THOMAS JOSEPH

I miss about a dozen games live a year, so I love the MLB.tv replay features. When I returned home last night, I was delighted to see a Marlins win and thus chose to watch the entire game replay with the delicious surety in the back of my mind! Isn't it delightful to send a large opponent crowd home unhappy? Beating the division- and baseball-win-leader-Phillies is the cherry on top. The Sunday game now holds the (saying it does not jinx the team!) improbable chance of a Marlins series victory - in a four-game series, nonetheless! Oh, baseball gods, give us this one!

Perhaps we should permanently block Brazoban's visa. LOL. Seriously though, great to see the successful debut for Bellozo. Looks like a very nice and supporting family.

The Marlins and Phillies split the series, two games apiece. MVP is Bohm.

Keep it rolling. Marlins win series 2 games to 1. MVP is Jesus Sanchez. Panthers wrap up their first Stanley Cup,

Marlins 2 games to 1 with Jesus Sanchez as MVP!

We are entering a hazy forty-day period as deadline trades are considered and ultimately consummated. After July 30th, we could easily have a fourth of the current active roster turned over.

Good news if it holds, as it is apparent that the Marlins are intent on obtaining every ounce of return they can squeeze out for their $5 million in the only year Anderson will have in Miami. Maybe a scorching five weeks can turn Anderson into a trade candidate. Probably not and that's ok.

The Dillon Head news is unwelcome, but as a segue to the Bleday comment in the article, there's no reason to panic. Head is young, will heal quickly, and be hungry to start his climb upward again. The developing pitching continues to be the overall bright spot.

That was fun. Sanchez is streaking. Did anyone need the big hits as much as Bethancourt and Brujan? Let's take the series today.

I enjoyed the article and found much in it with which to agree. Scouting and developing require competent people in the organization to do those jobs. Respect for those in the jobs of the previous Marlins' regimes, the outcomes indicate they did not have that competency regarding position players. Although I lean heavily toward fifty percent of the whole rigmarole being a crapshoot (a la the Billy Beane character's "you don't know" retort in "Moneyball"), I will also bow to those with solid records. Not only individuals but also organizations as a whole excel and struggle. There is no doubt the St. Louis organization is a talent conveyor belt. Its culture of success is a significant contributor. People believe/buy into the culture, there is management support, adequate resources are allotted, and a solid communication foundation flourishes. Of course, available dollars translate into front-office flexibility and creativity. These things require a strategy and discipline, combined with the aforementioned competent personnel, and some time. Not to be hyperbolic, but the situation looks a bit like Noah building the Ark - both hopeless and foolish. There's probably no divine intervention in the mix but give Bendix a chance.

I want to focus on any good spots, however brief. Therefore, I will not mention Puk.

The last ASG I watched was the 1988 game in Cincinnati. I just cannot get into them and have no interest in the other "events." Hell, many players aren't even interested and would prefer the off days. The 1988 experience was cool, though, because actor Robert Wuhl sat right behind us. He asked where the programs were sold, and I recognized him as Newbomb Turk from "Hollywood Knights." He exclaimed, "You saw that!" It was right before "Bull Durham" came out, if I recall, and long before the HBO series that he starred in, called "Arli$$." He talked about the beautiful and sweet Michelle Pfieffer, Tony Danza, and Fran Drescher.

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on. As a fan, this is a no-pressure season, so I am expanding my "good day" horizons away from the Marlins' record alone. After the trade deadline, the active roster might include some players from the minors I like to see in Miami. Elsewhere, I count good days when there are losses by the Braves, Yankees, and Dodgers (always and everywhere), and the Phillies (this season). I am easily persuaded to reward myself with a glass of wine when two or more big dogs lose. Still, go ahead - win 120 regular-season games each - just no WS titles. For the Dodgers, another offseason where their apologist fans try to convince the rest of us that Roberts is just the greatest manager ever, 2020 was just so legitimate (how dare anyone question it!) so, it hasn't really been a 36-year drought. and they're pleased with their $300 million results! So frustrating dude, like, we deserve to win, man. Yankees - no explanation needed. Braves and Phillies - sorry, no self-respecting Expos fan can allow titles there. Life is what one makes of it! LOL - cheers!

Counterintuitively, I am predicting a Marlins sweep on the Cardinals, with Josh Bell as the series MVP.

As you noted, Fortes can make reasonable adjustments to improve and stay in the big leagues. Perhaps he exemplifies the "fastest way to the big leagues (and staying there) adage.

Kudos to Myers for his rightfield work. Not much to say about this one, except for the peg out at third, Anderson's strange multi-hit game streak, and the Senzel-Gore ado. Moving on...

Since the podcast link is on this page, I wanted to comment on the Marlins IX comments from Frisaro. "Teams are either going forward or going back," sounds great, and it's easy to call people liars. Ok, his opinion. But saying the team (Bendix) never had a plan is not a fair statement. Bendix was right to let Soler walk, Perez's injury was not foreseeable, Garcia did not rebound, and stepping into the team presidency from another organization requires some degree of learning curve. If anything, the balancing act has lots of moving parts, the budget is restrictive, there was over $26m in sunk contracts (Alcantara, Garcia, Cueto, and Barnes), and there is no point in signing piecemeal players for contracts past this year. I also must laugh that front offices should be transparent. Yeah, that happens all the time. Samson continuously states on his podcast that his M.O. can be described as deception or half-truths. Don't use your assets because it is disingenuous if someone in a marketing program has to be traded or released. Huh? What would increase the Marlins' credibility in the community? Win like the Panthers! Oh, gee, that is helpful. Why didn't the Marlins think to do that?

You're right on with the (usual) missed opportunities, such as the top of the 4th inning. These situations are where games are won or lost and highlight just how unproductive some of the lineup is in key situations. While the loss is of little consequence overall, this game was wasted, as was Munoz's solid effort. The lack of timely hitting and Bender's wildness are the real culprits, not an outlier home run from a professional hitter like Martinez. Scott's work this season needs no defending.

With the FOF podcast discussion and Peter Pratt's L.O.M. takes, I will leave the Chisholm overrating alone. There's really nothing else to be covered. Tangentially, I won't miss him when he's gone. Regarding Edwards, the short stay is puzzling, especially because one wonders about communication with the player. If Edwards was under a different impression, as you note, that's more of a concern to me than anything. Bendix has hitched his wagon to organizational culture, which includes communication. Although transparency in MLB does have limitations, I am concerned with the preponderance of items in this area - Johnston as Marlins Minor League Player of the Year, Meyer, and now Edwards. Perhaps others could be added to the talking points.

Understandably, fans overvalue their team's players - watching them every day and visualizing the loss of that player in that narrower context. Accordingly, we Marlins fans see our Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, or (in my case) Jeff Reardon. The reality of the trade situation isn't so sanguine. Isn't that a righteousness segue to the article about Chisholm's overrating?

With his age and the overall situation in Miami, fans rightfully expect to see Conine this season - after the trade deadline, one hopes.

Like many of the (especially) early Marlins, Barberie was developed in the Montreal Expos farm system. This is understandable, in that the Expos were a scouting and developmental model, followed by the natural familiarity brought over from the Loria regime - a similar situation with Bendix and the Rays. I consider the Expos as a model for the Marlins and other low-income teams. Of course, Montreal started from scratch with expansion in 1969 and realized adeptness in scouting and development was their lifeline to competitiveness. They generated MLB players at a prolific rate, including six current Hall of Famers in their 36 seasons. Indeed, their conveyor belt farm system allowed the low-income team to be competitive for significant portions of their existence. Their system also generated top managerial and front-office talent distributed all over baseball. The Expos were the Rays before the Rays, as it were.

The Mets are tired and thoroughly rumbled by their fans, the New York media, and their own disappointments. Marlins win the series 2 games to 1, with Jake Burger's home run in the last game of the Guardians series putting him back on track to be the series MVP.

These assessments are right on and reflect Bendix's moves were net positive, inexpensive, and purposeful. He has a season to cover and must do so within Sherman's limitations. Those limitations were exacerbated by Alcantara's lost season, Perez's injury, and Garcia's stone waste of a contract. I am not alone in being realistic that the Marlins' overall situation (including the farm system status) required some painful decisions. There was/is no reasonable window this season - the unicorn 2023 circumstances were not repeatable. Bendix is refashioning the organization in his vision, with the proverbial medicine an unsavory but ineluctable requirement. I see progress in the dim light and refuse to condemn the guy, but I understand long-time Marlins fans' predictable frustrations.

It was good to see Burger's homer after his rough game up to that point - waiving at everything and then the throwing error. As is often the case for those of us watching every game, I'm focused that the Marlins are not fundamentally strong. Teams with light power and undistinguished lineups must play fundamentally well in the field combined with effective pitching. Pitching injuries have certainly turned the staff upside down. Yet, simply watching, we see many unproductive outs, for example. Perhaps it is simply that the players do not possess the skills necessary to execute the required plays., i.e., productive outs, or what we used to call (gasp) situational hitting. It's thus not sacrilegious to question some of Schumaker's moves and ask if inefficacious coaching is a contributor, despite the temptation to promote Schumaker as the anti-Bendix/Sherman standard-bearer.