Alright, now the Marlins have not even been done for a full week, but it is never too early to guess at what the Marlins can/will do over the winter to improve themselves for the 2009 season. I know what you’re thinking, what do you mean improve? This team just finished within a few games of making the playoffs in the NL and were in it till the last week. They sure were, but what fun is life without striving to always get a little better. The Marlins CAN make the playoffs next year and it won’t take a lot of shifting, so lets just take a walk down “Imaginary Lane” and take a look at what the Marlins offseason should look like to make them a contender in 2009.

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.

It is hard to accept, but the Marlins 2008 season is finally over. A season that started with a lot of promise saw the Fish lead the NL East throughout April and May. The team hung in the pennant race throughout June and July. In the end, the Marlins faded down the stretch and though they played themselves back into the fight in early September, they were done realistically after their August collapse. Now it is left to us to determine what went right and what went wrong for the Marlins this season, and it boils down to 8 reasons.

First off, what went right for the Marlins this season? Well, the Marlins made the following positive steps forward in 2008:

1. The most visible improvement was the Marlins record, 84-77, a 13 win improvement over last season. This season was the Marlins 1st winning season since 2005 and their record of 84-77 is the 3rd best finish in team history. The only better records belonged to the 1997 World Series team and 2003 World Series team.

2. Perhaps the biggest positive this season was the fact that the Marlins were never below .500 after the 3rd game of the season when they were 1-2. They didn’t even fall to .500 again until August.

3. The Marlins were tough in the clutch, never making it too easy for their opponents. They finished 24-19 in 1 run games and 9-5 in extra innings games. The Fish also had 42 comeback victories and 11 walk off wins.

4. Florida pitching was vastly improved this year. The team finished 30th (dead last) in ERA last season, but this season finished 14th in MLB.

For all the positives though, the Marlins still had weak spots that will need to be addressed to transform this team into a playoff team next year. Here are 4 things that will need to be improved:

1. The team’s defense was atrocious at times this season. Hanley Ramirez, Jorge Cantu, and Mike Jacobs were among the worst in MLB at fielding their position. The team as a whole was 2nd to last in fielding percentage.

2. This team couldn’t get over hump. On July 20th the Fish were within 1/2 game of the NL East lead, but after falling out of the race for Manny Ramirez, the Marlins bats went cold in August and the Fish played themselves out of the playoff race with a terrible month of August.

3. The Marlins blew too many late leads. Even though Kevin Gregg was removed as closer in favor of Matt Lindstrom, the damage had been done. Gregg tied for the lead in the majors with 9 blown saves on the season, to go with 8 losses he picked up as well. Lindstrom took over at the end of the season and was an improvement, time will tell though if he can be durable throughout an entire season as closer.

4. Marlins batters created as much wind in South Florida as the hurricane season did. The Fish were 1st in MLB as a team with 1,371 Ks, 100 Ks higher than the next closest team. 6 Marlins’ batters finished with more than 100Ks each and a 7th was on his way were it not for 2 months out of the game.

Perhaps an extra weakness the team has is ownership. Jeffrey Loria should be ashamed of his cheapness, his payroll of just over $20 million was far and away the lowest in baseball. Alex Rodriguez makes in one season what the whole Marlins team makes in a year. Loria ,however, now has his coveted new stadium and promised to spend more money when a stadium was secured for the Marlins. Well mission accomplished, now pony up the dough Loria!

No team in baseball is ever perfect and every team has weaknesses that can be exploited. The true measure of a good team however is their ability to minimize their weakness and take advantage of their strengths. In the end many good things happened to the Marlins this season, good record, strong performance, and hey, we’ve got a new stadium coming our way in 2011. The future is bright for this team, stick around to see what happens!

One has to wonder where this Florida Marlins squad has been hiding the past month. The Marlins extended their win streak to 4 games in beating the Washington Nationals 4-2 Saturday evening, and in so doing set another record and got closer to setting another.

Josh Johnson pitched 6 strong innings giving up 6 hits and 2ER while getting 9Ks. Johnson has been on fire since returning July 10th from Tommy John Surgery. Johnson has stifled opposing batters allowing 3ERs or less in 11 of his 12 starts this season and improved his record tonight to 5-1. Matt Lindstrom pitched a scoreless 9th inning to earn his 4th save in 5 opportunities.

As for the record, in the 2nd inning Hanley Ramirez hit his 30th homerun of the season making the Marlins infield trio of Dan Uggla (30), Mike Jacobs (32), and Hanley Ramirez (30) the 2nd infield trio ever to hit 30 HRs each in a season. In 2001 the Oakland Athletics infield trio of Jason Giambi (38), Eric Chavez (32), and Miguel Tejada (31) were the first trio ever to accomplish the feat.

More importantly, the Marlins are on the verge of having 4 infielders hit at least 30 HRs each in a single season. In the 1st inning Jorge Cantu knocked his 26th HR of the season into the seats to give the Marlins the lead early. Cantu has 14 games left this season to get 4 more HRs, here’s hoping he can get there!

Tonight was further proof that the Marlins have a solid infield established and they need to do what they can in the offseason to keep Cantu, Jacobs, and Uggla to continue playing alongside of Hanley Ramirez. Yes, they are each prone to errors, but as evidence by the number of homeruns they are more than capable of making up for defensive lapses by putting up runs. The Marlins need to focus on improving their starting rotation and more importantly the bullpen. The Marlins clearly have a solid 1-2 punch with Ricky Nolasco and Josh Johnson, the question is can Anibal Sanchez ever regain his form, can Scott Olsen be consistent over a full season, and will Chris Volstad continue to blossom? The bullpen is a bigger mess and needs to be addressed first. Keep the infield nucleus intact and build a team around them.

September 1st marks the point in the MLB season at which teams can expand their rosters for the final month of the season, either to give rookies a chance at the major league level or add depth for a playoff push. Dallas McPherson, Robert Andino, and Eulogio De La Cruz were the 3 players the Marlins have added to their roster for September’s push.

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.

As if management didn’t have enough ammunition to show Kevin Gregg the door, they certainly got it tonight. With their backs against the wall and the nets closing in on the Marlins, they came out agains the New York Mets, 6 games out of 1st place and put in a great effort. Rookie Chris Volstad, facing the Mets for the first time in his career, held the Mets in check going 6 1/3 innings allowing 5 hits and striking out 5.

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’s loss to the Atlanta Braves leaves the Florida Marlins’ playoff outlook very bleak. Over the course of the season Marlins’ fans have blamed ownership, the bullpen, or the manager for the Marlins struggles at different points in the season. The past three days however must leave all fans questioning the team itself, the 25 men who call themselves professional baseball players.

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.

Regardless of how the Florida Marlins finish this season, miss the playoffs, booted in the first round, or magical run; when the off-season rolls around the Marlins need to make a closing pitcher their TOP priority. Forget signing Dan Uggla long term, forget Mike Jacobs, forget Jorge Cantu, the core piece of every teams bullpen is a closer who can come out night after night and do exactly what you pay him to do, dominate.

Kevin Gregg is not that guy, and can’t be that guy for the Marlins. Not now, not in the future. Lets briefly compare him with some of the more prestigious closers in the league. Gregg is 10th in the majors with 29 saves this season, however, among the top 10 closers he has the MOST walks and the FEWEST strike outs. Kevin Gregg is effective (when he’s effective I should say) because he has a great fastball and a very good slider, his problem however is that very good slider. Gregg doesn’t have the greatest control on that slider, sometimes it makes batters look ridiculous, other times it lands in the dirt before the mound resulting in wild pitches.

Kevin Gregg is just too inconsistent, the Marlins’ loss on Tuesday night showed it. He had a 9-6 lead going into the bottom of the 9th and absolutely imploded giving up 5 hits, walking 1, and giving up 4 ER and the game. For a team needing a win to get them rolling and keep the pace, a loss instead to one of baseball’s worst teams could be the straw that breaks Florida’s back and ends their wonderful season.

Bottom line, this season’s issues, particularly in the stretch run have been the bullpen. Sure, the starting pitching hasn’t been stellar, but they’ve more often than not kept their team in the game and 7 out of 10 games the bats are hot enough to offset it. The bats and the starters can’t do anything to prevent the bullpen from imploding and losing a game.

In the end, you just never know which Kevin Gregg will grace the mound each night, thats why he’s not really a top 10 closer despite the ranking. When Fransisco Rodriguez, Joe Nathan, Jonathon Papelbon, and Mariano Rivera come on to close a game for their team, the other team is shaking, not the closer’s manager. Those teams know their closer will get it done, when he doesn’t its just the world evening out because nobody is perfect, even those men make mistakes once in a blue moon. When Gregg takes the mound we all have to hold our breath, well I’m turning purple, we need a new closer.

The blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of ownership and the front office for being either too dumb or too stubborn to fix the real problem on this team, the bullpen. It seems odd that in a year that saw the Marlins pen at one point (April & May) considered the best in baseball, we would also see it become a liability in the team’s quest for October baseball.

Among playoff contending teams only the St Louis Cardinals and New York Mets have bullpens that have blown more saves, 27 and 21 respectively. And although a blown save does not always equate to a loss in the end, its certainly not a stat worth ignoring either. Baseball gets much harder in October, if you want to beat a team, you don’t give up the lead when you have them pinned down for the loss.

The Marlins bullpen has been particularly worrisome as of late. Closer Kevin Gregg blew a 2 run lead in the 9th inning Friday night against the Cubs, his 7th blown save of the season. Then on Sunday afternoon Renyel Pinto imploded allowing 5 earned runs while striking out none and walking 3, all in 2/3 of an inning.

Ownership and management knew exactly what areas of this team needed improvement, areas that if not improved could cost this team a playoff spot, and they did what amounts to nothing. The single move the front office made was to acquire 38 year old Arthur Rhodes, slap a gold bow on him, and call the bullpen situation solved. Clearly it is not as the pen continues to cost the team games.

Clearly the players share the blame when a team fails to perform, but you can’t expect a player to perform above their abilities. The front office knew that ability was lacking in the bullpen and still did nothing, so if the Fish are golfing in October instead of competing for a World Series crown, all of us fans will have management to thank.

After three seasons with the New York Mets, and a half season with the Washington Nationals, Paul Lo Duca returned to the Florida Marlins on Friday. The 36 year old catcher, who was cut by the Nationals after the trade deadline, signed a minor league contract with the Marlins and was to report to AAA Albuquerque.

Lo Duca was traded to the Florida Marlins in 2004 from the Los Angeles Dodgers, who in return received Brad Penny. Lo Duca played 2 seasons in Florida before being traded to the New York Mets after the 2005 season. Lo Duca adds depth, a big question mark for the Marlins, and brings with him a .286 career batting average.

Lo Duca however is 36 years old and is not exactly in his prime any longer. Lo Duca signed a lucrative free agent deal with the Nationals this season, only to miss 52 games with two separate hand injuries. Lo Duca bruised his right hand and then later broke his right hand. He eventually lost his starting job with the Nationals after batting .230 with 0 hrs and 12 RBIs this season and was cut.

While Lo Duca does add depth and bring experience behind the plate, he is not likely to play any vital role in the Marlins playoff push. In the end, the Marlins still haven’t adequately addressed their needs at the catching position. Lets keep our fingers crossed that Matt Treanor can play well through his injury and make it to the off season in one piece.

As the Florida Marlins head into the final two months of the season, a crucial two months, there is good news involving some of the teams key contributers.

The team is expected to recall catcher Matt Treanor from his rehab assignment with Class A Jupiter on Wednesday. Treanor has been on the DL since July 8th with a hip strain. Treanor went 1-3 with an RBI in his latest outing with Jupiter on Tuesday and is expected to split time with John Baker upon his return to the Marlins. Baker has been performing better in the past few days, but the addition of Treanor will be a needed boost behind the plate and another reliable bat in the line up.

Josh Willingham is making strides at the plate after missing nearly 2 full months of the season with a strained back. During his time on the DL, Willingham didn’t even swing a bat due to his injury. As a result, when he returned to the team June 24th he was cold at the plate. Recently though Willingham had an 8 game hitting streak and is starting to regain his form, just in time for the playoff push.

Lastly, Andrew Miller is still rehabbing from right knee tendinitis. Miller, acquired from Detroit in the Cabrera & Willis deal, exceeded expectations early in the season. However, in June his form was not the same and he was placed on the DL. He threw 1 inning for the Marlins’ Gulf Coast League team on Monday and is scheduled to pitch for Class A Jupiter on Sunday. If all goes well, Miller would be a welcome addition to the bull pen for the stretch run.