Ely Sussman

Highlights of new Marlins outfielder Joey Wiemer against the Nashville Sounds. In Wiemer's first five games with Triple-A Jacksonville, he posted a 1.609 OPS to earn International League Player of the Week honors. View full video

Needless to say, the Miami Marlins cannot afford another week like last week, or else their already-minuscule 2025 playoff odds could flatline. Even if they respond well during the rest of this road trip, they would appreciate some outside help. Here are the results that would benefit the Marlins most during the week of August 11 with respect to contending for the third wild-card spot in the National League: Root for the Atlanta Braves over the New York Mets (mid-week), then the Seattle Mariners over the Mets (weekend) Root for the Philadelphia Phillies over the Cincinnati Reds, then the Milwaukee Brewers over the Reds Root for the Colorado Rockies over the St. Louis Cardinals, then the New York Yankees over the Cardinals Root for the San Diego Padres over the San Francisco Giants, then the Tampa Bay Rays over the Giants Root for the Texas Rangers over the Arizona Diamondbacks, then the Rockies over the Diamondbacks Down on the farm, DSL Marlins won, 8-1, and clinched the DSL Southeast division. José Paulino and Albert Polanco recorded six strikeouts apiece. They rank fourth and fifth, respectively, among all Dominican Summer League pitchers in strikeouts this season. DSL Miami won, 5-1. They're a couple victories away from clinching a postseason berth of their own (as a wild card team). Joey Wiemer was named International League Player of the Week in his very first week with the Marlins organization. Wiemer went 8-for-17 with two home runs and a 307 wRC+ to propel Triple-A Jacksonville to a six-game road sweep of the Nashville Sounds. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Anthony Bender is due back from the paternity list prior to tonight's game. George Soriano has already been optioned to Jacksonville as the corresponding roster move. 🔷 We already know that the Marlins are going to protect Joe Mack in advance of this winter's MLB Rule 5 Draft. I highlighted seven other prospects who will also be Rule 5-eligible and potentially under consideration for roster spots. 🔷 On this day in 2015, the Marlins tied a then-franchise record by scoring 10 runs in the sixth inning vs. Boston. 🔷 The Top 100 prospect lists from Baseball America and MLB Pipeline were updated. Both lists now feature four Marlins—Thomas White (BA #21/MLB #21), Aiva Arquette (BA #32/MLB #39), Joe Mack (BA #45/MLB #76) and Robby Snelling (BA #42/MLB #80). 🔷 The Marlins are accepting applications for a new position: director of baseball data. "This role will be responsible for designing and implementing scalable, high-performance data pipelines that support analytics, player evaluation, and decision-making across Baseball Operations," the position summary reads. "The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in data engineering, cloud computing, and database technologies, along with strong leadership and project management skills." 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Tampa Bay Rays left-hander Shane McClanahan underwent season-ending surgery for a nerve issue in his arm. Due to injuries, McClanahan has not pitched in the majors since August 2, 2023. The Texas Rangers rallied from a 6-1 deficit to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on a Jake Burger extra-inning walk-off hit. The ageless Kenley Jansen has made 21 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins begin a three-game set against the Cleveland Guardians (probable starters RHP Janson Junk and LHP Logan Allen). The Guardians have won nine of their last 11 games. Watch out for Kyle Manzardo in particular, who has a 1.140 OPS since the All-Star break. The Marlins have a 42.5% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 6:40 p.m. ET. 🔷 Prior to the series opener, Fish On First LIVE will preview it all beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET. FOF LIVE is presented by About The Fans. Check out our new merchandise collection (coupon code fof10 for 10% off). Marlins podcast episodes View full article

One of the very few positive takeaways from the dismantling of the Miami Marlins in Atlanta was that Xavier Edwards (10-23 with 4 SB during the series) continues to be perfectly suited for the leadoff spot. That's been the case for most of the season at this point, ever since he returned from the injured list in late May and moved from shortstop to second base. He now finds himself exactly where many folks anticipated he'd be entering 2025: in the mix for the National League batting title. Entering Monday, you need five decimal places to split hairs between the batting averages of Edwards (.30528) and future Hall of Famer Freddie Freeman (.30534). Freeman leads all NL qualifiers in that category. Fellow Los Angeles Dodger Will Smith (.310) is only a few plate appearances shy of qualification. Considering Smith's unremarkable track record (career .258 BA prior to this season) and the uncertainty about him reaching the magic threshold of 502 PA, Freeman is the more serious threat to Edwards. Of course, it would be naive to count out the Senior Circuit's two-time defending batting title winner, Luis Arraez (.295). His San Diego Padres teammate, Manny Machado (.297), is wedged between Edwards and Arraez. Simply replicating what he had been doing in 2024 wasn't going to be enough for Edwards to produce like this in his first full Marlins season. According to Baseball Savant, the speedy switch-hitter was among the league's luckiest players in terms of the 76-point discrepancy between his actual and expected batting average. This year, he has trimmed his whiff rate against all pitch groups—fastball, breaking ball and offspeed—while putting balls in the air more often. I'm not quite ready to declare Edwards the favorite for the 2025 title, but he should remain in contention deep into September. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 2-1. The Jumbo Shrimp (71-42) continue to own the best record in Triple-A this season. Double-A Pensacola lost, 3-2. Starting on his birthday, Jacob Miller (4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 82 pitches/46 strikes) had his best outing since mid-June. High-A Beloit won, 6-2. Every Sky Carp position player had at least one hit. Marlins top draft pick Aiva Arquette has begun his professional baseball career on a five-game hitting streak, though with an underwhelming .227/.292/.273 slash line. Low-A Jupiter lost, 12-5. Rough day at the office for Dameivi Tineo (2.1 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 65 pitches/40 strikes). PJ Morlando was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Andrew Salas became the youngest player in Marlins minor league history to steal 30 bases in a season. Our final 2025 in-season update of the Fish On First Top 30 list is now live. Unsurprisingly, Jakob Marsee was the biggest riser from the previous update in June, while Jared Serna, Dax Fulton, Carter Johnson and Victor Mesa Jr. (who's no longer ranked at all) fell significantly. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 We just surpassed 3,000 subscribers on YouTube! Thanks so much to those of you who have contributed to our channel's growth. Subscribing is the easiest way to interact with the Fish On First panelists during our livestreams. 🔷 YouTuber "And That's Baseball" detailed the Marlins' turnaround during Peter Bendix's tenure as president of baseball operations. 🔷 Happy 17th birthday to Kevin Defrank. The Dominican right-hander ranks sixth on the FOF Top 30. Defrank has a triple-digit fastball and the potential for a plus changeup. Through nine starts in the DSL, he's posted a 2.89 ERA and 4.27 FIP in 28 innings pitched with an extreme 59.7% ground ball rate. 🔷 It's already linked at the top of the page, but I wanted to give a more explicit shoutout to @ForeverMarlins regarding this blog post on the Braves series. As a reminder, anybody who registers for an FOF account can set up their own blog! 🔷 The Prediction Time leaderboard has been updated through the first 38 series. Become a SuperSub and we'll keep track of your predictions all season long! 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers stormed back from a 5-0 deficit to walk off against the New York Mets. The Brewers have now won nine straight games, while the Mets have dropped seven in a row. The Colorado Rockies also endured a winless week, allowing nearly 12 runs per game. Jason Alexander, who flummoxed the Marlins in his previous start, was even better against the New York Yankees, carrying a no-hitter through 5 ⅓ innings. Jose Altuve joined José Ramírez as the only active MLB players with at least 250 home runs and 250 stolen bases in their careers. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Found myself agreeing with every bit of this. Appropriately critical yet completely level-headed. Thanks a lot for posting!

An excerpt from my post here, in case you haven't gotten to it: "Snelling does not have any professional experience pitching on four days' rest. That box almost always gets checked before a prospect is plugged into a regular MLB rotation spot, so if his next outing comes on Tuesday, we're officially on call-up watch."

Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal readers. These notes apply to the fifth and final game of Miami's road series against the Atlanta Braves. Starting Lineup 2B Xavier Edwards (S) RF Heriberto. Hernández DH Kyle Stowers (L) SS Otto Lopez LF Dane Myers 1B Eric Wagaman CF Derek Hill C Liam Hicks (L) 3B Javier Sanoja P Cal Quantrill Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below)

Entering this week, the National League Manager of the Year hype had begun to build around Clayton McCullough. The Miami Marlins have lost five of their seven games since then, with the latest double debacle underscoring why McCullough wasn't a true contender for that award in the first place. The Marlins were defeated twice by a non-competitive Atlanta Braves club on Saturday, in large part because they didn't fully utilize the talent on their roster in late-and-close situations. Game 1 (MIA 1, ATL 7) Hurston Waldrep pitched extremely well for the Braves in his previous outing at the inaugural Speedway Classic. This start was more of the same (6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 89 pitches/61 strikes). Waldrep kept the Marlins off balance with his six-pitch mix and his splitter was especially sharp. Only a handful of balls even escaped the infield against the rookie right-hander and Jurickson Profar bailed him out of his biggest mistake. Agustín Ramírez crushed a fly ball to left field that seemed destined to be a solo home run, but Profar scaled the wall with perfect timing to make the catch. zxn4wh_1.mp4 Serving as the Marlins' 27th man for this doubleheader, Ryan Gusto looked solid in his debut with the club (6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 98 pitches/67 strikes). Gusto's four-seam fastball was his best swing-and-miss pitch. He allowed only five total hard-hit balls, as defined by Baseball Savant. The Braves' hottest bat entering this series, Michael Harris II continues to turn his season around. His double off of Gusto in the bottom of the second inning ignited a two-run rally. But don't let the lopsided final score fool you: the Marlins were very much alive deep into the game. Trailing 3-1 in the top of the seventh inning, the potential tying runs were on first and second with nobody out. Dane Myers has slumped more severely lately than any other Marlins hitter, particularly versus right-handed pitching, yet Clayton McCullough stuck with him against Pierce Johnson. Myers grounded into a deflating double play. While it's true that McCullough's only pinch-hitting options were also righties, letting Myers take that plate appearance and swing away in that scenario (as opposed to attempting a sacrifice bunt) was a blatant mistake. The Marlins failed to score in the inning. The red-hot Harris then put the game out of reach. In relief of Gusto, George Soriano was inexplicably called upon to keep the deficit manageable, and he predictably stumbled. Harris was gifted a center-cut 0-2 fastball and drilled a three-run homer that made it 7-1 Atlanta. Soriano has surrendered seven long balls in 21 ⅓ innings pitched for the Fish in 2025. Signed by Miami a decade ago as an international free agent, it's getting very difficult to imagine his tenure lasting beyond this year. Newly promoted from Jacksonville—filling in for Anthony Bender, who's been placed on the paternity list—righty Tyler Zuber made quick work of the Braves in the bottom of the eighth. Cool milestone: first base umpire Jen Pawol became the first woman to ump an MLB regular season game. Here is a compilation of the plays she was responsible for calling. Game 2 (MIA 6, ATL 8) I was in disbelief watching the nightcap. Somehow, the game was scoreless through the first three innings despite extremely poor pitch execution from both Sandy Alcantara and Erick Fedde. They plainly "didn't have it." Well, two innings later, there were nine runs on the board, the majority of those scored by the team that has nothing left to play for. The Marlins seized a 4-0 advantage in the top of the fourth inning. Marcell Ozuna answered back with a majestic solo shot. Alcantara's lack of command was reminiscent of his rusty April/May self (he walked old friend Vidal Bruján twice). It took a fortuitous ground ball double play for him to escape the frame without yielding more damage. Even with Bender unavailable, McCullough had four relatively trustworthy relievers—Ronny Henriquez, Tyler Phillips, Lake Bachar and Calvin Faucher—to navigate the rest of the game. It was irrational to expect Alcantara to suddenly "settle in" given the evidence in front of us. Up 4-1, Alcantara led off the fifth inning by striking out light-hitting No. 9 hitter Nick Allen. Once the lineup flipped over, though, things collapsed in a hurry, and McCullough was too complacent. Jurickson Profar single. Matt Olson walk. Drake Baldwin RBI single. Ozuna go-ahead, three-run homer. 0ad0eee5-343975fb-325f8d59-csvm-diamondgcp-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4 Alcantara, to his credit, stopped the bleeding and kept the game at 5-4. Facing a Braves team that has repeatedly choked under similar circumstances this season, the door was still open to salvage a doubleheader split, even after the Marlins went down quietly in the top of the sixth. First man out of the 'pen to relieve Sandy? Not Henriquez...nor Phillips...nor Bachar...nor Faucher. Valente Bellozo, huh? McCullough got too cute, thinking that practically any right-hander would be able to put up a zero against the soft bottom of the Braves order. Instead, both Bruján and Luke Williams reached base safely, Allen bunted them over, and Olson and Baldwin delivered the all-important insurance runs to make it 8-4. The Fish did indeed keep fighting, but it was too little, too late. Another awesome Jakob Marsee game (2-2, RBI, 2 BB, 3 SB) went to waste. The Marlins are the first road team since the New York Mets (June 16-18) to lose a series at Truist Park. It's entirely possible that the Marlins would've gone winless on Saturday even with a pinch-hitter for Myers, a shorter leash on Alcantara and more reliable arms used in place of Soriano and Bellozo. All McCullough can do is put his players in position to be successful. He disappointed in that regard this time. The Marlins head into Sunday's series finale trailing the Mets by six games for the final NL wild-card spot. Cal Quantrill looks to shake off his awful performance from earlier in the week (4.1 IP, 7 ER vs. HOU). Left-hander Joey Wentz starts for the Braves. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET. View full article

During the first game of Saturday's Marlins-Braves doubleheader, Jen Pawol became the first woman to umpire a Major League Baseball regular season game. View full video

Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal readers. It's a day-night doubleheader! These notes apply to the third and fourth games of Miami's road series against the Atlanta Braves. Game 1 Starting Lineup 2B Xavier Edwards (S) RF Kyle Stowers (L) DH Agustín Ramírez C Liam Hicks (L) CF Jakob Marsee (L) LF Dane Myers 1B Troy Johnston (L) SS Javier Sanoja 3B Graham Pauley (L) P Ryan Gusto Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below)

Accompanied by his family and many of his former Marlins teammates, Luis Castillo returned to loanDepot park on Sunday to take his rightful place in the Marlins Legends Hall of Fame. Castillo's plaque reads: "Luis Antonio Castillo played for the Marlins from 1996 to 2005 and was an integral part of the 2003 World Series-winning team. Castillo is one of two players, along with Jeff Conine, to have played with the Marlins in both of their World Series-winning campaigns, although he did not appear in the 1997 postseason. A three-time National League All-Star and three-time Gold Glove recipient (2003-05), the switch-hitting infielder also led the NL in stolen bases twice (2000 and 2002). The San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, native played 10 seasons with the Marlins, and upon his induction, he ranked as the franchise leader in hits (1,273), at-bats (4,347), plate appearances (4,966), games played (1,128), singles (1,081), triples (42), walks (533), and stolen bases (281)." Castillo is part of the Hall of Fame's inaugural class of 2025. Jeff Conine, Jim Leyland and Jack McKeon were inducted earlier this season. View full rumor

Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal readers. These notes apply to the second game of Miami's road series against the Atlanta Braves. Starting Lineup 2B Xavier Edwards (S) RF Kyle Stowers (L) C Agustín Ramírez DH Heriberto Hernandez SS Otto Lopez CF Jakob Marsee (L) 1B Troy Johnston (L) LF Dane Myers 3B Graham Pauley (L) P Edward Cabrera Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below)

Not necessarily today, but soon, I agree. Time to try somebody other than Simpson. His breaking ball isn't nearly as consistent as it needs to be for him to be effective.