Ely Sussman

Marlins news roundup for 5/2/24 On Wednesday, Roddery Muñoz's second career start (6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) was even more impressive than his first. He induced plenty of chases on breaking balls outside the zone and commanded his sinker well. Emmanuel Rivera reached base safely in all four of his plate appearances. Just recalled over the weekend, Dane Myers already has as many RBI (five) as Luis Arraez and Tim Anderson have all season (he has also matched the total of all Marlins catchers combined). The Marlins won, 4-1. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 5-0. Jake Burger began his minor league rehab assignment by going 1-for-4 and playing the complete game at first base, while Braxton Garrett (5.0IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K) seemingly wrapped up his rehab assignment with a 61-pitch quality outing. Double-A Pensacola won, 5-3. Jacob Berry and Paul McIntosh continue to get reps in the corner outfield spots. High-A Beloit won, 6-5. LHP Emmett Olson (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K) has now made four straight scoreless starts to begin his first full professional season. Low-A Jupiter lost, 7-2. The Hammerheads are collectively hitting just .200 this season, with organizational newcomers OF John Cruz (.123 BA) and OF/1B Yeral Martinez (.138 BA) off to especially slow starts. Here's more Marlins news and content for you: 🔷 The Marlins have finally strung together consecutive wins! However, their overall .250 winning percentage is still behind the pace of the notorious 1998 Marlins. Here is my comparison between these teams through the first month-plus of their respective seasons. 🔷 In the midst of Bally Sports' carriage dispute with Comcast, a streaming alternative, the Bally Sports Florida Season Pass, has been discounted to $84.99 through the end of September. 🔷 In a redraft of the 2014 MLB Draft, Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline has the Marlins taking Aaron Nola with the No. 2 overall pick. The Marlins' actual selection that year was, regrettably, Tyler Kolek. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, National League Rookie of the Year co-favorites Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga both made scoreless starts. Imanaga's 0.78 ERA is the lowest among all MLB qualified starters. The Twins extended their winning streak to 10. Nearly two years removed from his last MLB appearance, Walker Buehler of the Dodgers will return from the injured list on Monday, coincidentally to face the Marlins. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Edward Cabrera) host the Rockies (RHP Peter Lambert). The Marlins have a 62.6% chance to win, per FanGraphs. That is the most heavily they've been favored entering any game so far this season. First pitch at 12:10 p.m. 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: Triple-A Jacksonville vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 7:05 p.m. ET Double-A Pensacola at Mississippi, 7:35 p.m. ET High-A Beloit vs. Quad Cities, 7:35 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter at St. Lucie, 6:10 p.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Welcome to FOF's 32nd Miami Marlins game thread of the 2024 season. Can the Fish finally secure back-to-back victories and their first winning series of the year? Tim Anderson (left thumb sprain) is out of the starting lineup for the second straight contest. SuperSubs can access exclusive game notes here. Pregame roster moves: RHP Roddery Muñoz recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville; RHP Emmanuel Ramírez optioned to Jacksonville. Enjoy live on-site coverage from Kevin Barral and Daniel Rodriguez.

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Thanks for listening. Yeah, Skip must be held partially accountable for what's happened. He has been unacceptably complacent when it comes to keeping players in the same roles even when it's apparent that they're struggling. His default answer to the team's problems has been to work longer hours prior to the games. There seems to be an absence of both creativity and data-driven insight right now. The best organizations use plenty of both to help players achieve peak performance.

More than a month into the MLB regular season, this is still on pace to be the worst team in Marlins history. The toxic vibes surrounding the 1998 Marlins are unlikely to ever be replicated. Before the champagne could dry following the franchise's first World Series title celebration, most of that team's key contributors vanished via free agency or trade. From the get-go, there wasn't the faintest possibility of contending for a postseason berth despite having accomplished so much the year before. Although the dysfunction of the 2024 Marlins will not elicit quite as much anger from the fanbase, this team is stunningly comparable from a statistical standpoint so far. A bevy of embarrassing records that have stood for more than a quarter-century are in peril of changing hands, and some of them already have through the first month of competition. 1998 Marlins: 54-108 record, minus-256 run differential 2024 Marlins: on pace for 37-125 record, minus-329 run differential During March/April 1998, the Marlins went 9-18 with a minus-26 run differential. That included an 11-game losing streak, which is still tied for the longest such streak in Fish history. They had fallen eight games back of the nearest National League playoff spot. During March/April 2024, the Marlins went 7-24 with a minus-63 run differential. That included separate losing streaks of nine and seven games in length, the former occurring at the very start of the regular season. They have fallen 9.5 games back of the nearest NL playoff spot even with the implementation of two additional Wild Card spots per league. All this despite having had the advantage of playing 18 games in their home ballpark (tied for the most of any MLB team). It's the worst 31-game start that the Marlins have ever endured. The 1998 Marlins actually had a deep, respectable lineup early on. Outfielder Cliff Floyd (.260/.390/.542, 8 HR, 4 SB through one month) was their best all-around performer, but Gary Sheffield, Derrek Lee and Craig Counsell each had been hitting well themselves. Florida's .743 OPS was slightly better than the National League average! The offensive disparity is hysterical. To repeat, .743 OPS for the opening month of the 1998 season. This year, meanwhile, the Marlins' leader in OPS among players to receive semi-regular playing time is...Vidal Bruján at .741. There are zero consistently good hitters in Miami right now. Quite a feat of futility while living in the universal DH era. The 1998 offense cooled off soon after April ended in large part because of a May 14 blockbuster that sent away Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich and Charles Johnson. While Peter Bendix's front office will not be hesitant to trade productive veterans, it's fairly safe to assume that they'll wait deeper into the season before making moves of that magnitude. The 2024 team is edging out 1998 in run prevention by a quarter-run per game, overcoming appallingly sloppy defense and a high volume of pitching injuries in the process. The '98 club would go on to allow the second-most runs in the majors (923); the current club is on pace to allow 909. If we are to conservatively pencil in Jesús Luzardo, Braxton Garrett and Max Meyer for 45 more combined starts between now and season's end, there will be meaningful improvement. Hopefully, the 1998 vs. 2024 comparisons do not linger all season, but that is up to the Marlins to get their s*** together. Through May '98, they had a 17-38 record. Another installment of this article series awaits next month if the Marlins still have fewer than 20 wins by then. May 2024 schedule View full article

Marlins news roundup for 5/1/24 On Tuesday, the Rockies pummeled Sixto Sánchez for five runs in the top of the first, while Ryan Feltner easily and efficiently silenced Miami's bats through eight frames. Then, the 2023 Marlins crashed the party. In an inexplicable comeback reminiscent of several we witnessed last season, the Marlins scored five times in the ninth and twice more in the 10th. Dane Myers—who was only in the game to replace an ejected Jazz Chisholm Jr.—drove home Bryan De La Cruz for the game-deciding run. The Marlins won, 7-6. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 7-6. LHP Devin Smeltzer (1.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) endured his worst relief outing of the season. Double-A Pensacola won, 5-3. INF Cody Morissette (3-for-4) is quietly hitting .359 over the last two weeks. LHP Chandler Jozwiak still has not allowed a run through seven appearances. High-A Beloit lost, 6-0. Low-A Jupiter lost, 11-1. Here's more Marlins news and content for you: 🔷 Recently designated for assignment, Kyle Tyler and Kent Emanuel both predictably cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville. remains in DFA limbo. 🔷 There is a carriage dispute between Comcast and Bally Sports channels, taking Bally Sports Florida and Bally Sports Sun off of cable for Comcast subscribers. As Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald details, viewers impacted by this can access Marlins games through the Bally Sports app or by subscribing to Bally's Marlins Season Pass. Still an extreme inconvenience. 🔷 Marlins radio voice Kyle Sielaff was the special guest on a new episode of Fish Unfiltered. Subscribe to Fish On First wherever you get your podcasts! 🔷 Sielaff's predecessor, Glenn Geffner, just launched his own pod, Crooked Numbers (trailer embedded below). Each week, he is going to share fun and interesting numbers that will be jumping off points to help tell some fun and interesting stories related to the game, both past and present. 🔷 Eno Sarris of The Athletic takes note of how Bryan De La Cruz is impacting more balls at productive angles and velocities in a way that should be predictive of a power increase. 🔷 The latest Fish On First LIVE episode discussed how the Marlins' circumstances compare to the Rockies. FOF LIVE is presented by Berger & Hicks. If you’ve been injured as a result of somebody else’s negligence, give them a call at (305) 670-7050. 🔷 The Marlins are expanding their analytics department, with new job listings for an analyst, junior analyst, senior analyst and data engineer. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the World Baseball Classic championship game is expected to be held at loanDepot park again in 2026, per Craig Mish. Not yet clear whether the ballpark will be hosting as many total games as it did during the 2023 edition of the tournament. The White Sox lost and retook MLB's worst record from the Marlins. Mike Trout is injured again and will undergo left meniscus surgery (he'll certainly return later this season, but still a bummer). The game between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers was delayed nearly two hours because of...bees?! Like the Fish, the D-backs ultimately won in 10th-inning walk-off fashion at 2:22 a.m. ET. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Roddery Muñoz) host the Rockies (RHP Dakota Hudson). I expect Muñoz to take Emmanuel Ramirez's spot on the active roster. The Marlins have a 56.7% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule (Braxton Garrett and Jake Burger will both be making rehab starts with Jacksonville): Triple-A Jacksonville vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 7:05 p.m. ET Double-A Pensacola at Mississippi, 12:05 p.m. ET High-A Beloit vs. Quad Cities, 12:10 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter at St. Lucie, 1:10 p.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes View full article

After being held scoreless through the first eight innings, the Miami Marlins rallied to beat the Colorado Rockies in stunning fashion on Tuesday. View full video

Yes, even though it's entirely believable that this will be another series loss, I have somehow convinced myself that this is when they turn some kind of corner.

Welcome to FOF's 31st Miami Marlins game thread of the 2024 season. The Marlins have not won a series all season. The Rockies haven't, either. Something's gotta give! For the first time, Sixto Sánchez is making a start in Miami with fans in attendance (although it may be only a couple thousand of them). Highly regarded Rockies outfield prospect Jordan Beck is making his major league debut. SuperSubs can access exclusive game notes here. Pregame roster moves: none. Enjoy live on-site coverage from Isaac Azout.

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Welcome to FOF's 30th Miami Marlins game thread of the 2024 season. The Marlins are trying to snap MLB's longest active losing streak. Although they've dropped all five of Trevor Rogers' starts thus far, that is through no fault of his own (2.88 FIP). Jesús Sánchez moves up to the second spot in the lineup for the first time this season (he had never previously started higher than fifth). SuperSubs can access exclusive game notes here. Pregame roster moves: none. Enjoy live on-site coverage from Kevin Barral and Isaac Azout.

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Marlins news roundup for 4/29/24 Sunday certainly felt like rock bottom for the Marlins. President of baseball operations Peter Bendix addressed the media prior to the game and pleaded for patience. Ignited by a Jazz Chisholm Jr. grand slam, his team jumped out to a 7-0 lead, only to give it all away by the fifth inning, just as Will predicted. Terrible outing for Anthony Bender, who could be on his way down to the minors once Braxton Garrett and/or JT Chargois complete their rehab assignments. Opponents are hitting .377 against Bender. RHP Emmanuel Ramirez made his major league debut in relief. The Marlins lost, 12-9. At 6-23, they have the worst record in Major League Baseball. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 5-3. OF Victor Mesa Jr. went 3-for-4 with a walk. INF Jonah Bride homered and boosted his slash line to .351/.489/.757. Double-A Pensacola won, 3-2. Jacob Berry played his second consecutive day in...right field? Berry had no previous outfield experience as a pro entering the weekend. It's a moot point if he continues putting up such poor numbers at the plate (65 wRC+ this season). Another quality start for RHP Paul Campbell (6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K). He's rocking a 2.38 ERA and 2.70 FIP and ought to be moved up to Jacksonville shortly. Low-A Jupiter won, 3-1. RHP Jake Brooks (6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K) is another obvious promotion candidate. Here's more Marlins news and content for you: 🔷 The Marlins have a groundball rate of 52.7% this season. It's on pace to be the highest of any MLB team since at least 2002. I cannot explain why so many different players on this roster are setting career-highs in this category, but it is very clearly crippling their offensive production. 🔷 C Joe Mack admits to MLB.com's Christina De Nicola that he was surprised by how quickly the Marlins bumped him up to Double-A. He details how taking live at-bats throughout the offseason proved valuable. 🔷 I have been including updated Marlins playoff odds in every Monday news roundup so far this season. However, this past week has made it obvious that there's no hope for them to get back into that conversation. 🔷 On this day 20 years ago, Mike Lowell's ninth-inning home run lifted the Marlins past the Giants. 🔷 Barely a year after debuting, the Marlins Museum is already being neglected by the LoanDepot Park staff. Pathetic. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Nike is going to revise their much-maligned MLB uniform template by the start of next season. The Twins have won seven straight games, doubling their season win total to get back above the .500 mark. The Astros swept the Rockies in the Mexico City Series. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter LHP Trevor Rogers) host the Nationals (RHP Jake Irvin). The Marlins have a 58.7% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. ET. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Most of the balls that Marlins hitters have put in play this season have been on the ground. It's no coincidence that they are among MLB's least-productive offenses. This is nothing new for the Miami Marlins. It was prevalent throughout their thrilling 2023 season, proving it is not perfectly correlated with losing. However, the 2024 Marlins have taken things to a new extreme during what's been a month of the most unappetizing baseball in franchise history. The Marlins offense had ample success during Sunday's loss. They plated nine runs against Patrick Corbin and the Washington Nationals, including six in the bottom of the first inning. But their output could have looked much different if not for a CJ Abrams miscue. With runners on first and second and no outs, Josh Bell pounces on Corbin's first-pitch fastball and hammers it directly into the ground. It reaches Abrams on two hops. Particularly with Bell batting from the right side (longer run to get down the line), this ought to be a routine double play. Instead, in his rush to flip the ball to second, Abrams loses control of it. Everybody is safe. R1pWZWpfWGw0TUFRPT1fRDFKV1ZWMVJBRmNBQ1ZwV1ZBQUFBUUJWQUZsV1ZsVUFCUUVBQ1ZCUkJRRUFVVlJX.mp4 The next man up, Jazz Chisholm Jr., launched a grand slam. The Marlins eventually batted around in the inning. We have rarely seen Miami's lineup erupt like that because usually, that grounder is converted into a double play. If Chisholm steps to the plate with two outs and multiple bases open, Corbin can pitch to him much differently. It's plausible that the Marlins would have been held scoreless in that inning. No need for hypotheticals, though: we have seen the same movie over and over and over again. Even including Sunday's game, the Marlins rank third-worst in the majors with an average of 3.5 runs scored per game. In large part, it's because they are putting balls on the ground more than any other team has in decades. Sports Info Solutions has tracked MLB batted ball trajectory since 2002. The Marlins entered Sunday with a collective 52.5% groundball rate, which is higher than any single-season groundball rate on record. The only other team to exceed a 50.0 GB% was the 2015 Fish. The aforementioned Bell is posting a career-high 56.5 GB%, coinciding with awful individual production, but this "dirt disease" has been contagious among Miami players. Tim Anderson (65.1 GB%), Avisaíl García (64.9 GB%) and Jesús Sánchez (64.6 GB%) rank first, second and third, respectively, in the National League in this category (min. 50 PA). Additionally, Luis Arraez, Jake Burger, Nick Fortes and Emmanuel Rivera are each hitting grounders at career-high frequencies. The Marlins are on track to be the only team in the live ball era with more double plays grounded into (33) than doubles (32). Their team launch angle is 9.1 degrees, per Baseball Savant—the next-lowest teams are at 10.7 degrees and the MLB average is 13.0 degrees. Amid Sunday's success, for example, the Marlins accounted of eight of the game's 10 lowest launch angles. With the exception of Bell's lucky break, all of the others resulted in outs. Even in a world that no longer allows dramatic shifting, major league infielders are highly effective at gobbling up grounders. For whatever reason, that pattern has not deterred the Marlins. When the same troubling tendency is afflicting many members of the same roster, it is natural to point to the coaching staff. Brant Brown left his position as Marlins hitting coach last offseason to join the Seattle Mariners. John Mabry has filled his shoes along, flanked by assistants Jason Hart and Bill Mueller. On the other hand, several of the leading culprits—Anderson, García and Bell—also happen to be the most experienced guys on Miami's roster. Long before they began getting coached by Mabry, you can see they often had trouble elevating balls (albeit not to this extreme). This is partly a player acquisition problem, overloading the lineup with hitters whose groundball-heavy profiles are now compounding in a disastrous way. It is imperative that the Marlins adjust, whether that be mechanically or philosophically, to reduce their grounders. View full article

Welcome to FOF's 29th Miami Marlins game thread of the 2024 season. On Saturday, I correctly predicted that Christian Bethancourt would get a hit. Today's prediction: Tanner Scott will get a save in a Marlins victory. SuperSubs can access exclusive game notes here. Pregame roster moves: OF Dane Myers recalled and RHP Emmanuel Ramirez selected from Triple-A Jacksonville; OF Avisaíl García (left hamstring strain) placed on 10-day injured list; LHP Kent Emanuel designated for assignment. Enjoy live on-site coverage from Kevin Barral and Louis Addeo-Weiss.