Marlins are losing their big gamble

[ThomasTomasz]

 

It's way too early to render a final judgment on the Miami Marlins' all-in gamble on 2012. But if this were Texas Hold 'Em, what you could say is that Miami's first month was equivalent to drawing a two of clubs.

To review: The Marlins are in last place in the NL East at 8-14. Their manager offended at least some of their customers -- how many is unclear -- with comments about a foreign dictator. Shortstop Jose Reyes, in whom the Marlins invested most of their offseason, is hitting .220 and has almost as many errors (five) as runs scored (six). The Marlins' closer, Heath Bell, has a four-digit ERA (10.80):cano:, and that's never a good thing for any pitcher. Giancarlo Stanton, regarded as one of the most talented young players in the sport, has one homer in 21 games, and rival evaluators believe he's just lost at the plate.

The Marlins rebranded everything about their franchise, from their name to their uniforms to their colors to their roster. They built their new ballpark with the dream of getting folks to come see them play.

On Monday night, however, Ozzie Guillen welcomed the opportunity to get out of Miami, in speaking with reporters. From Manny Navarro's story:

Boos? The Marlins heard plenty including some from their manager, who said he planned to spend his six-hour flight to San Francisco on Monday night contemplating adjustments.

"I'm glad we're heading to the West Coast where nobody can [expletive] see us," Guillen shouted to reporters as he ended his postgame news conference.

Ozzie undoubtedly did not mean this exactly in the way that it sounds; his focus might be on getting the Marlins out of their new ballpark, which already has a reputation for being the most acute pitchers' park in the big leagues. Miami ranks 28th among 30 teams in runs scored, and some folks with other teams wonder if the frustration of playing in Marlins Park will begin to show among the hitters, as it has with players with the Mets and Padres, after those teams moved into spacious new parks.

Remember, it's only May 1; Miami still has 140 games to play, plenty of opportunity. But there has to be a greater need for the Marlins, a greater urgency, because of what this season represents to this franchise. It's worth repeating: The Marlins have more at stake in 2012 than any team in any given season, because of the effort to replant roots in South Florida, which had never really turned out to support the club in the past.

Must-win games in May?

For the Marlins, yes. They can't afford to be this bad for very long without doing serious damage to the big-picture goal.

The Marlins' 73 runs for April are their fewest ever, as Craig Davis writes.:bazookajones:

The Marlins are stinking it up, writes Dave George. The team made some roster moves after the loss Sunday.

Ozzie and the Marlins open a series today in San Francisco, as Henry Schulman writes.

Overreactive article is overreactive.

 

[FedEx227]

Source? Who wrote it?

 

[Chrispy]

Buster, http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog...s-pushed-all-2012-return-far-discouraging-mlb

 

[EmpireWF]

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[Rudi]

I thought having Jose Reyes and Giancarlo Stanton on my fantasy team would be solid. They haven't done shit man. I want to drop Stanton so bad and pick up Bryce Harper but ya gotta believe he will eventually come around

 

[FedEx227]

It's typically not a great idea to build your brand new park to play against your best hitters.

See Twins, Minnesota.

 

[Villain]

Buster Olney sucks. He should've stopped after the first sentence:

It's way too early to render a final judgment on the Miami Marlins' all-in gamble on 2012.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

It's typically not a great idea to build your brand new park to play against your best hitters.

See Twins, Minnesota.

Or Metropolitans, New York

 

[FedEx227]

Right. I honestly don't get it. Somebody on the team doesn't say, hey let's look at the spray charts of the guys we've signed for the next 6-10 years and see where they hit homers? I mean Twins went 100% against where Mauer all his homers, it's beyond comprehension.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Right. I honestly don't get it. Somebody on the team doesn't say, hey let's look at the spray charts of the guys we've signed for the next 6-10 years and see where they hit homers? I mean Twins went 100% against where Mauer all his homers, it's beyond comprehension.

Especially when there is nothing in the rules that states a team can not do that. Baffling.

 

[NAHSTE]

Stanton crushed a ball 380 feet yesterday with two runners on base. Instead of turning a 7-3 game into a 7-6 game, it landed in the left fielder's glove for a 1-RBI sac fly.

Edit- this article just went up on FG, examining Stanton's lack of HRs: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/giancarlo-stantons-power-outage/

 

[Sigona]

Stanton crushed a ball 380 feet yesterday with two runners on base. Instead of turning a 7-3 game into a 7-6 game, it landed in the left fielder's glove for a 1-RBI sac fly.

Edit- this article just went up on FG, examining Stanton's lack of HRs: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/giancarlo-stantons-power-outage/

Eh, in defense of the park, Stanton only hit two HR last year that would not have been out at Marlins Park...

This shows where all 34 of his 2011 HR's would have landed in the new stadium.

 

[EmpireWF]

I love pitchers parks more than the little box ones like in Philly and the Bronx, but pitchers parks do so much bad for the team. Why a franchise would want to invest so much money in a giant park is ridiculous at this point. Just build a small hitters park and as long as your pitchers aren't total garbage, you can contend.

Of course, San Fran's park isn't small and neither is Detroit's....

Maybe I'm just pissed the Mets wasted 2-years of David Wright's prime.