Ely Sussman

Wednesday's Gameshttps://fishonfirst.com/game-coverage/marlins-astros-8-16-23/https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-08/16/fc1d3e77-55bdc9aa-73b3400d-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Marlins Podcast Episodes Wednesday's Marlins MiLB Notes: The Blue Wahoos suffered their eighth straight loss with the only Pensacola offense coming courtesy of C Will Banfield's 17th home run of the season. In what was presumably the final outing of his minor league rehab assignment, Tommy Nance went two perfect innings in relief. RHP Josh White, RHP Kyle Crigger and LHP Caleb Wurster combined to pitch a shutout for Beloit. INF/OF Javier Sanoja went 4-for-5 and is now hitting .361 since his promotion. INF Ian Lewis (Jupiter) stole five bases, including home. He ranks fifth in the Marlins organization with 26 steals.In just four combined innings, Jesús Luzardo and Jorge López allowed 10 of the 12 Astros runs on Wednesday. This sacrifice fly was the ultimate turning point. Great throw by Jesús Sánchez, but it was quite enough to get Chas McCormick at the plate. Houston piled on five more runs soon after that. Since the All-Star break, Luzardo's ERA has ballooned nearly a full run from 3.29 to 4.13.NL Wild Card race updates: the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Padres, Phillies and Reds won, while the Giants lost. The Marlins are now percentage points behind the Cubs for the third Wild Card spot.Elsewhere around the majors, the Dodgers extended their winning streak to 10 games. Only the Braves have a higher winning percentage than them this season. The Yankees have lost five in a row to drop below .500 for the first time in 2023.Fish Unfiltered did a sitdown interview with Josh Bell. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts! We'd appreciate a five-star rating and review for the FOF channel, too.https://fishonfirst.com/podcasts/fish-unfiltered-josh-bell-interview/We’ve got a new episode of Fish On First LIVE streaming tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on /Twitch/Twitter. Special guests: Danis Sosa. Super Subscribers, submit your series predictions before first pitch. With chiropractic care and functional health, La Pop takes a preventative approach that optimizes wellness and quality of life for all ages. Find out more here! https://fishonfirst.com/la-pop/Double-A Pensacola (7:35 p.m. ET), FCL Marlins (12:00 p.m. ET) and DSL Marlins (11:00 a.m. ET) are at home, while Triple-A Jacksonville (7:05 p.m. ET), High-A Beloit (7:30 p.m. ET), Low-A Jupiter (6:10 p.m. ET) and DSL Miami (11:00 a.m. ET) are on the road.Yuli Gurriel reflected on his seven seasons in an Astros uniform (via Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald). "That organization likes to win games," Gurriel said. "I will say that’s one of the things that I brought into here (to Miami).”Ethan Salzberg of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp takes us through the background of LHP Enmanuel De Jesús. De Jesús describes representing Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic last March and recovering from the elbow injury he suffered soon after that. The 26-year-old had been a staple of the Jumbo Shrimp rotation from late May through early August, but he's been bumped to the bullpen following the acquisition of Ryan Weathers and demotion of Edward Cabrera.Zack Meisel of The Athletic details how Jim Eisenreich overcame the challenges of his Tourette Syndrome to put together a lengthy MLB career, which included a role on the 1997 World Series-winning Marlins.Happy 27th birthday to LHP Jefry Yan. He's been a strikeout machine throughout his three seasons in the Marlins organization. Yan has obliterated left-handed batters in 2023, holding them to a .088 BA with a 42.5 K%. Poor control casts serious doubt on this Dominican reliever ever sticking in the majors, but it's a delight to watch him celebrate every time he finishes off a win. Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images

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Tuesday's Games/game-coverage/marlins-astros-8-15-23/https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-08/15/c3eafc97-f97acbaa-2ae6c79c-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Marlins Podcast Episodes Tuesday's Marlins MiLB Notes: C Paul McIntosh was reassigned from Jacksonville to Pensacola. The Jumbo Shrimp piled on 11 runs without him, including OF/1B Jerar Encarnación's 23rd home run of the season. The Jupiter Hammerheads rallied for six runs in the top of the ninth in their win. 1B Brock Vradenburg had the first three-hit game of his professional career, while INF Ian Lewis stuffed the box score (2-for-4, 3B, BB, 3 RBI, 2 SB). LHP Keyner Benitez (DSL Miami) threw up zeroes for the third time in his last five starts (5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K).McIntosh was reassigned because the Marlins reunited with Jorge Alfaro on a minor league deal. The 30-year-old Alfaro played with the Red Sox and Rockies earlier this season. He'll be reporting to Jacksonville shortly./news/marlins-sign-jorge-alfaro-minor-league-deal/With his 30th home run of the season on Tuesday, Jorge Soler is on pace to join Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sheffield as the only players in Marlins history to reach 40. The direction of this one was notable—it traveled closer to the right field line than any of the previous 29.NL Wild Card race updates: the Diamondbacks, Giants and Padres won, while the Cubs, Phillies and Reds lost. The Marlins hold the third Wild Card spot by one game.Elsewhere around the majors, Rays ace Shane McClanahan is scheduled to undergo his second Tommy John surgery, which will likely sideline him through the end of the 2024 season. On the milder side, Ozzie Albies (left hamstring strain) has been placed on the 10-day injured list. Albies had played in each of the Braves' first 117 games. Miguel Cabrera hit his 509th career home run.The Marlins have a 49.0% chance to win their series finale against the Astros, per FanGraphs. Triple-A Jacksonville (7:05 p.m. ET), High-A Beloit (7:30 p.m. ET) and Low-A Jupiter (2:10 p.m. ET) are at home, while Double-A Pensacola (7:35 p.m. ET) is on the road.Fish Unfiltered will be interviewing Josh Bell for a new podcast episode. Feel free to contact Kevin Barral or comment below with any specific questions/topics for the recently acquired Marlins first baseman.After placing them third midway through the 2021 season, MLB Pipeline has dropped the Marlins down to 24th in their updated farm system rankings. Pipeline was slow to recognize the system's vulnerabilities, in my opinion, but they've now remedied that.RHP Noble Meyer ranks 62nd on Just Baseball's latest Top 100 MLB prospects list.Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer explores why so much of the baseball industry overlooked Luis Arraez at every step of his professional journey, and whether his success will help contact-oriented prospects get more respect moving forward.Jay Cuda finds something that Jazz Chisholm Jr. has in common with...the Great Pyramid of Giza?!Our partners at FOCO have dozens of products in their Miami Marlins collection. Shop here.Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images

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Jorge Alfaro has signed a minor league deal with the Miami Marlins, as first reported by the Miami Herald's Jordan McPherson. Welcome back, old friend. Alfaro's previous stint in Miami (2019-2021) represents about half of his total major league experience. The Colombian catcher slashed .252/.298/.386 (83 wRC+) and produced 1.7 fWAR in those 253 games. https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2021/2021-04/17/70535b12-f933e2cf-e1f0a0d5-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4But most of his offensive success was concentrated in that first season. Also, the Marlins fell so far out of his favor with his defense that they acquired two young backstops (Alex Jackson and Payton Henry) at the 2021 trade deadline and primarily used "El Oso" in left field down the stretch. The Marlins made yet another catcher acquisition (Jacob Stallings) right before the MLB lockout, subsequently dumping Alfaro to the San Diego Padres for cash. Alfaro initially bounced back with a vengeance in San Diego. He owned a 124 wRC+ through June of the 2022 campaign and even dealt the Marlins a devastating loss with a walk-off three-run home run against Cole Sulser. However, his production cratered to a new low after that. He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Boston Red Sox entering this year. In 18 MLB games for the Sox and Colorado Rockies in 2023, he has slashed a meager .146/.212/.292 (24 wRC+), striking out 28.8% of the time. Most of his summer has been spent in Triple-A. Even when he's locked in, the 30-year-old Alfaro demonstrates horrific plate discipline. He has chased nearly half of all pitches outside the strike zone since debuting in 2016, per FanGraphs. That directly contributes to his obscenely high 34.0% career strikeout rate. Nick Fortes and Jacob Stallings have been an underwhelming catching tandem for the Marlins this season. Alfaro brings great raw power and arm strength that they lack, and he has familiarity with several of the club's active pitchers (especially Sandy Alcantara and Braxton Garrett). That being said, I don't foresee Alfaro replacing either of them barring injury. If he excels with Triple-A Jacksonville over the next few weeks, he could build a case to be a September call-up. The struggles of Fortes and Stallings have been especially pronounced against right-handed pitching, so perhaps Alfaro could pinch-hit in select late-game scenarios, or at least take over behind the plate after somebody else on the team pinch-hits. He'd also have usefulness as a pinch-runner for Stallings and several of the other veterans on the Fish (82nd percentile in Sprint Speed among MLB qualifiers). In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how the Jumbo Shrimp split up catcher and designated hitter reps between Alfaro, Austin Allen and Paul McIntosh. This news is a tough break for Allen in particular, who's been hitting as well as Alfaro in recent months but without even receiving a cup of coffee in The Show at any point. Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Monday's GamesMarlins Podcast Episodes Monday's Marlins MiLB notes: Edward Cabrera (Jacksonville) won International League Pitcher of the Week and 1B Angelo DiSpigna (FCL Marlins) won Florida Complex League Player of the Week. An undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech, DiSpigna is an obvious candidate to be promoted to Jupiter later this month once the FCL season ends. OF Andres Valor (DSL Miami) hit his fifth home run of the season.Jorge Soler, Luis Arraez and Josh Bell joined Derrek Lee, Cliff Floyd and Kevin Orie (1998) as the only trio in Marlins history to hit back-to-back-to-back home runs. Miami won despite their pitching staff striking out only two batters (a season low). This was the Marlins' 26th interleague win of the season, which is most among MLB teams.For the first time on Monday, the winner of the Marlins Rooster Race wasn't wearing the same uniform as the players themselves. We'll continue tracking the game-by-game mascot race results through season's end.https://fishonfirst.com/at-the-ballpark/2023-marlins-rooster-race-results/NL Wild Card race updates: the Diamondbacks, Giants and Padres all lost. The Marlins hold the third Wild Card spot by one game.Elsewhere around the majors, Garrett Cooper homered for the first time since being traded, a 439-footer to straightaway center field. Brady Singer carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, but the Royals bullpen blew his 5-0 lead. K.C. rallied in the bottom of the ninth to win it anyway.Check out the full replay of , including extended thoughts about the Marlins' lineup construction and the recent mediocrity of the non-Sandy starters. With chiropractic care and functional health, La Pop takes a preventative approach that optimizes wellness and quality of life for all ages. Find out more here! https://fishonfirst.com/la-pop/The Marlins have a 43.4% chance to win their next game against the Astros, per FanGraphs. Yuli Gurriel will be presented with his 2022 World Series ring. Double-A Pensacola (7:35 p.m. ET) and DSL Marlins (11:00 a.m. ET) are at home, while Triple-A Jacksonville (7:05 p.m. ET), High-A Beloit (7:30 p.m. ET), Low-A Jupiter (6:10 p.m. ET), FCL Marlins (10:00 a.m. ET) and DSL Miami (11:00 a.m. ET) are on the road.Speaking to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, former Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria remains bitter about how new ownership renovated the ballpark, particularly in regards to displacing his beloved home run sculpture. On Derek Jeter's brief tenure as CEO, Loria says, "he was a magnificent player, and he should have asked for some advice or not been so hasty." Loria alleges that he still watches "more than half" of all Marlins games and roots for their success.Sandy Alcantara ranks 16th, Jesús Luzardo ranks 27th, Eury Pérez ranks 46th and Johnny Cueto ranks 98th on The List of Top 100 starting pitchers for fantasy baseball created by Nick Pollack.Launching on September 5, the Marlins Rookies program will be teaching baseball and softball fundamentals to kids ages 12 and under at Babcock Park in Hialeah. Registration is $40 and closes on August 28.It didn't take long for Burger King—headquartered in South Florida—to hook up Jake Burger with free food and crowns. Here is the interview he had on MLB Network immediately afterwards. Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

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Sunday's Games/game-coverage/marlins-yankees-8-13-23/https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-08/13/b0c47811-e9622266-262e9a6e-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Marlins Podcast Episodes Sunday's Marlins MiLB Notes: INF Xavier Edwards (Jacksonville) drew four walks, reached on an error and hit a sacrifice fly. Pitching on back-to-back days in what was presumably the final appearance of his minor league rehab assignment, Tommy Nance (Pensacola) worked a scoreless inning of relief. Question is whether he'll be placed on the Marlins active roster or optioned to Jacksonville upon being reinstated from the injured list. OF Chase Luttrell went 0-for-3 with a hit by pitch in his Beloit debut. C Spencer Bramwell (Jupiter) blasted a game-winning two-run home run and LHP Evan Taylor picked up his organization-leading 16th save.Luis Arraez and Jake Burger recorded three hits apiece to propel the Marlins to their biggest comeback win of the 2023 season. That included an Arraez game-tying triple and a Burger walk-off single. The club had a meager 1.7% win probability entering the bottom of the ninth, according to FanGraphs, before rallying against Yankees closer Clay Holmes. It was their 27th one-run win.The Marlins pulled it off despite another underwhelming performance by Eury Pérez (4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR on 82 pitches/47 strikes). Since the All-Star break, Sandy Alcantara hasn't gotten much help from his rotation mates, accounting for four of Miami's eight quality starts.Listen to our weekly State of the Fish Marlins call-in show. Beyond the usual analysis of the major league roster, lots of Troy Johnston talk made it into this one. Congrats to Zack Ondriezek (@ZackOndriezek), who won our mid-show Marlins vs. Astros ticket giveaway.NL Wild Card race updates: the Diamondbacks and Giants won, the Reds split their doubleheader, and the Phillies, Cubs and Padres lost. The Marlins hold the third Wild Card spot by 0.5 games.Elsewhere around the majors, the Nationals pulled off an astonishing comeback of their own against the Athletics after trailing 7-2 entering the bottom of the ninth. Matt Olson homered for the 43rd time and drove in his 106th and 107th runs (he leads the league in both categories). Wander Franco is facing allegations that he sexually assaulted a minor. There's an MLB investigation underway.We’ve got a new episode of Fish On First LIVE streaming tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET on /Twitch/Twitter. Special guests: David Ferrel and Noemi Rodriguez. Super Subscribers, submit your series predictions before first pitch. With chiropractic care and functional health, La Pop takes a preventative approach that optimizes wellness and quality of life for all ages. Find out more here! /la-pop/Entering this new week, the Marlins have 46.0% playoff odds, per FanGraphs. They have a 43.9% chance to win their series opener against the Astros. DSL Miami (11:00 a.m. ET) is at home, while DSL Marlins (10:00 a.m. ET) is on the road.Alex Krutchik wrote about the impact Josh Bell has already made on the Marlins. More from Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald on Bell's "perfect fit" with the Fish./game-coverage/at-the-ballpark/josh-bell-hot-start-with-marlins/Bell will be our next guest on the Fish Unfiltered podcast show, so feel free to comment with any questions/topics for that interview.For the second straight weekend, Alex Carver was on site for FCL Marlins coverage. He'll have an article coming shortly to our Fish on the Farm section with all of his observations.Ryan Schlesinger continues his series looking at the best Marlins ever at every jersey number.Happy 46th birthday to Marlins legend Juan Pierre. The speedy leadoff man didn't miss a game during his first three seasons with the Fish (2003-2005). He returned to Miami to close out his MLB career in 2013. The World Series champion still holds the franchise single-season record for stolen bases (65). In retirement, Pierre remains involved with the Marlins as a spring training guest instructor,Photo by Jesus Sanchez/Fish On First

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