UKPhil

Sherman bought a team that could hit but couldn't pitch and had exhausted it's farm system. 2023 got to the post season with a team that could pitch but couldn't hit and had exhausted it's farm system. The team is a quarter way into 2026 with a vigorous farm system, a team that has great potential to hit, and potential to pitch. Edwards, Lopez and Hicks are putting in All Star level performances this year. Stowers and Marsee might get back to the level they showed last year. Joe Mack has been up just over a week and he's 12th on the Marlins 2026 WAR list. Now that Paddack has gone, Meyer and Junk are doing great. Sandy is a little disappointing and Eury is taking longer to figure stuff out than we all hoped. Snelling's debut is something that can be built on. Bendix has disappointed with some of his larger signings: Anderson, Quantril, Paddack. He has had trouble making the most of some of his inherited players: Alcantara, Perez, Garrett, Nardi, Bender. Bendix' strengths seem to be Draft, Trades, and Development. If he builds us a team that can hit like 2017 and pitch like 2023, we might get a team that could win it all

This is the Paddack the Marlins signed. He'll have a couple of decent starts, then get absolutely slaughtered when his not very good stuff isn't working. I would love to see Paddack DFA'd or traded for a bag of balls and Garrett called up. After that I'm a bit worried by the Marlins lack of ready depth. Gusto and Fulton are just not good enough at this time. Snelling and Thomas White are stretched all the way out to 3+ innings a start. I know they are precious, but if they can't go 6 or 7 innings on a good day what are they for?

At last!!! I'm sure Agustin is a lovely guy and kind to children and animals, but to any admirer of defensive skills, at catcher he is an abomination. I have been longing for Mack's arrival in Miami since realising during Spring Training that Gus's hard work during the winter had borne no real fruit

Like the vast majority of relievers, Faucher and Nardi are going to give it up from time to time. Perhaps a team committed to winning doesn't let them face more than 3 batters on a bad day. I think today's silver lining is Anthony Bender. His bad pitches were bad misses and he threw some good ones. That's a step in the right direction.

I don't think the the pitching change is puzzling. Meyer gave it away in his post game interview. McCullough had told him earlier this season he would be pulled from games sooner than he would like on a regular basis. Meyer has thrown 121.2 innings in the 2024 & '25 seasons combined. My guess is 5 and dive for Meyer is the rule for Meyer at least until the All Star break. McCullough might have a little wiggle room to send him out for the sixth occasionally, but it looked to me that a 23 pitch 5th inning took a lot out of him. If he can survive this season, maybe the Front Office will allow him to up his conditioning to go deeper into ball games. It's a bit disappointing to go into a series against a mediocre ball club with your 3 best starting pitchers and go down 2-1 but this is a ball club in development. in the ebb and flow of a Major League season, there are going to be left handed starters and young right handed starters who will limit the offence. I like Hicks and I believe his breakthrough is genuine, but I would be very surprised if he finishes the season with a .330 average and 30 home runs. You do not have a ball club committed to winning if you are starting Ruiz against left handed pitching.

I was very impressed with his AFL performance last year. There is a highlight reel of him delivering the tag on a series of Caught Stealing plays. It is a thing of beauty

Brax will be first, but when will he be ready to come up? He's all the way up to 4 innings a start. A modern pitcher should be able to go 7 innings on a good day and survive 4 on a bad one. Is everyone in the minors and I include Thomas White being conditioned to be a fifth starter?

The biggest reason I find the Marlins hard to watch is the appalling catching. Hicks is below average which puts him head and shoulders above Ramirez. Ramirez is very much like Gary Sanchez, but worse. I don't care how hard Ramirez can hit the ball, he'd have to produce like Aaron Judge to make up for his defensive shortcomings. Gus needs to go down and either work on a new position, or improve all the way to bad before he comes back. Yes he is good at appealing ABS, but that is fading as he becomes more desperately aware of how bad he is. Can we have Joe Mack before Ramirez drags the pitching staff into the gutter?

I checked Chris Paddack's game log for last season. He was even worse in his first start last year and in his last start for Minnesota he went 6 innings giving up 1 run against the Dodgers. In all 6 quality starts, 6 starts of 5 or 5+ innings giving up 2 runs or less and a big bunch of times getting smacked around by offences of varying degrees of competence. He's here because the front office believes they can help him improve. Whether they do or not, time will tell.

This is an ugly move. Something ugly must have happened that we haven't heard about yet.

I think Bendix is still trying to improve the organization. The trades of Cabrera and Weathers were to improve the farm. Picking up Paddack is buying time for the guys lower down to develop. Cabrera and Weathers you are gambling on them staying healthy for the whole season. Paddack going down in June could be a disappointment or a relief, but might still be a positive result having bought some time for the next man up. If Project Paddack is a success we might get an interesting prospect back at the deadline or a run at the post season

Morel was staring down the barrel of having to play ball in Korea or Japan then gets an MLB job in Miami. There's a guy who is very well motivated to keep the dream alive. I like the dancing analogies. Rhythm and timing are very important for infield defence and big guys (like J Ram and our own Gus) stealing bases. Good luck to him though I suspect Conine will outshine him

So Bendix would rather strengthen the farm than go into a major league season with injury prone Cabrera and Weathers? There is no money for winning free agents, only interesting projects. Projects have seen the most limited success so far in Bendix tenure. Free agents have not worked out although Quantril did buy some time. Waiver pick ups have had successes (Otto and Ronny). International signings, Drafting and Trading are showing some promise so far, but it will take a while to build a genuine contender. This is a team that can sweep the Yankies on the right weekend and make Mets fans cry on the last day of the season, but it takes more depth to have a shot against a contender in a five game post season series

I'm underwhelmed by this deal but I get it. Paddack pitched 158+ innings last year. 111 innings from 21 starts gives you a chance of not destroying your own bullpen before the All Star Break. I'm sure the development guys have a few ideas on what to work on to cut down on runs surrendered

I've been an MLB TV subscriber since 2004, so I suppose I'll carry on. Glad to hear Kelly Saco will be with Marlins TV. It was bad enough losing Jessica Blalock