Ely Sussman

On Monday episodes of the Small Pod, we will be shining a spotlight on notable Miami Marlins prospects. Ely Sussman switched up the usual format this week to feature the players who are best suited to represent the organization at next month's Futures Game in Atlanta: LHP Robby Snelling (Pensacola), C Joe Mack (Jacksonville) and LHP Thomas White (Beloit). View full video

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 third and final game of Miami's home series against the San Francisco Giants. Starting Lineup 2B Xavier Edwards (S) RF Jesús Sánchez (L) SS Otto Lopez C Agustín Ramírez LF Kyle Stowers (L) DH Eric Wagaman 3B Connor Norby 1B Liam Hicks (L) CF Javier Sanoja P Ryan Weathers Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below) View full article

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 home series against the San Francisco Giants. Starting Lineup DH Agustín Ramírez LF Heriberto Hernández SS Otto Lopez 1B Eric Wagaman 3B Connor Norby RF Dane Myers C Nick Fortes CF Javier Sanoja 2B Jack Winkler P Edward Cabrera Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below) View full article

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 first game of Miami's home series against the San Francisco Giants. Starting Lineup DH Agustín Ramírez LF Heriberto Hernández 1B Eric Wagaman SS Otto Lopez CF Dane Myers 3B Connor Norby RF Kyle Stowers (L) 2B Javier Sanoja C Nick Fortes P Cal Quantrill Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below) View full article

Today's news roundup also includes an international free agent signing and a Marlins memorabilia sale. When a player sticks on a team's major league roster for an extended period without contributing, fans joke that so-and-so is "stealing money." In the case of Graham Pauley, I actually see him as a victim. Prior to being optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville on Thursday, Pauley had spent essentially the entire season on the Miami Marlins despite clearly being unprepared for the assignment. The Marlins' vision for the 24-year-old infielder seemed logical enough initially. Starting third baseman Connor Norby suffered an oblique strain during the final weekend of spring training, so Pauley was supposed to fill in at the hot corner in the meantime. Pauley was solid defensively through 14 games, but inadequate offensively. When Norby was reinstated on April 17, his understudy had a .191/.235/.277 slash line (38 wRC+) in 52 plate appearances. The Marlins optioned him to Triple-A where he would presumably get regular starting reps to prove himself as a hitter. Plans changed less than 24 hours later. The Marlins determined that Derek Hill's left wrist sprain was continuing to negatively impact his performance. He needed an injured list stint and Pauley was the member of the 40-man roster who made the most sense as a stopgap. They officially recalled him on April 18. Every time it looked like Pauley was finally going to be set free to play consistently in Jacksonville, additional injuries kept him around even though he no longer had a defined role. He remained homerless and ineffective against right-handers. He didn't make sense as a high-leverage pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive replacement. Through 54 team games, he accrued 0.0 fWAR in 89 plate appearances (averaging only one PA per game following Norby's return). Such a strange way to mishandle a player who was acquired by the current Marlins front office at last year's trade deadline. As a reminder, Pauley was one of Minor League Baseball's most productive hitters in 2023! He had a 20-20 season en route to being named the San Diego Padres Minor League Player of the Year. The Marlins should've been using the past month-plus to troubleshoot ways to restore his slugging ability in a low-pressure MiLB environment, rather than keeping with the status quo which clearly wasn't working. This demotion was a necessary step to potentially get Pauley on a path toward a sustainable MLB career. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 3-1. Embarking on a rehab assignment and beginning his transition back to second base, Xavier Edwards went 0-for-4 with an RBI. Double-A Pensacola lost, 6-1, extending their losing streak to nine games. Josh Ekness had a rare blow-up that put the game out of reach (1.0 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 21 pitches/13 strikes). High-A Beloit won, 10-9. Encouraging to see Noble Meyer attacking the strike zone (5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 69 pitches/44 strikes). Ryan Ignoffo's farm system-leading RBI total is up to 38. Low-A Jupiter won, 4-2. Andrés Valor went 2-for-4 with two doubles, a stolen base and two outfield assists. Four more scoreless innings for Luke Lashutka, who posted a 0.52 ERA in the month of May, making a compelling case to be promoted. FCL Marlins lost, 7-4. It's been a brutal start to Luis León's MiLB career. The $1.5 million signing out of Cuba has only four hits through 15 games with a .415 OPS and 46.8% strikeout rate. Prospects highlighted in this week's minor league report include Valor, Robby Snelling, Payton Green, Cam Clayton and Dub Gleed. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 By my count, Venezuelan outfielder Edwin Ramírez is the 23rd player to sign with the Marlins during the 2025 international free agent period. Shoutout to CJ Baseball Academy for sharing his emotional reaction to the news. 🔷 Once a Marlins fan growing up in Philadelphia, Matt has switched allegiances to the local Phillies. Now, he's hoping to "find a good home" for his Marlins memorabilia. 🔷 JJ Cooper of Baseball America explores how Marlins minor league affiliates are so much better at base-stealing than anybody else. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, MLB has made a "strategic investment" in the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League. Old friend Kim Ng serves as the AUSL's commissioner. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired former All-Star reliever Alexis Díaz from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for pitching prospect Mike Villani. Jose Altuve has caught fire with five home runs in his last seven games, including a game-tying solo shot against the Tampa Bay Rays. After missing nearly a month with a left knee contusion, Mike Trout is being reinstated from the injured list today. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Cal Quantrill) host the San Francisco Giants (LHP Kyle Harrison). The Marlins have a 45.2% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 7:10 p.m. ET. 🔷 Prior to the game, Fish On First LIVE will preview the series beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET. FOF LIVE is presented by About The Fans. Check out our new merchandise collection (coupon code fof10 for 10% off). 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: Triple-A Jacksonville at Gwinnett, 7:05 p.m. ET Double-A Pensacola at Montgomery, 7:35 p.m. ET High-A Beloit at Lancaster, 7:05 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter vs. Daytona, 6:35 p.m. ET FCL Marlins at FCL Nationals, 12:00 p.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Even in the most optimistic scenario, I would compare him more closely to Ozuna than Stanton. And that's only considering the bat—they were better fielders as young players than Agustin is. That's what makes it tricky to come up with a fair value for him. Not often do you see big commitments to somebody who's going to spend most of his prime as a DH.

I understood the experiment last season, and at least they were proactive coming off of that, which was getting him on the custom throwing program. I even get why they wanted to see a few more regular season reps this year. The rest is disappointing: the insistence that he play SS 100% of the time and keeping it going this deep into the year. Only takes a couple weeks (at most) to gauge whether or not he had improved his skill set enough to survive there.

The collection includes items from both of the franchise's World Series runs. Last week, I received a message from Matt, who goes by @MidMajorMatt on Twitter. A "huge Marlins fan" growing up in Philadelphia, he was turned off by the franchise's all-too-frequent rebuilds and switched his fandom to the local Phillies. Now, he's hoping to "find a good home" for his Marlins memorabilia. Matt has provided the following list of 18 items. He's willing to sell them separately if needed. Fish On First does not receive any sort of commission—just doing him a favor by spreading the word to our audience. Please message him here with any questions. 1993 inaugural season program 1997 NLCS program 1997 World Series VHS 1997 World Series champions picture 1997 World Series champions car flag 2000 Florida Marlins yearbook 2003 Florida Marlins yearbook 2003 Miami Herald World Series book Florida Marlins pin Florida Marlins pennant Dontrelle Willis poster (fair condition) Miguel Cabrera 2003 World Series bobblehead (still in box) Florida Marlins sweatshirt (size medium) Florida Marlins t-shirt (size large) Miguel Cabrera action figure (still in box) Marlins Park inaugural season pin Marlins on Deck program from April 2012 View full article

The day after making several costly defensive mistakes in the Miami Marlins' loss to the San Diego Padres, Ronny Simon speaks with the assembled media at Petco Park. Video courtesy of Sammy Levitt. 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 readers. These notes apply to the third and final game of Miami's road series against the San Diego Padres. Starting Lineup DH Agustín Ramírez 1B Eric Wagaman SS Otto Lopez LF Kyle Stowers (L) 3B Connor Norby C Nick Fortes RF Jesús Sánchez (L) 2B Javier Sanoja CF Victor Mesa Jr. (L) P Sandy Alcantara Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below) 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 readers. These notes apply to the second game of Miami's road series against the San Diego Padres. Starting Lineup RF Jesús Sánchez (L) C Agustín Ramírez 1B Eric Wagaman LF Kyle Stowers (L) DH Liam Hicks (L) 3B Connor Norby 2B Ronny Simon (S) CF Victor Mesa Jr. (L) SS Javier Sanoja P Max Meyer Click HERE to download the full game notes (preview below) View full article

Bender is bullying right-handed batters through the first third of the season to re-establish himself as a trustworthy setup man. Taylor Ward was one of the hottest hitters in Major League Baseball. The Los Angeles Angels outfielder entered Sunday having recorded extra-base hits in 10 consecutive games, the longest such streak in Angels history. He was exactly who the Halos wanted at the plate in this situation: trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning with two runners on, needing a home run to tie things up. To escape the jam, Anthony Bender leaned entirely on his best pitch. Bender made Ward flinch at a sweeper for called strike one. He threw another in a similar location, which Ward swung underneath and fouled back. He tripled down in an 0-2 count, but missed a few inches off the outside corner. The veteran right-hander finally put Ward away by inducing an ugly chase in the other batter's box. anthony bender sweeper vs taylor ward.mp4 Bender has been great against right-handed batters throughout his Miami Marlins career (.550 OPS allowed and 31.5 K% in 384 PA). However, he has achieved a new level of dominance in 2025 and it's largely because of this weapon. Opponents have a .031 batting average this season in at-bats ending with Bender's sweeper. No individual pitch type that's been thrown at least 100 times against major league competition is producing a lower BA, according to Baseball Savant. When Bender burst onto the scene in 2021, he had a standout slider that averaged 84.8 mph. Although his current sweeper has near-identical velocity (84.5 mph), it moves differently due to a change in mechanics. Bender lowered his arm angle following Tommy John surgery—it has changed from 25 degrees as a rookie to 17 degrees this season. That creates more gloveside break and reduces vertical drop. This is the first season of Bender's career that he has been consistently utilizing two distinct breaking balls. His reshaped sweeper is being complemented by a harder gyro slider. Bender's sweeper is the key to his success against same-handed batters, representing more than 60% of his pitch mix in those matchups. Against lefties, it's a kitchen sink approach—he is willing to throw five different pitches in any count, including both sweepers and sliders. Dating back to 2024, Bender has thrown 571 sweepers and yielded only one home run. Eventual National League Rookie of the Year runner-up Jackson Merrill took him deep on August 10. As it turns out, Bender was dealing with a right shoulder impingement at the time that would require a stint on the injured list, so even Merrill's achievement comes with an asterisk. Under the hood, Bender's age-30 campaign has been unremarkable. Through 21 ⅓ innings pitched, his strikeout and walk rates are both on pace to be career-worsts. He ranks in the sixth percentile among MLB pitchers in hard-hit rate allowed, yet it's only resulting in a .214 batting average on balls in play (the league-wide BABIP is .290). He has undeniably benefited from some good fortune. Bender was already the most likely midseason trade candidate in the Marlins bullpen because he has substantial high-leverage experience and is closest to free agency (eligible after the 2027 season). Miami's objective should be something similar to the Deyvison De Los Santos/Andrew Pintar package that they netted from the Arizona Diamondbacks last July in exchange for A.J. Puk. Maybe Bender's sweeper truly is a cheat code, but I now find myself wondering if he could be on the move well in advance of the deadline before the rest of the league has too many opportunities to solve it. View full article