Archive for September, 2009

I always do player value in terms of WAR and the current going free agent rate per WAR, which stands at $4.5M/WAR as of last offseason. However, as we all know, the Marlins don’t play the same game other teams play in terms of spending for their wins above replacement, so I figured I’d look into the Marlins’ free agent signings of the past and try and find out what rate the team is willing to pay for free agent WAR. Before we go on, keep in mind that this is free agent rates for WAR only. The Marlins have [...]

I wasn’t going to write a Blogservations for last night’s game versus the Atlanta Braves, but Anibal Sanchez’s performance deserved some serious criticizing. Let’s dive into that catastrophe of a start. Anibal Sanchez walks eight, not surprisingly also loses. Anibal Sanchez had one of his worst starts since returning from injury, striking out four while walking a staggering eight Braves and giving up a solo home run to Chipper Jones. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter all that much how many runs Sanchez gave up; he could have given up all but the Jones homer and it would’ve been enough to [...]

On the final homestand of the season, I expected a better performance from our Marlins, especially against the New York Mets. Unfortunately, that was simply not to be. A great Ricky Nolasco start is thrown away by Leo Nunez I heard recently that the team was likely to stick with Leo Nunez as their closer for next year, provided they don’t find a cheap veteran. I don’t know how many saves or home runs Nunez has to give up before the team gives up on him, but I do know that he isn’t as good as the team thinks. Nunez [...]

A while back, I discussed a bit about the problems Jeremy Hermida was facing at the plate. With another lost season all but over thanks to a strained oblique, I thought it would be fitting to cap off his season with a review of what went wrong and whether he improved on the things we talked about earlier. In the earlier post, I mentioned that it seems like Hermida’s plate discipline was improving because he had drawn 32 walks so early in the season. I thought this might herald the arrival of a more patient Hermida, similar to the one [...]

It was 2006, and I was a Marlins fan riff with excitement. The team was going through a crazy, unexpected run at playoff contention with a team full of minor leaguers and prospects. I enjoyed Hanley Ramirez. I enjoyed Dan Uggla. I enjoyed the amazing rookie pitching staff. I was excited to see what Jeremy Hermida could bring after hearing so much about his promise as a major leaguer. Of course I also enjoyed Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, but they were always there; I could always count on them*. *Of course, it was by that time that we had [...]

Good midday to you all! Here’s some Bites to get you through the last day of the work week. – First things first, we start off with tonight’s matchup versus the New York Mets. We’ve had fun with the Mets this season, going 10-5 against them, but as I recall, we have not had fun with Tim Redding, tonight’s starter. Still, it’s Tim Redding, he’s terrible, and I heard Ricky Nolasco is not, so we should be in good shape. I would like the goal to be 90 wins this season. It may not happen that we win eight out [...]

Recently there’s been some talk of a potential deal between the Marlins and the Chicago Cubs involving local pariahs  Jeremy Hermida and Milton Bradley. I don’t know where this rumor got started, but the first I’d heard of it is from Maniac reader Stan Makowski. Here is one totally off the wall. It makes two assumptions. #1 that Hermida has no future as a Marlin. #2 The Cubs would do anything to unload Milton Bradley including eat most of his salary. If these two assumptions are realistic, I’d trade Hermida for Bradley in a flash as long as there was [...]

(Note: I was out of town for the weekend at a friend’s place and had limited time to update between hanging out, catching up, and sleeping, so I apologize for the lack of recent activity. I will resume my regularly scheduled work on Marlin Maniac, so please continue to keep it a must-read every day. Also, I was not able to catch the game on Tuesday, as I would have had to leave early in the second game anyway. I’m a little saddened that I won’t catch the Fish live this year, as this season has really rekindled my passion [...]

I averaged a bunch of different Marlins players’ component statistics and used Baseball-Reference.com’s Park Factors for Landshark Stadium and decided I’d share some of the results. I know, it seems like a lame idea for a post, but some of these results may not mesh with our observation of the players involved, so I figured some of them would be interesting. Let’s start off with some pitchers. For this I took the FIP and tRA values found on FanGraphs, adjusted FIP to the runs scored scale, averaged FIP/.92 (the estimate scaling factor) and tRA, and used Pythagenpat to figure out [...]

Yesterday, I discussed the ramifications of losing Dan Uggla at the end of the season and went over some possible replacement strategies. The one I preferred that involved only in-house options was that of moving Chris Coghlan into the infield and playing Brett Carroll in right field. The Marlins are unlikely to keep Jeremy Hermida as well, making way for the second go-around of Cameron Maybin in center field. Today, I want to take a look at the impact that a potential outfield of Maybin, Carroll, and Cody Ross could have on our team’s defense. For this, I tried to [...]