Florida Marlins' crippled by inconsistency

The Florida Marlins' 2009 season got off to nothing short of a dream start back in April. Two full weeks into the season the Fish were 11-1 with the best record in baseball and a wide lead in the NL East. Sure it was early in the season, but it was the best start in team history and it energized South Florida with prospects that the franchise was finally ready to see its youth movement served with a strong post season run. Then the team hit a bit of a road block. After their fast start the Marlins would finish April on a 3-7 run, dropping their record to 14-13. At this point the team still had a winning record and had finished the month with a 3 game win streak against strong opponents, perhaps the 7 game slump was just a hiccup. The month of May however would prove it was no hiccup as the Marlins went from bad to worse as the Marlins went 9-20 and won back to back games only twice. So far in June the Marlins appear to have only leveled out as they are on a current stretch of 13 games in which they’ve won back to back only once and typically win one night and lose the next.

Where has it all gone wrong you ask? Everywhere! Inconsistency abounds on this team, which is to be expected out of a young team, but this is perhaps more than should be tolerated. The Marlins can literally be two different teams from one night to the next. No one particular part of the team is free of guilt in the matter, but the pitching staff bears the majority of the blame in this case. Ten different pitchers have started a game for the Marlins through 58 games of the season, three of the ten don’t have a win to their credit, and Josh Johnson is the only one to compile a winning record at 5-1. What was suppose to be a vaunted, albeit young, pitching staff with Josh Johnson, Chris Volstad, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, and Andrew Miller has deteriorated rapidly. Sanchez is currently on the DL after a terrible start to the season saw him go 1-4 with a 5.55 ERA, Nolasco is just returning from the DL and his season didn’t start much better as he compiled a 2-6 record and an ERA of 8.17. Miller had his own stint on the DL, but is a more tolerable 2-2 with a respectable 4.31 ERA. In fact, among the entire rotation, Johnson and Volstad have been the saving grace. Johnson has a 5-1 record, a 2.63 ERA, and 72Ks to his credit this season. Volstad has been good in his 2^nd year with a 4-5 record and 3.65 ERA.

The bullpen has been just as much of a mess as the starting rotation at times. Injury has played a role here to, weakening an already shallow bullpen. The Marlins’ top reliever, Renyel Pinto, is currently on the DL. Pinto has been a bright spot in the pen. Pinto has put in 21 1/3 innings of work, compiling 20Ks and a 2-0 record to go along with his 2.53 ERA. Closer Matt Lindstrom has been good on the surface, 11 saves compared to just 2 blown saves in 26 appearances, but this hides a dark side. Lindstrom has a frightening 6.17 ERA, far too high for a closer.

The guys swinging the bats aren’t without blame in this mess though. During the Marlins’ franchise best 11-1 start, the bats could not have been hotter as the team racked up an average of 6.41 runs per game. In the time since that 11-1 start however, the Marlins’ run production has dropped 2 whole runs per game to 4.28. The offense isn’t really to blame, they just hid the faults of the pitching staff as they drove in runs to keep the Marlins in the win column. Hanley Ramirez has a .332 batting average, Dan Uggla leads the team with 11 homeruns followed by Jorge Cantu at 9, and Cody Ross at 8. The same three players lead the team in RBIs, Cantu with 42, Uggla 40, and Ross 33. The offense is still there, just not consistently. Case in point, during the 11-1 start the Marlins scored 4 or more runs in 10 of 12 games. As of late however, the Marlins will put up 5, 6, or 7 runs one night and be held to 1 or 2 in a loss the following night.

In order to right the ship and get the Marlins heading back up in the standings, all members of the team need to find the right playing groove. The starting pitchers need to come out each night focused (and healthy!) and the batters need to bring a sharp eye to the plate each night. It is easy to sit here and point out the problem, and it is another thing to make the right moves to fix the problem. Fortunately that is not my problem to deal with, that is what Fredi Gonzalez is paid to do.