The Florida Marlins are currently sitting 5th in the NL East with a record of 49-53. They are 16 games back of the division leading Philadelphia Phillies and are 10 games back of the wild card leading Atlanta Braves.

Things aren’t going to be very easy for the Marlins in their final 60 or so games. They have 12 more games with season against the Atlanta Braves. That could be seen as a good thing or a very bad thing. It
could bring them much closer, much faster or to the other end it could cause for more disappointment in the Marlins clubhouse.

A place the Marlins could pick up a few good wins is against the NY Mets. That is a team that shows flashes of brilliance and on paper look great, but that hasn’t converted to W’s on the field. The Marlins play them 12 more times this season as well.

The real question is how will injuries play their part during the final stretch of the season? All it takes is one or two guys to go down for a few weeks and it could open the door for the Marlins to step in. Of course that all goes with the assumption that the Marlins go above .500 for the rest of the season. Either way it will be an exciting close to the season and we can be happy that we at least have a sport to watch.

Hanley Ramirez got his 1,000th hit of his career on July 15th and is now the question becomes will he be able to keep up his pace and achieve what Derek Jeter did this season of reaching 3,000 hits in his career. It is a mark that not many players get the chance to hit.

First of all you must have the opportunity to be playing night in and night out towards the top of the line-up. After that you have to be staying healthy and have a long career. Making the playoffs often doesn’t hurt either.

Going into the game, Ramirez has averaged 194 hits in his six season with the Marlins. If he were to continue with that pace, he would reach 2,000 hits in his 11th year and then 3,000 hits in his 16th year. If that were the case, Ramirez will have 3,000 hits in 2022 or 2023 if he goes on a 150 hits per season pace from here on out.

A bigger question will be even if he does achieve this goal in a decade or so from now, will he still be in a Marlins uniform?