from miamiherald.com

LeBatard's

Let me preface this by saying I would like to see the Marlins in the playoffs, would like to see bandwagon, big-event South Florida swept up by postseason fever again and would like to be very much wrong about what I'm about to write:

 

But I don't like Florida's chances of making the playoffs.

 

That said, the fact that Florida even has a chance with less than a month left is flabbergasting to me. I'm the guy who thought the season was going into the toilet the moment A.J. Burnett was injured and argued in this very space at season's start that the Marlins wouldn't even have a winning record.

 

The only way to be wrong more often would be to live my life in the body of Cote.

 

So the fact that I don't like Florida's chances probably makes Florida's chances all the more sterling.

 

Here's the problem, though: Of the 612 teams within a game of the wild card, the Marlins have the toughest schedule remaining. Their opponents have a winning percentage of .530, while teams like the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros don't face such a formidable task. Florida must play the Atlanta Braves seven more times.

 

Not only that, but teams like Arizona can make up ground while the Marlins and Phillies bludgeon each other down the stretch and have to deal with the mighty Braves, too.

 

Yes, Florida's starting staff gives it a chance every time out, but there never has been less margin for error. Florida's offense is weakened now that its big run producer is out for the season.

 

The Marlins will have trouble scoring the rest of the way given the competition, Jeff Conine or no Jeff Conine. Conine is a heartwarming story, and a splendid person and symbol, but the team batting him cleanup doesn't have the world's strongest lineup.

 

Team of destiny? I don't believe in that stuff. Besides, the Expos, nearly purged by Major League Baseball and given an unfair schedule this season, have more right to the claim than the Marlins. The Cubs, too, given they haven't won anything in 17 centuries.

 

But, hey, I hope I'm wrong.

 

Wouldn't be the first time I was with this team.

Cote's

The Marlins are going to somehow prevail in this crazy, bunched-up baseball playoff race and win the National League wild-card spot.

 

Call it a strong gut feeling. And if you've ever seen my gut, you know it's a pretty substantial thing.

 

The other guy on the page will make me out to be a cheerleader in rose-colored glasses, no doubt. Vegas gave even-odds that Le Batired would make at least one lame reference to me being a ''homer.'' (A homer in baseball! Get it?)

 

But there is logic, too, behind my feeling that Florida will be in the postseason mix and still playing come October.

 

It is so misleading as to be irrelevant to say the Marlins finish with the toughest schedule of any wild-card contender in terms of their remaining opponents' combined record. What matters is how the Marlins have fared against those remaining opponents, and here are some stone-cold facts:

 

Florida's final 19 games, beginning Monday, are against the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves or Philadelphia Phillies. The Marlins don't have a losing season-series record against any of the three. In fact, the Marlins have a better combined record against those three teams (22-16, .579) than against the rest of baseball.

 

Something else: Florida ends the regular season with a six-game homestand. Three of those games are against Philadelphia, against whom the Marlins are 9-4, and three of those games are against the Mets, who are close to awful.

 

That closing schedule favors the Marlins during this stretch run, and so does one of the most solid staffs of starting pitchers, top to bottom, in the majors.

 

Losing Mike Lowell to injury is a big blow, yes, but management built confidence in the clubhouse by immediately trading for Jeff Conine to help replace Lowell's bat. Acquiring reliever Ugueth Urbina also has worked out splendidly.

 

I won't quite play the team-of-destiny card on behalf of Florida, but there is a special vibe about the Marlins this year. The way Dontrelle Willis became an instant, charming phenomenon. The way a 72-year-old manager was hauled out of retirement to bring this whole thing together.

 

Wise old Jack McKeon said the following a few weeks ago: ``This team has a special feeling to it. I've just got a supreme, deep feeling inside me that we're going to the playoffs.''

 

And shouldn't you respect what your elders tell you?

Florida must play the Atlanta Braves seven more times.

Is he aware that we play fairly well against the Braves(And the upcoming scheduele includes all NL East teams whom we do well aginst.). We also play extremely well against the Phillies so assuming we keep it up Arizona won't really gain ground on us.

It's up-hill for us, but we have more traction than we have been showing. This is going to be exciting. Every game now like a Play-off game. And every day a new hero.

To answer your question in your thread title, Ramp, i'm sure it's done purposely.

Both articles are pretty lame actually. Like my last article.

 

These all seem to be pretty terrible points LeBatard is making about the Marlins chances...

 

It's valid to say he doesn't think we'll make it, but his reasons are shaky.

 

There aren't 620 teams within 1 game of the wildcard anymore. As a matter of fact, there's no one else closer than 3 games except Philly and Florida now. He talks about Arizona making up ground? You mean the Arizona team that's 6 back now?

 

LeBatard couldn't do the Marlins a bigger favor than to pick them not to make the playoffs. I'm thinking he's batting about .000 in his predictions so far.

Because Richard Bush (the Herald's sports department editor) has the creativity of a knat, and the budget to match (this is after all Knight-Ridder, publisher of some of America's worst excuses for daily newspapers and the destroyer of many, many more) the most inventive thing he could conceive of was this Pro/Con rattle. A complete waste of space? You betcha, but from Bush's perspective it's alot better than actually having reporters covering the Marlins and spending money on quality sports journalism.