One Regend

1. My opinion on this team hasn't changed, and no, a random 7-game winning streak where our batted balls magically fell into gaps and our historically awful pitching was blessed by the Sandy Koufax gods for 27 meatball outs per game won't convince me. This is a 2024 Marlins team that just got lucky. Don't get your hopes up. 2. June 26th. I don't like when a team that's supposed to be tanking is winning meaningless games, but this is one game that feels good to watch them win. An opposing team making a retaliation attempt (on Otto Lopez, no less. Why they picked him and not Agustin Ramirez or Kyle Stowers is beyond me, but I am not complaining) that led into the opposing team giving up 12 unanswered runs is just sweet to watch regardless of the circumstance. 3. Kyle Stowers is the easy answer for the ASG. Edward Cabrera surprised me, but I'm still not convinced that he will carry a rotation, given his track record. He's a prime "sell high" candidate if I've ever seen one. If he can go the entire season doing what he has been, I'll change my tune, but until then, he will have to continue to prove me wrong. BTW, honorable mention goes to Agustin Ramirez. 4. Edward Cabrera. As I said above, given his track record, he is the premier "sell high" candidate. This is looking to be a career year, and I don't see him ever stringing together this type of consistency again. If there's a time to trade him, it's now. He is due a raise in arbitration and you're not going to have a better time to get this type of value out of him. Anthony Bender is also a great candidate to get considerable value from. We need a 3B and Starting Pitcher prospects (primarily RHP), and these two might be able to help us with those needs. 5. Miami Marlins. Selling Sandy Alcantara now while he's at his lowest point in his career is a franchise-altering blunder. Trading him at the Trade Deadline is the worst move the team can possibly make. He's coming off TJS and he's had historically the worst season a Marlin has ever had. You're not going to get much from him. I also doubt you're getting much from him in the offseason, either, as teams will be skeptical on what he'll bring to their team. He needs a good 2026 first half, pitching competantly (maybe not Cy Young form but at least good enough) to convince teams he's still got the juice, and maybe we might get value from him in the 2026 Deadline. But 2025? Forget about it.

This shouldn't even be a question. I'll debunk the 2024 Tigers argument point by point. 1. We don't have Tarik Skubal. We don't have anyone on the pitching staff even in the same stratosphere as Tarik Skubal. 2. Since we don't have Tarik Skubal, the next question to answer is MVP Candidates. We don't have any MVP candidates. The best we've got is Kyle Stowers, and with respect to him and how he plays this game, he isn't anywhere close to sniffing MVP consideration. 3. The Tigers have a much better farm system. For them to get as good as they were in 2024, it took them 7 consecutive losing seasons and 4 seasons of 95+ losses. They had to suck, and suck horrifically, for a very long time, for them to have gotten where they have now. We are literally in YEAR ONE of a deep rebuild. Don't get too excited over a random 7 game win streak that happened because our batted balls magically fell into gaps and our horrific pitching was graced by the Sandy Koufax gods and blessed our noncompetitive meatballs 27 outs a game. 4. NEGATIVE 52 RUNS OF DIFFERENTIAL BETWEEN THIS TEAM AND THE 2024 TIGERS. No matter how you try to spin it, this is the true bottleneck. Every game we've lost was ugly, and even our wins have been ugly. We don't have anywhere close to the same team quality. If anything, we've gotten far too lucky. No random 7 game winning streak is going to convince me otherwise. So, no, we are not the 2024 Tigers. And we will never be the 2024 Tigers. So, perish the thought.

When the Rockies team is staring down the barrel of challenging the 2024 White Sox as the worst team in MLB history, and might perhaps actually break the 1916 Philidelphia Athletics record for worst Win Percentage, going the nepotism route isn't going to help the team, but rather make it worse. Also, old Mets fans know all too well about how this will turn out.

I'm one of those people that think Sandy should be traded, because I don't see the Marlins being competitive in 2026. Hell, I don't see them competitive in 2027, either. But now is a horrible time to trade him. If he gets traded now, the Marlins are selling awfully low and they won't get much back in return. If the Marlins want to trade him, it makes sense to hold onto him and see what he does in 2026. If he's back to pitching competant baseball in 2026 (maybe not Cy Young level but at least respectable enough), then maybe entertain a trade near the 2026 deadline. Otherwise, trading him now while he's at his lowest point would be a franchise-altering blunder.

Nobody is more headcase than a guy who got ejected and then proceeding to make a gunshot gesture. Sadly, he has more of a chance to earn a cup of coffee in the majors than Jacob Berry at this rate. Granted, I don't see him making a meaningful impact, anyways.

I'm honestly surprised we even got something out of DFAing Robinson Pina. I was fully expecting him to be claimed off waivers. Max Meyer is next in the line of failed top prospects from the D.J. Svihlik/Michael Hill Era. We conclude that era of drafts with a guy who hasn't made it past AA (Connor Scott), a headcase who will be a backup corner outfielder at best (J.J. Bleday), and a headcase who can't stay healthy if his life depended on it. (Max Meyer) Truly brilliant work there.

No.

Max Meyer: Drafted in 2020. Players who were drafted after Max Meyer: Garrett Crochet, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Jordan Westburg, Masyn Wynn. I've already gone over the 2019 draft on my Twitter/X profile. Jeez, just how awful was D.J. Svihlik and Michael Hill?

Bryce Eldridge doesn't seem like a fit for the Marlins. Even though he might be a more complete hitter than De Los Santos, that doesn't change the fact that 1B is a logjam waiting to happen. Agustin is almost a sure lock for 1B if he isn't DHing, because simply put, he does not have the chops to be a backstop. De Los Santos can only play 1B/DH (his play at 3B was abysmal, to say the least), and Liam Hicks has played well enough to earn the Catcher spot. If anything, we should be looking for prospects who can play 3B, because as far as I know, we don't have anyone in the pipeline who can play there. No, I'm not counting Graham Pauley, and I'm not counting Jay Beshears. They aren't coveted prospects, and neither are producing enough to consider a serious look at 3B. As well, I've been having serious doubts about Connor Norby as of late. Look at this Baseball Savant spread. That's not the hitting profile you want to see as a future 3B. It's better for the Marlins to look for prospects at the hot corner, with a major emphasis that they can STAY at the hot corner. We don't need more 1B/DH types.

I couldn't agree more. On this team, maybe Eury Perez and Agustin Ramirez could be star talents, but right now, they're nowhere close to being one. Their farm system isn't much better on that front, either. I could maybe see Thomas White being an All-Star in the very distant future, but honestly, nobody else in their farm system screams superstar to me. There's not a single player, both on this roster, and in their farm system, that I would handily give a 7+ year contract extension to. Maybe you could make an argument for Eury Perez, but all they'd accomplish would be wasting his efforts on the mound, because they have no awaiting superstars in their farm system. That's how dire the situation is right now.

I'm not a supersub, but since I've already posted, I'll predict anyways. Nationals win 2 out of 3. Josh Bell MVP.

I'm a bit worried that most of our prospect pool are guys who I don't see as future superstars. Thomas White is honestly the closest we can get to one. Even our best position player to date, Kemp Alderman, hasn't been lighting it up. For a guy known for his tape-measure shots, he only has 6 HRs on the season. If you exclude Heriberto, who is currently in the majors, he leads all of the Marlins minor league system with 6 HRs. There are 4 players in the minor league leaderboards who have more than double that amount. That's a pretty sad fact, honestly.

That should honestly tell you everything you need to know about how the season has gone for John Cruz. He is having a miserable time with Miami. Would not surprise me if he gets cut among the usual minor league releases the Marlins do from time to time. It's a shame. He had a .907 OPS in 2023 before the Marlins dealt for him, and he hasn't produced since. It just goes to show hard the transiton is from RkBall to Low A. And John Cruz is the unfortunate reminder of this.

I wasn't expecting an instant return to form from Eury Perez in his first start in MLB in over a year, so I am willing to handwave this performance. I do expect better on his next few starts, though. But you did bring up a good point. I really miss Mel Stottlemyre Jr. I had problems with our pitchers giving up big hits with RISP and 2 outs when he was coaching for us, but I'd rather take that over... whatever the new guy is doing with our pitching. Dear goodness what a downgrade.

I honestly do not buy into Edward Cabrera's success. He's had stretches like this before, only to regress to career norms. If he can keep up pace up until the Trade Deadline, we could definitely sell high on him and sucker a team into trading futures for him. I don't see his trade value getting any better at this point, and if the team he's traded to ends up transforming him into the star pitcher he was always hyped up to be, so be it. But I just do not buy into his success, knowing his extensive track record.

I don't think Eury Perez isn't going to save the season. At most, he'll make this team watchable once every 5 days. I do see a faint semblance of the new core, but they're still a long ways away from emerging.

No Urbina, no World Series championship. Simple as that. Most fans (myself included) will tell you, they will trade a generational talent for a World Series championship any day of the week. Doesn't matter what the player does away from our organization, a World Series championship is always eternal.

lolmarlins

lmao you cant make this up

Leave it to the Marlins to be the team that pisses away games to a team that can't do anything right. I hope the Marlins lose the series to the Rockies. Or, better yet, get swept. That would be peak hilarity and they honestly 200% deserve it.

It's not a pitch clock issue. Pitch clock was implemented in 2023, and while he did have a rocky start to 2023, he pitched fine in the second half -- July onward. This has to be a mechanical issue.

IMO, this is probably the most nothingburger of a season we've seen in a while. The Marlins aren't talented enough to have any playoff pipe dreams, yet they aren't bad enough to tank for prized prospects. Maybe that could change later with the trade deadline, but honestly, do they even have trade assets left? Maybe Anthony Bender, but honestly, I'm not seeing much. Right now, they're simply just a mediocre team. And being mediocre is way worse than just being bad.

It's almost like they should've had Otto Lopez at SS from the very beginning, instead of stubbornly pigeonholing Xavier Edwards at SS. It's okay to admit you're wrong about a player you value and eat the humble pie you've been made. But it is so incredibly frustrating when the Marlins are always so much later at realizing this than the rest of the league, no matter who has been in office, whether it's Jeter or whether it's Bendix. It took them 108 starts at SS too many for them to realize Xavier Edwards doesn't belong at SS. It took them over 1000 Plate Appearances too many to realize Lewis Brinson wasn't as good as they had hoped. It took them 501 Plate Appearances too many to realize Isan Diaz was hot garbage. How much longer is it going to take them to realize Edward Cabrera isn't starting rotation material? It's so frustrating to see this team get lapped by 27 other teams in management decisons. (Not counting White Sox and Rockies for obvious reasons.)

My brother in Christ, Meyer, you were given a SIX-NOTHING LEAD, IN THE FIRST INNING NO LESS, and you pissed it away. I don't want to hear any excuses on how the Padres have a legit offense and how they have superstar talent. I don't want to hear any excuses about how Ronny Simon had perhaps the worst defensive game any player could possibly have. You don't lose a game you lead 6-0 in the first inning unless you are a generationally broken pitcher. We drafted Max Meyer over Garrett Crochet and Pete Crow-Armstrong, BTW.

You thought Isan Diaz was bad? Let me remind you about the 1056 plate appearances that Lewis Brinson had with the Marlins. That's 756 plate appearances too many for a guy who had 6 seasons with a career wRC+ of 54. (4 seasons of which were spent with us) They really tried to sell us on Lewis Brinson and their attempts backfired tremendously.