Another Miami Marlins loss begs the Question, where is the offense?

The Miami Marlins are 36 games into the regular season and have a 17-19 and are hanging around 2/3rd in the National League East.  Lately however, the Marlins have struggled on offense.  Their struggles at the plate are not helped by Jazz Chisholm’s and Jean Segura’s slumps. Chisholm so far in May has one RBI and is hitting .125 while Segura is hitting .130 with no RBI.

The Marlins offense is no where close to on track, currently averaging a Major League Baseball worst 3.28 runs per game and 3.11 RBI per game.  The Marlins are also ranked 26th in home runs per game at 0.83 and on base percentage per game at 0.302.  So where do the Marlins go from here?

If you really look at the data, the Miami Marlins are 2-11 in games where they score two or fewer runs, which is 36% of their games played.  If you expand it, they are 6-16 when they score three or fewer runs, or 61% of their games. Tampa Bay is the only team this season with a pitching staff average under three runs a game, therefore we need to score more runs if we hope to win more consistently.  

In the end, we need some middle of the lineup hitters.  On no other team would Bryan De La Cruz or Yuli Gurriel be hitting in the 3rd or 4th spot in the lineup. The Marlins need one or two 25-30 home run threats with 90+ RBI at the heart of their lineup and those middle-order guys would have plenty of men on base to drive in, since Miami is currently 15th in the MLB in hits per game. De La Cruz has hit one RBI since April 27th and has a .000 average this season with men on third, second and third, and the bases loaded, a big 0-for-8.

Gurriel on the other hand has one home run and three RBI since April 27th. He fares a little better however with men on third, second and third and the bases loaded, but his chances are fewer, as he is 0-for-1 with men on third and bases loaded and 1-for-2 with men on second and third. It's clear to me the Miami Marlins have a bunch of slumping hitters who would be either 1-2 hole or 5-7 hole hitters on other major league teams, Jorge Soler being a perfect example of a 5 hole guy.