Miami Marlins Morning Catch: Haren, Bour Lead Marlins to Win over Harvey, Mets

Good morning, Marlin Maniac readers and welcome to Morning Catch, the daily morning news and notes column from MarlinManiac.com.

Justin Bour homers, Marlins beat Mets to snap skid

NEW YORK (AP) — More and more, Justin Bour is blossoming into the kind of hitter that Dan Jennings and the Miami Marlins hoped he would become.

Bour launched a three-run homer to back Dan Haren, and the Marlins extended Matt Harvey‘s winless streak to five starts by beating the New York Mets 4-3 on Friday night.

In December 2013, shortly after taking over as the Marlins’ general manager, Jennings plucked Bour from Chicago Cubs in the Rule 5 draft for players left off the roster. The burly rookie made his major league debut last year, and is hitting .361 with four homers since being promoted from Triple-A in late April. (Read More Here)

MIAMI MARLINS STILL WAITING FOR THAT LUXURIOUS NEW PLANE JEFFREY LORIA PROMISED

Tim Elfrink, Miami News Times

Just a couple of months ago, the Miami Marlins were brimming with optimism. Giancarlo Stanton had a new record-breaking deal, the team had reinforced with promising new players, and even lengthy road trips looked like they’d be more palatable this year. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria promised a retrofitted Boeing 767-200 pimped out with massage tables and couches for the team’s travels.

Fast-forward to this week, and the Fish are the laughingstock of baseball, with the third-worst record in the game and a new manager with zero dugout experience. And that plane? Players are still waiting for it.

A third of the way into the season and Loria still hasn’t delivered that luxury jet. (Read More Here)

Giancarlo Stanton will not endorse Marlins manager Dan Jennings, offers other insights about team

Andy Martino, NY Daily News

When listening to Sandy Alderson’s rundown of the injured Mets, you hear about David Wright’s epidural, Travis d’Arnaud’s new bone bruise, and Dilson Herrera’s vomiting. With all this rotten luck, it is easy to forget that one big thing has broken the Mets’ way this year.

That big thing is evident in the face of Giancarlo Stanton, when you ask if he wants to express an opinion about the Miami Marlins’ recent decision to make GM Dan Jennings the manager, despite a complete lack of experience.

“No,” Stanton says, with a world-weary grin, before allowing a loaded silence to linger. (Read More Here)

Miami Marlins and the rebuilding process

Michael Jong, Fishstripes

Yesterday, the Miami Marlins took a a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, leaving the Fish floundering at a 18-30 on the season. Meanwhile, the Pirates are storming back and are now 24-22 after the three-game sweep of the Fish. They sit a game or so behind the Chicago Cubs, whom the Marlins play in a three-game series to start off next week. The Cubbies have ridden their young influx of talent to a nice start and a potential contending bid in the National League.

These thoughts are relevant to me as we watch the Fish struggle through another difficult season even though expectations were higher at the start of the year. Last season, the Marlins won 78 games surprisingly despite not having Jose Fernandez for much of the season. The team got an MVP-level season out of Giancarlo Stanton, All-Star level performances from young players on the roster, and aside from the Fernandez injury, a good run of health. This year, injuries have affected the early roster, players have not played as well as expected, and what was thought to be an 83-win team with dark-horse playoff aspirations instead fired its manager in less than 40 games and has hired its general manager to serve on the bench. (Read More Here)

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