The Miami Marlins went through a lot of big (and mostly unnecessary) changes over the offseason. Good players that you’ve heard of, like Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon, and Marcell Ozuna have all been traded to teams that expect to win a whole lot more than the Marlins. Which means that the team is left with a handful of players that people know, and a bunch of players they acquired on the cheap or somehow managed to not trade.
Injuries are making the Marlins’ lineup even more unrecognizable, somehow
In Sunday’s Say Hey, Baseball, we’re looking at injury-riddled Marlins, Cubs baseball pranks, and the Athletics trolling Giants fans.
The opening day lineup took more hits on Saturday when the Marlins announced that Dan Straily, a pitcher you’ve probably heard of, would start the season on the disabled list. He’ll join other guys you’ve heard of who are already on or are headed toward the DL: catcher J.T. Realmuto, shortstop JT Riddle (lotsa JTs on this team), third baseman Martin Prado, and starter Wei-Yin Chen. Who does that leave in the opening day lineup? There are a few guys remaining from last year, like Justin Bour and Derek Dietrich. But how does Cameron Maybin strike you? Or Peter Moody? Odrisamer Despaigne? Elieser Hernandez? If you’ve heard of those last three, you are a rarely-seen but oft-rumored Marlins fan. If you haven’t, you’re like nearly everyone else.
While many parts of tanking are bad for fans, this is by far the worst. It’s not just that the Marlins are going to be terrible, but that they have almost no players in the majors right now that are worth being excited about long term. Realmuto, who spent most of the offseason begging the Marlins to trade him, was pretty much the last solidly good, young, and maybe even exciting player on the opening day roster. With him and Straily on the DL, there’s almost nothing worth going to Marlins Park to see.
Why even field a baseball team at this rate? The answer is obvious: because even a crappy MLB team makes money. There are die hard fans of the Marlins (probably, I’m assuming there are at least one or two that exist) who will go to games, and families looking for something to do in a bright, temperature controlled environment will find it at Marlins Park. But make no mistake: it’s baseball only in the most technical sense. Guys like Straily and Realmuto were the only players keeping that lineup from looking like the quad-A all-stars. And now that they’re on the DL, that’s exactly what it looks like.
- Baseball rivalries are amazing, because the rivalry between the Giants and the A’s have led the A’s to charge Giants fans more for parking unless they shout “Go A’s!” in the parking lot. ::chef kissy fingers:: Magnifique!
- Tommy LaStella, Theo Epstein, and Jed Hoyer have been pranking each other over spring training. The pranks have involved a stolen parking spot, a stolen uniform, a bouncy house, and a suplex of a video. This is how spring training can actually be fun.
- The Rangers have released Bartolo Colon, but never fear — there’s still a good chance you could see him on their opening day roster.
- It was a scary moment on Saturday when the Rangers Triple-A hitting coach Howard Johnson got hit in the cheekbone with a foul ball. He was taken to the hospital and was expected to spend the night, but is reportedly resting comfortably. Whew.
- The world will have to keep waiting for the Mets’ dream rotation to come to fruition, as Zack Wheeler has been demoted to Triple-A.
- It’s great to get excited about the ceiling of a prospect like Bradley Zimmer, but Let’s Go Tribe argues that it’s a good idea to figure out what his floor would be first.
- The Braves released Scott Kazmir, who had absolutely no idea it was coming.
- It’s been almost two days and I still can’t stop thinking about this Grant Brisbee tweet that asks whether Bryce Harper’s dad could beat up Marcus Stroman’s dad. Click on it for the pictures alone, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
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