http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/basebal...clipboard080825

 

I wanted to read this article, or just see what he says about our rotation, but i'm not an insider. I figured someone here could help out.

http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/basebal...clipboard080825

 

I wanted to read this article, or just see what he says about our rotation, but i'm not an insider. I figured someone here could help out.

 

Voila

 

Wes Obermueller, Chris Seddon, Rick VandenHurk, Byung-Hyun Kim and Daniel Barone.

 

Those were among the names that contributed to the Marlins' starting pitching ranking dead last in the big leagues with a 5.58 ERA.

 

Suffice it to say that things look considerably better lately, as the team finally has some of its key starters back healthy and now features a rotation filled from top to bottom with intriguing young players, all age 25 and under. With continued health, they should all be fantasy forces for years to come.

 

Steve Mitchell/US Presswire

 

Ricky Nolasco's resurgence has been one of the biggest surprises all season.

 

I wrote a glowing profile of Ricky Nolasco back at the beginning of the month, and all Nolasco has done since that time is lower his ERA from 3.91 to 3.62, his WHIP from 1.18 to 1.13, and post back-to-back double-digit strikeout games in his past two starts as part of a month of August that saw him strike out 43 batters and walk just three."He's a strike machine," said Marlins pitching coach Mark Wiley.

 

Not bad for a pitcher limited to just 21 big league innings last season because of inflammation in his elbow.

 

"Once I got rested this offseason, everything became normal again with the inflammation," Nolasco said. "It took me a few innings to get good velocity going from having missed so much time last year, but everything's good now."

 

What makes Nolasco a special pitcher is the variety in his repertoire, and the fact that he can throw any pitch in any count, and put it in the strike zone.

 

"I've been throwing a lot of strikes with all of them, just trying to put pressure on the hitters," Nolasco said. "When you're ahead in the count, you can use any pitch you want."

 

As I mentioned in that previous profile, Nolasco can beat you with a two-seam or four-seam fastball that sits comfortably at 91-92 mph, but can touch 94 when he reaches back for something extra. He also has a plus spike curveball, his brand-new-for-'07 splitter and an improved slider (which Nolasco told me this past weekend is actually more of a cut fastball "that's been a good pitch for me," though he will throw a more slurvy breaking ball into the mix as well).

 

The big question is after limited innings and health woes last season, will Nolasco be able to stay strong through the last month?

 

"It won't be an issue," said the 25-year-old right-hander. "There's not going to be any problems. I feel just as strong as I did the first couple of months this season, and I'm very careful about doing my work between starts."

 

Considering he's pitching better this month than he has all season, it's a fairly good bet that Nolasco may be right.

 

Steve Mitchell/US Presswire

 

Josh Johnson is hoping to get a head start on a potential breakout 2009 campaign.

 

Josh Johnson made a big splash in 2006, winning 12 games and posting a 3.10 ERA as the Marlins made a playoff push, but two separate stints on the disabled list last year ultimately concluded with Tommy John surgery in August. Though some thought he wasn't going to be able to make it back to the big leagues this season, the 24-year-old Johnson figured he would be back by "the All-Star break. I wasn't going to tell anyone that, but that was my goal. That was the date I had circled from the time I had the surgery."The 6-foot-7 righty has posted a solid 3.51 ERA in eight starts since returning, with quality starts in his past four trips to the mound, and the velocity on all three of his pitches is actually higher than it was pre-surgery. He's hitting a consistent 93 mph with his down-plane four-seam fastball, and has touched as high as 96. His slider is coming in at 87, and his change at 88, all of them about 2 mph faster than his gun readings in '06. Johnson credits that to his workout regimen as he prepped for his comeback and increased overall strength.

 

"I'm in better shape," Johnson said. "I got to work out for almost a year, including working out my shoulder every day doing stuff, so it's definitely helped. I've been working hard since day one, and the thing I kind of focused on was arm speed. That's what I lacked last year. I watched video and I couldn't figure out what I was doing or what was going on but then someone pointed it out and I was like 'wow, that's a big difference from '06 to '07.' So I said from day one, I'm going to have arm speed and test this thing right away, and that's the way it's come out in the end."

 

"He was throwing really hard right from the first start back to both sides of the plate," concurred catcher John Baker. "He was a little shaky with some of the offspeed pitches, but lately it looks to me like he didn't miss any time. He's throwing in the mid-90s, touching the high-80s with his slider, and executing good changeups down in the strike zone."

 

Command is often the last thing to return after Tommy John surgery, and Johnson is no exception. Although he says, "I'm getting behind hitters a little too much," (leading to a relatively high 1.42 WHIP at the moment) he's been starting to throw more consistent strikes. The biggest thing is continuing to find his location within the strike zone and that will come in time.

 

"It's just not consistent yet," Johnson said. "I'll throw pitches in the right zone where I want to, and I'll throw three in a row, but then throw two bad ones in a row. It's just going out there and being consistent every five days."

 

Johnson's strikeout rate is pretty much right where it was in his breakout season of '06 despite his readily admitting his out pitch isn't quite there yet. When Johnson is on, he can fire his slider to both sides of the plate.

 

"That two-strike pitch, that's one of the last things that comes too. That 0-2 or 1-2 slider down in the zone -- it's there sometimes, and sometimes it's not."

 

His mechanics look mostly solid in his return, although his front side flies open every so often, causing him to pull the ball, but as he gets back into that five-day groove, he should repeat his delivery a bit better.

 

It is very safe to say Johnson is very high on my list of pitchers for 2009 as he gets further away from the surgery, provided he continues to stay healthy. He's had multiple bouts of shoulder tendinitis in the past, but if he stays out of the trainer's room, he's going to be a horse at the top of the rotation for both the Marlins and fantasy owners.

 

Steve Mitchell/US Presswire

 

Anibal Sanchez is hoping to prove his no-hitter isn't his only career highlight.

 

Like Johnson, Anibal Sanchez burst onto the scene for the Marlins in 2006 after joining the team as part of the Josh Beckett/Hanley Ramirez trade, posting a 2.83 ERA in 17 starts -- including a no-hitter -- but was shut down after just six starts last season due to a torn labrum that required surgery.He's made five starts since returning this season, posting a 3.99 ERA and 1.40 WHIP, respectable numbers as he gets back into a groove, and his velocity is back to where it was before surgery.

 

"He's really impressive because he's not a guy that's going to blow your doors off with a fastball," Baker said. "He'll run it up there at 92 sometimes but he really relies on command of four pitches, so he was going to have to be on with his command right when he came back to the big leagues, and he has, throwing everything for strikes."

 

Sanchez is usually sitting right around 90 mph with his fastball, and does a good job of pitching to hitters' weaknesses with his slider, curve and change. If he knows the scouting report says a certain hitter has issues with sliders in a certain location, he's usually able to put that pitch in that spot.

 

One thing to note in the small sample size of his numbers this season is that his strikeout rate has bumped up from 5.7 batters per nine in his sparkling debut in '06 all the way to 8.3 this season. What's different about Sanchez compared to the pre-surgery version is that he throws his slider a lot less and his curveball twice as much, which seems to be a better breaking ball mix for him.

 

The curve has only a soft break, but he's got great feel for it. It doesn't always look like a great pitch, but he's been missing bats.

 

His walk rate is still relatively high at just under four batters per game, but he has the capability for improvement as he settles back in.

 

If you want to look at the bright side of Sanchez's health history, at least he's gotten both labrum and Tommy John surgeries "out of the way," so to speak. Given continued health, he's a solid third starter in a big league rotation and he'll be a useful fantasy option in all formats.

 

Steve Mitchell/US Presswire

 

Chris Volstad is already living up to his potential as the Marlins' top pitching prospect.

 

Entering this season, 21-year-old Chris Volstad was seen as the organization's top pitching prospect, and he has illustrated why since his ascension to the big leagues, holding his own with a 3.42 ERA in nine games, including eight starts."I need to improve at getting ahead of the hitters," said Volstad, who has a 1.42 WHIP. "The first couple of starts I was pounding the zone and of late I've kind of been all over the place and getting myself into some jams. I think getting ahead of hitters and putting the pressure on them and not myself is going to be the big key for me going forward."

 

Volstad is basically a fastball/curveball pitcher, though he will mix in the occasional changeup to lefties. At 6-foot-7, the right-hander makes good use of his tall frame in coming over the top and pitching downhill with his 90-92 mph fastball. There's not a lot of sink to it, but he gets a ton of ground balls because his plane allows him to bury the ball down in the zone.

 

Last season, he changed his grip and started throwing more of a spike curveball, which has accelerated him to the big leagues. It's an 80 mph offering with good arm speed.

 

"[The curve] was real inconsistent in the minor leagues, so about halfway through the season I was working with the pitching coach at [Class A] Jupiter, Reid Cornelius, messing with the grip and he suggested a spike curve and I just started throwing it. I've had a better break, it's been tighter and more consistent. It's been a big pitch for me."

 

It's not a pitch that's necessarily going to miss bats, but more one that freezes hitters looking for a fastball, starting out looking like it's going to be a very high heater.

 

"You don't really want to throw it up," Volstad said, "but it's happened to work out where it's up and then it kind of drops in. I feel really comfortable with that pitch, I haven't been throwing it for too long, but it's one of those things that I felt comfy with right away."

 

Being a taller pitcher, Volstad has more room for error in his motion, and he will miss high when he doesn't drive through the ball and finish his delivery, not a good place to be. At times he's not always using his lower half and staying back over the rubber, but he has a relatively small, simple delivery, giving him a better chance to consistently repeat it as he settles in at the big league level.

 

Volstad is never going to be a big strikeout pitcher, averaging around 5.5 per nine innings in recent seasons. That swing-and-miss pitch just isn't there. However, two above-average pitches, a useful third one in the mix, command to all four quadrants of the strike zone, an idea of how to set up hitters, and lack of fear on the mound all add up to a guy who projects to be a solid No. 3 or No. 4 starter.

 

Kyle Terada/US Presswire

 

A declining strikeout rate is the one major issue in Scott Olsen's game.

 

It was a lost season for Scott Olsen in 2007, with an ugly ERA (5.81), an even uglier WHIP (1.76), and ugliest of all, well-documented issues on the field, in the clubhouse and in the legal system.The tall, 24-year-old southpaw has bounced back this season with a 4.11 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and nary a peep of any trouble off the pitching mound.

 

No doubt some maturation off the field has played a large part, but he's also showed an improved changeup this season. He had a "show me" version with a different grip in 2006, which was really a nonfactor. But he changed it from a circle change to more of a straight change this season and incorporated it more into his repertoire. He can spot the pitch on both sides of the plate pretty well.

 

"It's a feel pitch," Olsen said. "Even though I threw it, I never absolutely had to have it before; it was something I never had to develop. Coming up in '06 as a rookie nobody knows who you are, so you kind of have a little bit of an advantage, and I didn't need it. In '07, the advantage was gone, and the book was out on me. We had to do something, so we made a conscious effort this offseason to work on the change, throw it, and find a grip that was comfortable and felt good, and I have a good feel for it now. I feel it's something I can throw at any count and any situation and get results. It's a lot of the reason the year has been better."

 

However, his strikeout rate has declined from 8.8 batters per nine in 2006 all the way down to five batters per nine this season. He's taken a little bit off the velocity on his fastball and slider to throw more strikes, which has worked, but at the expense of punching batters out.

 

"Yeah, my strikeout totals are down this year, which is interesting," Olsen said. "I'd like to have more strikeouts, but success is nicer. Striking people out is fun, but I've made a conscious effort this year to go get more early outs and early contact and maybe save my pitch count a bit, and I think I've been doing a good job of that."

 

At times, his fastball command has wandered because sometimes when he throws it, his upper body will fall forward, opening his hip and front shoulder too soon, causing his arm to drag. Instead of getting through the ball, and going down and in with the pitch to a right-handed batter, he will throw a fastball that creeps back up toward the middle of the plate. Sometimes it's been an issue of inconsistent hand separation as he gets ready to throw.

 

It also hasn't helped that his slider hasn't quite had the same tilt the past two seasons as it did in '06, when it was an out pitch that would sweep the zone.

 

"My slider has been kind of off this year," Olsen admitted. "It hasn't been there for me like it has been in the past. That used to be my bread-and-butter pitch. I could go to it no matter what. I think it's been a release point thing. I think my hands have been a little too close to my head and I'm not getting on top of it, and I'll yank it into the dirt, but the last couple of weeks or so it's been better.

 

Despite battling some consistency issues, Olsen has managed to hang in there and post some serviceable numbers as he slowly starts to piece things together again. It's a work in progress, but progress nonetheless.

 

 

 

It's Fantasy Football season on ESPN.com! Activate last year's league, create or join a new league today and start your run to fantasy glory.

Sign Up Today! Olsen's a much shakier bet then the rest of the players profiled here, but there is still upside and he's worth attention, especially if he can start to get back closer to his '06 level. He'll be a deep sleeper next season.By the way, one player I haven't even mentioned is Andrew Miller, the sixth overall pick in the 2006 draft who was part of the haul in the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis trade. He was rushed to the big leagues before he was ready and is now on the disabled list with knee tendinitis, but is reportedly hitting 96 mph in his rehab stint. The 23-year-old also projects to have big impact down the road. The Marlins hope they have a problem of trying to figure out how to work six productive, healthy starters into the mix.

 

All six of them are going to firmly be on my radar screen in mixed leagues in 2009, and if you want to take a chance on their upside for the stretch run, Johnson, Sanchez, Olsen and Volstad are all owned in less than a quarter of ESPN leagues.

 

Jason Grey is a graduate of the MLB Scouting Bureau's Scout Development Program and has won two Tout Wars titles, one LABR title and numerous other national "experts" competitions.

*Waits for mods to shut this down*

Hey,

 

Awesome article! thanks a lot Marlin Man.

*Waits for mods to shut this down*

 

 

haha, maybe, but at least i got to read it before they do.

Thanks great info, i love the possibilities of out rotation. Don't forget Tucker and Miller are lurking about as well. thats is 7 high quality young starters. I have always said I would love to see RVH in the bullpen. Rabb what do u wanna do with Mitre? :confused

enough starting pitching to flirt with the notion of a trade? maybe scott olsen, who is up for arbitration? If we lose one of our pitchers towards the top of our rotation do we have faith that someone from the bottom can fill in? Miller, Tucker, Mitre? I like the idea, personally. Olsen has not looked stellar but could command value.

 

I tend to be more of the camp that we ship out a lot of the dead weight on this team in exchange for defense and more patient bats. Not that Olsen is dead weight, but if we are looking to make moves, starting pitching is always something you can get value for. More so than, say, our abundance of streaky undisciplined power hitters.

enough starting pitching to flirt with the notion of a trade? maybe scott olsen, who is up for arbitration? If we lose one of our pitchers towards the top of our rotation do we have faith that someone from the bottom can fill in? Miller, Tucker, Mitre? I like the idea, personally. Olsen has not looked stellar but could command value.

 

I tend to be more of the camp that we ship out a lot of the dead weight on this team in exchange for defense and more patient bats. Not that Olsen is dead weight, but if we are looking to make moves, starting pitching is always something you can get value for. More so than, say, our abundance of streaky undisciplined power hitters.

Hey Darren, are you still crazy?

Hey Darren, are you still crazy?

 

yea, like a fox.

 

read my book.

 

gotta run.

 

(through time, that is.)

Hey Darren, are you still crazy?

 

yea, like a fox.

 

read my book.

 

gotta run.

 

(through time, that is.)

Awesome :thumbup

We could probably trade one of them (Olsen, more than likely) and get away with it because of our depth. Maybe trade Olsen for a bat that gets on base and doesn't strike out much. Not sure.

 

The only risk is that you trade him and one or more of these guys gets injured again next year. We certainly have depth with Miller coming back, but you can never have enough pitching.

 

I say let the payroll increase to 40 million next year and see how the team progresses in 2009. If we can keep this rotation healthy, keep a solid bullpen, and keep hitting the way we've hit this year, I'd say we're in for a legitimate playoff push in 2009.

We could probably trade one of them (Olsen, more than likely) and get away with it because of our depth. Maybe trade Olsen for a bat that gets on base and doesn't strike out much. Not sure.

 

The only risk is that you trade him and one or more of these guys gets injured again next year. We certainly have depth with Miller coming back, but you can never have enough pitching.

 

I say let the payroll increase to 40 million next year and see how the team progresses in 2009. If we can keep this rotation healthy, keep a solid bullpen, and keep hitting the way we've hit this year, I'd say we're in for a legitimate playoff push in 2009.

That's why Tucker, Thompson, Sinkbiel, Trahern, Vanden Hurk, and Cruz are in AA/AAA, and we have tons of RP everywhere

That's why Tucker, Thompson, Sinkbiel, Trahern, Vanden Hurk, and Cruz are in AA/AAA, and we have tons of RP everywhere

 

Vanden Hurk is bad.

i beg to differ

 

he has control issues at times but when he is on, he is a capable major league pitcher

 

EDIT: regards the post above

i beg to differ

 

he has control issues at times but when he is on, he is a capable major league pitcher

 

EDIT: regards the post above

 

Control is pretty important. Miller, for example, has very good stuff but because of his control issues he got knocked around. You can't be a good pitcher with control issues and you can;t assume a guy will get his control issues fixed just because.

i beg to differ

 

he has control issues at times but when he is on, he is a capable major league pitcher

 

EDIT: regards the post above

 

Control is pretty important. Miller, for example, has very good stuff but because of his control issues he got knocked around. You can't be a good pitcher with control issues and you can;t assume a guy will get his control issues fixed just because.

 

yeh but i dont think its very fair to assess vandenhurk simply as "bad"

i beg to differ

 

he has control issues at times but when he is on, he is a capable major league pitcher

 

EDIT: regards the post above

 

Control is pretty important. Miller, for example, has very good stuff but because of his control issues he got knocked around. You can't be a good pitcher with control issues and you can;t assume a guy will get his control issues fixed just because.

 

yeh but i dont think its very fair to assess vandenhurk simply as "bad"

RVH is extremely talented, and could be a huge force on any rotation. Anybody remember a pitcher who had control problems early in his career but when he settled down he became a fairly good pitcher for the Dodgers...Anyone remember a Pitcher by the name of Sandy Koufax?