2023 Game Thread

[fish16]

Lmao of course that timing

[Erick]

as i said all offseason, he's not particularly good at anything. He's a decent hitter who has wild swings of production. He's had a single good month this year and been well below average the other 3. He did the same thing last year. He was terrible all year and then had 1 good month to make his numbers a lot better than he actually is. He is a .740-.750 OPs guy who brings nothing else to the table in any other aspect of the game. He is a 4th OF. I made the mistake of saying he broke out when he was just in 1 of his few hot streaks and not actually all that good.

He still has to play on this team though because he’s one of our best hitters, unfortunately.

[fish16]

sandy looking better today. obscene efficiency so far.

[Erick]

Soler looking like the 2022 version of himself in the 2nd half is something that hasn’t been helpful either.

Arraez is our best hitter and we desperately need him to hit, but we also need Soler’s production, as well. Without those two, this offense absolutely stinks.

[fish16]

A classic sandy efficient complete game could not have been needed more

[fish16]

feels like sandy has been doing that exact performance all year, just with 1 3-5 run inning mixed in. He's got to figure it out eventually. He hasnt been terrible, just way too many huge innings that derail starts. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

[fish16]

this can be said for most teams but especially us. it feels like any time we get literally anything productive from the bottom of our order we win.

[fish16]

Soler looking like the 2022 version of himself in the 2nd half is something that hasn’t been helpful either.

Arraez is our best hitter and we desperately need him to hit, but we also need Soler’s production, as well. Without those two, this offense absolutely stinks.

That is just kind of who soler is. He is a much better DLC but a little more consistently productive. Goes through mega hot streaks and then streaks where he cant hit anything. The issue is more of how much we count on him than anything. Getting Jazz back helps a ton, and going to get a guy like Bellinger and a more productive C like Gomes will really help to take the load off him and arraez. It's not fair to have everything hang on them on a game in and game out basis.

[Namaste]

Huge win. Feels good, man. WAY more Marlins fans here the last 2 days than I would have imagined. Headed over to Ferg’s for victory cocktail

[fish16]

tigers series needs to be a sweep. it just needs to be. need to get some momentum with then hopefully some additions at the deadline giving us more momentum into a super tough august and stretch run.

[Nick]

Huge win. Feels good, man. WAY more Marlins fans here the last 2 days than I would have imagined. Headed over to Ferg’s for victory cocktail

Glad you got a win, wasn't sure of your chances. haha.

[Erick]

A win and a happy flight home with an off day tomorrow.

Plenty of time to make a trade before the Detroit series starts on Friday night…

[lou]

He still has to play on this team though because he’s one of our best hitters, unfortunately.

Your mention of DH is spot on for DLC. I think he and Jazz should split DH next year when Soler is gone, to keep Jazz healthy on one hand, and DLC out of the field as much as possible on the other hand. 90 DLC / 72 Jazz seems about right, with Jazz getting another 60 starts in the field and DLC 40 or so. They each should be around 130 game played IMO. If Jazz is healthy or DLC gets to his full statcast, they get as many as they can handle of course but I am tempering expectations.

DLC's statcast isn't as good as last year (expected OPS in 2022 was .827, and this year .750), but it's still encouraging to note - https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...-r-hitting-mlb. It's red all over at the top and going to inch up today. Some minor barrel, launch angle, and contact rate increases and he's going to be close to an .800 OPS very fast. It's exactly as mentioned preseason, we need hundreds and hundreds of more PA to figure this guy out as the peaks and valleys are so dramatic, plus a new swing path from late last year, and the upside of a 2020 Teoscar Hernandez style break out (less slugging though, but you get the idea. Teoscar had a 125 OPS jump between 2019/2020) exists. DLC could quickly hit .280/.325/.475+ today (call it a 50-75+ OPS jump) forward for years and none of us will be (or should be) surprised is what I am saying.

Basically, they do need to play him as he is one of the best hitters on the team even if he should be a 6/7 hitter on a good team, but they also need to play him to see what happens development wise as these guys do break out sometimes in age 27/28 seasons. I think we'll know this time next year however. I'm glad the FO gets it and are playing him hard as that is the right call. Hopefully he can fix one of the terrible defense and well below average plate coverage just enough so he is something a bit more than current status.

[lou]

Fangraphs updated prospect list - https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board

Eder 54
Cappe 78
M. Meyer 88

N. Meyer - Somewhere in 89-127 as a FV45+

White (new), Fulton, Amaya, Edwards, and Watson maintain solid FV45

Vargas, Berry, and Mack still the next best FV40+ guys


This is a pretty good including Eury and Nardi as standout graduations, and getting some contributions from Myers, Hoeing, and Soriano, and some FV40 arms (Monteverde, Maldonado, Reynolds, etc.) also flashing a little.

Just mentioning, the farm isn't bad to do things.

[fish16]

Your mention of DH is spot on for DLC. I think he and Jazz should split DH next year when Soler is gone, to keep Jazz healthy on one hand, and DLC out of the field as much as possible on the other hand. 90 DLC / 72 Jazz seems about right, with Jazz getting another 60 starts in the field and DLC 40 or so. They each should be around 130 game played IMO. If Jazz is healthy or DLC gets to his full statcast, they get as many as they can handle of course but I am tempering expectations.

DLC's statcast isn't as good as last year (expected OPS in 2022 was .827, and this year .750), but it's still encouraging to note - https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...-r-hitting-mlb. It's red all over at the top and going to inch up today. Some minor barrel, launch angle, and contact rate increases and he's going to be close to an .800 OPS very fast. It's exactly as mentioned preseason, we need hundreds and hundreds of more PA to figure this guy out as the peaks and valleys are so dramatic, plus a new swing path from late last year, and the upside of a 2020 Teoscar Hernandez style break out (less slugging though, but you get the idea. Teoscar had a 125 OPS jump between 2019/2020) exists. DLC could quickly hit .280/.325/.475+ today (call it a 50-75+ OPS jump) forward for years and none of us will be (or should be) surprised is what I am saying.

Basically, they do need to play him as he is one of the best hitters on the team even if he should be a 6/7 hitter on a good team, but they also need to play him to see what happens development wise as these guys do break out sometimes in age 27/28 seasons. I think we'll know this time next year however. I'm glad the FO gets it and are playing him hard as that is the right call. Hopefully he can fix one of the terrible defense and well below average plate coverage just enough so he is something a bit more than current status.

Come on man. It's always the same with his baseball savant page. When he makes contact, he makes decently hard contact. Problem is, he doesnt make contact enough and he has horrific plate discipline. He is what he is. He's going to hover around a .750 OPS and have hot streaks and long cold streaks. It's a good find, but this breakout just isnt happening. He is a guy who makes hard contact, rarely makes contact, is a truly horrific outfielder, and a terrible base runner. He has been the same way his entire career, even throughout the minor leagues. In over 1800 minor league at bats, he had a .743 OPS. In now 900+ major league at bats, he has a .747 OPS. He is what he is. He is never going to breakout. He is always going to have a bad K%%, bb%, chase rate, and whiff rate.

As i've said for months outside of the 1 post i bought into his hot streak, he is ideally a 4th OF but can be stretched to a fringe starting OF. It's what he has been his entire career. When a guy proves time and time again what he is, believe him.