Ely Sussman

Footage of Marlins right-hander José Paulino facing live batters in 2023 prior to officially signing with the organization. View full video

Most of the organization's top prospects actually reported around February 13 to participate in a "pre-spring development camp." They were doing intrasquad scrimmages the last two weeks, then took a little break. Today was the standard report date for all the minor leaguers, with tomorrow being their first organized workout together. Minor league camp goes on until March 30. Appreciate you becoming a SuperSub!

Hey, still working on getting a detailed schedule, but there will typically be scrimmages in the late morning/early afternoon beginning on March 12. They'll take place daily from Monday-Saturday from that point forward. Minor leaguers are off on Sundays.

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins games. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs... View full article

On The Offishial Show, Ely Sussman shares the scouting report for new Marlins outfielder Luis Cova and discusses how his signing signals a change in philosophy to the team's approach to the international free agent market. View full video

Nearly three full years removed from his last spring training appearance, Marlins right-hander Sixto Sánchez threw a perfect inning against the New York Mets in his 2024 Grapefruit League debut. Watch all 15 pitches here! View full video

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... View full article

On The Offishial Show, Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions explains how Marlins left-hander Jesús Luzardo accumulated a team-leading seven defensive runs saved in 2023. View full video

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... View full article

All but one of the Marlins' regular season games will be carried on Bally Sports Florida. It’s no secret that regional sports networks are struggling. The traditional cable audience has been shrinking rapidly, making it more difficult for the RSNs to cover the rights fees that they owe to the teams they're partnered with. After Diamond Sports Group (the operator of the Bally Sports networks) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2023, it seemingly signaled the end of an era. But January brought a plot twist. It was announced that Amazon had agreed to make a $115 million investment in the company once it exited bankruptcy, acquiring access to the streaming rights currently owned by Diamond. That agreement was recently approved by a judge. Diamond has the rights to broadcast 38 pro sports teams, including 11 Major League Baseball teams. However, only five of these MLB teams also have their digital rights owned by Diamond: the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins. Marlins fans should be bracing for the inevitability that major changes are coming to their streaming options in the future. For the 2024 season, however, you'll be able to stick with a familiar routine, as confirmed by Bally Sports Florida on Thursday. In a press release, they announced a 161-game regular season schedule of local Marlins broadcasts. Only the June 8 matchup against the Cleveland Guardians is being broadcasted exclusively by FOX. All of Bally's 2023 personalities are returning: play-by-play announcer Paul Severino, analysts Tommy Hutton, Rod Allen, Gaby Sanchez and Jeff Nelson, pregame/postgame host Craig Minervini, hosts/in-game reporters Jessica Blaylock and Kelly Saco, and digital host/reporter Jeremy Taché. Alex Avila is a new addition as pregame/postgame analyst. As an alternative to a standard cable subscription. Florida-based fans also have access to a Marlins Season Pass. For $105.99, it allows you to watch all Marlins and Florida Panthers game broadcasts through September 29 (there is a Sunsports Season Pass that bundles the Rays and Miami Heat for the same price). For out-of-market folks, an all-teams MLB.TV subscription is still your best bet (priced at $149.99 for the year and includes a seven-day free trial). Earlier reporting from Daniel Kaplan of Awful Announcing outlined a potential plan for Amazon to use Diamond's digital rights to offer streaming of these games through Prime Video Channels, requiring an additional purchase on top of the standard Prime Video subscription. That may be the direction this goes further down the road. For 2024, though, Bally is still delivering Marlins games on its own. The Marlins were one of the last Bally-affiliated MLB teams to extend their rights deal before the RSN model fell into this crisis. That extension took effect in 2021 and runs beyond the 2025 season. View full article

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... View full article

The Offishial Show #214 Ely and Daniel prep for the 2024 season by diving into the defensive data with Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions. Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions joins Ely Sussman and Daniel Rodriguez for a fielding breakdown of notable Miami Marlins players. How do Tim Anderson, Luis Arraez, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Nick Fortes and Jesús Luzardo grade out in terms of defensive runs saved, and what are their specific strengths/weaknesses? Simon takes us under the hood! As referenced during the conversation, here is Mark Simon's analysis of how the 2023 Marlins excelled at saving runs via their infield positioning. Jody Reed will once again be coaching the club's infielders in 2024, so perhaps he can make Anderson's job easier just like he previously did for Joey Wendle. Sports Info Solutions provides defensive runs saved data to several public research sites, including The Fielding Bible. You can fiddle around with last season's leaderboards. Luzardo led Miami in 2023 with 7 DRS, while Jean Segura and Chisholm tied for a team-worst -9 DRS. Find The Offishial Show on the Fish On First YouTube channel, our new-look Apple Podcasts channel and wherever else you get your pods. FOF's audio programming also includes Fish Unfiltered, Big Fish Small Pod, Swimming Upstream and more. Follow Mark (@MarkASimonSays), Daniel (@Drodyyy), Ely (@RealEly) and Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) on Twitter. Join the Marlins Discord server! Complete Miami Marlins coverage here at FishOnFirst.com. View full article

Marlins news roundup for 2/29/24 Fish On First is providing extensive coverage on location throughout Marlins spring training. Click here to keep up with our latest updates. 🔷 On Wednesday, Edward Cabrera made easy work of a very thin Astros lineup. You can watch all 31 of his pitches. Ugly line for Tanner Scott (0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K). For the third consecutive day, the Marlins offense was limited to a single run as Houston won, 6-1. 🔷 I set up a Miami Marlins podcast directory to spread awareness about some talented talkers in the Marlins community. If there's a show you enjoy that isn't on there, let me know! 🔷 Speaking of podcasts, director of player development Rachel Balkovec was a guest on Diggin' Deep this week and spoke passionately about paying bonuses to minor leaguers based on their teams' success. It's unclear whether Balkovec expects that incentive system to take effect in 2024 or if she's planning beyond that. 🔷 Jazz Chisholm Jr. won't be discouraged by his previous injuries, writes Alex Krutchik. 🔷 Noah Berger got feedback from eight different Marlins players regarding the restyled MLB uniforms. Overall, they feel the Fish were more fortunate than some other teams. 🔷 On the latest episode of Fish On First LIVE, Josh Nelson of Sox Machine reflected on the White Sox tenures of Tim Anderson and Jake Burger and explained how he expects them to benefit from a change of scenery. 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. 🔷 Today's game: Marlins (LHP Ryan Weathers) vs. Yankees (RHP Clayton Beeter) at 6:35 p.m. Both Tim Anderson and Max Meyer are expected to make their 2024 Grapefruit League debuts. The Yankees broadcast can be streamed via MLB.TV. 🔷 Vote in our February 2024 Marlins fan confidence poll if you haven't done so already! Eager to find out how the results compare to January's edition. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

With the cooperation of higher-ups in the Marlins organization, Balkovec hopes to implement such a system "as soon as possible." Prior to being hired by the Miami Marlins as their new director of player development, Rachel Balkovec was a minor league manager. She observed how players were focused on individual production first and foremost, doing whatever it took to advance to the next level. The team's success in the standings was a far lower priority and guys weren't motivated to make sacrifices for each other to win that day's game. During an extensive interview on the Diggin' Deep Podcast (just before the 48-minute mark), co-host Justin Su'a asked Balkovec, "How do you build a culture of camaraderie and teach guys to be good teammates in the minor leagues when the incentives aren't right?" Her response: "Money! Money!" "This seems very simple to me: pay minor league players incentives for winning," Balkovec said. Earlier in the episode, Balkovec praised Marlins manager Skip Schumaker for pushing his big league team to compete and play the game the right way. "That doesn't happen at the minor league level," Balkovec explained, "because it's not about the team winning." Despite drawing from a poorly regarded minor league talent pool, Marlins MiLB affiliates have hoisted some trophies in recent years. Double-A Pensacola won the 2022 Southern League championship and Low-A Jupiter earned the Florida State League title last season. And that's without having any sort of cash bonus to chase. Balkovec would not base all of the incentives around the playoffs—due to the extreme length of the baseball season, players can lose their focus long before that. Perhaps money could be awarded monthly instead, she recommended. Balkovec described how she coordinated a low-stakes version of this during her two seasons managing the Tampa Tarpons. She divided the position players on her roster into small groups and kept track of the points they earned for positive plays over five-week periods, distributing her unused Nike store credit to the group with the highest point total. "There's so much immediate, pure accountability because they want the money." As outlined in the the first-ever minor league collective bargaining agreement, players receive a minimum salary of $19,800 in rookie league, $26,200 in Low-A, $27,300 in High-A, $30,250 in Double-A and $35,800 in Triple-A. It's less exploitative than it used to be, but still, the vast majority of minor leaguers are either relying on the generosity of friends and family to live comfortably or finding additional work outside of their playing career. Every little bit helps remedy that. "I really hope to implement [it] as soon as possible," Balkovec said of the incentive system. View full article