Florida’s projected starters in the pitching rotation are among the players already in camp and going through light through drills in addition to working on conditioning. Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Chris Volstad, and Anibal Sanchez, all prospective starters, have been joined by relievers Logan Kensing, Jose Ceda, Dan Meyer, and Taylor Tankersley.

Andrew Miller, a starter early last season before patella tendinitis in his right knee sidelined him, is expected to arrive in camp early this week. Miller is expected to be the final piece of the starting rotation, assuming his knee can hold up this season. The 23 year old has been receiving treatment on his knee throughout the offseason and has been going through throwing programs in the offseason as well.

The Marlins’ pitching staff is likely to be the backbone and strength of this team in the 2009 season. Last season the starting rotation in particular was a key reason for the Marlins strong performance. Finding an ace of the staff will be important, finding that pitcher you turn to in a tight spot. Ricky Nolasco was a defacto ace last season experiencing the best season of his career. Josh Johnson’s outstanding return from injury and surgery however make him a front runner to be the ace. Figuring out the back end of the pitching staff (relievers and closers) will be critical too as that was one of the Marlins weaknesses last season.

First off, lets put a new twist on an old South Florida trick, the player sale. Only this time there will be no sign outside Dolphin Stadium saying “Fire Sale: Get Your Red Hot Ballplayers!”. The Marlins have 17 players eligible for salary arbitration this offseason, and it is estimated that to resign all those players and maintain 2008′s team, the Marlins payroll would have to double from $21 million to over $40 million. Why waste the money to maintain a team that missed the playoffs, albeit barely, when for the same amount of money a playoff contending team can be put on the field. The Marlins hold players with high trade value and should use them wisely.

The main focus of the Marlins offseason should be to refocus from a power hitting, high strikeout team to one that has improved defense, contact hitting, speed, and solid pitching from beginning to end.

Call ups Cameron Maybin and Gaby Sanchez showed in the last 2 weeks of the season they are ready to go full time for the big club. Dallas McPherson is also ready to move up from AAA to take over at 3rd base, and John Baker grew by leaps and bounds as the season came to a close, he too is ready to go behind the plate for the big club. This means Dan Uggla, Josh Willingham, Jeremy Hermida, Kevin Gregg, and Scott Olsen won’t all be returning next season.

This offseason won’t read like past seasons that have seen successful Marlins teams torn apart to save money. Mr. Loria has his stadium, time to fork over some cash and put a true winner on the field. Scott Olsen and Dan Uggla hold the best trade value of the lot, so they’re gone. Baker takes over behind the plate, Mike Jacobs likely could remain at 1st, Jorge Cantu is a fantastic utility infielder who played 2nd in his time with Tampa Bay, Hanley Ramirez at short, and McPherson at 3rd. Should Cantu not return, Gaby Sanchez will step in and not miss a beat in the field. If Jacobs departs, Cantu plays 1st and Sanchez 2nd.

Some jobs will be lost in the outfield as well. Maybin proved in the last two weeks he’s ready all around, which means Willingham and Hermida are not both likely to stay with the team. Pitching is going to shake up as well. Lindstrom seems ready to take over as the full time closer, sending Kevin Gregg packing, much to the relief of Marlins fans across Florida. Scott Olsen isn’t likely to return either, but with Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Chris Volstad, and Anibal Sanchez returning, the rotation is in good hands regardless.

Lots of things can happen in the following weeks to alter the above scenario, assuming they don’t, the Marlins should be wise when dealing with Uggla and Olsen. The greatest need of the team is extra help in the bullpen, it is imperative that is addressed. It would also be wise to secure one more proven, reliable bat. A starting pitcher would be acceptable, though the Marlins have several talented prospects waiting in the wings to pitch.

It may seem silly to shed power baseball for the manufacturing of runs, but that is not the only thing being accomplished here. These moves won’t be made for the sake of lowering the number of homeruns the team makes, they are dual purpose moves. Improved defense, speed on the base paths, and FEWER strike outs with better contact are necessary if the Marlins want to be strong consistently in 2008. The long ball is fickle, it is there somedays and gone the next, which means playoff chances are too. Consider this, the Minnesota Twins are perhaps the best team in baseball at manufacturing runs, playing “small ball”. They game much closer to the playoffs than the Marlins and did so scoring the 4th MOST runs in MLB. They also were 29th, or next to LAST, in home runs in the majors.

Friday night the Marlins went to Shea to face the Mets and Mike “The Mouth” Pelfrey. Pelfrey may wish he’d never talked smack about the Marlins back in August as it came back to bite him and his teammates in the ass tonight. Pelfrey lost for the 4th time this season against the Marlins, he is 0-4 in 5 starts this season against Florida.

The Marlins didn’t wait long to get after Pelfrey, they had a run in before Pelfrey had thrown his 5th pitch. Hanley Ramirez led off with a single, stole 2nd, and scored 2 pitches later on a John Baker single. Marlins’ rookie Chris Volstad went 6 strong innings allowing 5H, 1R(0ER), and striking out 4.

The loss dropped the Mets 2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and 1 game behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card. The Mets found themselves blowing a large division lead last year to miss the playoffs. This year the Mets are in the midst of a similar swoon and the Marlins again enter the fray with 3 games left to go, 3 games in New York, and the Marlins are not shying away from having the stated goal of keeping the Mets out of the playoffs. Last week manager Fredi Gonzalez said that even though the Marlins are out of the playoff picture, he will not rest any starters in the final series of the season.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed, like most of America probably, in hopes that the Marlins can again spoil the party for the overrated Mets. A spot in October should be reserved for teams with the fortitude and determination to overcome adversity. The Mets lack most if not all of the qualities of a playoff team, they quit on their manager Willie Randolph (who wasn’t the one on the field underachieving), and they whined that they weren’t to blame. Here’s hoping the Marlins can crash the party again and keep the Mets out of the playoffs.

Among the group, McPherson brings the most potential in the present. McPherson, a 3B by trade who is also capable of playing 1B, brings power to the Marlins line up. McPherson leads all professional baseball players with 42 home runs this season. Although all his homeruns have been hit in the minors, mostly at AAA Albuquerque, they are not cheap shots that just drop over the fence. Many of McPherson’s are tape measure 500+ foot shots.

Andino is a reliable infielder, capable of playing SS and 2B and though he might not be as clutch at the plate as Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla can be, he is a much better fielder and less prone to making errors. De La Cruz adds another arm to a bullpen that quite frankly has been pathetic.

I’m not going to suggest that any of these men can make a big enough difference to bring a World Series title to South Florida. However, McPherson in particular should be able to have an impact and perhaps help push the Marlins toward the playoffs. If nothing else, the Marlins will get a look at players (McPherson and Andino in particular) that could have starting spots on the 2009 Marlins. Good performances from them in September 2008 could land them important roles in April 2009.

Naturally, as the 9th inning rolled around and the Marlins were ahead 2-1, Manager Fredi Gonzalez turned to closer Kevin Gregg to save the game and move the Marlins closer to 1st place. Unfortunately, as he’s getting much better at, Gregg blew the save opportunity in spectacular fashion. Gregg easily retired the first two batters before allowing a Luis Castillo single, David Wright single, and then hit Carlos Delgado with a pitch to load the bases. Then to top it all off, Gregg served up a Grand Slam to Carlos Beltran, and though the Marlins fought back in the bottom of the 9th, they ultimately fell 5-4. The loss moves them to 7 games back of 1st place.

Gonzalez dodged questions after the game as to whether or not he would replace Gregg as the closer. There is a very good argument in favor of it. From a morale standpoint, Gonzalez needs to strongly consider doing so as Gregg’s errors late in the season are really starting to cost the Fish. Starters and bats are putting in great efforts only for Gregg to throw it all away. In his last 7 outings, Gregg is 0-4 with a 16.20 ERA.

Unfortunately, the Marlins really don’t have many options to replace Gregg. Renyel Pinto is on the DL, Doug Waechter is returning from a shoulder injury, and Mark Hendrickson is in the bullpen because he faded mid season after a strong start in the starting rotation. Youngster Logan Kensing or Matt Lindstrom may be options, but are inexperienced and Jonathon Papelbon aside, many youngsters don’t experience early success closing. Arthur Rhodes may be a possible replacement, though he hasn’t had much work since joining the Marlins and has long been more of a hold pitcher. Its a tough gig, which makes it all the more important for the Marlins to go out and get a solid closer in the offseason if they wish to make a challenge next season.

Last night the Marlins were bested by an Atlanta Braves pitcher that hadn’t won in his last seven outings, and were finally put away by a three run homer from a player who hadn’t gone deep since August 9th and had 0 hits in his last 15 at bats. The Marlins act as though they don’t care if they get into the playoffs. They return to Miami tonight after a 9 game road trip in which they had the luxury of playing the slumping San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves. Instead of a glorious return, they limp home after losing 2 of 3 to each of those squads and find themselves 6 games back of 1st place with the Mets coming to town tonight.

It would be easy to say Fredi Gonzalez isn’t demanding enough of his players, or hard enough on them. It would be convenient to blame the ownership for not spending more. But the bottom line is, these men are PROFESSIONALS. OK, so they aren’t paid on the level of Alex Rodriguez and so many other superstars, but they are paid more than you or I will ever see to play a GAME! If they want to make it into the playoffs, they should man up and show up to the park everyday. When they face, lets be honest here, terrible teams like Atlanta or Washington, anything but a sweep is unacceptable. It does you no good to get up for only the Phillies and Mets, because if you can’t beat the teams you should you won’t even be in contention to begin with.

As always though, I refuse to count them out. Yes, the Marlins are 6 games out of 1st and have 28 games to play. They get the New York Mets in Miami this weekend, they won’t have to face Johan Santana, and the Mets rotation and bullpen outside of Santana and closer Billy Wagner are awful. Now is the time, time to step up and prove you are men and professionals and get yourselves back in the race. If not, well then maybe we don’t need any of you back next year if you can’t step up when needed.

While not as effective as his previous 6 starts this season, Josh Johnson’s worst start wasn’t a bad start. He left after 6 innings having surrendered 3 runs and his team was trailing 3-2. The Marlins would eventually tie the game and keep hope alive of winning the series against the Giants. Then of course, it was the bullpen’s turn to try and not blow a game for once. Kevin Gregg came on for the 9th and was once again shaky and in the end got tagged for the loss. Gregg walked the leadoff man in the 9th and saw him advance to 2nd on a steal and 3rd after a deep sacrifice fly. After intentionally walking Bengie Molina, Gregg uncorked a wild pitch that saw the winning run cross the plate standing up and the Giants won 4-3.

The Marlins’ efforts lately have looked more like a comedy of errors (unless of course you are a Marlins fan) than baseball at the Major League level. Nothing seems to go right for this team other than the fact that from time to time when the Mets or Phillies could really bury the Marlins by winning when the Fish lose, they don’t. Despite a terrible record over the past two weeks, the Marlins sit after tonights action 6 games out of first place, 3 1/2 games out of second.

Manager Fredi Gonzalez needs to focus this team, remind them they are not out of it yet. There is still a full month of baseball to be played, still opportunities against the teams they are chasing and opportunities against downright terrible teams (Atlanta and Washington). The Fish need to get focused on whats at stake, clean up the errors (even a little, c’mon boys, this is the Major Leagues), and come to the park every night with 100% focus on the game and task at hand.

For the Fish, it must begin anew Friday night in Phoenix. Sweeping the Diamondbacks can boost their confidence, and they have the great fortune of not having to face either Dan Haren or Brandon “Cy Young” Webb during the series. Luck may still be on their side, they just have to believe!