Fish Bites

The Bites are back, discussing Marlins and sabermetric news in just a bit.

– First off, tonight’s game against the Houston Astros, using the Baseball-Reference numbers-heavy preview. The Marlins are sending Rick VandenHurk to the mound versus an old friend, former Marlins pitcher Brian Moehler. Given that the Astros have been overachieving (as usual) all season long, this should be a good series for the Fish, and tonight a good game for them, especially given the way VandenHurk pitched in his last outing. Let’s go Fish!

– After a bevy of teams beating down other teams in a big way, the Marlins over the Philadelphia Phillies included, Paul White of the USA Today says the playoff races are even tighter now. Would’ve been nice for him to get some of the details on the game down (Shane Victorino was complaining about a Rodrigo Lopez pitch, not a Joe Blanton one; Blanton didn’t even start, as White pointed out earlier), he’s right. I was especially surprised to see the NL Wild Card leaders, the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies are within striking distance of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West. Being five and a half games back isn’t easy to make up, but those two West teams are giving the Dodgers a push.

– The Marlins want Chris Coghlan to be NL Player of the Week. Well, he has been crazy hot, that much is true. I mentioned in Blogservations how ridiculous his run has been so far, and how encouraging his recent string of extra base hits may be. Small sample sizes aside, it has been a blast to watch Coghlan rake at the top of the lineup. And with Nick Johnson also in the fold, the Marlins boppers in the middle of the lineup will have plenty of opportunities to “not come up in the clutch,” as the moronic angry fans over at JCR’s blog would say. No offense to Juan, but the comments section at his decent beat writer blog is unbearable.

– As Joe Frisaro reports on his MLBlog, Kiko Calero is day-to-day with discomfort in the muscle area around his right kneecap. This can’t bode well for a Marlins team that needs Calero to be a solid contributor in their bullpen. By tRA, Calero has been worth 1.8 WAR this season, more WAR than Dan Uggla, Jorge Cantu, or Cody Ross. Crazy stuff.

– Speaking of MLBlogs, over at Hook, Line Drive, and Sinker, the always enjoyable GameFish has her reaction to the Marlins thumping of the Phillies yesterday. Her reaction to Shane Victorino’s angry charge at ump Ed Rapuano? Not impressed.

"But come on. We all know Ed could take Victorino down with one hand tied behind his back, and the three (HA!) Phillies it took to “hold back” the pint-sized Hawaiian were there for show, I assure you."

He is very small.

-Speaking of Victorino’s shenanigans (Victoranigans?), Jeff Zimmerman over at BtB shows Victorino that his sight was off from center field. Thanks for that, Jeff.

– Finally, the town that has no baseball to its name. Poor Turner, Montana.