A reminder that all numbers for hitters are park adjusted (but not pitchers).  What this also means is that, on a monthly basis, applying park factors won’t change much of the stats because of how small they are.  But it will change the yearly stats because they are a larger sample.  This is why you’ll see things like Logan Morrison’s season BABIP being higher than both his April and May BABIP.

And some misc Greensboro news: Marcell Ozuna was placed in the disabled list after only six games.  I haven’t seen anything in regards to what kind of injury it was, and it’s possible he’s simply playing in extended spring training right now and will show up again once short season ball starts up.
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However, lurking in Triple-A is top prospect Logan Morrison. Ranked by MM’s own John Herold as the third-best prospect in the system, Morrison has found his stroke since returning from an early season injury. He had a chance to win the major league job outright but struggled and was well outplayed by Sanchez. Morrison eventually returned to Triple-A and put up a .315/.424/.503 slash line. BP’s Davenport Translations have that line translate to a major league equivalent .308/.401/.497, still quite impressive.

Right now, the answer to the dilemma is to maintain the status quo. Even if the team wanted to play Morrison, there is not much room to start him (though the team may think otherwise, as you’ll see later in the article). Sanchez is entrenched at first base for the year. But thinking ahead to the future of this Marlins team, what will the Fish do if both Sanchez and Morrison continue to impress?

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What has come as a surprise to me is the outrage of Marlins fans about how the bullpen situation has been handled. This particular FanPost on FishStripes got me thinking about this. Why is it that fans complain about the way a team is built only after the team struggles? Each year, the Marlins build their bullpen in the same fashion: combine younger players with scrap heap veterans and hope for the best. Is it the best way to fill out a pen? Probably not. But how much better would it be to pay free agent value for decent relievers, on average? Probably not much better.

When the Marlins’ plan comes to fruition, as it did in 2009 for the most part, no fan gets mad at the process of building the bullpen. Consider the players involved in the 2009 and 2010 bullpens, for example:

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On the same day, a few other Marlins bloggers and I were discussing the more ideal solution to this problem on Twitter: free Rick VandenHurk.

The guys at Marlin Diehards and I all agree that, rather than tossing up innings of importance to a meaningless middle reliever like Veras, those innings should go to someone with a potential future on the team in VandenHurk. I’ve already discussed the topic of moving Hurk to the bullpen here before, and I think this would be a good way to get him into the majors and pitching against big league hitters. When the Marlins had better options in the bullpen, the team could afford to let VandenHurk stew in the minors, but the promotion of Veras to the big leagues (along with the recent callups of Houser and Alejandro Sanabia) means that the Marlins are indeed out of options.

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I perked up when the news of Fredi Gonzalez’ firing came out. It was interesting timing, as the Marlins had won the previous evening. However, the move was quite unsurprising, as owner Jeffrey Loria had been wanting to fire Gonzalez since the end of last season.

Now, the news has come out that former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine is scheduled to be hired within the next week. He should be taking over the team after the series in Puerto Rico, allowing native Puerto Rican Edwin Gonzalez to be the interim manager for the series. Valentine had been rumored to be on the Marlins’ radar at last season’s end, but Gonzalez retained the job by the skin of his teeth over the winter.

Now my question is this: who cares?

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