Because the #Marlins are bad.... Ranking of stadiums!!!

Well the #Marlins lost again....

I mean you can blame it on injuries or poor ownership or I do not know honestly.... It was the year no one expected.... I mean we can look forward to an all-star game in 2017 which actually means our ownership won't sell until after it... DAMMIT!

Ugh this guy..... 

Ugh so since the season is officially a lost cause and hopefully they trade Dan Haren and Matt Latos away because YES IT MAKES BASEBALL SENSE!!!!! I will tell you that this summer I reached a life goal of seeing every single MLB baseball stadium currently in use... All 30 +2 because Minnesota and Miami got slick on me so I will rank them all from 1-32 because I'm bored and as a teacher in the summer....why not?

I'll start with 30, 31, and 32  because its the nice thing to do. Remember it is only my opinion and you can tell me different ONLY IF YOU HAVE BEEN THERE BEFORE!

Stadium 32: Tropicana Field....

God this place.... It was one of the first stadiums I saw a game in live and definitely didn't know better but now that I have seen them all... first location....

St. Petersburg.... It is impossible to get to you...seriously takes hours of transit time to get to you and traffic. Oh hell no.... and then you arrive to this.

A half ass slanted building.... where balls always hit the roof...ALWAYS...and do not get me started on the cowbells, this isn't a Mississippi State football game. I know I am cheering for the Marlins but if they are up by ten runs; stop ringing the damn cowbell in my ear!! They did have an actual Ray tank which is their one redeeming quality but it sucks in there...  It does not feel like baseball.... not once not ever...

31: O.co Colliseum

What can I say nice about this place that makes it better than Tropicana Field. They care about their team... They do! The atmosphere shows that they love the A's but it does feel like the home of the Raiders... It is outrageously spacious in just a horrible part of town. I can not say one thing about Oakland and feel safe saying it.... I might get mugged just typing this.... The only positive is that the BART station is walking distance to the stadium and by walking I mean you can avoid Oakland.... 

They are hoping to build a new stadium but it is tough because San Jose is their best option which infringes on San Francisco territory.... Those two teams want new stadiums and thus are perfect for the bottom of the list....

30: Sun Life Stadium:

I miss one thing and one thing only about that place....doubleheaders...I  went to the last three doubleheaders because in my life there is nothing cooler than two games for the price of one! I even went to one that started at 5 pm and had the second game go 13 innings and finish at 2 am!! It was home for my Florida Marlins but it sucked... The location was horrendous and they had games like these...

Nothing like a weekday 12 o'clock game in April May or September were no one even could drive all the way to Miami Gardens, pay ten dollars to park and sick in the blistering sun to see a mediocre team play baseball!... And once they knew they were moving to Marlins park they stopped even doing repairs on the place.... The Teal Monster has so many broken lights... What a joke. It was home though and that is why I will be biased and put it at 30.... It did see the 1997 and 2003 World Series too and had the most ever fans in a World Series game and will always hold that record....

Next up: Later today...Another stadium that no longer exists...

Giancarlo is a beast

I don't see how you missed it.... but if you did.... Giancarlo hit a monster dong OUT of Dodger stadium Tuesday night....

Only 5 balls have ever left Dodger stadium and now Giancarlo is responsible for one of them.467 feet at a speed of 115 MPH.

Too bad the Marlins gave up 21 hits that night... 21!!

It was all better Wednesday night as Dee Gordon went 4-5, lifted his average to a whopping .426 and Steve Cishek AJ Ramos got the save for the Marlins in a 5-4 victory. Defensive play of the night...

Ufffffff! Hechavarria, even though the metrics still believe that he is atrocious, continues to make stellar plays on the field.

Day off Thursday, Bring on the reeling Braves over the weekend....

New closer, new beginnings....

The end of the line for Steve Cishek

I held myself.... Oh God did I hold myself back after Sunday's game in San Francisco. Our lovely "closer" blew another one in San Francisco by walking in the tying run and later getting the loss. I held myself back.

Let us move to Monday night....a game I did not expect them to win against the team with the best record in the NL who is 13-2 at home with a stud in Greinke on the mound. I would of been ok with a 2-1 loss in the ninth but Yelich hits the home run, they take the lead and hey we might win this game!

Then you remember that you are on the road and your "closer" has to come into the game... Twitter will help me the rest of the way

I said my prayers....I held my breathe and got on the ride hoping for a different result.

He gets an out.... you remember he did the same yesterday

Then the base on balls and you remember why you said the prayers.

Eithier gets a hit and your heart sinks because you know....Take him out you think...

Too late. Van Slyke home run ball game 5-3 loss.... THE FUCK!

Then twitter explodes...Lets analyze some of these because #Marlinsnation is never this upset!

Hard to argue with those points...

That is actually very true... I wish my job was simply to get three outs...

Ouch....

 Gosh don't remind me of those names.... nightmares! Also who can not forget the 6 finger fastball of Antonio Alfonseca in that bunch....

OMG that is Redmond! He supports bad closers then and NOW!

But ladies and gentlemen the good news is here as the writing is now on the wall...

The life of a closer is delicate...and a bad stretch could relegate you first out of the role of closer and next thing you know you are a middle reliever in Myrtle Beach pitching for the Mermen

But don't worry Val Reyes still has your back Cishek....

(Leave Britney alone)

Too bad she is the only person with your back

The end is here for Steve Cishek as our closer and it was fun while it lasted. Now he can join Heath Bell on the list of names that make us cringe

SO LONG CISHEK

Fan Graphs and last nights game.

The Marlins won last night in what I would call the way they don't teach you to win a game and the image above brought to you by fangraphs.com is a great tool to see where the odds of the Marlins winning were at during any point of the game. The lower the line the better the odds were for the Marlins to win....

I want to harp more on the later innings especially after the Bryan Morris collapse of Monday night.

Bottom of the 7th with the score 2-1
Lead off walk to Wilson Ramos. According to fan graphs, that run scores 38 percent of the time and that little spike in the middle of the 7th shows the odds going down (up).
After one out Latos walks Uggla and we are now back at bad odds but Nick Masset comes in to the game and finishes off the 7th with a nifty play by Flash Gordon.

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/8878534/v102752483

Bottom of the 8th with the score 2-1
Lead off walk to Denard Span a speedster. Again another 38 percent chance of scoring on base for the Nationals. Again the Marlins find a way to get out of the inning. This Houdini act....

Bottom of the 9th and Cishek in with score 2-1
Almost a lead off walk but a bloop single (it happens) but then the error by Hechavarria and its 1st and 2nd with no outs. Fan Graphs shows that spike there and actually had the game as a coin flip at that point! Thank goodness Dan Uggla can't bunt (or hit) and provided a perfect bunt to get an out at 3. At least he can cook a steak though!

Steve Cishek then turns into the Cishek of old and strikes out the last two batters to win the game... How do you even pull that one out of your butt Marlins?? I do not know but I am not offended. Marlins win 2-1, Latos gets his first Marlins win with his tattoos and weird hair cut, but I just saw his wife.... I will no longer make fun of him... Dallas Latos. That is all I have to say... 

Dallas Latos...

Rubber match today at 1:05... day baseball!

The DFA of Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Last year the Marlins gave Jarrod Saltalammachia, an OK catcher coming off a good season and world series championship, a 3 year 21 million dollar contract to sign on with the fish. He was meant to fill in the gap until JT Realmuto was ready to sign on. Of course he went off and performed at a .220 BA, 320 OBP and the disturbing number of 143 K, or better said, a strikeout in 33 percent of his at bats! Those that do not know enough about baseball need to know that a K is the best case scenario for a defense as nothing positive can happen for the offense thanks a strikeout. Of course Salty was striking out 1 in every 3 at bats!!

Not good Salty...

The Marlins really do have bad luck in signing catchers... Remember how Jeffrey Loria was extremely excited about signing another catcher in 2011 coming off a career year with Toronto? He was more known for his cool masks then his hitting here. Mr John Buck who hit a whopping .192 was that big signee and that big bust, but his catcher helmets are cool!

Bring us back to 2015, and the start of this still very early season. You may recall game number one and Jarrod's bases loaded opportunity with zero outs and his chance to shine.... 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_04_06_atlmlb_miamlb_1&mode=video RUH ROH 

and it really only trended downwards from there. His hitting clip kept going down until the Marlins quickly gave up on him and brought in JT Realmuto quickly into the starting role. The stunning part was that Salty quickly became benched in favor of Realmuto who is a better defender than Salty as evidence by this play on Monday night.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_04_27_nynmlb_miamlb_1&mode=video&content_id=91471483&tcid=vpp_copy_91471483

Catchers do not make that play... so that already is a plus. Also it helps when the catcher or well the position player you have hits better than .069!! So after a small sample size of 33 at bats which in reality is too small to judge in baseball the Marlins decided that after he returned from paternity leave (Nice touch) to designate him for assignment (DFA) That is the fancy way of saying GET OUT! 

One issue here, the Marlins still owe him what is left of this year and next year and even though we talk bad about him, Salty is still a better back up than Jeff Mathis. So why let 14 million just go away and be given the Dan Uggla treatment? There must be something deeper, there must be a reason to not have him around. Was he a clubhouse cancer? Was he really that bad to have around? Who knows, but he is gone now and apparently some American League team will take him and use him as a DH/C. Good luck to you Salty and hopefully the wind generated by your strikeouts can provide some good energy in another stadium. 

On the positive note! A good win and recovery by Steve Cishek to take game two against the Metropolitans. Rubber match against Old man Colon today. Lets keep the winning rolling! 

The Wonderment of Dee Gordon....

So this young man from the Los Angeles Dodgers was traded to Miami in what some would say was a one sided deal... We lost one of our best pitching prospects in Andrew Heaney but also got Dan Haren for a grand total of zero.zero dollars. (He hasn't been too bad either). All we knew about him was that he was fast and he doesn't walk. Well that and that he loves to be caressed by Rod Barajas.

I'm sure he misses his old teammate.

Now he is in Miami and still does not walk but amazingly he has 34 hits in 20 baseball games and is hitting an astonishing .395! Even more astounding is his caught stealing number as he has been thrown out 6 times on the bases already! Even Dee is surprising himself. 

 Now I don't get into those advance BABIP stats which say he is getting lucky and stuff because that just puts a damper even though I am a statistics teacher. Can we just say that he is a quality slap hitter and worth the investment we put on him?

All I know is he has got hops and can easily dunk over Christian Yelich

Take that Christian!!!

So far its been positive having Mr. Dee Gordon around.... now if only he can close games and not let that Shrek guy blow another one... Shades of Heath Bell... 

(That was a scary time period)

Return for the 2015 season

I am back... it has been a hiatus...it has been depressing. Justin Ruggiano is long gone from the roster but it is time to get excited for the 2015 season! We are playing Grapefruit League games and Stanton wants you to see his new face!

What a G

Get ready for a month of names like Ryan Chaffee and Vin Mazzero! Who wants to analyze the most unlikely people to make the Marlins roster.... (Can we fast forward to Opening Day...?)