Archive for February, 2011

We continue our preview of the Marlins’ starting pitching staff with the team’s projected fourth starter, a player who spent a long time recovering from an injury but may be finally returning to form. Depth Chart 4. Anibal Sanchez Sanchez impressed Marlins fans last season by being the “last man standing” amidst a slew of injuries and changes to the starting rotation late in the season. While Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco succumbed to injury and skipped their September starts, Sanchez remained to anchor the rotation as the team’s best pitcher remaining. He threw an impressive 195 innings, a career [...]

(Editor’s note: I made a mistake on the WAR projection, so I made the proper corrections. Projected WAR should now be 2.2 WAR. Not bad, right? -MJ) Today we continue our trek through the Marlins’ starting rotation. After going over the Ace and the Enigma, we reach the original Enigma, the Papa Bear of Enigmas so to speak, newly acquired right-hander Javier Vazquez. I called Vazquez the Papa Bear of Enigmas because he is one of the higher profile pitchers who have underperformed their peripherals over their career; his 4.26 career ERA pales in comparison to his significantly better career [...]

Here at Marlin Maniac, we (and by that I mean me as lead blogger) strive to get you the best Marlins coverage on the planet. Unfortunately, my planet has been swamped with school work recently, and that has sidetracked our daily Marlins season preview series just a tad. Hopefully, we can get back on track today in our discussion of our second starter in the rotation, Ricky Nolasco. Depth Chart 2. Ricky Nolasco I have labeled Nolasco “the Enigma” here for obvious reasons. Marlins fans are well aware of the tale of how Nolasco “broke out” in 2008, throwing 212 [...]

A little while back, I posted up FanSided’s NL East bloggers’ picks for the All-NL East team position players. Today, I’ll briefly post the starting rotation, setup man, and closer for the team. Starting Rotation, NL East team 1. RHP Roy Halladay, PHI 2. LHP Cliff Lee. PHI 3. RHP Roy Oswalt. PHI 4. RHP Josh Johnson, FLO 5. RHP Tommy Hanson, ATL I feel safe caliming that this is the best rotation that could be boasted by any of the other divisions. There simply is no other set of five starters who could compete with the starting five the [...]

Now that the hitters are covered entirely, it is time for Marlin Maniac to transition into coverage of the pitchers on the team. The Marlins made a move this offseason to strengthen the rotation, but its primary strength remains in its ace, right-hander Josh Johnson. Depth Chart 1. Josh Johnson Johnson had another stellar year following his 2009 full-season return from Tommy John surgery. After posting 209 innings with a 3.23 ERA to go along with a 3.06 FIP in 2009, Johnson took it a step further in 2010, recording a 2.30 ERA that corresponded quite well with his 2.46 [...]

The Marlins are planning to send out Matt Dominguez as their primary starter at third base in 2011, but interestingly enough, the Marlins have two interesting players that could be worth taking a look at in Spring Training. Ruben Gotay and Donnie Murphy should be involved in the potential race for the third base position, especially should Dominguez falter. Gotay and Murphy are interesting names because of their minor league performances, but they both have problems that could get in their way towards their goal of making the Opening Day roster and competing for that third base job. Let’s go [...]

Ah, finally something good to talk about. The Marlins started last season with Cody Ross in right field, but ended the year surprisingly with phenom Mike Stanton out there for the ballclub. The fact that Stanton survived the major league season and came out of it as one of the best rookies in baseball was surprising to me given his age. However, by the end of the season there was no doubt that he was ready for the big leagues and worthy of a starting spot on the 2011 Marlins. Depth Chart Starter: Mike Stanton Backup: Scott Cousins Minor league [...]

It has finally come to this. Readers of Marlin Maniac know that since the Marlins decided on the plan to move Chris Coghlan to center field, I have been against the move. Coghlan represents a likely important piece in the immediate future of the organization, but mistaking his defense as something that can play in center field is likely to cost the Marlins. I won’t discuss Coghlan much further here, because I have already exhausted a lot of space on this blog exploring that avenue. Instead, I’d like to discuss some of what might have happened in 2010 for Coghlan [...]

About a week or so ago, FanSided came up with a cool idea to fill the time between the late offseason doldrums and the invigorating spirit of Spring Training. Each of the divisions’ various bloggers would collaborate on forming an All-Division team full of the best and brightest at each position from each division. The NL East was no different, and I honestly feel like the ballclub we came up with is a force to be reckoned with. Today, I introduce to you the All-NL East position players, complete with commentary on each player and an optimized batting lineup with [...]

(Editor’s note: I apologize for not writing about Murphy and Gotay yesterday. I just completed my test for the past five weeks of classes and found the time to be social for a change instead of being couped up in the library. Rest assured, however, that you will be hearing about those two players a little bit later today, along with another interesting goodie that is NL East related.) The Marlins entered the 2010 season sporting Chris Coghlan in left field. The team hoped that he would be able to distinguish himself and continue the sort of dominance at the [...]