We teased this last week, and finally got around to writing it. Gotta admit, it was a lot more fun remembering the good of 2009, as opposed to the shit moments. Oh well…someone had to do it, right?
10) That Stupid Sign in Left Field
Once the Marlins finally broke ground on their new stadium and David Samson stopped crying on the radio about it every week, the Marlins introduced a sign in left field that counted down the games until the new stadium opened! Awesome Idea!…right?….huh?
Would have been perfect, except it’s hard to gain any momentum for a countdown when the stadium isn’t opening for another 200+ home games. But hey, it led to moments like a Tuesday night in June when Julio Blanco from the cutlery department of LandShark Stadium got to pull down curtain number 183 of that majestic sign in left field. Can’t wait to see who they get to pull down the numbers next year! Can you feel the excitement?!
9) The Defense
So yeah..what happened to that alleged commitment to defense Larry Beinfest promised us in the off-season? Seemed excellent in theory, and perhaps if they would have executed it correctly, 87 wins would have been our total two weeks ago, not the tally when the season finished. Instead, they slotted Emilio Bonifacio (oh man..wait for it..he’s on this list…promise) at third base for 86 games too many, put natural second basmen Chris Coghlan in left field, kept defensive liability Dan Uggla at second instead of third like Baseball Prospectus recommended, and failed to give Cameron Maybin any type of shot in center field.
8 ) Gabby Sanchez? You There, Buddy?
It feels like we’ve heard Gabby Sanchez’s name tied every year to the Marlins and how he’s poised to take one of the corner infield spots every offseason..and naturally, it never materializes. This year was the low point, to be sure, as getting beat out by Emilio Bonifacio, and more importantly not even getting a chance to replace him at some point during the year points to the obvious signs- he’s too old to be considered a prospect, and his resume at this level is too thin to warrant any more opportunities. Consider it a failed experiment, and hope that Beinfest never misses that badly on an impact bat again.
7) Jeremy Hermida..Still Stinks!
God, this one hurts. We’ve been staunch Hermida supports for years, and finally backed off this year, certain we would be proven wrong. And for once, we were right, albeit 3 years too late to get any kind of consideration for Nostradamas of the future. Baseball is a weird sport like that, and it’s one of the few where scouts can be flat out wrong as often as they are, and still be considered valuable. The fact here is not that Hermida “doesn’t have it in him” or that he chokes year after year. When he came out of high school, he was rated incorrectly. That’s it. The analysis was wrong by the scouts and that’s why he gets treated differently than players who have his same production, yet don’t have the same kind of expectations. Aside from a peak year in 2007, Hermida has been remarkably consistent– OPS in 2006, 2008, and 2009? .700, .729, and .740, respectively. Even with his big year factored in, his career OPS is .769, and he’s hit no fewer than 13 homeruns in his full seasons and no more than 18. Factored in with his poor defense, and Hermida is exactly what his numbers represent..uncommonly mediocre. Sure wish the Marlins would have sent Hermida and not Willingham to the Nationals, huh?
6) Nick Johnson Gets Hurt..
This isn’t a typo..Nick Johnson had a .477 OBP in his 35 games as a Marlins. The only knock on him is that he continues to have a knack for getting hurt, and this time, as he got hurt amid a streak of 10+ hit games for the Marlins, his loss atop the lineup crippled the Marlins chances. A handful of at-bats more with Coghlan and Johnson on base for Hanley, and we’re talking about a playoff preview this week, not a retrospective of losses.
5) Still No Results From Maybin/Miller
One of the neat things about the Marlins is that when they make big sweeping trades (Josh Beckett) they generally get a lot of young, cheap talent back that produces pretty quickly. Not so much this time, as the Marlins have failed to get production out of Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller (in the Miguel Cabrera trade to the Tigers) for yet another year. If indeed Beinfest missed on this trade, and it’s still a little too early to judge, it would be a debilitating loss for the Marlins, one a small market team simply cannot afford to make.
4) Matt Lindstrom…You Stink Too
There was so much hope for Matty. He threw hard, he came to the Marlins cheap (Jason Vargas!) and he had that “closer look” that the scouts love so much. In the end, none of it mattered, because he threw one pitch for a strike, and his one pitched moved less than a fat man at a salad bar. It’s a shame he fooled us for so long..maybe we could have ridded ourselves of his 5.89 ERA earlier..
3) They Still Don’t Walk Enough
For yet another year, the Florida Marlins were a middling team (ranked 15th in the MLB in walks) in terms of getting on base. And to think..this was their best year in terms of personnel equipped to get on base. Chris Coghlan, Nick Johnson, and Hanley Ramirez as a 1-2-3 punch was one of the best top-of-the-lineups in baseball, period. The problem was that, too often, the top of the lineup was strapped with Bonifacio and later in the year, too many games where Nick Johnson was hurt. It’s pretty important to walk, by the way, if your team can’t steal bases, as the Marlins stole 75 bases (24th in the sport) and did so at a 68% clip, significantly below the break even point where your outs cost the team more than the potential stolen base (76%). Not to mention, the Marlins finished 19th in the league in homers with 159, compared with 208 (2nd in the league last year). When you steal bases and hit homeruns it matters less how much you walk. Without those two? Completely different story..
2) The Starting Pitching…Aside From JJ…
Josh Johnson was exceptional this season, one of the 5 best pitchers in either league. The other 4/5th of the staff? As bad as Johnson was great. Ricky Nolasco (5.06 ERA), Andrew Miller (4.84), Anibal Sanchez (3.87), Sean West (4.79), and Chris Volstad (5.21) gave up a ridiculous amount of runs and took the Marlins out of a lot of games singlehandely. We don’t believe in mantras like “pitching and defense win championships”. If your offense is elite, you can win without pitching. But..if your offense is straddled with Bonifacio’s and Hermida’s, you sort of need SOME kind of production out of starters 2 through 5, no?
1) EMILIO BONIFACIO
We could write this section about Bonifacio in our sleep, or with our hands tied, or with gasoline being poured down our eyes. Seriously..how long have we been waiting to write this majestic paragraph? Let’s start here– Emilio, you cost us a chance at the playoffs..yes, you. If we would have just put a replace- Shut up Bonifacio, don’t tell us you play hard, that doesn’t matter. Like we were saying..just replacing you with a league average player in your spot (Gabby Sanchez, Wes Helms, Ross Gload etc.) the Marlins would have improved defensively and got on base more. Instead they were strapped with a guy who put up a .303 OBP, the most important number of this entire season. No, he’s not going to get any better, and yes, Beinfest would be best served just cutting him and swallowing his pride, no matter how unlikely the move may be. He’s essentially a baseball player who can’t play baseball, the king of ineptitude. He can’t bunt, he can’t field any of his positions, he can’t steal efficiently, and he most definitely can’t hit. They always say that a new season brings new hope…or some dumb ass cliche like that. Well…if next year begins with Bonifacio penciled into our opening day lineup….ah, fuck it, let’s not think about it..Beinfest couldn’t make the same mistake twice…could he?
