Marlin Maniac RTD: Miami Marlins Trades, All-Star Choices

Hey there Marlin Maniacs.  After a long hiatus, the Marlin Maniac Round Table Discussion (RTD) is back.  I, for one, am very excited to have people to talk to again.

Once a week, the staff here at Marlin Maniac sits down to pull some questions out of a hat that concern everyone’s favorite baseball team.  The answers?  While those get pulled from somewhere else, we list them below for your enjoyment

Avid readers are fully encouraged to submit questions they’d like to see the staff discuss via Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments.  They are also encouraged to come up with a better title than Miami Marlins RTD.  But until that day of deliverance, let’s get to the Round Table Discussion.

More from Marlins News

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• Miami Marlins rejected Boston‘s trade offer
• Miami Marlins are pursuing Michael Conforto
• Miami Marlins need to spend to win
• Miami Marlins can’t afford to botch this trade

Looking back to your preseason predictions, with the first half now in the books, have your expectations changed for the 2016 Marlins?  

Sean Millerick: I’m adjusting.  The second half schedule is a more imposing slate of games…but the Marlins have really only struggled against the downtrodden teams on the schedule so far.  With all the adversity they’ve dealt with, namely the poor production or total absence of their reigning All-Stars from the previous season, not believing in this team to continue doing what they’ve done so far seems foolish.  The Wild Card may still be a stretch, although it’s worth noting they’ve already locked up a tiebreaker with the Dodgers and need just a single win to do the same with the Pirates.  But my prediction was 80 wins, and that’s starting to feel a little light.

David Marcillo: I expected the Marlins to be somewhere near the Wild Card race, with the Nationals comfortably ahead of the division race. Seems about right. While the way the Marlins got to their 47-41 record may not have been the way I predicted, their position in the standings seems about where I would have expected. Given that, my overall expectations for the Marlins are still changing. They did as well as they did in the first half basically without Giancarlo Stanton and without a fifth starter. If Stanton’s recent four-homers-in-four-at-bats streak is indicative of his second half and if the Marlins make a trade to bolster the rotation, all of a sudden this “Wild Card-contending” team could become a Wild-Card favorite.  

Eddie Noy: Not at all. I predicted a .500 team, and sure enough this is a .500 team – adjusted for a weak division/league. I think that in the second half the Fish will continue to make ill-advised moves (see Rodney, Fernando) in order to get into the “Clint Hurdle Invitational”, which is a fool’s errand. The current MLB setup favors teams who have either completely tanked or are making a push post-tank (or the uber rich – Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers); this half-in, half-out nonsense is the long road to mediocrity.   

Next: Second Half Hopes