Ely Sussman

Here’s what you should know with 64 days to go until Marlins Opening Day… 🔹 Tuesday's winter ball notes: In the Dominican Republic, 3B Vidal Bruján went 2-for-4 with a run scored. The best-of-seven championship series between Estrellas Orientales and Tigres del Licey is tied up at 2-2. In Panamá, Christian Bethancourt's team, Federales de Chiriquí, advanced to the Probeis finals. 🔹 Per SportsGrid's Craig Mish, the Marlins are hiring Brandon Mann to be their new pitcher strategist. Mann briefly pitched for the Rangers in 2018 after spending years gaining velocity at Driveline Baseball. He then went to work for Driveline, assisting players with data-driven pitch design. Fascinating stuff. The Marlins have obviously been effective at cultivating homegrown pitchers in recent years and finding ways to further their development even once they've reached the majors, but doesn't hurt to bring in somebody with additional tricks for getting the most out of their arms. 🔹Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Gary Sheffield fell short by 11.1% in his final year of eligibility on the writers' ballot. Alex Carver eloquently disputed each of the commonly cited objections to Sheffield's candidacy. He'll have to wait two more years before getting a look from the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee. 🔹 Sheffield got emotional discussing his relationship with Jim Leyland, who's going into Cooperstown this year. Worth watching even though they won't be inducted together: 🔹 The Marlins Fan Confidence Poll is going to be a new monthly tradition around here. On a 1-10 scale, tell us how you feel about the direction of the franchise. I'll be tracking the ebbs and flows of the mean and median poll results. 🔹 Elsewhere around baseball, Rhys Hoskins (2/$34M) signed with the Brewers, Matt Moore (1/$9M) signed with the Angels and Joey Gallo (1/$5M) signed with the Nationals. 🔹 Our own Kevin Barral was at Florida International University on Tuesday where free agent pitchers Yoan López and Vladimir Gutierrez threw in front of MLB scouts, including one from the Marlins. Those right-handers could likely be had on minor league deals. Marlins prospect Paul McIntosh did the catching for López. McIntosh says his focus this offseason was improving the accuracy of his throwing and "everything catching-wise." 🔹 Peter Bendix feels "pretty comfortable" with the Marlins' current shortstop-by-committee situation, he tells Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Bendix reiterates that "there’s still a lot of offseason remaining" to fortify the roster. 🔹 In compliance with Major League Baseball's player development standards, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos are installing a new tarp and giving away their old one. To be entered to win it, make a quick video stating the case for why your school or baseball program deserves it and tag them on social media. View full article

Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the BBWAA, as announced on Tuesday night. They'll join revered manager Jim Leyland in HOF's Class of 2024. Unfortunately, former Marlins great Gary Sheffield missed the cut in what was his 10th and final year on the BBWAA ballot. Read Alex Carver's take on Sheffield's snub. Sheffield played parts of six seasons for the then-Florida Marlins from 1993-1998, contributing to their first-ever World Series title. He continues to hold franchise records for highest career on-base percentage (.426) and weighted runs created-plus (155) among players who had at least 1,000 plate appearances as Marlins. Oh yeah, and he played another 2,018 games with seven other MLB teams and was a great presence in the heart of their lineups, too. Sheffield's next chance to get into Cooperstown could come in December 2025 when the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee convenes again. He'll have to receive at least 75% support from the 16-person committee, comprised of members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, executives, and veteran media members.

You're spot on with that very last point. Beyond being a quiet offseason of acquisitions, it's been such an uninspiring one. As capable as he seems to be, Bendix is still unproven as a lead front office decision-maker. I don't think he can sell fans on the idea that retaining most of last year's cast is sufficient to make this team genuinely good in 2024.

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Here’s what you should know with 65 days to go until Marlins Opening Day… 🔹 Leading off, I just want to thank everybody who became a SuperSub on Monday. Even with some users dealing with technical difficulties, we set a new single-day record for sign-ups! You can join them here. 🔹 Monday's winter ball notes: In the Dominican Republic, RF Vidal Bruján went 2-for-4 with a walk and a caught stealing. 🔹 The Marlins Fan Confidence Poll is going to be a new monthly tradition around here. On a 1-10 scale, tell us how you feel about the direction of the franchise. I'll be tracking the ebbs and flows of the mean and median poll results. 🔹 Elsewhere around baseball, Aroldis Chapman (1/$10.5M) signed with the Pirates and James Paxton (1/~$12M) is close to finalizing a deal with the Dodgers. 🔹 In the second part of an interview with MLB.com's Christina De Nicola, Peter Bendix emphasized the importance of "getting a buy-in from the player" when trying to change something about their game. "You might have the best idea in the world, [but] if you can't both communicate that to the player and get his buy-in, that idea doesn't matter," Bendix says. He also describes baseball operations success as "entering as many seasons as we can with legitimate playoff aspirations, playing meaningful, exciting games in September." 🔹 Laura Georgia explores Ryan Weathers' baseball background and comes away optimistic that he has the intangibles to cope with his past MLB struggles and perform better than ever in 2024. 🔹 The results of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame election will be revealed tonight at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network. There are five candidates (Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, Todd Helton, Billy Wagner and Gary Sheffield) who've received at least 75.0% of the vote on the 200 publicly known BBWAA ballots. I'll lean pessimistic and predict that only Beltré and Helton get elected this year. 🔹 Fish On First's Noah Berger created a new "media" Twitter account (@NoahBergerMedia) to separate his Marlins reporting from his personal life. Please follow him there. Marlins Podcast Episodes View full article

I brought her aboard earlier in the offseason! The idea for this article was all hers.

How do you feel about the direction of the Miami Marlins franchise? Every month, I'll be polling our audience to find out how you’re reacting to transactions, news, rumors and game results. This month's poll is going up in the midst of a slooooow offseason under new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix. The Marlins are coming off a 84-78 regular season and rare postseason berth, and the vast majority of their 2023 roster remains intact. However, the front office doesn't seem motivated to make short-term upgrades nor extend core players. Principal owner Bruce Sherman has not committed to raising payroll and Miami's farm system objectively stinks. Taking these factors into consideration (and whatever else is important to you), let us know your current confidence level...

Here’s what you should know with 66 days to go until Marlins Opening Day… To lead off, I deeply appreciate everybody who has supported Fish On First up to this point and ask for patience as we fully grasp the capabilities (and iron out the bugs) of this redesigned site. Super Subscribers are still essential to what we do! We’re now calling them SuperSubs. Sign up this week for as little as $4 and you’ll be entered to win an officially licensed Eury Pérez replica jersey ($149.99 value). Second prize is a Sandy Alcantara City Connect t-shirt. 🔹 Sunday’s winter ball notes: In the Dominican Republic, 3B Vidal Bruján went 1-for-5 as Estrellas Orientales won again. They have a 2-0 lead in LIDOM’s best-of-seven championship series. 🔹 Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is just as flummoxed as the rest of us about why the Marlins still haven't signed any major league free agents (each of the other 29 MLB teams have). "Marlins officials briefed on the team’s strategy say (Peter) Bendix is devoting most of his time and resources to improving the team’s infrastructure," Rosenthal reports, echoing what Craig Mish of SportsGrid has previously said this offseason. Rosenthal wraps up his column with this gloomy forecast: 🔹 Elsewhere around baseball, big dominoes fell on the relief market with Josh Hader (5/$95M) signing with the Astros and Robert Stephenson (3/$33M) going to the Angels. 🔹 Jesús Luzardo and Colton Welker hosted their fourth annual baseball clinic, instructing kids ages 5-12 at their alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Anthony Bender, Xavier Edwards and old friend Lewis Brinson were also there to assist. 🔹 RHP Noble Meyer has bulked up to 205 pounds this offseason, per Walter Villa of Baseball America (20 pounds above his listed weight when the Marlins drafted him six months ago). He’s determined to get more vertical movement on his fastball, command it on the inside corner and top of the strike zone, and differentiate his slider from his curveball. 🔹 Contingent on the Marlins trading one of their controllable starting pitchers, Brian Dunleavy of Marlin Maniac makes the case for signing free agent Hyun Jin Ryu to a short-term deal. 🔹 Happy 34th birthday to Jon Berti. The utilityman extraordinaire hit a career-best .294 in 2023 while playing far more shortstop than he had in any of his previous seasons. Did you realize he’s the longest-tenured position player on the Marlins 40-man roster? 🔹 Congratulations to Braxton Garrett and Cloie Crocker on their engagement! They’ve been dating for more than three years. 🔹 And lastly, congrats to @claudsluna on being voted the 2024 winner of Marlins Twitter Madness. She's now in the esteemed company of @DanielDeVivo (2021), @jeremytache (2022) and @AlfreAlvarez3 (2023). Marlins Podcast Episodes View full article

I'd do any reasonable deal to bring over Brooks Lee, but this is a long way away from "reasonable" 😅

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I like the concept on bundling together amateur acquisition classes (international and MLB Draft combined) and periodically tracking progress. Gives us a better understanding of how much/how little "homegrown hope" there is, plus who has already been traded/released. Beginning in 2021, international signing day was realigned in a way that makes those players enter pro ball at a slightly older age, more comparable to draft picks. I'll brainstorm this further.

The Marlins have added teenage talent from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Mexico. An 11-month window has officially opened for the Miami Marlins to sign new international amateurs via free agency. The majority of those signings took place on Monday. Players outside of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico who were born before September 1, 2007 and have registered with Major League Baseball are eligible to sign. The Marlins have a bonus pool of $6.52M to use and signings of $10k or less do not count against that total. Following the departure of Adrian Lorenzo as senior director of international operations, Marlins assistant general manager Oz Ocampo is temporarily overseeing the signing process. However, most/all of these signings were agreed to in principle far in advance (when Lorenzo was still with the organization). The Marlins announced 21 total signings on Monday. More updates to come with further details about bonuses and biographical information. Name Country Bonus Position Age B/T Luis Cova Venezuela $1.4M OF 16 Right/Right José Castro Dominican Republic $450k OF 17 Right/Right Alejandro De La Cruz Dominican Republic $105k RHP 16 Right/Right Gerinton Mendez Dominican Republic $200k RHP 17 Right/Right Angel García Dominican Republic $225k RHP 16 Right/Right Kifraidy Encarnación Dominican Republic $165k LHP 18 Left/Left Yordani Martínez Dominican Republic $150k 2B 17 Right/Right Alex Cruz Dominican Republic $170k 1B/OF 17 Left/Right Robert Puente Dominican Republic $115k LHP 16 Left/Left Almen Tolentino Dominican Republic $145k C 17 Left/Right Gregori Arias Dominican Republic $180k SS 17 Both/Right Estarlin Francisco Dominican Republic $170k RHP 17 Right/Right José Paulino Dominican Republic $350k RHP 17 Right/Right Jonathan Rosario Dominican Republic $85k LHP 17 Left/Left Eric Gutierrez Dominican Republic $160k LHP 18 Left/Left Abraham Hernández Venezuela $250k LHP 16 Left/Left Kevin Robledo Mexico $75k C 17 Right/Right Eiver Mosquera Venezuela $150k RHP 17 Right/Right Carlos Ochoa Venezuela $150k RHP ? Right/Right Jonfreider Torrealba Venezuela $50k RHP 16 Right/Right Maikel Rodriguez Venezuela $20k RHP 17 Right/Right OF Luis Cova (Venezuela) https://fishonfirst.com/farm/luis-cova-marlins-signing-details/ Listed at 6'2", 175 pounds From FanGraphs: "Cova is a tall, long-levered, projectable outfield prospect who seemed to last deeper into the international scouting process than most premium prospects...Scouts are split as to whether his frame will eventually cause him to outgrow center field, but there is general agreement that he is both currently fast enough to give it a try and that he has a promising enough hit/power combination to profile in a corner if he has to move." From Baseball America: "The center fielder on Venezuela’s U-15 World Cup team in 2022, Cova is a bouncy athlete with a lean, well-proportioned build on a high-waist frame. He has good bat speed, strong bat-to-ball skills and a line-drive approach, with his gap power growing to now clearing the fence with more frequency and indicators of significantly more power on the way given his bat speed and strength projection." From MLB Pipeline: "The muscular infielder-turned-outfielder was initially showcased as a shortstop but didn’t separate from the pack. He made the move to the outfield and emerged as a prospect. Despite being relatively new to the position, Cova takes good routes to fly balls and has shown solid range while patrolling center field. Overall, he sees the ball well, has good instincts and features emerging arm strength. Scouts love his makeup, tabbed him as a quick study and rave about his awareness. At the plate, he is quick to the ball and, although there is an unorthodox hand load, it works well and produces hard-hit balls. He’s a mature and serious-minded prospect." OF José Castro (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/y9ZFEZkN?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @josemanuelcastr62/TikTok RHP Alejandro De La Cruz (Dominican Republic) via alejandro__0527/Instagram RHP Gerinton Mendez (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/KgH3gGrK?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @yadielgmendez0/TikTok Fastball/changeup/curveball pitch mix RHP Angel García (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/KxDJhje5?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @yandheell__/TikTok Fastball/changeup/curveball pitch mix IF Yordani Martínez (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/m6kEhpvF?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @yordanimartinez101/TikTok Taking defensive reps at shortstop C Almen Tolentino (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/l8LmsYSC?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @almenluistolentin/TikTok IF Gregori Arias (Dominican Republic) via gregori__arias_19/Instagram https://videopress.com/v/8owrIpqW?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @gregorimanuelarias1/TikTok Taking defensive reps at shortstop RHP Estarlin Francisco (Dominican Republic) https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqjV_URjL0A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Fastball velocity up to 95 mph as of 2023 RHP José Paulino (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/wq8AzXY4?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @gabrielpaulino2448/TikTok From Baseball America: "Paulino generated a lot of swing-and-miss when he was pitching with a fastball up to 92 mph. His velocity has spiked higher since then, with the 6-foot-3 righthander now reaching 96 mph with the potential for more on the way. He has a strong, durable frame with good pitchability for his age and a three-pitch mix that give him a starter look, showing feel for both his curveball and changeup. " LHP Eric Gutierrez (Dominican Republic) https://videopress.com/v/3UTpyXfc?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true via @erickemmanuelguti6/TikTok Venezuelan Signees Photo courtesy of Ben Badler/Baseball America View full article

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