Monday, January 16, 2006

Florida Marlins

The open tryouts for the Marlins begin soon. I have touched on Mike Jacobs, 2B, Wes Helms, and Jeremy Hermida (many times but the latest here).

Joe Borowski looks like the closer entering the Spring. Travis Bowyer has the peripheral stat (strikeouts) but experience will likely win out. Why? Because their closer can be flipped at the trading deadline. This means if Borowski falters, Bowyers won’t be the immediate successor. The Marlins will likely try another veteran like Kerry Ligtenberg.

The Marlins landed Hanley Ramirez from the Red Sox in the Beckett. I had soured on him prior to his relocation, but I have to keep an open mind now that he will be forced into full-time duty. If he can hit 5-10 HR and steal 10+ bases, then he is a helpful Roto player. Given 500 Abs and he will.

The outfield is in flux. Hermida has locked down one spot. Miguel Cabrera was slated to move to 3B at last season’s end, but I went over the reasons why he shouldn’t when I blogged Wes Helms. If Cabrera does move to 3B, then the Marlins will still have one wide-open starting spot in the OF. Right now, it is too early to determine who is the frontrunner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Marlins are a team of the future. Who knows, they may come out and suprise folks, like last year's Nats. As I said before the Marlins are going to be contenders in the near future and should be a fun team to watch.

Anonymous said...

I hope so because it is the kind of rebuilding I see every year in Roto - a teams bails for future parts in order to compete in the following season.

They will need serious pitching development for this to happen. I think offense can be had much easier.