http://msn.foxsports...es-are-a-mirage

 

 

The Florida Marlins are living a lie.

They want to believe they can advance to the postseason. But the route they have taken is not promising.

 

The Marlins are building success off their offense, which is fun for the fans, but not realistic for a postseason contender.

 

It'swhy they are crossing their fingers that Anibal Sanchez can come offthe disabled list in the next week and turn into the pitcher theyenvisioned when they acquired him from Boston along with Hanley Ramirezin the Josh Beckett-Mike Lowell deal, and then watched him throw thefourth no-hitter in Marlins history.

 

It's why they are making nosecret of their interest in veteran John Smoltz. Manager FrediGonzalez, a coach in Atlanta with Smoltz, feels the right-hander couldprovide the leadership his young rotation is lacking.

 

Gonzalez,after all, may be enjoying what has happened in the last couple ofweeks, but he has been around the game too long to be fooled.

 

"We'reswinging our bats but you don't win with offense," he said. "You winwith pitching. This isn't a slow-pitch softball league."

 

So far,however, the Marlins have been surviving with their bats, recentlymaking a definite move into the pennant races, having won eight oftheir last 10 games, which allowed them to cut 2½ games off their NLEast deficit, and two games off the wild-card differential.

 

Howhot have they been? They have had 10 or more hits in a club-record 13consecutive games, which is seven games longer than the franchise'sprevious mark. They are one of only 10 major-league teams since 1900 tohave a streak that long. Cleveland set the record with an 18-gamestreak back in 1925.

 

They are fourth in the NL in runs scored, and have hit .293 sincethe All-Star break, the top average in the NL in the second half of theseason.

 

Four out of every five games, however, there is a reminder of reason for concern.

 

JoshJohnson is 12-2 with a 2.85 ERA in 24 starts. He is the only one of the11 pitchers who have started a game for Florida this year with awinning record. He is also the only one with an ERA of 4.50 or lower.Only two other pitchers have even made 15 starts — Ricky Nolasco, whois 8-8 with a 5.44 ERA, and Chris Volstad, who is 9-9 with a 4.61 ERA.

 

Andwhile those three are a combined 29-19 with a 4.11 ERA, thanksprimarily to Johnson, the eight others who have drawn starts for theMarlins are 11-19 with a 5.66 ERA.

 

Their rotation has worked only658 2/3 innings, tied with the Dodgers for 11th in the NL, leaving aheavy workload for an inexperienced bullpen that doesn't have abona-fide closer.

 

That's why even though the Marlins have won 17of their last 25 games, but they were swept by Washington in the midstof all this. It's why the fact they have 25 of their final 44 games onthe road creates a reality check amid the recent success.

 

 

 

 

Honestly, this man royally ticks me off. Every time there's a negative article on the Marlins on Foxsports, his face seems to pop up at the top of it. He criticizes every aspect of the team and 'digs' deeper into our makeup to give insight as to how we'll miss the playoffs, but doesn't dig deep enough to find that Nolasco isn't as bad as his stats, and that our Bullpen's been pretty good this season? Or that his own Colorado Rockies are riding a hot streak that would probably have to run cold along with the Marlins'?

 

 

 

 

Does anyone think our playoff hopes are a 'mirage?' Obviously, we're going to be losing a few games because we aren't going to have 10+ hits until the end of the season, but can we go as far as to say that it's the only reason we win games?

It really all depends on the rotation at this point. The offense has been coming through in the second half so far, especially with the addition of NJ. If we can get some more consistent starts from pitchers not named Josh Johnson, then I think playoffs could be a reality. Plus it would also be nice if Maybin has the same September he had last year.....

If Maybin and Anibal come back and have September's to Remember then we have a great shot at getting into the playoffs weather it's beating down the Phillies in our 6 remaining games or Overtaking Colorado for the Wild Card.

the offense is gonna slow down sooner or later and the pitching doesnt look like its getting any better. im buyin that article

Well, his points about our rotation are hard to argue. JJ is the only one I really trust. Nolasco has been pretty damn good since his return, but I still have my doubts with him because of his struggles earlier in the season and his last start. Volstad is slowing down a bit as well. RVH and West give me the shivers. Our starting pitching as a whole is going to have to improve dramatically because I'm fairly confident our offense won't keep up this torrid pace for the rest of the season.

 

I just think he's bitter though because we took 2 of 3 from his beloved Rockies.

This guy is an ignorant bastard. Hes making an equation as to why we wont make the playoffs but is leaving out important part of it which is the schedule and it favors us over the Rockies or Sf.

That's quite a dickish way to put it.

If Maybin and Anibal come back and have September's to Remember then we have a great shot at getting into the playoffs weather it's beating down the Phillies in our 6 remaining games or Overtaking Colorado for the Wild Card.

 

 

 

Niiiiiiice.

 

MMP, can you buy me a Lexus and put a bow on it, please?

Well, his points about our rotation are hard to argue. JJ is the only one I really trust. Nolasco has been pretty damn good since his return, but I still have my doubts with him because of his struggles earlier in the season and his last start. Volstad is slowing down a bit as well. RVH and West give me the shivers. Our starting pitching as a whole is going to have to improve dramatically because I'm fairly confident our offense won't keep up this torrid pace for the rest of the season.

 

I just think he's bitter though because we took 2 of 3 from his beloved Rockies.

 

 

Good word!

 

Also, yeah our SP is an issue, but he does manage to ignore how good Nolasco's been since he came back up, merely citing his ERA as a tell-all stat.

 

Didn't know that back-history with this guy as a Rockies fan, lol, interesting stuff.

The gentleman was spot on and we should have trouble acknowledging that. The next six games should tell us a lot.

 

It's a time to be juggling the rotation and looking for something ... anything. I wish Sanchez was starting a game this week on the road trip. I'd also give Martinez and Ungs a go.

For serious?

Well, his points about our rotation are hard to argue. JJ is the only one I really trust. Nolasco has been pretty damn good since his return, but I still have my doubts with him because of his struggles earlier in the season and his last start. Volstad is slowing down a bit as well. RVH and West give me the shivers. Our starting pitching as a whole is going to have to improve dramatically because I'm fairly confident our offense won't keep up this torrid pace for the rest of the season.

 

I just think he's bitter though because we took 2 of 3 from his beloved Rockies.

 

 

Good word!

 

Also, yeah our SP is an issue, but he does manage to ignore how good Nolasco's been since he came back up, merely citing his ERA as a tell-all stat.

 

Didn't know that back-history with this guy as a Rockies fan, lol, interesting stuff.

 

Yeah, Ricky's ERA is pretty inflated after his last outing, but he had gotten it under 5 before that start. He's been pretty damn awesome since coming back minus a start or two.

 

And I'm pretty sure this guy is a Rockies fan. I remember him constantly writing about them during their World Series run. He seems to have at least a West coast bias going for him. I thought Tracy was a woman before they put his picture up on Foxsports :lol

I think JJ and Ricky are a good 1-2 combination. I agree that Volstad has really struggled in his sophomore season, and our fourth and fifth starters have been pretty bad so far. I don't think Volstad has ever pitched this many innings, so I am not quite sure what to expect of him the rest of the season. I think our rotation will be okay if we can get Sanchez to come back and give us an ERA of around 4 and 6 innings on a consistent basis.

 

If we're good (or lucky) enough to reach the playoffs, I think a rotation of JJ, Ricky, Volstad, and Sanchez will be decent. But, honestly, I can't really see that rotation going deep into the playoffs.

It seemed to me we've being getting a lot of bloopers or other balls hit softly to fall for hits lately so I looked up on the yahoo box scores the number of "shallow" balls we've hit that ended up as hits compared to our opponents. I looked at the last 10 games beginning with the series in Philly. We've "outshallowed for a hit" our opponents 48-15 the past 10 games. For us to have a chance I think we'll need to keep kicking ass in "outshallowing" our opponents and I don't think this is sustainable.

Does this guy get paid to right sh*t like that??

I think he's in the HoF.

I think he's in the HoF.

 

 

 

Wyoming Sports HOF.

 

And the guy just states a lot of the obvious that many of us here have stated. I don't understand why ya'll are getting uptight because a writer actually writes about us and exposes our flaws. We all know all our hitters are very hot at the moment. That is a big reason for this recent hot streak. We aren't going to sustain that forever. That is where the SP comes in. He is right when he says that 3-4-5 in the rotation haven't given us enough innings, and it is killing our bullpen. Soon our bullpen will have a collapse with all the innings they are tagging on.

 

I wasn't a big fan of getting John Smoltz, but considering our SP situation at the moment, it is starting to make more and more sense to at least take a risk and give Smoltz a try in the 4 or 5 spot in the rotation.

 

I love however how the writer doesn't mention how before his last start, Ricky had a sub 2 ERA since returning from the minors. We really have 2 reliable starting pitchers, not 1. If Volstad can ever get back to his normal self and stop giving up the home run ball we would have 3 reliable starters. Hopefully our bats can stay somewhat decent if Nick Johnson is out of the lineup for a certain period of time.

Baseball HoF writers division or whatever they call it.

Yes, Ringolsby is one of the founders of Baseball America, and is in the HOF as a sportswriter.

 

Honestly I think whoever titled that article he wrote was being a little unfair, because the actual article was evenhanded for the most part. It's unlikely, from my experience, that Ringolsby himself titled that article. Usually one of the editors is responsible for that.

Yeah, to say a team's playoff hopes are a mirage when they are only two games out is something that an experienced sports writer should not do. Especially when that team just took two of three from the team ahead of them.

Its clear he is a homer and has a serious west coast bias. Looked up a bunch of his columns and this is the first mention of the Marlins in months, right after we took 2 of 3 from his beloved rockies.

 

something smells fishy, and its not the marlins playoff chances.....

Yes, Ringolsby is one of the founders of Baseball America, and is in the HOF as a sportswriter.

 

Honestly I think whoever titled that article he wrote was being a little unfair, because the actual article was evenhanded for the most part. It's unlikely, from my experience, that Ringolsby himself titled that article. Usually one of the editors is responsible for that.

 

 

He isnt a hall of famer, he won the Spink award for sports writers, which is presented by the hall of fame on a yearly basis. He has never been inducted into the hall of fame, he just won the award in 2005.

That's quite a dickish way to put it.

 

 

I agree. I think everyone knows we have flaws and some of his points are understandable, but he sounds pissed off at us in this article :$

This article is an absolute failure.

He omitted everything our team has done throughout the season and claiming that our team is intractable and abhorrent isn't going to get himself respected and cherished in the world of baseball. Trashing other teams and declaring yours as "winners" may work in Colorado, but in reality it is just a douchy way

of making yourself feel better about 'your team' which has been established in the same year as theFlorida Marlins (1993) and have never won a World Championship in the past 15 (going on 16) years while we have won 2 in that time span.

All in all: Pathetic.

This article is an absolute failure.

He omitted everything our team has done throughout the season and claiming that our team is intractable and abhorrent isn't going to get himself respected and cherished in the world of baseball. Trashing other teams and declaring yours as "winners" may work in Colorado, but in reality it is just a douchy way

of making yourself feel better about 'your team' which has been established in the same year as theFlorida Marlins (1993) and have never won a World Championship in the past 15 (going on 16) years while we have won 2 in that time span.

All in all: Pathetic.

 

 

:blink::blink:

 

dictionary.com

 

:whistle