Ely Sussman

He did it just once before in early 2021, but that included an additional plate appearance and he was gifted a HBP. Also an extra-inning game.

Right, if he's making the team incrementally more watchable and getting along well in the clubhouse, that's still beneficial. Spend the rest of the season evaluating him for a 2025 role (with a mutual understanding that he isn't quite everyday shortstop material anymore).

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. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Offishial News for 6/19/24 Another chaotic game on Tuesday. The Cardinals crushed Roddery Muñoz (4.0 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 76 pitches/49 strikes), but the bullpen behind him was outstanding, allowing only one unearned run in six innings of work. Jesús Sánchez had his second three-hit game of the season and all three were hammered (108+ mph exit velocities). Vidal Bruján came through in the 10th inning with a pinch-hit, walk-off RBI single. The Marlins won, 9-8. One quarter of their total victories this season have been walk-offs. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 7-4. Bryan Hoeing made a one-inning rehab appearance. INF Xavier Edwards remains with the team and on their active roster, but he has missed four straight games. Double-A Pensacola lost, 4-2. C Joe Mack hit his 12th home run, matching his total from the 2021-2023 MiLB seasons combined. High-A Beloit won, 7-4. INF Josh Zamora went 4-for-5. Low-A Jupiter lost, 11-4. The Hammerheads committed six errors plus two passed balls. Nice to see RHP Elvis Alvarado begin a rehab assignment. His fastball velocity averaged 99 mph in his first appearance. FCL Marlins lost, 4-3. Four stolen bases for OF José Gerardo (13 steals in 14 attempts in 2024). Unfortunately, it's impossible to look past his strikeout issues. Gerardo has K'd in all 22 of his games this season with a 48.2 K% overall despite repeating the level he played at last summer. DSL Marlins led 7-0 before their game was suspended in the fifth inning. DSL Miami won, 11-7. First career three-hit day for C/1B Kevin Novoa. Here's more Marlins news and content for you: 🔷 As first reported by Fish On First, Marlins OF Dillon Head is getting season-ending surgery on his left hip. Head was injured when the Fish acquired him on May 4, though clearly, the team did not expect this outcome. The 19-year-old had been playing rehab games two weeks ago before being shut down. Overall, he has appeared in only five MiLB games since the trade. Undergoing the procedure now will allow him to resume baseball activities by October and experience a normal offseason. 🔷 PGHconcepts proposes a "uniform refresh" for the Marlins. Of course it includes teal. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Willie Mays died at the age of 93. Mays was irrefutably one of the best baseball players ever, the epitome of a five-tool player. His all-around excellence and enthusiasm was crucial to the sport's growth in the 1950s and 1960s. A favorable check swing call extended the Dodgers' ninth-inning rally in Colorado. Teoscar Hernández capitalized with a game-winning three-run homer. The Mets chipped away at a 6-2 deficit and eventually overtook the slumping Rangers for their seventh consecutive win. White Sox rookie RHP Jonathan Cannon came one out shy of pitching a shutout against the Astros. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Yonny Chirinos) conclude their series against the Cardinals (RHP Kyle Gibson). Chirinos will be the 12th different starting pitcher used by Miami this season. Designating Kent Emanuel for assignment seems to be the likely corresponding roster move. The Marlins have a 49.3% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 12:40 p.m. 🔷 Following the game, Loud Miami Fan will be selecting somebody to win this Dane Myers autographed 2024 Topps Series 1 35th anniversary card. 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: Triple-A Jacksonville at Memphis, 8:05 p.m. ET (Edward Cabrera rehab start) Double-A Pensacola vs. Chattanooga, 7:05 p.m. ET High-A Beloit vs. Lansing, 7:35 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter vs. Clearwater, 6:30 p.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Yes, convenient for this to coincide with the worst MLB team of the last few decades.

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. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Offishial News for 6/18/24 Thrilling game on Monday. Great starting pitching from Sonny Gray and Braxton Garrett (6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 93 pitches/67 strikes). The Cardinals took a 4-1 lead in the eighth inning, but Bryan De La Cruz immediately answered back with a clutch three-run home run. St. Louis took the lead for good when Masyn Winn drilled a two-run homer off of A.J. Puk in the 12th inning. Nick Gordon was thrown out at home in the bottom of the 12th representing the tying run. The Marlins lost, 7-6. Down on the farm, RHP Jake Brooks and OF Andrés Valor were named Florida State League Pitcher of the Week and Florida Complex League Player of the Week, respectively. FCL Marlins won, 3-1. DSL Marlins lost, 7-5. DSL Miami won, 8-2. Here's more Marlins news and content for you: 🔷 As Kevin Barral writes, homegrown Cardinals hitters have saved their season. It's a reminder of what the Marlins organization has been lacking in recent years. 🔷 Another day, another MLB Draft prospect profile from Hector Rodriguez. This one focuses on Tennessee's Christian Moore. 🔷 During last week's visit to New York, Jazz Chisholm Jr. discussed his passion for recording music. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Mets extended their winning streak to six and moved to within a game of the final National League Wild Card spot. The Phillies got star shortstop Trea Turner back from the injured list, while the Yankees lost first baseman Anthony Rizzo for the next 4-6 weeks. Paul Skenes has been as special as advertised with a 2.29 ERA through his first seven career starts. Phase 1 of MLB All-Star voting remains open through June 27. Vote up to five times per day. 🔷 Today's MLB game: The Marlins (probable starter RHP Roddery Muñoz) host the Cardinals (RHP Lance Lynn). The Marlins have a 44.6% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch is at 6:10 p.m. (moved up 30 minutes to avoid too much overlap with Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final). 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: Triple-A Jacksonville at Memphis, 1:05 p.m. ET Double-A Pensacola vs. Chattanooga, 7:05 p.m. ET High-A Beloit vs. Lansing, 7:35 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter vs. Clearwater, 6:30 p.m. ET FCL Marlins at FCL Astros, 12:00 p.m. ET DSL Marlins at DSL Tigers 1, 11:00 a.m. ET DSL Miami vs. DSL Tigers 2, 11:00 a.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Big Fish Small Pod for Tuesday, June 18 Ely shares recent stats and observations about prospects from each full-season level of the Miami Marlins farm system: Triple-A Jacksonville RHP Kyle Tyler, Double-A Pensacola C/OF Paul McIntosh, High-A Beloit RHP Josh Ekness and Low-A Jupiter RHP Jake Brooks. Find Big Fish Small Pod 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 The Offishial Show, Fish Unfiltered, Swimming Upstream and more. The Fish On First podcast is now being presented by MPT College Consulting! They pride themselves on helping clients navigate the college application process. This includes preparation for standardized testing, guidance through high school, assistance with essays and applications, and choosing the right college. Visit them today at mptcollegeconsulting.com to learn more about their services and schedule a free consultation. A minor league free agent signing who has already had brief stints in the majors, Tyler is in the midst of a 23-inning scoreless streak that has lowered his Triple-A ERA to 2.80. McIntosh has shaken off an awful start to the 2024 season by slashing .432/.463/.730 in June. He's playing more left field this year than during any of his previous MiLB campaigns. Day 3 draft picks from last year, Ekness and Brooks are on the short list of top-performing pitchers in the Marlins organization. The former is a classic overpowering fastball/slider reliever and the latter thrives on command and late movement. Ekness has already been promoted to High-A and Brooks should follow suit as soon as an opening presents itself in the Sky Carp starting rotation. Follow 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

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. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Offishial News for 6/17/24 On Sunday, Jesús Luzardo's velocity plummeted while pitching through back stiffness. He is not expected to go on the injured list. The Marlins lost, 3-1. They're 0-7 against the Nationals this season after losing only six head-to-head games in 2022 and 2023 combined. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 5-0. RHP Kyle Tyler (7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 94 pitches/63 strikes) extended his scoreless streak to 23 innings! After eight hitless games in a row, C Will Banfield went 3-for-4 with 1 RBI. Double-A Pensacola swept their doubleheader, winning 2-1 and 1-0. LHP Cade Gibson and RHP Kyle Crigger each made their Double-A debuts. High-A Beloit RHP Noble Meyer did not start on Saturday as scheduled due to a minor injury, per Fish on the Farm's Alex Carver. There's optimism that he will make his next start. Low-A Jupiter swept their doubleheader, winning 4-0 and 5-0. RHP Jake Brooks (7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 87 pitches/58 strikes) pitched a complete game in the first contest. Here's more Marlins news and content for you: 🔷 Through 23 Marlins series, Daniel Rodriguez has regained sole possession of first place atop the Prediction Time leaderboard. Make series predictions with us all season long when you become a Fish On First SuperSub. 🔷 Nick Fortes has become a contact-hitting machine. That is not a good thing, as I detailed here. 🔷 Hector Rodriguez's latest MLB Draft prospect profile focuses on Seaver King of Wake Forest. 🔷 In the spirit of Father's Day, Christina De Nicola of MLB.com spoke with Marlins players Otto Lopez, Dane Myers and Tanner Scott and executives Hector Crespo and Oz Ocampo, all of whom became first-time dads over the past year. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Dodgers lost Mookie Betts (left wrist fracture) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (right rotator cuff strain) to significant injuries—that will only intensify the pressure on them to make additions at the trade deadline. The Mets and Twins are in the midst of MLB-best five-game winning streaks. Phase 1 of MLB All-Star voting remains open through June 27. Vote up to five times per day. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter LHP Braxton Garrett) return to Miami to host the Cardinals (RHP Sonny Gray). The Marlins have a 45.1% chance to win, per FanGraphs. For the first time this season, $1 kids tickets are available at loanDepot park. First pitch at 6:40 p.m. 🔷 Join us for a new episode of Fish On First LIVE tonight from 5:30-6:30 p.m. ET on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook. Special guests: @Bassmaster4 and Shelby Petik. 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 MiLB schedule: FCL Marlins vs. FCL Nationals, 12:00 p.m. ET DSL Marlins vs. DSL Rangers Blue, 11:00 a.m. ET DSL Miami at DSL NYY Yankees, 11:00 a.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Fortes is quietly one of baseball's best contact hitters. How come it isn't translating to more offensive production? The Miami Marlins manufactured only one run on Friday against the Washington Nationals, courtesy of Nick Fortes. During their first encounter with two outs in the top of the second inning, MacKenzie Gore started off Fortes with a belt-high curveball, then got him to chase a 97 mph fastball slightly above the zone. Just like that, an 0-2 count. Gore was in full control. Fortes kept battling, though. He spoiled the next pitch, another 97 mph heater up at the letters. He then laid off consecutive curveballs in the dirt. Gore's sixth pitch was his most hittable one, an ordinary changeup that stayed in the zone. Fortes grounded it to third base. His Sprint Speed this season is 26.7 ft/sec, slightly below the MLB average (35th percentile). On this particular run, however, he dialed it up to 28.0 ft/sec, and that made all the difference in securing an infield single. Here's the full sequence: nick fortes 6-14-24.mp4 This qualifies as an offensive "highlight" for Fortes in 2024. If we raised the bar any higher, there'd be barely anything to show. I was contemplating a Nick Fortes article much earlier in the season. Then, exactly one month ago, he seemingly broke out of his slump (3-3, HR, 3 RBI, BB vs. PHI on May 17), so I tabled the idea. Unfortunately, that proved to be an anomaly, not a turning point. The only run he has driven in during June is shown above. Fortes is one of MLB's worst hitters, yet he's arriving at these abysmal results in a different way than his struggling peers. Fortes has become an elite contact hitter. Entering Monday, he's whiffing on only 10.7% of his total swings this season. The 27-year-old backstop is striking out in 11.5% of his trips to plate this season, barely half as often as the average major leaguer and right between Jeff McNeil and José Ramírez. He ranks in the 96th percentile among MLB players with at least 100 plate appearances. Fortes has made 45 starts and never had a multi-strikeout game! This has been the continuation of a trend. Fortes has improved his strikeout rate every year since his 2021 Marlins debut. Overall, though, putting an emphasis on making contact at the expense of quality contact is backfiring. It has coincided with troubling trends in practically every other hitting category: Average exit velocity has gone from 91.3 mph (2021) ➡️ 89.3 mph (2022) ➡️ 88.2 mph (2023) ➡️ 85.1 mph (2024) Groundball rate has gone from 30.4% ➡️ 40.1% ➡️ 45.8% ➡️ 49.6% Walk rate has gone from 8.8% ➡️ 7.5% ➡️ 5.3% ➡️ 2.9% Batting average has gone from .290 ➡️ .230 ➡️ .204 ➡️ .159 Isolated power has gone from .387 ➡️ .161 ➡️ .095 ➡️ .068 wRC+ has gone from 168 ➡️ 97 ➡️ 53 ➡️ 19 Fortes is unique. There isn't anybody else in the majors who is producing this poorly offensively despite having truly great bat-to-ball skill. Seeing pitches clearly does not take you very far on its own. Bad luck has been a factor. Minimum 100 plate appearances, only 10 players have a weighted on-base average that's farther below their expected weighted on-base average than Fortes, per Baseball Savant. But fully meeting those expectations (.244 xwOBA) would still result in a career low in that department. His batted ball profile has changed for the worse. Even compared to last season (which was disappointing already), there's been a massive drop-off in Fortes' numbers against left-handed pitching. When holding the platoon advantage in 2023, he accrued half of his extra-base hits and had a 129 wRC+; this season, he has just two doubles vs. lefties with a -15 wRC+. The first clip is from 2023 and the second is from 2024. His setup at the plate has completely changed. Whatever gains he anticipated from closing his batting stance and exaggerating his leg kick have not been achieved. OVpHWmdfZFhBc1VBPT1fVkZCV0FGUUVCVllBV2xSV0F3QUFCZ0JSQUZnRlUxUUFCMUlBVWdaUkJ3VlZBRkFI.mp4 ZFpiR3pfZFhBc1VBPT1fQVFJQVZsTUZYMUFBV2dCVEFBQUFCRlJYQUZrSEJsa0FDd1lGQkFFTkIxQlNCZ3NE.mp4 Aside from contemplating mechanical adjustments, Fortes could benefit from being more selective. He owns one of MLB's highest (worst) infield flyball rates. His propensity for chasing after high pitches is leading to a lot of pop-ups—which are just as useless as strikeouts—and disadvantageous counts. A player who's hitting as poorly as Fortes would ordinarily have been demoted to the minors by now. However, the leash is longer for catchers, especially those who are plus defenders at that critical position. Fortes has established himself as an excellent blocker behind the dish while making noticeable improvements as a thrower. Also, the Marlins don't have obvious internal upgrades given the struggles of Christian Bethancourt and Will Banfield. With that being said, there is so much more potential here. Fortes showed it a couple years ago. At this stage of his career, he ought to be peaking, not declining. Turning things around begins with shifting his priorities: find a way to make more impact, even if it means sacrificing contact. 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. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Welcome to FOF's 70th Miami Marlins game thread of the 2024 season. The Marlins' struggles against left-handed starters have been well documented. They're 3-21 in games vs. lefties this season. Entering Saturday with four straight multi-hit games, Tim Anderson gets his first opportunity to lead off Miami's lineup. He has spent most of the year in the sixth and seventh spots. SuperSubs can access exclusive game notes here. Pregame roster moves: LHP Kent Emanuel recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville; RHP Shaun Anderson optioned to Jacksonville. Kevin Barral will be writing the game recap.

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. Got thoughts about this matchup? Head over to Fish On First's Marlins game thread. View full article

Welcome to FOF's 69th Miami Marlins game thread of the 2024 season. Recently acquired Shaun Anderson gets the first crack at filling Ryan Weathers' vacant starting rotation spot. SuperSubs can access exclusive game notes here. Pregame roster moves: RHP Shaun Anderson recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville; RHP Burch Smith designated for assignment. Alex Krutchik will be writing the game recap.