Archive for April, 2011

This weekend’s series with the Houston Astros brought up some strange questions for the Marlins. Aside from the first game of the series, the Fish looked ugly even in victory, and the truth is that the team was somewhat lucky to come out of the Houston trip with two wins instead of two ugly losses. These fierce comebacks don’t come very often, and the Marlins needed every bit of these sorts of comebacks to escape with wins this series. Series Hero: Logan Morrison (0.490 WPA) Series Goat: Anibal Sanchez (-0.325 WPA) Impressed by: Logan Morrison (13 PA, 6 H, 2 [...]

This week’s Live Game Chat is on Sunday, April 10, 2011. Come join fellow Marlins fans in chatting about the Fish as they battle the Houston Astros in the series finale. Marlin Maniac Live Game Chat, @Houston Astros

You know, it’s not just the Marlins that are having goings on around the world of baseball. Here are some of the most interesting happenings in the rest of the NL East. Atlanta Braves – Peter Hjort of Capitol Avenue Club is incensed that the Braves continue to mistreat Kenshin Kawakami. I agree, Kawakami is a major-league caliber starting pitcher. Not a good one, but better than a veteran guy in Double-A. – Bob Horton of Tomahawk Take brings up his first second guessing of Fredi Gonzalez. Don’t worry Bob, I’m sure there will be plenty more where that came [...]

After finishing up the season’s opening home stand, the Marlins take their game to the road. Our first opponent on the trip is the Houston Astros, a team mired in a difficult situation with a selling ownership and little talent at the major or minor league level. Houston opens its home season tonight with us as guests at Minute Maid Park. Florida Marlins @ Houston Astros (1-5), April 8-10, Games 7-9 NL East Standings Tm W L Win% GB PHI 5 1 .833 – FLA 3 3 .750 2.0 NYM 3 3 .667 2.0 ATL 3 4 .333 2.5 WSN [...]

The Marlins took two of three from the Washington Nationals following their disappointing opening series, but the Fish were not without their own disappointments in this series. After taking two to start the series, the Fish dropped the final game despite sending Josh Johnson to the mound in what should have been the team’s easiest win. Series Hero: Ryan Webb (0.246 WPA) Series Goat: Edward Mujica (-0.408 WPA) Impressed by: Josh Johnson (6 IP, 1 R, 6 K , 0 BB, 1 HR) Depressed by: Emilio Bonifacio (13 PA, 2 H, 2 1B, 4 K, 0 BB)

Donnie Murphy is doing his best to capture the hearts and minds of Marlins fans everywhere. In just a short period of time as a Fish, he has already endeared himself in a big way by delivering in the clutch. Even though he has only been a Marlin for less than 100 plate appearances, he already is getting a sort of nickname treatment by being referred to primarily as “Donnie BLEEPIN’ Murphy.” Soon enough, you’ll hear chants of “BLEEP-IN” in the stands when he arrives at the plate and Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton will be yelling out “Donnie BLEEPIN’ [...]

I’m getting a bit hungry, so let us feed on some Fish Bites for this week. Here are some Marlins-related links from this week. – One of the more interesting blogs that, as a Marlins fan, you should be following, is Strip Club with Stanton. Kind of like the Philadelphia Phillies have Zoo with Roy, the man behind SCwS just wants to take a night out and hit the strip joint with Mike Stanton, and who among us would not be interested in such a thing? Anyway, two links of importance this week: SCwS’s Monday morning hangover (complete with proper [...]

The Washington Nationals come to visit off the heels of an ugly Marlins loss. As Marlins fans are well aware, nothing beats that ugly taste out of your mouth after some bad baseball like three games against the Nationals, whom the Marlins normally harass. We’ll see if that trend continues. Washington Nationals (1-2) @ Florida Marlins, April 5-7, Games 4-6 NL East Standings Tm W L Win% GB PHI 3 0 1.000 – ATL 3 1 .750 0.5 NYM 2 1 .667 1.0 FLA 1 2 .333 2.0 WSN 1 2 .333 2.0 Stadium: Sun Life Stadium Five-year Run PF*: [...]

Last Friday, before the Marlins opened the season with a solid victory, top prospect Matt Dominguez fractured his elbow and may be out six to eight weeks. While this has no effect on the immediate Marlins major league roster, it does have two effects on the Marlins and their mid-term future with Dominguez. For starters, this delays the development of Dominguez, a player who needs playing time in the minors to season his bat. It also effects the Marlins potential plan for the 2011 season at third base, ensuring a season filled with temporary, stopgap solutions. Dominguez’s development Stunting a [...]

I had a few additional thoughts on a couple of happenings in the series between the Florida Marlins and the New York Mets, and I figured they deserved an additional article. These could have both gone into the Fish Cap for the series, but at least one of them deserved a piece of its own given the analysis involved. Scott Cousins‘s decision In the tenth inning of the Saturday night game between the Marlins and Mets, Scott Cousins made an interesting decision that apparently got the Marlins’ brass talking. In a situation with no one out and Jose Reyes and [...]