Miami Marlins offensive struggle in August, 4 players that were big reasons why

Joey Wendle 

Marlins shortstop Joey Wendle likely saved his job with hot play in the month of June.  Wendle hit .354 in June and had his only home run of the season along with 3 RBI.  It seemed as if the old Wendle was back, but that was not the case.   Wendle came back down to reality in July at .174 for the month but then really crashed in August.  

Wendle played in 21 games in August and started 17 of them resulting in 54 plate appearances.  Now the biggest impact is not his batting average, as it was around the normal average for many weeks throughout the season, yet still lower.  Wendle has a paltry slash line in August of .154/.167/.231 with an OPS of .398.  That is truly unheard of for an everyday starter for any team.  

The fallout from Wendle’s performance has a real impact on a teams performance and when coupled with other struggling players, makes it very easy for teams to run through the Marlins lineup with little resistance in spots.  Of his 8 hits for the month he had 2 doubles and 1 triple while driving in 4.  Wendle’s streaks of hitless games were much less than Stallings but combined with Stallings that’s 2 easy outs for any opposing pitcher.