Despite the NL's second-best on-base percentage, Florida is only fifth in runs. The Fish put plenty of runners on base but boast little power, and third baseman Mike Lowell's sagging bat has really hurt. Their vaunted speed hasn't helped much either, as leadoff hitter Juan Pierre is also having a sub-par season.

 

Florida's starting pitching has been fairly strong. While Josh Beckett has been disabled twice this year, he has carried the load when healthy. A.J. Burnett and Dontrelle Willis are fine, and Ismael Valdez's injury opened the door for Brian Moehler to scuffle his way to an unexpected comeback. Except for closer Todd Jones, the bullpen hasn't been particularly effective. The recent addition of lefty Ron Villone and the return of injured Antonio Alfonseca should help the staff a little.

 

All in all, the Marlins -- who are not deep but have strong frontline talent -- are the kind of club that could play very well in a postseason series. The bad news is Florida probably doesn't have the ability this time around to make the postseason. There are just too many holes in the net.

 

Florida doesn't play a game against an NL East opponent until Sept. 2, but then must play all but three games in September against East division clubs, including six games with Atlanta.

 

right, umm, ...holes, i'm thinkin the bullpen got much stronger over the last couple of weeks, are starting rotation is fine and healthy, pierre and lowell are certainly coming around and pierres stealing bases, the marlins powered up on the most recent road trip. what holes.

:blink: wow, does his guy watch the marlins?

:blink: wow, does his guy watch the marlins?

887211[/snapback]

no the majority of writers look at the season stats and he'll see that lowell is batting .245 with 6 home runs and be like, oh man he's having a horrible season, not seeing that he batted .322 in july and pierre has stolen like as many bases he did in the first 3 months as he did in july. apparently he knows we signed villone and alfonseca is back but thats about as much credit as i am going to give him.

JP leads the league in stolen bases.

 

I hate national sports writers.

I agree with that article. This team does have alot of holes that need to be filled. When a team is first in batting average, second-best in on base percentage, and fifth in runs scored, then there is something wrong. For awhile I was blaming this all on Bill Robinson, but now I don't think he is the problem, just look at what he did with Enc... I'll tell you one thing we really need delgado back

I don't really agree with the article, the onlything I agree with is the lack of power. Enc, Delgado and Cabs are the only guys really doing it this year... I was expecting a tad more from Lo Duca and way more from AGON and Mikey. But there is still time...

Remember that stretch of like 3 weeks last year where it seemed like Seabass would hit a 3-run home run damn near every other game? He needs to break out like that again.

Yeah, the bullpen's ERA of 1.00 over the past 6 days (the additions of Slayer and Captain Badass) is a weakness.

So is a 4-2 record with the biggest bat in the lineup sitting on the bench.

The 2.83 starter ERA in the same span is a bit of a weakness.

As is gaining 4 games on the Wild Card in a week and a half.

 

Weaknesses everywhere.

This reminds me of one article from another ESPN "specialist" claiming that our bullpen so far was due to the "career" year Perisho was having...ummm, yeah.

 

We may not be able to catch the Braves because of their deal with Satan, but sometime, the Astros have to come back down to earth, and I think we're good enough to catch them.

this guy needs to be careful to not get any of that stuff he is trying to jerk us with in his eye

I agree with that article. This team does have alot of holes that need to be filled. When a team is first in batting average, second-best in on base percentage, and fifth in runs scored, then there is something wrong. For awhile I was blaming this all on Bill Robinson, but now I don't think he is the problem, just look at what he did with Enc... I'll tell you one thing we really need delgado back

887239[/snapback]

if you were GM and saw that your club (the marlins) had too many holes, where would you start off by patching them...in all seriousness what would you do?

Do you see what we are saying....we are 5th in the league in runs FIFTH!!!!...how is that a weakness? lol

We might as well just throw in the towel folks.

If anybody wants, I'll post the entire article, but it's basically a love-fest for the Braves, while crapping on every other team...no surprise there, it's the ever gutsy national media .

Doesn't every team have one or two holes?

I don't get where the holes are.... he didn't even specifically name them.