Archive for July, 2011

Marlin Maniac Live Chat, @Atlanta

Editor’s note: This is the second of our new authors, Ehsan Kassim, better known as @ehsank24 on Twitter. He’ll be contributing weekly here at Marlin Maniac on Fridays, writing both on fandom or on his own bits of analysis on the current happenings in the world of the Fish. Please welcome him to the MM family. Since this is my first post over here at Marlin Maniac, I thought I would like to start off by giving a little background on myself, which will actually be relevant to this article. Background I am 19-years old,  born and raised in Coral [...]

Hi, my name is Michael Jong, and I have been an Emilio Bonifacio hater for two and a half years now. Hi, Michael! It is not easy for me to admit being wrong, but it is important for Marlins fans to hear the truth about this. The man still colloquially known as Bonerface has actually improved his game at the plate, having thus become a slightly better player. Witness the horrifying numerical truths. Bonifacio PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA 2007-2009 722 .248 .303 .314 .277 2010-2011 571 .279 .347 .361 .335 Taken at face value, those numbers are a huge improvement. [...]

Last week we discussed the inaugural season Marlins hitters and, as I promised, this week I will continue that discussion highlighting some of the most prominent members of the Marlins inaugural season pitching staff. Starting Pitcher: Charlie Hough #49 While most of the players on the Marlins inaugural season roster were just beginning their careers, Charlie Hough was completing his quarter century long knuckle-ball crusade. Charlie, like current Marlins manager Jack McKeon, probably knows what it was like before the earth cooled and dinosaurs roamed the land. Due to the throwing mechanics involved, knuckle-ball pitchers are a unique and rare [...]

The Maniac is taking some time away from obsessing about the real Florida Marlins to tell you a little bit about his obsession with the fake Florida Marlins, as in the Fish as managed by him on Out of the Park 12, the latest installment of the OOTP baseball simulation franchise. Honestly, OOTP 12 has been awesome for me so far. If you are as much of a sim junkie as I am, you will love the gritty details that OOTP provided. Taking one look at the League Setup options should show you the level of fine detail that the game [...]

Various sources are announcing that the Florida Marlins will shut down ace starter Josh Johnson for the remainder of the 2011 season due to his shoulder inflammation. After missing two and a half months with the injury, it seems the Marlins are taking the wise route of shutting down Johnson in order to not risk further injury and let him rest the shoulder for Opening Day in 2012. On the one hand, this seems like “good news” in the sense that the Marlins are not rushing to get Johnson back on the field in a season that is essentially lost. It [...]

If it gets on MLB Trade Rumors around deadline time, it must be true. It must especially be true when it comes from the tweets of Ken Rosenthal. .bbpBox95897524493238272 {background:url(http://a2.twimg.com/profile_background_images/54604124/Foxsports_background.png) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} #Marlins remain on hold, unlikely to trade even Nunez with new park looming. If anything, may want to extend A. Sanchez. #tradedeadline #MLBless than a minute ago via Twitter for Mac Favorite Retweet ReplyKen RosenthalKen_Rosenthal It seems like the Marlins are interested in keeping Leo [...]

Over the weekend, Marlins fans heard about “Mr. Marlin” and special assistant Jeff Conine have some interesting words to say about Hanley Ramirez and what Niner would do if he were running the ball club on the Dan Le Batard show on 790 The Ticket. But Jeff Conine, a special assistant to Marlins president David Samson, raised some eyebrows earlier Friday afternoon with comments he made on The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz on 790 The Ticket, the team’s flagship station. When asked if he would trade Ramirez, Conine said: “If it were up to me, probably.” Conine, a fan favorite and face of the [...]

Aside from a brief (but ugly) respite during the San Diego Padres series, the Marlins have been on a relative roll, winning 13 of 21 in the month of July, including two of three from the New York Mets over the weekend. The Fish competed this weekend via offense rather than pitching, scoring five or more runs in each of the three games and outscoring the Mets by three runs by the end of the series. It may be a seemingly small step, but it is yet again a step in the right direction for a struggling franchise. Series Hero: Gaby Sanchez [...]

This recent sweep at the hands of the San Diego Padres was hard to swallow, but there were not too many aberrant events during the games. The Marlins had one bad offensive game, resulting in a decently competitive shutout. The Marlins mounted a comeback after a bad performance by Javier Vazquez, but they could not complete the comeback in the third game of the series. Oh, and there was Ricky Nolasco‘s highly ineffective performance in the 14-3 blowout second game. It was one of the worst pitching performances the Marlins have suffered through recently, but how bad was it? This Fish Cap [...]