirmed my belief that despite it being [...]

Here’s my short interview about the Marlins on NY Baseball Today. I kind of gave the generic responses due to a big restriction on time (they only have two minutes for each New York team), but you get to hear my voice! I’m two minutes into the show, as the first half of the program is on the New York Yankees’ matchup versus the Texas Rangers. By the way, if you’re interested, the Rangers blogger they picked for interview, Adam Morris of Lone Star Ball, is very good. The site is among the best Rangers blogs on the web, so [...]