Archive for September, 2009

I’m sorry, but perhaps Dave van Horn should stop whining when the team is up 5-0. The bases were loaded in the top of the 4th inning, when Hanley Ramirez drove a line drive to right field. Nick Johnson, who was at first base, held halfway to make sure Jeff Francoeur didn’t catch the ball. The ball landed, Francoeur scooped it up, and he gunned Johnson down at second base. van Horn reacted as if the team was down a run or two during the situation. If it were Hanley at first, I may be a bit angry. But let’s [...]

In the first part of the series last night, I showed you Fredi Gonzalez’s management of the bullpen this season and how it was all backwards and a bit messed up. But this season isn’t over yet and, let’s face it, relievers aren’t the most consistent bunch of people in baseball. Still, let’s take a look at the last two seasons, where Fredi has gotten a full year to manage his bullpen. Here’s the chart again, this time with 2008 labeled. It seems apparent that the same sort of issue arises. Kevin Gregg was not clearly the worst reliever on [...]

Finally, I got to writing up this article. I’ve wanted for a long time to check out whether or not Fredi Gonzalez has been using his bullpen correctly. All season long, I’ve railed on the Marlins about pitching the right guys in the right innings and situations, so I checked out FanGraphs’ Leaderboards and got the team’s relievers’ leverage index (LI) data and FIP numbers for the seasons during which Gonzalez was the manager. I limited the sample to relievers who had logged at least 30 innings for the Marlins during the season. In order to get some sort of [...]

Welcome to the 09/09/09 version of Fish Bites. Here are your links to start your day. – First off, tonight’s game vs. the New York Mets. Ricky Nolasco takes the bump for the Marlins, while the Mets counter with Patrick Misch. In Ricky’s last seven starts, he’s been pretty dominant despite continuing his poor luck on balls in play. Despite a sterling 44/6 K/BB ratio, Ricky has posted a 5.34 ERA. He has allowed six home runs, and he did have one terrible start, but for the most part he’s pitched well, and I don’t expect that trend to stop. [...]

Going outside the FanSided network today with a quick Q&A with Disgruntled Mets Fan blogger Joe Fiorello about this upcoming series versus the New York Mets. We tossed a few questions around quickly and here’s what we got. By the way, if you want more Mets coverage in addition to the awesome stuff Adam Garnett provides over at Rising Apple, check out DMF, it’s an excellent blog with insight from a, well, the title’s self-evident. First off, here are my questions to Joe about the Mets. —- Michael Jong: Carlos Beltran could be ready for tonight’s game versus the Marlins. [...]

Here’s the other thing I had to announce. Recently, I received some Marlins keychains for test drive from Wholesale Keychains, and they have been awesome, as far as keychains go. Check out the site, they’ve got a variety of different keychains available with all sorts of different functionalities as well. Myself, I went with the cool look, a Florida Marlins logo and some black leather, always makes me a happy man. To the right is a picture of the one I’m using for myself. The design looks great, and the logo is a bit old school, but I like it. [...]

I’ve got a few things to announce, some of them a bit late but still very important. This one is the first. FanSided, your #1 choice for sports blog networks, has a new iPhone app! That’s right, the Realtime Pro Football ’09 app for your iPhone or iPod Touch is the coolest of new apps available at the iTunes Store. What it’s offering isn’t scores, since so many different apps give you that, but rather real-time info from various sources about the teams of your choice. The app has four sections, covering Teams, Press, Writers, and our favorite over here [...]

Reader Smilin Jay broght something up in my email that I think all Marlins fans have been thinking since the beginning of the year. Cantu started the season so strong. Had a bunch of HR’s early. Then came the injuries. Since then, he’s had virtually no HR’s or what appears as hard hit balls. Is is possible he’s playing hurt and may require some sort of off-season surgery? He’s putting the ball in play and has an okay average, but what happened to the long ball? (Note: Props to reader Fishcrazy for bringing that up in an earlier post as [...]

Good morning, Maniac readers! Here’s some Marlins- and saber-related business for you to enjoy over the course of your day. – Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez hit a recent milestone against the Washington Nationals Sunday. He hit his 100th home run and became the fourth-fastest shortstop to 100 homers. Hanley did it in his 595th game, trailing some fairly illustrious names. Congrats, Hanley! – The LA Times wonders if Dan Uggla would be a good fit for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Truthfully, Danny would be a decent fit anywhere, provided you take into account his defense and pay him accordingly, and [...]

The Marlins played well throuhgout much of the series versus the Washington Nationals, but the ugliest game of the three-game set ended in the worst fashion, with the Marlins giving up the walkoff home run to Ryan Zimmerman in the ninth up 4-3. It was a disappointing loss to an otherwise promising series, but it did not ultimately help; with the Colorado Rockies completing a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend, the Marlins are now once again mired five games back of the Wild Card leader. Leo Nunez has a Lindstrom-esque ninth inning. Oh, the graph did not [...]