Archive for January, 2011

Now that the Marlins have a bullpen that is set for the 2011 season, I wanted to take a quick look at the potential alignment that the team’s pen will go with. As you may recall, bullpen management was a bit of an issue in the past for the Marlins when under the former regime of Fredi Gonzalez. Will Edwin Rodriguez do any better? The Cast As of right now, there are eight Marlins bullpen pieces that are worthy of consistent innings. The four (mostly) major leaguers that the Marlins acquired (Ryan Webb, Edward Mujica, Mike Dunn, and Randy Choate) [...]

I was reflecting recently about how much focus the Marlins spent on fixing the bullpen from last season when something strange occurred to me. Marlins TV play-by-play announcer Rich Waltz specifically mentioned one thing about the bullpen that got me thinking about it. He mentioned (and I am paraphrasing here) that the Marlins led the majors in blown saves last season (they did not, as the Baltimore Orioles had 27 blown saves in 2010, while the Marlins had 25) and that if the team could have simply cut that total in half, they would have been in contention last season. [...]

I asked some Marlin Maniac readers this following question on Twitter: Would you like to see me answer Joe Frisaro’s mailbag q’s, and if so, should I answer them in a snarky fashion? The (three) responses have been fairly positive, so I figure I can take on this little project on a weekly basis. I can’t promise you that everything will be funny, snarky, or particularly informative. I can promise you that every time a Joe Frisaro inbox comes out, I will answer those questions in a way only a college student with sabermetric knowledge, a bit of an uppity [...]

I was perusing my old stomping grounds at Beyond the Box Score when I saw this piece from former colleague Satcher Price (one of the best guys going on the Internets, by the way) touting a strange name for the Marlins third base job: There are other guys that they’re likely to pepper in there, such as Emilio Bonifacio, Donnie Murphy, and possibly prospect Oswaldo Martinez, but there’s one wild card that people should really keep their eye on: Ruben Gotay. The 28-year-old may not have the youth of Dominguez or the veteran presence of Helms, but he does bring [...]

Over the weekend I read the news that former Florida Marlins slugger Dan Uggla signed a five-year extension with the Atlanta Braves that will take him through his age 36 season. I wanted to congratulate Uggla on getting the extension that he wanted; I will never argue against a player getting the contract he feels he deserves. I will, however, analyze that player’s comments as they relate to his actions. Remember this tidbit that was mentioned at Uggla’s press conference, as related by Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Uggla said that he understands some free agents want to get most [...]

Here was an interesting tidbit on Anibal Sanchez from Joe Frisaro’s latest mailbag piece. Anibal Sanchez finally stayed healthy and had a great year in 2010. What can we expect from him this year? He logged a lot of innings. Is his shoulder sound? – Gary S., Flint, Mich. <snip> …So what can we expect in 2011? The hope is he will build on what he accomplished in ’10. He will turn 27 in late February, so the right-hander from Venezuela is reaching the prime of his career. He was in better physical shape last year, watching his diet. He [...]

Coming up, I will be looking at our top prospects, giving an in-depth look into their statistics, and grading/ranking them accordingly.  Beforehand though, I wanted to take the time to explain the grading system to show why players get the grade they do. Last offseason, I looked into our top hitters and gave expected WARs, as well as a ceiling/floor based on their potential.  I’ll be doing the same this year, but I’ll also be using a grading scale on top of that.  Also, while last year I solely focused on hitters, this year I’ll be looking into our pitchers [...]

(Editor’s note: I apologize for the lack of  content for the last few days. I’ve just made the trip back to Dominica after vacationing in the US for a couple weeks, and I am just adjusting and setting up my new apartment. You should expect a normal schedule at Marlin Maniac from here on out. -MJ) A lot of talk over the course of the offseason surrounded replacing Dan Uggla‘s 30+ home run output from the past few seasons. The idea is that Uggla’s production needs to somehow be replaced on the offensive side, and the Marlins made no offseason [...]