Marlin Maniac » 2010 » August

Series Preview: Washington Nationals

Michael Jong — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:39:23 +0000

The Marlins are coming off a disappoiting series at Atlanta against hte Atlanta Braves, but they get a familiar foe in the form of the Washington Nationals. The story is as usual: we have traditionally owned the Nationals, and hopefully we can follow up that ownage with a series sweep.

Washington Nationals (56-75) @ Florida Marlins, August 30 – September 1, Games 130-132

NL East Standings

Tm	W	L	Win%	GB
ATL	75	55	.577	–
PHI	73	57	.562	2.0
FLA	65	64	.504	9.5
NYM	65	65	.500	10.0
WSN	56	75	.427	19.5

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 Field: 345

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

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Dan Uggla and the “clutch” question

Michael Jong — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:40:50 +0000

This has been an overall interesting season for Dan Uggla. He is having his best season offensively and overall, with a career-high .380 wOBA and 4.4 WAR with a month left in the season. While he is unlikely to eclipse the 5.0 WAR mark, a 4.5+ WAR year is not out of the question and would be quite commendable for the Marlins slugger. It would also fuel the desire of the team to sign Uggla for a couple more seasons after this one, despite concerns about his age and skillset typically considered ripe for decline.

One of the interesting aspects of this season for Uggla is his unusual “clutch” performance in high leverage situations. Before this season, Uggla had 253 PA of what was considered “high-leverage” situations in his career (likely situations with a Leverage Index greater than at least 2.0). Before the season, he had a wOBA of .301 in those high leverage PA. But this season he has exploded with everything on the line, to the tune of a .456 wOBA in 50 high-leverage PA.

Have all the questions of clutch performance fallen by the wayside with this performance? I sure hope not.

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The 2010 Fans Scouting Report is here

Michael Jong — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:23:43 +0000

Once again, Tom Tango is out to find out what fans of teams think about their own players’ defense. The 2010 Fans Scouting Report is here, and I am looking to get more Marlins ballots in this year than in years past. So far, eight ballots have come … [visit site to read more]

Don’t be fooled, Marlins are not in playoff race

Michael Jong — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:35:06 +0000

After last night’s 11-4 victory over the New York Mets, the official Marlins website headlined the game recap with the following title:

“Marlins refuse to fade, gain ground in races.”

The site then followed with this front-page teaser about the upcoming series between the Marlins and Atlanta Braves:

“Making headway in the standings, the Marlins head to Atlanta for the opener of a three-game set vs. the first-place Braves. Chris Volstad starts for Florida, with first pitch at 7:35 ET.”

Clearly, both these statements are coming from the official Florida Marlins website, so it would be difficult to expect them to be anything less than pretty darn optimistic. But if we put aside our optimism, it would be difficult to imagine the 2010 Florida Marlins making the playoffs. The reasons go beyond the number of games behind the Fish are compared to the NL East and Wild Card leaders.

… [visit site to read more]

Fish-Cap: Marlins offense overpowers Mets

Michael Jong — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:49:26 +0000

From the second game of the series, the Marlins had an offensive explosion that helped to override the average pitching and defensive performance from the starters. The Fish took the series and finished off the season 10-6 versus the New York Mets, all the meanwhile pulling within six games of the NL Wild Card and 8 1/2 games of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.

Series Hero: Gaby Sancez (0.486 WPA)
Series Goat: Mike Stanton (-0.291 WPA)
Impressed By: Hanley Ramirez (15 PA, 10 H, 1 2B, 1 HR, 0 BB, 0 K, 3 SB)
Depressed By: Mike Stanton (12 PA, 0 H, 5 K)

… [visit site to read more]