Archive for April, 2010

After the series against the San Diego Padres started out so well, only to fall flat, the Marlins look to regain their form against their classic scapegoat, the Washington Nationals. Washington Nationals (12-10) @ Florida Marlins, April 30-May 2, Games 23-25 NL East Standings Tm W L Win% GB NYM 13 9 .591 – PHI 12 9 .571 0.5 WSN 12 10 .545 1.0 FLA 11 11 .500 2.0 ATL 8 14 .364 5.0 Stadium: Sun Life Stadium Five-year Run PF*: 0.99 Five-year HR PF*: 0.97 Stadium Dimensions: Left Field: 330 ft. Left-Center: 361 Center Field: 404 Right-Center: 361 Right [...]

Recently, Tom Tango posted a methodology that allows you convert player performance via WPA or WAR into player win/loss records. When he encouraged us to go ahead and do this for our own favorite teams, I immediately thought of the 2003 Marlins, so I figured I’d go ahead and make this part of Revisiting ’03. Essentially, this methodology is a way to break down player contributions in terms of wins and losses. Using WPA ensures that you get the entire team total to add up to the team’s win-loss record, but then you cannot adjust for things like position and [...]

Mike Stanton had a monster set of games recently, knocking five home runs and driving in 11 runs in just two games. This recent outburst, combined with his impressive Spring Training sample from before the season, have renewed the calls for “Stanton in the majors.” Those who are making these calls cite the example of Jason Heyward, an equally young and impressive player who started on Opening Day for the Atlanta Braves and is hitting .224/.358/.448, good for a .360 wOBA and some over-the-top fanfare. Let’s get this out of the way immediately: the Marlins will not promote Stanton until [...]

Renyel Pinto has been a staple in the Marlins bullpen since coming over from the Chicago Cubs in 2006. In that time, he has not endeared himself to faithful Marlins fans due to his roller-coaster, up-and-down pitching performance. I’ve always shared this sentiment myself, as I could never stand Pinto’s inability to put pitches in the strike zone. For his career, Pinto has handed out free passes in 14.6% of hitters faced. But FishStripes regular 3.3seconds has made mention in more than a few occasions that Pinto has been effective as a pitcher, citing his career batting line against of [...]

After starting off the previous road trip nicely by taking two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies, the Marlins stumbled through Houston and Colorado, losing four of six. Coming back home, we get the unenviable task of facing the hot San Diego Padres. The Marlins should have the edge, however. Let’s preview the series. San Diego Padres (11-7) @ Florida Marlins, April 26-28, Games 20-22 NL East Standings Tm W L Win% GB PHI 11 7 .667 – FLA 10 9 .563 1.5 WSN 10 9 .533 1.5 NYM 10 9 .500 1.5 ATL 8 10 .438 3.0 Stadium: Sun [...]

The Philadelphia Phillies’ Ryan Howard was the 2005 NL Rookie of the Year, batting .288/.356/.567 and belting 22 home runs in just 346 PA. In 2006, Hanley Ramirez won the NL Rookie of the Year with an impressive .292/.353/.480 campaign at a defensive premium position. While Hanley was taking home the rookie hardware, Howard was busy building a .313/.425/.659, 58 home run season at the plate, en route to his first MVP award. While Howard has been showered with more accolades than Hanley, both players came up in similar times and started off in similar ways. So you have to [...]

The weekend series between the Marlins and Colorado Rockies was as simple as this: whoever had the best starting pitcher won the game. In Game 1 of Saturday’s double-header, Ricky Nolasco dominated and the Marlins cruised 5-1, while in Games 2 and 3 of the series, the Rockies sent out superior starters and the Fish were shellacked. Let’s look at those games and search for some points of interest. Series Hero: Ricky Nolasco (0.404 WPA) Series Goat: Chris Volstad (-0.274 WPA) Impressed By: Ricky Nolasco (8 IP, 9 K, 0 BB, 0 HR, 0 R, 7 H,) Depressed By: Chris [...]

I was going to try and make one article for each one of these, but it turns out I won’t be able to. Instead, I’ll go ahead and put them together into some early season thoughts. Call them oddities, if you will. Robertson just as we expected Remember when half of the Marlins’ fan base was clamoring that Nate Robertson was going to ruin everything? Well, take a look at his 2010 line so far (with all small sample size warnings attached): 2009: 15.5% K%, 8.5% BB%, 11.8% HR/FB%, 56.9% GB% Compare that to his 2007 and 2008 numbers: 2007: [...]

(Note: Since I missed out on a lot of content this week, I figured I’d add on some weekend content to compensate. Hope you guys keep reading, I’ll do my best to keep writing.) The Marlins salvaged one game out of a frustrating series versus the Houston Astros. This is the first series this season which the Marlins did not win or split, and it happened to come against one of the worst teams in baseball. It was an ugly affair, the details of which will be discussed shortly. Series Hero: Jorge Cantu (0.414 WPA) Series Goat: Tim Wood (-0.517 [...]

The Marlins are coming off a disappointing series and are setting their sights on the Colorado Rockies. Hopefully we can take our frustrations from the previous series (more on that affair in a little bit) and take the Rockies out on the road. Florida Marlins @ Colorado Rockies (8-8), April 23-25, Games 17-19 NL East Standings Tm W L Win% GB PHI 10 5 .667 – FLA 9 7 .563 1.5 ATL 8 7 .533 2.0 WSN 8 8 .500 2.5 NYM 7 9 .438 3.5 Stadium: Coors Field Five-year Run PF*: 1.08 Five-year HR PF*: 1.07 Stadium Dimensions: Left [...]