The set up couldn’t be better for both Showtime and the Marlins. Ozzie Guillen is nuts, Marlins ownership is crazy, and the characters on the team are insecure little babies who need constant coddling. It’s a recipe for a train wreck, and according to the article that’s what we get. The content is priceless as we see the behind-the-scenes goings on. There are discussions about how horrible closer Heath Bell has been, why does Hanley’s agent want to see us, the whole Guillen/Fidel Castro love affair, and other juicy tid-bits you won’t see in the headlines.

The Marlins starting pitching has been consistently good all season long, so three game losing streaks won’t happen often. The bats are the one thing that can keep the Marlins losing. They rank 24th in the MLB in runs scored and they continue to be terrible with runners in scoring position. Last night they went 0-13. A few timely hits here and there and Miami could have the best record in baseball.

It was good to finally see Jose Reyes hit his first HR of the year. Reyes has gotten over his “new team jitters” in the field and has been a steady contributor. The main thing is that he’s managed to stay healthy.

Hanley Ramirez congratulates friend/teammate after Reyes hit his first home run of the season. (Image: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE)

The alarming result of the 3 game sweep is that it doesn’t get any easier with the Rays and Red Sox representing the next 12 games for the Marlins. It’s a huge stretch against quality teams where both pitching and scoring runs will come into play against American League powerhouses.  The Braves have been struggling and all money was on the Marlins taking at least two of three.

Marlins fans pack Marlins Park on opening day. (Image: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

The whole idea behind purchasing a season ticket package or some type of partial ticket product is to get a deep discount on single game tickets. There’s now no reason to purchase a package when you can get tickets the day of the game for well below value. This is a phenomenon that doesn’t happen in all markets and in all sports. It’s all about supply and demand. Miami is not a baseball market, therefore baseball fans benefit. The same can be said of the NHL market here in South Florida. I mentioned in a previous post that Club Level seats at a Sunday night 5PM Florida Panthers game went for $14 each. Face value is $85. This was a team making a playoff run and tickets were still ridiculously low. Of course, if you’re looking to attend game one of the NBA Eastern Finals in Miami this coming Monday you won’t find any deals. It will be more of a scalper’s market in the traditional sense of the word, but you’d still do better on the secondary market.

As you watch highlights of games around the country on any given day you’ll see many empty seats in all MLB venues with a couple of exceptions. Even Yankee Stadium has chunks of seats being offered at low low prices on the secondary market. The Yankess have complained about it and MLB will be looking at their current deals in the off-season. In the meantime, stock up on games and don’t call the box office.

Jun 12, 2011; Toronto, ON, Canada; A vendor sells beer in the upper deck during the Boston Red Sox game against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. The Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 15-1. (Image: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE)

The big controversy was why would you a build a park for a team with a small fan base that doesn’t go to games? That’s a naive and ridiculous statement. The new ballpark has enabled the new free agent signings and made the Marlins relevant. Not to mention the Marlins brass perhaps tripled the value of their franchise. It should be no surprise that people are showing up in year one. Moving forward time will tell if it’s sustainable, but from a pure business point of view, the new park is gold. The Marlins Store has larger numbers of people walking through it than the number of fans who showed up at games at Sun Life Stadium. In the end, MLB teams would like to see bums in seats, but more important than those bums, is concession and merchandise sales; that’s the cash cow, along with the TV deals of course. Let’s not forget the parking. What a goldmine. Especially in a place like Miami where space is at a premium, unlike the vacuous never-ending property that surrounded Sun Life. A big reason why teams like the Marlins are willing to sell tickets for $10 is because they know what’s going to happen once that $10 ticket walks through the turnstiles.

Playing error-prone teams like the Giants and Padres certainly helped. Regardless of the level of competition it’s very difficult to have back to back three game sweeps on the west coast, but that’s exactly what the Marlins did. They scored a grand total of 8 runs in three games vs. the Giants and managed to squeak out three one run victories. After taking Northern CA they went to beautiful San Diego and took the first game 9-8 in a wild game before “blowing” the Pods out 4-1 on Saturday and 6-3 in the finale last Sunday.

When the Marlins went into Houston riding that 6 game streak, one had the sense that they could sweep the road trip. Houston has their problems even though they play hard and don’t give up. As it turned out, the Marlins did come close to the sweep. If it wasn’t for a very uncharacteristic error by 2B Omar Infante in the middle game of the series, the Marlins were looking at a 9-0 trip. Now the Marlins come home to play the surging New York Mets fresh off a three game sweep of their own against the Phillies in Philadelphia. The thing that will carry the Marlins through the home stand is the same thing that got them through the road trip – pitching.

Carlos Zambrano celebrates after hurling a complete game shutout against the Astros. (Image: Thomas Campbell-US PRESSWIRE)

The Marlins aren’t hitting the ball well. They are batting .194 with RISP yet they’re over .500. The only way this can happen is with pitching. That being said, the success of the last two weeks includes the continued implosion of Heath Bell. The result is Bell being stripped of his closer role for the time-being. Steve Cishek and Edward Mujica will act as the closer team for now. No doubt that Bell will get the chance to win back his position soon enough.

The starting quarter of Sanchez, Nolasco, Zambrano, and Buehrle were outstanding on the trip. They pitched deep into games and gave the situational relievers to come in and do their jobs. Zambrano and Buehrle didn’t need relief as they both pitched complete games. Though J.J. continues to struggle, he pitched well in the finale vs. the Astros. The old adage that pitching and defense wins games certainly has some traction when it comes to the Marlins of the last two weeks. Some of the bats show signs of life, but if they can keep pitching they will compete and be in every game.