Is the bullpen the biggest problem area on the Miami Marlins?

I already wrote about who needs to be the new closer. Unfortunately for the Miami Marlins (and my suggestion), Cole Sulser just had a really bad outing. It’s just one outing, so I wouldn’t get too worried about it. Still, it wasn’t good. He gave up 4 runs on 3 hits and a walk. This was definitely not what The Fish expected going into the game. Anthony Bender is still on the IL and Dylan Floro isn’t doing great either. Just how bad has the bullpen hurt The Fish?

The Miami Marlins are not getting the results we expect from our bullpen.

The Miami Marlins are better than the record indicates. The bullpen total ERA is actually 3.59. This is better than one would expect, and is only slightly worse than the 3.53 starting pitching team ERA. The bullpen looks worse however, when you learn that The Fish are 6-14 in one-run games. For comparison, the New York Yankees are 9-4 in one-run games, the Los Angeles Dodgers are 4-5 and the New York Mets are 7-7 in such games. The Fish are just not doing so good in comparison.

Cole Sulser did really bad as the Miami Marlins lost to the Colorado Rockies last night, however he still has a 3.14 FIP for the season with 10.0 K/9. He does have too many walks with 4.5 per 9, so perhaps bringing it down would help him. I still believe that Sulser is the answer for the role of our closer and that writing hi off due to one bad outing is overall a bit silly.

As I suggested, Edward Cabrera could still be a solution as well if things don’t work out for him as a starting pitcher. Anthony Bender can still bounce back as he’s much better than his results this season based on talent level. Dylan Floro is likely still getting back into the groove too, and needs more time to get back into shape.

The Miami Marlins are losing too many one-run games, but should be playing much better and in fact should be at 23-23 instead of 19-27 according to the Pythagorean win-loss record. I believe that the key relievers will bounce back, and once they do the team will have a strong bullpen and start winning more games. Remember what Yogi Berra famously said: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over”!