00:00:00
Speaker 1: To fish on first. All right, we made it. This is Fish on First Live presented by Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida. We're on the Fish on First podcast and the Fowl Territory Network. I'm Eli Sussman, the founder of FOF. I got Isaac Azut by my side. And this has been in the works for a while, Isaac. I'm trying to get this all together. I'm basically the whole season long, a new graphics package, a new production application that we're using for these shows. So for people watching, you're going to notice the immediate difference with that. and still a whole lot of fine-tuning to do on my end, but better late than never to experiment with it at this time of year and at this unique stage of this season where the Marlins had to, basically every game felt like a must-win, certainly every series did at this stage of the season, and instead they get, I wouldn't say they got their asses kicked, they got swept, and it was entertaining, at least the final game of it, but yeah, I think we all felt like That was, this was the point where you just wave the white flag, right? Where after losing three straight to the Mets, after falling three, a couple more games further back, and the teams are chasing the wildcard spot. In fact, I think I'll just go right to it and put up the wildcard standings updated. Isaac, they're a lot closer now to the Mets than they are to the Tigers and the Diamondbacks. They're behind the Pirates now. It feels like even though they're not mathematically eliminated quite yet, that this was the end, that they needed to win this series and they couldn't even salvage a single game.
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, going into, I guess, what, the last month or so of the season, the goal was to make the postseason, right? And now it's sort of changed to, hey, let's try and finish above 500. And quickly it's becoming, hey, can they even win 80 games the rest of the way through, just given how tough the competition is? Yeah, it was a really demoralizing series against the New York Mets in which the Marlins pitching staff surrendered 31 runs to the team that's occupying the last place spot in the NL East. I guess not the Nationals are. Fourth place in the NL East. Yeah, and you can argue that this was when you wave the white flag. And I think other people would say that when they lost 3 out of 4 in Washington, D.C., that that was the nail in the coffin. So it would have taken a huge, crazy change in momentum for the Marlins to even make this close. Unfortunately, it just went the other direction. And kudos to the Mets. They've been really, really good since the trade deadline. And, yeah, it's just tough timing for the Marlins, unfortunately.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: Hey, you just pointed out something that I had not noticed at all. The Mets are not in last place anymore. They've passed the Mets. That totally caught me off guard. It's not really a surprise. That's kind of where, coming into the year, everybody wrote off the Nats as the worst team in the division, and the Mets were supposed to be semi-competitive at the very least. And when the dust is settling, all of a sudden this division is actually looking a lot like people thought it would for the Braves going in. The Mets are still a disappointment, but this is a team that was never supposed to be that easy of an out. And as it turns out, they rallied to, for whatever it's worth, they win the season series against the Marlins too. So that's one of those little things that's going to make the difference ultimately when determining who makes it and who doesn't. So for a team that didn't really have much to play for, though, they played well. And I guess you could go a little deeper on yesterday's game. Yesterday's game was one of the more unique games that the Marlins have played all season long. Down eight runs at one point, and they come back to tie it. They take chance and junk off the hook, and then that was only about half the scoring, where both bullpens allow a ton of runs late into the game. 15-14 the final score, and that's part of our new graphics package. We could actually just bring it up right there. Boom! for people to see. A whole lot going on. Where do you want to start even trying to compact what happens? Because that game in particular, all these games felt important, but it felt like they had to win. And so much heart and perseverance, I think that was a word you used in your tweet, so much perseverance to come back from that kind of deficit. It would have been one of the biggest comeback wins in franchise history, if not the biggest. And ultimately, their own bullpen kind of, again, buries them late in the game and they come up just short.
00:04:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, just short indeed. I mean, they had the winning run on first base. Who would have thought? And they not only completed one comeback, they almost completed two insurmountable leads. First, they were down 8-0 in the middle innings of the ballgame and somehow scored eight unanswered against the New York Mets. And then, immediately after scoring that five-run fifth or five-run sixth, they surrender another seven to make it 15-8 in And they kept fighting back and they scored a total of five or three runs in the ninth, two in the eighth to make it a one run ball game, which completely surprised everyone in the ballpark. It was a four hour contest or 400 pitches thrown between the two teams. And it was honestly one of the crazier things to witness in person. But, you know, at the end of the day, pitching and defense wins you ball games. And honestly, neither team really provided much of either. So, you know, unfortunately, the Mets just came away with a win.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to play around with adding the comments to the broadcast too. Yeah, that still works. It looks a little different than it did when we were using our other application. But again, poking around with this stuff as we're breaking this down with this Marlins team. This series was... We're going to get into a little bit more about why it is that they faded as much as they did. What went wrong during these... Especially this last month and a half or so from where they were around the All-Star break to where they are now. And what was atypical about this series is that the rotation was awful. This was one of the worst... series from starting pitching of the marlins i can ever remember sandy yuri junk allowed 20 combined earned runs and even more on top of that 20 earned runs just from your starting pitchers in three games uh yeah they were gonna when they were playing relatively well i would say for a chunk of august it was sandy and yuri leading the charge and that was one of sandy's worst outings of the entire year and yuri it started early and you know he ends up eating some innings but can only salvage so much from his own performance he's had a couple clunkers in a row I know you got into that a little bit on unfiltered which we'll put out drop in tomorrow morning for people to listen to so that was an additional like layer of adversities that the starting pitching just did not show up at all and yeah that was something that was been such a pleasant surprise for the previous weeks before that like they were actually getting good outings from junk and Phillips and gusto on a consistent basis and There was just no margin for error from that standpoint. That was quietly the strength of the team the second half of the season, that rotation. And in this particular series, I really cannot off the top of my head remember that many times where they've had three straight guys that put poor enough to put them out of the game. And to the Marlins' credit, they kept all those games kind of close despite that starting pitching just sticking up the joint. Yeah.
00:07:30
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not very often that you see 31 runs scored against a pitching staff In one series and you're sort of getting away with it with really having two legitimate starting pitchers in the rotation between Sandy and Uri. You know, they were just really praying and hoping with the rest of them, given the injury to Max Meyer, given the Chris Paddock's DFA and no real options other than, you know, Robbie Stanley, who unfortunately also underwent elbow surgery. So they're really just patching this together and they were getting away with it for the most part. And even when those guys were pitching well, they wouldn't let them go deep into games and it was working for the most part. Until they sort of, everything, all the luck sort of hit a wall here towards late August, early September, where unfortunately it's getting to the bullpen, it's getting to the starting pitchers, it's getting to Sandy even, and so it's a long, tough season in Major League Baseball. It's over an eight-month-long thing, and it seems to be getting to these younger guys a little bit.
00:08:20
Speaker 1: What I wanted to do with you is just kind of go through the specific reasons why this team faded as much as they did. I don't think there was ever a moment where they felt like locks for the playoffs or even likely but they were firmly in the mix um at one point they were just a game out of the first wild card spot and they had several teams looking up at them and since the all-star break this is one of the worst teams in baseball it's the fifth or sixth worst record in baseball about 10 games on under 500 since then in fact well it must be one two three four five doing the math it would be 10 games under 500 during that span um so they they faded pretty considerably during that stretch of time. Um, and kind of wanted to almost draft the reasons with you, like going back and forth. Um, I mean, the most obvious one that I'll steal is, um, to me, the fact that their middle infield, which was the best first half of the season, um, auto fades away and he's heating up again late in the year. Like he's, he's showing that some of it is legit, but he really came down to earth and OPS under 600. The second half of the season, we know that he hurt his finger, uh, Wright coming out of the all-star break, that may have played a role into it. Only one home run, if I'm correct, during that entire span, so the slugging has really dipped down, even though he had another extra base hit at the end of this series. For the most part, less slugging from him. Defense was fine, but nothing too special for a shortstop. And then X, his bat faded even more overall that second half of the season, and his power completely dissipated after showing that was a fun touchdown. storyline early in the year. It's like, whoa, X all of a sudden is going to be able to slug a little bit. That changes things. And then, eh, maybe not. So now his numbers are pretty much in line with his career averages. But the fact that he faded so much, especially in that second half, and then missing the last, what is it at this point, about two weeks due to injury? Maybe a little bit more than that. Yeah, to me that really jumps out as the main thing. But what else comes to mind that we liked about this team early in the year and has... not been there when they needed to be to hold on to a playoff spot.
00:10:23
Speaker 2: You know, we know why they traded Liam Hicks, and it was understandable, although it was unpopular, just given how young, controllable, and talented he was. But I think they saw it as they were trading from an area of surplus here, and it wasn't really in the sense that he was one of the few left-handed bats that did not have a strikeout-prone problem. He would always tend to put the ball in play, and they ended up keeping Stowers and Konine And Marci, and credit to Griffin Conant, he's honestly been one of the better hitters in this entire team all season long. However, I think the lineup is really missing some of that contact rate that Liam Hicks did provide. Contact along with some serious power, which he's continued to display as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. I think losing him, his positional versatility, playing first, playing catcher, playing DH, doing all those things, I think they're missing him hitting either third, fourth. He was hitting the top of that lineup every single day. And I think losing him hurt them a lot. I don't think it, I think it hurt them more than Peter Bendix anticipated, but I think that's a big key into why the offense hasn't been, it hasn't been good as of recently, but I think overall the whole month of August, it definitely took a step back. Stowers missing time in missing a couple of weeks, actually in August. Also, I think hurt them a lot. It was really rough timing. And I'll also throw in the injury to Pete Fairbanks, really rough time in him and Bender. I know I'm stealing all of them, but, Those two injuries in the bullpen have really, really decimated that pen because now you're depending on Ekness and Ralston and all these guys that are not used to pitching this many innings, especially late in the year in their first big league season. I think that's provided a lot of issues for the team.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: Right. I was going to go deeper on the bullpen anyway. That's that really jumps out. Um, and I think highlighting Bender is important because even though he was gone even well before the ulcer break, um, They were trying to just hold down the fort without him. They weren't anticipating him missing an entire half of the season, if not even more than that, and eventually it was going to catch up to them. It was never an expectation that these next men up were going to be as good as he was. You have to remind people, he was one of the better set-up men in baseball during that first half of the season. It was very hard to hit, and all of a sudden he was pitching a little bit better even against lefties. He was pitching about as well as he has in his career for a guy that has been a solid piece of this bullpen. And as you mentioned, it was essentially a lot of responsibility placed on these rookies to fill the void, and I liked both Ralston and Ekness, and both of them had initial success in the majors, but they've had pretty high-profile blowups, especially these last two weeks. One of them during that Nats series, I remember I think they tag-teamed to really ruin one game in that Nats series when they had a lead, and both of them allowed home runs. So, yeah, just putting them in situations where they're not entirely ready for it and shouldn't be expected to do much. They end up trading away Lake Bacher, but essentially backfilling him with Victor Vodnik, who I think more or less has been a push. You know, that hasn't really made a difference. But not having Bender, Fairbanks being up and down, like he had an amazing stretch right after in late July and early August, but then right after that blew a couple of saves and then went out. So that, too. Michael Peterson has come back down to earth a little bit, and for whatever reason, he hasn't been used a lot lately. He's only pitched once in their last seven games or so. They didn't want to put him in games when they were already trailing, so that was a part of it, the usage of him and not being that involved. And John King. Yeah, we should mention John King. Yeah. That took people by surprise that they just cut ties with him immediately, and then you just look back at it, and his fall was very rapid, but it was very... undeniable like how he just went from he was he was right there with bender in terms of one of their their top two best relievers the first half of the season and then he goes to being the very weakest link on their whole team um and now he's on like a minor league deal with the rangers right now like nobody would even claim him off waivers so i don't want that to be forgotten either like uh the fact that they he was gone and they really haven't had a go-to lefty to fill the void I can even mention Tyler Zuber. Zuber was pretty solid quietly that season.
00:14:29
Speaker 2: He really was.
00:14:31
Speaker 1: He's been bad lately. He's who we thought he was, unfortunately, as a guy that started this year in AAA and had an ERA around six for his career. It really has been a lot of different guys struggling, not just overall, but in leverage situations, too. where some of those games that they were winning close early on and you didn't know entirely how, all of a sudden a lot of those close games have flipped the other way. Yeah, it's been one of the worst bullpens in baseball during that stretch of time, any way you say it.
00:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we've got to add Max Meyer, making one start following the All-Star game and just going on the aisle with the next one and never coming back. He has resumed throwing, but obviously it's much too late for him to make any sort of return, especially with the team seemingly heading for the exit. And then another name I'll throw out, Leo Jimenez was on this team for a very long time, and I think you could put some of the blame on their second-half struggle to him, because he got a lot of playing time in the month of July and the month of August. Irrationally so. He was playing almost every single day at third base and really hurting the team both defensively and offensively. It seemed like every time there was a big hit needed on the road, especially in that Nats series, he was up, and he very rarely came through, unfortunately, for Miami. And that's just one that the front office was wrong about, plain and simple, and And this season, I think they were a little bit too optimistic that he would turn it around because he never even came close. So I think that's something that really hurt. Because who knows, maybe they call up Pauly a few weeks earlier instead of Leo. Maybe there's some different games that go their way. But alas, maybe they've learned about Leo.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: So we're going to take our first break here from Fabletics. And to come back on the other side, I just want to talk about who we're actually going to be watching for the rest of the year. Who is really under the most pressure to perform. What should these individual players have the most to prove, I would say, the last 15 games of the year. So we'll dive into that, get to more of your comments on the live chat and a whole lot more. So stick with us.
00:16:27
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00:17:30
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the show. The transitions are a little bit more smooth into and out of breaks than they were before. That's Eli Sussman with Isaac Azut here talking Marlins at this emotional low point of the season. But I wanted to get into... who we're watching the rest of this season, who you're going to be making a trip out to San Diego, even if it doesn't have playoff ramifications, who you're looking forward to looking at most closely. What I'm talking about on this front is mainly these younger guys that are trying to show something down the stretch that can meaningfully change where they stand in the depth chart moving forward. And at the same time, these are guys that you can't really make much of a difference unless you're actually playing. So the guy that I think threads the needle here that is still going to get quite a bit of reps and has a lot to prove would be Augustin Ramirez. At least against left-handed pitching, he's going to be playing just about every single day. The Marlins have made it clear that he's just a DH moving forward. He has not caught a single inning in several weeks. Three weeks, four weeks, something like that.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: Or played first base.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he hasn't yet played first base even though they had such a void there for a little while. Right now, there's just a whole lot of pressure on his bat. He did hit that home run for us shortly after the bobblehead giveaway went out, but that's the only one so far. He's been up in the majors since the deadline, so it's been five-plus weeks now, and such limited slugging just because he continues to, above all things, he's just hammering everything into the ground still. It's one of the higher ground ball rates in baseball. So he's hitting the ball pretty hard. He's a guy that has never really had big strikeout issues, big contact issues. That's kind of what made him appealing to me is he's got all that raw power and the ability to put it in play quite a bit, and yet the results have not been good at all overall this year. Like a tiny bit better than they were before he got demoted in early May, but still the lack of slug is holding him back. So he's the one that stands out the most for a guy that I think still has– he's out of minor league options after this year, I believe. Yeah, his future can really– from where it was at the start of the season to where it might be at the start of next year, like he could be a really fringe big leaguer– Things can go in a really bad direction if he continues to struggle, and at the same time, if he heats up down the stretch of the season, then all of a sudden, I think you can kind of talk yourself into him actually being a significant slugger in the middle of this lineup. The variance there, even under these last 15 games or so, I think it's pretty big based on how he performs, how he looks moving forward.
00:20:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it can go really bad or really well for these Marlins with Augustin Ramirez. I agree. He's certainly someone to take a close look at this September. Another guy I would add is Owen Casey. We know he's missed some time. We know the Marlins value him highly. I think that's someone that can either be a fourth outfielder type or a platoon outfielder type or their bona fide everyday right fielder. So I think this month of September will have a lot to say in the matter for him. And then the one other guy I would say, Graham Pauly, right? He really has not gotten a big leash his entire big league career, even when he was with the Padres or last season. This seems to be a good stretch of games for him to play every single day, even though Sano is tearing the cover off the ball. I think Pauly's going to be playing most days against right-handed pitching, whether it be a third, whether it be a first. Who knows? They want to give Stowers a breather. So I think, you know, those three are real key offensive pieces that can either be starters at the big league level or, like you said, they're French players. We're not sure yet.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, not, not to distract, uh, but there, this is a pretty good comment that I think we could get into about kind of grading the way that Bendix, Peter Bendix has handled things this season in particular, now that we've, uh, the dust has settled and, uh, we've seen the way that these moves, we already brought up a few of them that have had direct negative impacts on the team, like trading Hicks and sticking around with Lael Jimenez. And, uh, at the same time, some that have worked out really well to this point in the season that made a big difference, um, Actually, now that I think about it, I'm trying to think of how many of these individual moves have made. I guess at the start of the year, Esteri Ruiz acquiring him, he was a big deal. That was a guy that we could have mentioned in the first part of the show that he's faded and kind of gone back to closer to who we thought he was. A lot of strikeouts from him. The defense has been kind of a reason why that Marcy has regained an everyday spot in center field is that it's kind of clear that Ruiz is a liability there and best utilized as a corner guy. And even then, it's stretching it. So Marcel, who was on our show last time, gives the index a B- for this year. I think that might be generous to add it all up for this year in particular. Now, I mean, we're actually going to be doing a piece on this right after the season ends, kind of taking a broader look at his grade overall, like the best moves and worst moves he's made as president of baseball ops overall. And the biggest moves this year that are paying off are ones that he made previously, right? Like getting Otto for the Nothing price they got him for. Tyler Phillips as well as a waiver claim and turning into a guy that's actually a steady part of their rotation. Those things are paying off, but were actually made a lot earlier than this year was. So for this year in particular, where does your mind go to with that? Trying to just add up the combination of the acquisitions the guys sent out and then also the guys they've called up and the guys that they haven't called up because that's part of the job too is utilizing who they have in the system.
00:22:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough to give it a grade because like you mentioned, a lot of the things that he did prior to this season or offseason have really helped his ball club long term for sure and short term, but if you just look at this calendar year, the moves that have been made, I think B- is a little bit generous. My mind is more towards C +, but when I think about just the moves that were made this year and the lack of giving guys opportunity, it's not really their fault that they're trying to be strategic about the 40-man roster thing with the upcoming lockout, so I sort of see their move there, but There was also a lot of opportunities for Davison to come up earlier in the season. Who knows, maybe if they give Jonathan Long a shot, he could have really injected some offense into this team. Giving Leo the longest leash I've ever seen any bad player get definitely hurt his grade a little bit in my eyes because it was just bad. And then the other bad thing would be that the minute you saw Thomas White and Robbie Snelling and Chris Paddock go down in their respective ways, they should have replenished some sort of major league caliber starting pitching, whether it was bad pitching or good pitching, you needed to add some innings into this, to this rotation because they were relying on two guys for the rest of the year. We knew Max Meyer had never done this many innings. We knew Uri Perez was never going to reach this amount of innings either in his career. So I think they could have used some more pitching depth. And I think that's where I'm going to give them a C minus overall on the, on the year.
00:24:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. And just to reiterate that, and this is a topic that has come up previously is that even though the rotation, it was performing very well for a lot of the second half until recently, The domino effect that you could have had with acquiring another starter is you could have pushed one of those other guys to the bullpen to help out the pen, whether it was Gusto or Phillips or Junk even. All those guys would have helped out on that stand front where you'd still have them, and they'd be able to fill the void of some of the worst quality innings that they're getting from their other relievers. So it just would have made their staff, anyway you slice it, they had an opportunity to make their staff stronger by doing something to add to that depth, and they passed on doing that. So the Hicks one in particular, I think that one, to be fair, is going to take a little bit longer to judge, because I'm kind of interested by the guys that they got back for him, and the fact is that this was a balance between the present and the future. People got to remember that, that there was always going to be some sort of balance in terms of how it is they were going to manage this roster instead of just all out chasing a playoff spot. Just for example, Joe Mack hasn't hit very much the second half of the season, but it was such a priority, understandably, for him to be their primary catcher almost every single day. And that's kind of what made Hicks a little bit of an awkward fit, is that they needed to get these reps for Mack and find out exactly what they had with him on both sides of the ball. And they've been able to get a much better idea because of that. So even though, like in a vacuum, Hicks has outplayed Mack during this stretch of the season. And if Hicks is still, if they're splitting time evenly or Hicks is your main guy, then maybe they do win an extra game or two as a whole. But I'm not going to criticize them for that. I think that's the appropriate move. This is a guy that we felt was an incredible catching prospect and we still feel that way. And to get him those reps, even if it costs you a little bit in the immediate term, I thought that was the appropriate decision to make right there. Other than that, I think it's just kind of drilling home the combination of not just Leo Jimenez, but the fact is that going outside the organization and looking for some sort of answer there, the fact that he was kind of their fallback plan, that with Otto and X, the reason why Otto and X falling off has been so painful to them is that because there really was no next man up. The guys in their system that they were hoping would knock on the door hadn't been performing. and then Leo himself hadn't worked out. So they gave him a long stretch. They had months already to evaluate him before the deadline even arrived and acquiring some sort of middle infielder to help out just in case Otto or X would get hurt or slump a little bit. They didn't do that. And it just, for a lot of the starts of the season, we've seen them... What I'll point to in particular is that the active roster construction has been... It's been... very clunky for the stretch of time where you've had guys on the bench like Navaretto and Leo who, it's not that they're the worst players in the world. It's just that they're not guys that gave you much off the bench. They're not guys that you would trust to pinch hit in any matchup. They're not guys that you would trust to pinch run in any situation. They're not guys, in Jimenez's case, that you would trust as a defensive replacement. It's just that I think it was imperative for them to find more complementary pieces of those. It's not that they need to make dramatic changes to the roster, but there were a lot of these situations late in games where their bench was full of guys that you, that weren't going to help you in, in those high leverage moments. So finding guys like Ruiz was the good one, the one that made a lot of sense that had a very clear fit on, in those situations off the bench when needed or when he was facing left-handed pitching and some of those other bench spots I felt weren't well utilized. So those are, opportunities were they could have just tried claiming more guys off waivers there was a really low acquisition cost potentially to just trying something else with those spots so in terms of things this year that's that's kind of the missed opportunity that i look.
00:28:07
Speaker 2: At yeah i i would agree with you 100 i think there are a lot of guys that are playing their ways to promotions but towards the end of this year a lot of those guys did fall off jacob berry was even one of them so i'll give him a good trade on just getting him off to give other guys a chance to play at triple a jacksonville um And then what other moves, the lack of, I guess you go back to the Hicks trade a little bit. I know you, you, it did make the most sense, but I mean, at this stage I was asked on foul territory, can this constant churning of players be a success in this market? And Hicks was actually one of the, not the most marketable guy on the team, but one of, and one of the best performers on the team. And to do it at the deadline in which you are clearly still trying to make the I would have waited for an offseason to make that trade or maybe even traded Stowers instead, even though he's probably more marketable and probably the higher upside position player, even though he's got a lot more flaws in his swing. It was just tough. We'll see. If it ends up working out, we'll see. Obviously, the fans take it very negatively, that Liam Hicks trade. But overall, I still think Peter deserves the benefit of the doubt. With every move that he has made, there is some clear upside. But that one, it's going to be tough if none of those three guys make it as everyday major leaguers.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: The very quick things to touch on this year in particular is the two starting pitching trades they made at the very start of the year, trading Eddie to the Cubs and trading Weathers to the Yankees. Weathers had a very good year for the Yankees, although he's hurt right now at the end of the year. Certainly missed him as the guy that put up a sub-4 ERA and has been working deep into games when he was healthy. And decent prospects they got in return, but no guys that are impacting the current team. And in the Eddie trade, the headliner was Owen Casey. And on that standpoint, they haven't really missed Eddie at all because he's had a mostly lost year for the Cubs. He's pitched terribly when he's been healthy and he's been on the IL several different times. Casey, despite making that amazing first impression as a whole this year, the strikeouts have been overwhelming. The defense in right field has been very bad. There's still upside there, but he's a guy that's gotten a good amount of playing time this year and overall has been at best a replacement level player and probably a little bit worse than that. So it felt like that was the appropriate time to sell high on Cabrera, but also they didn't actually As it turns out, didn't really get anything to improve their current team. They're putting a lot of faith in Casey to really click as a rookie, and there's been so much streakiness to that, that as a whole, that was an opportunity to... Maybe there were other deals out there that could have gotten them other major league-ready position players that could have given them a bit more consistency there. So with that, we're going to take another break. We're going to hear from... Who would we like to hear from next, our sponsors? Let's hear from Quince. And we'll come back on the other side, look ahead to this Dodgers series, and start wrapping up this show. So stick with us.
00:30:59
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00:31:58
Speaker 1: And we're back on FOF Live with Eli and Isaac right here. One thing I'll acknowledge very quickly in the chat, from Marcel to clarify Leo, Leo Menes did clear waivers and the Marlins released him. So I know people were wondering about whether we might, might, might not have seen the last of him, but if the Marlins are going to get him back, we'll have to re-sign him to a new minor league deal in the off season. He is in free agency as of now. So that, yeah, kind of, kind of predictable where I don't know why they were so concerned about him being claimed or whatever. It's that, that whole saga is something we'll have to dive into later on because it did cost some games and it was something that, uh, just a head scratcher the way that they handled Jimenez this season. Um, talking about the, this is one reason why this series against the Mets is so important, why this whole homestand was, uh, we've been looking at this for a while. The upcoming schedule is, is a mess. Like it's, it's a pretty intimidating, um, and it really heats up this weekend against the Dodgers. Like that is why it felt like it's a little margin for error because you weren't going to be perfect during this final couple of weeks when the level, the, degree of difficulty heats up so much. Uh, it's a Dodgers team. I'll acknowledge off the front. Shohei is going to be out. No Otani for he's landing on the IL. So I'm not going to have to deal with him for these few games, but Isaac, this is a team that is knocking on the door of a hundred wins again. Uh, they always seem to fight with that. If not get to that number entirely. And, um, even though it's in Miami, it's at home. You know this experience when big market teams come to town the way that the Cubs did last weekend. Most of the fans in attendance, we would imagine, are going to be rooting for the two-time defending champs. Even though the starting pitchers haven't been formally listed in MLB's system yet, the Marlins are going to be facing Blake Snell in that first game, Tyler Glass now in the second one, and then Emmitt Sheehan in the finale. Even though they're not eliminated and we I think these guys could still be playing hard. Simply winning this series is going to be a tall task, just given the obvious, given the star power that they have and the just tremendous amount of talent that the Dodgers have.
00:34:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was talking to one of my friends about this upcoming series, saying that Shelly's no longer going to be there, and they're all bummed out. I'm like, don't worry. There's still another three surefire first ballot Hall of Famers on the roster and a couple other ones that could also be Hall of Famers. So it's always going to be a treat to watch these guys play up close. You mentioned the crowd. It really does rub me the wrong way that any time... And the Marlins are not the only team where this happens. It's not the only stadium that this happens. But when the visiting team is so clearly outweighing the crowd, it just sort of... It's an uncomfortable feeling. So hopefully the Marlins come out and support a little bit. Marlins fans come out and support. And it's going to be an extremely tough task to even salvage one of these games, especially against Blake Snell and Tyler Glass now. Sheehan has had his struggles. I've actually had him in fantasy. But... We know the type of lineup they're going to put out tomorrow night, so I don't have super high hopes. And then to face Tyler Glass now is just standing over you at 6'8 and throwing 100 miles an hour with a devastating curveball. It's also going to be tough for these hitters. Don't get to face them that often. I don't think they faced Snell when they were in Los Angeles early in the year when they actually took two out of three at Chavez Ravine. But it's going to be a really tough task, even without Shohei, for Ryan Gusto and Tyler Phillips. I assume the models, you know, ask them to go a little bit deeper than usual this time around, just given how many innings, the bullpen that I throw the last couple of series, but it's going to be tough for gusto for Phillips. And I guess it's Yuri on Sunday. That should be a really fun outing. It'll be also don't show Willis bobblehead day. He'll be inducted into the hall of fame to the Marlins hall of fame, I should say. Um, but nevertheless, no matter what happens, it's going to be a really entertaining series at Lone Depot park. Two years ago was when show hit did the whole six for six for 50, 50, um, at Lone Depot park. Uh, Nothing like that will happen this time, but it's still going to be fun to watch Freddie and Mookie and Blake Snell up close.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: Remind me, was it either you or Kevin that was at that game and left early for whatever reason? I'm trying to patch together the details of that game. Yes, yes.
00:36:03
Speaker 2: Kevin and I left after we missed the Vidal Brujan home run where he homered off him, where he went three-quarters of the way up the upper deck. But, yeah, we both left, and we had to acknowledge that to Jack McMullen and his introductory– appearance on Fish on First. But yeah, that's not one of our finest moments at all.
00:36:21
Speaker 1: So we'll see. Noah Tani, Mookie Betts is playing pretty well, cleaning up after what had been a pretty uncharacteristically bad year and a half from the future Hall of Famer. He's there. Freddie Freeman is quietly hanging around in the batting title race, as he always does, even though he hasn't been front of mind. He might be the one guy that could potentially catch Louisa Rise in that race. So that's something on an individual level that He'll be playing for it. We get to see Tanner Scott again come back to the building. He had a very rocky first year with the Dodgers last season, and now he is, I wouldn't say better than ever, but he's close. He's been really good for them this year, spending most of the year as their closer with Edwin Diaz hurt. That's another, it's such a, the Dodgers, man. You just think about not only all the talent they have, but all the talent that either they miss or they underperform on, and yet they still wind up in the same spot. They've got nothing from Edwin Diaz this entire year, and they're still in this position. If he comes back in time, and if Otani is back in some form, even if it's just as a hitter, they're likely going to be favorites again heading into the postseason, and understandably so. I'm glad that you mentioned the D-Train thing. I overlooked that for whatever reason. Of course, Josh Beckett just got inducted into the Marlins Hall of Fame last Sunday, and now it is D-Train's turn as the second and final member of this 2026 class, and he has an offense to Beckett, but I think D-Train has He resonated with fans in a different way. I think a lot of people are going to be there, and those who will be there are going to be super passionate about him. He really connected with people, even on a level more so than, I would say, Conan or Castillo. That was a phenomenon, especially that first year with him, and then a couple years later, contending for a Cy Young Award. How distinct he was, the personality he has. And he's a guy that is very proud to be a Marlin. Because like Beckett's case, I kind of went over it. It was kind of awkward because he spent more years with the Red Sox. He had more regular season success with the Red Sox. He won another World Series with them. But D-Train, even though he bounced around to a bunch of different teams after leaving the Marlins, those were not very memorable stints. And some of those were minor leagues. All of his success came with the Marlins. So even though it was kind of short-lived, all things considered, just five seasons and three and a half, four good ones, that guy is beloved by this fan base.
00:38:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, when I was a little kid, I guess his 2005 season, I was seven years old, and I just remember after he was traded to Detroit, I would follow all of his steps to see where he'd go because he was just one of the nicer guys that this team had ever employed, really, truly speaking. He was one of the better hitting pitchers that the Marlins have ever had as well, and that's just what made him so much more likable on top of the personality and on top of the unique, funky personality leg kick and delivery that he did have. Everybody at school was just trying to replicate that pitching lineup, even if they were right-handed. It was really tough to see the way his career went post-Marlins because I thought he still had a lot left. He was coming off a season where he started 35 games. It wasn't great for Miami, or for Florida, I should say. But he still showed legitimate stuff, which is why he was packaged along with Miguel Cabrera and that very infamous trade. And then after that, man, it was just, you, he never was a replacement level pitcher again. And it was tough to see, but he has made a hell of a post-playing career. He's working for the Dodgers. He's working and doing all sorts of things for Fox. And like I said, he's one of the better guys that has ever put on a Marlins uniform. And, uh, It'll be good to see him on Sunday. Hopefully fans get there early, get their bobblehead. And I'm sure the video montage at Lone Depot Park will be pretty awesome.
00:39:57
Speaker 1: All right. So we're going to hear from Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida and head into prediction time. Stick with us. Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida. They present all of our podcast efforts here on Fish on First. Miami's best jet ski and boat adventures. Jet ski rentals of South Florida with six jet ski locations and over 120 boats. There's something for every style and every budget. Ride jet skis right in front of the downtown skyline in Ferris wheel or book your own private boat starting as low as $ 300 with the captain included. Bring your drinks, your friends, and enjoy the water your way. The boat is completely yours for the time you reserve it. The reservation based only to book call 305-990-2192 or check them out online at sfjetskirentals.com. Make sure to use our promo code FISHONFIRST and that gets you a 10% discount off your next booking. Again, that's 305-990-2192 or online at sfjetskirentals.com. This is Prediction Time. I do not have time to import the video clip to this new app yet, but that is my voice that does the real clip anyway, so there's my impression of it. As we look at the updated leaderboard with just five series remaining in the season, we've been taking these predictions all season long from our FOF staffers and our valued super subs, other livestream guests. A low-scoring series this past one because a lot of people were holding out hope for the Marlins to win it, and they did not. So it's mostly status quo at the top. David Fernandez, one of our super subs, two points clear of Jeremiah Geiger as we had, as I said, five series left and it's a max of three points per series. So some of these people on the screen, including myself are mathematically eliminated already, but just giving you an overview about where things stand as we head down the stretch. As always, we predict how many games the Marlins will win, who will be the series MVP, um, Isaac, of course, knows how this works and put the names back up there. I'll have to add the music in post-production for the social media. We'll start with you, Isaac. Three games against the Dodgers. The tone that we've expressed on this show kind of speaks for itself where even though they're not eliminated yet, this team is probably lacking some confidence right now. How do you think the Marlins will do?
00:42:16
Speaker 2: I'm pretty confident that the Marlins are going to come away with at least one win here this weekend at Lone Depot Park. Probably won't be on Friday, but they'll win one out of three, lose two out of three to the Dodgers, and I believe that Freddie Freeman, the notorious Marlin killer, will be MVP.
00:42:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll have to keep it pretty straight-laced here, where I think the Dodgers win two out of three. That does feel like the most likely outcome, and I think the Marlins keep these games close, as they have for most of the year. It should be reiterated that even when things have gone poorly for this team, these games have been mostly very competitive towards the end so i think they uh they win one game they maybe they surprise us and rally against old friend tanner scott to get that win right and walk off fashion get one more walk off win at lone depot this season long but lose the series overall uh for series mvp i'll go with blake snell i'll go with the lefty there have been quite a few lefty pitchers against this marlin team that have had their way um so even in the post leo jimenez era that means that Davis and De La Santos is in there, and Jared Serna and Brian Navaretto, or probably all three of them. And I think Snell has an amazing outing that wins that opener for the Dodgers. So that was our show. Yeah, we're going to still get our feet wet with this new program. Our streams are going to be a lot sexier these last couple weeks of the season as I get the hang of it and all the bells and whistles. But thank you all for joining us on this one, on this Marlins off day. Eli Sussman with Isaac Azut here on the Fish on First podcast. presented by Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida, and we're part of the Foul Territory Network. So we'll have another show after the Dodgers series on Sunday, and then just a couple weeks left in this season. So we have declared the team dead in the wild card race, but we hope they, I'd be rooting for a surprise. I'd love for them to prove us wrong and really turn it up out of nowhere and turn things around. But given the expectations, that's kind of where we think this is going, and we're going to still break it down for you the rest of the season and into the offseason because all this does build towards what they're doing moving forward with this team. So we're excited to have everybody along with us. Thank you all so much for the support. And as always, go fish.
Speaker 1: To fish on first. All right, we made it. This is Fish on First Live presented by Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida. We're on the Fish on First podcast and the Fowl Territory Network. I'm Eli Sussman, the founder of FOF. I got Isaac Azut by my side. And this has been in the works for a while, Isaac. I'm trying to get this all together. I'm basically the whole season long, a new graphics package, a new production application that we're using for these shows. So for people watching, you're going to notice the immediate difference with that. and still a whole lot of fine-tuning to do on my end, but better late than never to experiment with it at this time of year and at this unique stage of this season where the Marlins had to, basically every game felt like a must-win, certainly every series did at this stage of the season, and instead they get, I wouldn't say they got their asses kicked, they got swept, and it was entertaining, at least the final game of it, but yeah, I think we all felt like That was, this was the point where you just wave the white flag, right? Where after losing three straight to the Mets, after falling three, a couple more games further back, and the teams are chasing the wildcard spot. In fact, I think I'll just go right to it and put up the wildcard standings updated. Isaac, they're a lot closer now to the Mets than they are to the Tigers and the Diamondbacks. They're behind the Pirates now. It feels like even though they're not mathematically eliminated quite yet, that this was the end, that they needed to win this series and they couldn't even salvage a single game.
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, going into, I guess, what, the last month or so of the season, the goal was to make the postseason, right? And now it's sort of changed to, hey, let's try and finish above 500. And quickly it's becoming, hey, can they even win 80 games the rest of the way through, just given how tough the competition is? Yeah, it was a really demoralizing series against the New York Mets in which the Marlins pitching staff surrendered 31 runs to the team that's occupying the last place spot in the NL East. I guess not the Nationals are. Fourth place in the NL East. Yeah, and you can argue that this was when you wave the white flag. And I think other people would say that when they lost 3 out of 4 in Washington, D.C., that that was the nail in the coffin. So it would have taken a huge, crazy change in momentum for the Marlins to even make this close. Unfortunately, it just went the other direction. And kudos to the Mets. They've been really, really good since the trade deadline. And, yeah, it's just tough timing for the Marlins, unfortunately.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: Hey, you just pointed out something that I had not noticed at all. The Mets are not in last place anymore. They've passed the Mets. That totally caught me off guard. It's not really a surprise. That's kind of where, coming into the year, everybody wrote off the Nats as the worst team in the division, and the Mets were supposed to be semi-competitive at the very least. And when the dust is settling, all of a sudden this division is actually looking a lot like people thought it would for the Braves going in. The Mets are still a disappointment, but this is a team that was never supposed to be that easy of an out. And as it turns out, they rallied to, for whatever it's worth, they win the season series against the Marlins too. So that's one of those little things that's going to make the difference ultimately when determining who makes it and who doesn't. So for a team that didn't really have much to play for, though, they played well. And I guess you could go a little deeper on yesterday's game. Yesterday's game was one of the more unique games that the Marlins have played all season long. Down eight runs at one point, and they come back to tie it. They take chance and junk off the hook, and then that was only about half the scoring, where both bullpens allow a ton of runs late into the game. 15-14 the final score, and that's part of our new graphics package. We could actually just bring it up right there. Boom! for people to see. A whole lot going on. Where do you want to start even trying to compact what happens? Because that game in particular, all these games felt important, but it felt like they had to win. And so much heart and perseverance, I think that was a word you used in your tweet, so much perseverance to come back from that kind of deficit. It would have been one of the biggest comeback wins in franchise history, if not the biggest. And ultimately, their own bullpen kind of, again, buries them late in the game and they come up just short.
00:04:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, just short indeed. I mean, they had the winning run on first base. Who would have thought? And they not only completed one comeback, they almost completed two insurmountable leads. First, they were down 8-0 in the middle innings of the ballgame and somehow scored eight unanswered against the New York Mets. And then, immediately after scoring that five-run fifth or five-run sixth, they surrender another seven to make it 15-8 in And they kept fighting back and they scored a total of five or three runs in the ninth, two in the eighth to make it a one run ball game, which completely surprised everyone in the ballpark. It was a four hour contest or 400 pitches thrown between the two teams. And it was honestly one of the crazier things to witness in person. But, you know, at the end of the day, pitching and defense wins you ball games. And honestly, neither team really provided much of either. So, you know, unfortunately, the Mets just came away with a win.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to play around with adding the comments to the broadcast too. Yeah, that still works. It looks a little different than it did when we were using our other application. But again, poking around with this stuff as we're breaking this down with this Marlins team. This series was... We're going to get into a little bit more about why it is that they faded as much as they did. What went wrong during these... Especially this last month and a half or so from where they were around the All-Star break to where they are now. And what was atypical about this series is that the rotation was awful. This was one of the worst... series from starting pitching of the marlins i can ever remember sandy yuri junk allowed 20 combined earned runs and even more on top of that 20 earned runs just from your starting pitchers in three games uh yeah they were gonna when they were playing relatively well i would say for a chunk of august it was sandy and yuri leading the charge and that was one of sandy's worst outings of the entire year and yuri it started early and you know he ends up eating some innings but can only salvage so much from his own performance he's had a couple clunkers in a row I know you got into that a little bit on unfiltered which we'll put out drop in tomorrow morning for people to listen to so that was an additional like layer of adversities that the starting pitching just did not show up at all and yeah that was something that was been such a pleasant surprise for the previous weeks before that like they were actually getting good outings from junk and Phillips and gusto on a consistent basis and There was just no margin for error from that standpoint. That was quietly the strength of the team the second half of the season, that rotation. And in this particular series, I really cannot off the top of my head remember that many times where they've had three straight guys that put poor enough to put them out of the game. And to the Marlins' credit, they kept all those games kind of close despite that starting pitching just sticking up the joint. Yeah.
00:07:30
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not very often that you see 31 runs scored against a pitching staff In one series and you're sort of getting away with it with really having two legitimate starting pitchers in the rotation between Sandy and Uri. You know, they were just really praying and hoping with the rest of them, given the injury to Max Meyer, given the Chris Paddock's DFA and no real options other than, you know, Robbie Stanley, who unfortunately also underwent elbow surgery. So they're really just patching this together and they were getting away with it for the most part. And even when those guys were pitching well, they wouldn't let them go deep into games and it was working for the most part. Until they sort of, everything, all the luck sort of hit a wall here towards late August, early September, where unfortunately it's getting to the bullpen, it's getting to the starting pitchers, it's getting to Sandy even, and so it's a long, tough season in Major League Baseball. It's over an eight-month-long thing, and it seems to be getting to these younger guys a little bit.
00:08:20
Speaker 1: What I wanted to do with you is just kind of go through the specific reasons why this team faded as much as they did. I don't think there was ever a moment where they felt like locks for the playoffs or even likely but they were firmly in the mix um at one point they were just a game out of the first wild card spot and they had several teams looking up at them and since the all-star break this is one of the worst teams in baseball it's the fifth or sixth worst record in baseball about 10 games on under 500 since then in fact well it must be one two three four five doing the math it would be 10 games under 500 during that span um so they they faded pretty considerably during that stretch of time. Um, and kind of wanted to almost draft the reasons with you, like going back and forth. Um, I mean, the most obvious one that I'll steal is, um, to me, the fact that their middle infield, which was the best first half of the season, um, auto fades away and he's heating up again late in the year. Like he's, he's showing that some of it is legit, but he really came down to earth and OPS under 600. The second half of the season, we know that he hurt his finger, uh, Wright coming out of the all-star break, that may have played a role into it. Only one home run, if I'm correct, during that entire span, so the slugging has really dipped down, even though he had another extra base hit at the end of this series. For the most part, less slugging from him. Defense was fine, but nothing too special for a shortstop. And then X, his bat faded even more overall that second half of the season, and his power completely dissipated after showing that was a fun touchdown. storyline early in the year. It's like, whoa, X all of a sudden is going to be able to slug a little bit. That changes things. And then, eh, maybe not. So now his numbers are pretty much in line with his career averages. But the fact that he faded so much, especially in that second half, and then missing the last, what is it at this point, about two weeks due to injury? Maybe a little bit more than that. Yeah, to me that really jumps out as the main thing. But what else comes to mind that we liked about this team early in the year and has... not been there when they needed to be to hold on to a playoff spot.
00:10:23
Speaker 2: You know, we know why they traded Liam Hicks, and it was understandable, although it was unpopular, just given how young, controllable, and talented he was. But I think they saw it as they were trading from an area of surplus here, and it wasn't really in the sense that he was one of the few left-handed bats that did not have a strikeout-prone problem. He would always tend to put the ball in play, and they ended up keeping Stowers and Konine And Marci, and credit to Griffin Conant, he's honestly been one of the better hitters in this entire team all season long. However, I think the lineup is really missing some of that contact rate that Liam Hicks did provide. Contact along with some serious power, which he's continued to display as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. I think losing him, his positional versatility, playing first, playing catcher, playing DH, doing all those things, I think they're missing him hitting either third, fourth. He was hitting the top of that lineup every single day. And I think losing him hurt them a lot. I don't think it, I think it hurt them more than Peter Bendix anticipated, but I think that's a big key into why the offense hasn't been, it hasn't been good as of recently, but I think overall the whole month of August, it definitely took a step back. Stowers missing time in missing a couple of weeks, actually in August. Also, I think hurt them a lot. It was really rough timing. And I'll also throw in the injury to Pete Fairbanks, really rough time in him and Bender. I know I'm stealing all of them, but, Those two injuries in the bullpen have really, really decimated that pen because now you're depending on Ekness and Ralston and all these guys that are not used to pitching this many innings, especially late in the year in their first big league season. I think that's provided a lot of issues for the team.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: Right. I was going to go deeper on the bullpen anyway. That's that really jumps out. Um, and I think highlighting Bender is important because even though he was gone even well before the ulcer break, um, They were trying to just hold down the fort without him. They weren't anticipating him missing an entire half of the season, if not even more than that, and eventually it was going to catch up to them. It was never an expectation that these next men up were going to be as good as he was. You have to remind people, he was one of the better set-up men in baseball during that first half of the season. It was very hard to hit, and all of a sudden he was pitching a little bit better even against lefties. He was pitching about as well as he has in his career for a guy that has been a solid piece of this bullpen. And as you mentioned, it was essentially a lot of responsibility placed on these rookies to fill the void, and I liked both Ralston and Ekness, and both of them had initial success in the majors, but they've had pretty high-profile blowups, especially these last two weeks. One of them during that Nats series, I remember I think they tag-teamed to really ruin one game in that Nats series when they had a lead, and both of them allowed home runs. So, yeah, just putting them in situations where they're not entirely ready for it and shouldn't be expected to do much. They end up trading away Lake Bacher, but essentially backfilling him with Victor Vodnik, who I think more or less has been a push. You know, that hasn't really made a difference. But not having Bender, Fairbanks being up and down, like he had an amazing stretch right after in late July and early August, but then right after that blew a couple of saves and then went out. So that, too. Michael Peterson has come back down to earth a little bit, and for whatever reason, he hasn't been used a lot lately. He's only pitched once in their last seven games or so. They didn't want to put him in games when they were already trailing, so that was a part of it, the usage of him and not being that involved. And John King. Yeah, we should mention John King. Yeah. That took people by surprise that they just cut ties with him immediately, and then you just look back at it, and his fall was very rapid, but it was very... undeniable like how he just went from he was he was right there with bender in terms of one of their their top two best relievers the first half of the season and then he goes to being the very weakest link on their whole team um and now he's on like a minor league deal with the rangers right now like nobody would even claim him off waivers so i don't want that to be forgotten either like uh the fact that they he was gone and they really haven't had a go-to lefty to fill the void I can even mention Tyler Zuber. Zuber was pretty solid quietly that season.
00:14:29
Speaker 2: He really was.
00:14:31
Speaker 1: He's been bad lately. He's who we thought he was, unfortunately, as a guy that started this year in AAA and had an ERA around six for his career. It really has been a lot of different guys struggling, not just overall, but in leverage situations, too. where some of those games that they were winning close early on and you didn't know entirely how, all of a sudden a lot of those close games have flipped the other way. Yeah, it's been one of the worst bullpens in baseball during that stretch of time, any way you say it.
00:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we've got to add Max Meyer, making one start following the All-Star game and just going on the aisle with the next one and never coming back. He has resumed throwing, but obviously it's much too late for him to make any sort of return, especially with the team seemingly heading for the exit. And then another name I'll throw out, Leo Jimenez was on this team for a very long time, and I think you could put some of the blame on their second-half struggle to him, because he got a lot of playing time in the month of July and the month of August. Irrationally so. He was playing almost every single day at third base and really hurting the team both defensively and offensively. It seemed like every time there was a big hit needed on the road, especially in that Nats series, he was up, and he very rarely came through, unfortunately, for Miami. And that's just one that the front office was wrong about, plain and simple, and And this season, I think they were a little bit too optimistic that he would turn it around because he never even came close. So I think that's something that really hurt. Because who knows, maybe they call up Pauly a few weeks earlier instead of Leo. Maybe there's some different games that go their way. But alas, maybe they've learned about Leo.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: So we're going to take our first break here from Fabletics. And to come back on the other side, I just want to talk about who we're actually going to be watching for the rest of the year. Who is really under the most pressure to perform. What should these individual players have the most to prove, I would say, the last 15 games of the year. So we'll dive into that, get to more of your comments on the live chat and a whole lot more. So stick with us.
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00:17:30
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the show. The transitions are a little bit more smooth into and out of breaks than they were before. That's Eli Sussman with Isaac Azut here talking Marlins at this emotional low point of the season. But I wanted to get into... who we're watching the rest of this season, who you're going to be making a trip out to San Diego, even if it doesn't have playoff ramifications, who you're looking forward to looking at most closely. What I'm talking about on this front is mainly these younger guys that are trying to show something down the stretch that can meaningfully change where they stand in the depth chart moving forward. And at the same time, these are guys that you can't really make much of a difference unless you're actually playing. So the guy that I think threads the needle here that is still going to get quite a bit of reps and has a lot to prove would be Augustin Ramirez. At least against left-handed pitching, he's going to be playing just about every single day. The Marlins have made it clear that he's just a DH moving forward. He has not caught a single inning in several weeks. Three weeks, four weeks, something like that.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: Or played first base.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he hasn't yet played first base even though they had such a void there for a little while. Right now, there's just a whole lot of pressure on his bat. He did hit that home run for us shortly after the bobblehead giveaway went out, but that's the only one so far. He's been up in the majors since the deadline, so it's been five-plus weeks now, and such limited slugging just because he continues to, above all things, he's just hammering everything into the ground still. It's one of the higher ground ball rates in baseball. So he's hitting the ball pretty hard. He's a guy that has never really had big strikeout issues, big contact issues. That's kind of what made him appealing to me is he's got all that raw power and the ability to put it in play quite a bit, and yet the results have not been good at all overall this year. Like a tiny bit better than they were before he got demoted in early May, but still the lack of slug is holding him back. So he's the one that stands out the most for a guy that I think still has– he's out of minor league options after this year, I believe. Yeah, his future can really– from where it was at the start of the season to where it might be at the start of next year, like he could be a really fringe big leaguer– Things can go in a really bad direction if he continues to struggle, and at the same time, if he heats up down the stretch of the season, then all of a sudden, I think you can kind of talk yourself into him actually being a significant slugger in the middle of this lineup. The variance there, even under these last 15 games or so, I think it's pretty big based on how he performs, how he looks moving forward.
00:20:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it can go really bad or really well for these Marlins with Augustin Ramirez. I agree. He's certainly someone to take a close look at this September. Another guy I would add is Owen Casey. We know he's missed some time. We know the Marlins value him highly. I think that's someone that can either be a fourth outfielder type or a platoon outfielder type or their bona fide everyday right fielder. So I think this month of September will have a lot to say in the matter for him. And then the one other guy I would say, Graham Pauly, right? He really has not gotten a big leash his entire big league career, even when he was with the Padres or last season. This seems to be a good stretch of games for him to play every single day, even though Sano is tearing the cover off the ball. I think Pauly's going to be playing most days against right-handed pitching, whether it be a third, whether it be a first. Who knows? They want to give Stowers a breather. So I think, you know, those three are real key offensive pieces that can either be starters at the big league level or, like you said, they're French players. We're not sure yet.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, not, not to distract, uh, but there, this is a pretty good comment that I think we could get into about kind of grading the way that Bendix, Peter Bendix has handled things this season in particular, now that we've, uh, the dust has settled and, uh, we've seen the way that these moves, we already brought up a few of them that have had direct negative impacts on the team, like trading Hicks and sticking around with Lael Jimenez. And, uh, at the same time, some that have worked out really well to this point in the season that made a big difference, um, Actually, now that I think about it, I'm trying to think of how many of these individual moves have made. I guess at the start of the year, Esteri Ruiz acquiring him, he was a big deal. That was a guy that we could have mentioned in the first part of the show that he's faded and kind of gone back to closer to who we thought he was. A lot of strikeouts from him. The defense has been kind of a reason why that Marcy has regained an everyday spot in center field is that it's kind of clear that Ruiz is a liability there and best utilized as a corner guy. And even then, it's stretching it. So Marcel, who was on our show last time, gives the index a B- for this year. I think that might be generous to add it all up for this year in particular. Now, I mean, we're actually going to be doing a piece on this right after the season ends, kind of taking a broader look at his grade overall, like the best moves and worst moves he's made as president of baseball ops overall. And the biggest moves this year that are paying off are ones that he made previously, right? Like getting Otto for the Nothing price they got him for. Tyler Phillips as well as a waiver claim and turning into a guy that's actually a steady part of their rotation. Those things are paying off, but were actually made a lot earlier than this year was. So for this year in particular, where does your mind go to with that? Trying to just add up the combination of the acquisitions the guys sent out and then also the guys they've called up and the guys that they haven't called up because that's part of the job too is utilizing who they have in the system.
00:22:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough to give it a grade because like you mentioned, a lot of the things that he did prior to this season or offseason have really helped his ball club long term for sure and short term, but if you just look at this calendar year, the moves that have been made, I think B- is a little bit generous. My mind is more towards C +, but when I think about just the moves that were made this year and the lack of giving guys opportunity, it's not really their fault that they're trying to be strategic about the 40-man roster thing with the upcoming lockout, so I sort of see their move there, but There was also a lot of opportunities for Davison to come up earlier in the season. Who knows, maybe if they give Jonathan Long a shot, he could have really injected some offense into this team. Giving Leo the longest leash I've ever seen any bad player get definitely hurt his grade a little bit in my eyes because it was just bad. And then the other bad thing would be that the minute you saw Thomas White and Robbie Snelling and Chris Paddock go down in their respective ways, they should have replenished some sort of major league caliber starting pitching, whether it was bad pitching or good pitching, you needed to add some innings into this, to this rotation because they were relying on two guys for the rest of the year. We knew Max Meyer had never done this many innings. We knew Uri Perez was never going to reach this amount of innings either in his career. So I think they could have used some more pitching depth. And I think that's where I'm going to give them a C minus overall on the, on the year.
00:24:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. And just to reiterate that, and this is a topic that has come up previously is that even though the rotation, it was performing very well for a lot of the second half until recently, The domino effect that you could have had with acquiring another starter is you could have pushed one of those other guys to the bullpen to help out the pen, whether it was Gusto or Phillips or Junk even. All those guys would have helped out on that stand front where you'd still have them, and they'd be able to fill the void of some of the worst quality innings that they're getting from their other relievers. So it just would have made their staff, anyway you slice it, they had an opportunity to make their staff stronger by doing something to add to that depth, and they passed on doing that. So the Hicks one in particular, I think that one, to be fair, is going to take a little bit longer to judge, because I'm kind of interested by the guys that they got back for him, and the fact is that this was a balance between the present and the future. People got to remember that, that there was always going to be some sort of balance in terms of how it is they were going to manage this roster instead of just all out chasing a playoff spot. Just for example, Joe Mack hasn't hit very much the second half of the season, but it was such a priority, understandably, for him to be their primary catcher almost every single day. And that's kind of what made Hicks a little bit of an awkward fit, is that they needed to get these reps for Mack and find out exactly what they had with him on both sides of the ball. And they've been able to get a much better idea because of that. So even though, like in a vacuum, Hicks has outplayed Mack during this stretch of the season. And if Hicks is still, if they're splitting time evenly or Hicks is your main guy, then maybe they do win an extra game or two as a whole. But I'm not going to criticize them for that. I think that's the appropriate move. This is a guy that we felt was an incredible catching prospect and we still feel that way. And to get him those reps, even if it costs you a little bit in the immediate term, I thought that was the appropriate decision to make right there. Other than that, I think it's just kind of drilling home the combination of not just Leo Jimenez, but the fact is that going outside the organization and looking for some sort of answer there, the fact that he was kind of their fallback plan, that with Otto and X, the reason why Otto and X falling off has been so painful to them is that because there really was no next man up. The guys in their system that they were hoping would knock on the door hadn't been performing. and then Leo himself hadn't worked out. So they gave him a long stretch. They had months already to evaluate him before the deadline even arrived and acquiring some sort of middle infielder to help out just in case Otto or X would get hurt or slump a little bit. They didn't do that. And it just, for a lot of the starts of the season, we've seen them... What I'll point to in particular is that the active roster construction has been... It's been... very clunky for the stretch of time where you've had guys on the bench like Navaretto and Leo who, it's not that they're the worst players in the world. It's just that they're not guys that gave you much off the bench. They're not guys that you would trust to pinch hit in any matchup. They're not guys that you would trust to pinch run in any situation. They're not guys, in Jimenez's case, that you would trust as a defensive replacement. It's just that I think it was imperative for them to find more complementary pieces of those. It's not that they need to make dramatic changes to the roster, but there were a lot of these situations late in games where their bench was full of guys that you, that weren't going to help you in, in those high leverage moments. So finding guys like Ruiz was the good one, the one that made a lot of sense that had a very clear fit on, in those situations off the bench when needed or when he was facing left-handed pitching and some of those other bench spots I felt weren't well utilized. So those are, opportunities were they could have just tried claiming more guys off waivers there was a really low acquisition cost potentially to just trying something else with those spots so in terms of things this year that's that's kind of the missed opportunity that i look.
00:28:07
Speaker 2: At yeah i i would agree with you 100 i think there are a lot of guys that are playing their ways to promotions but towards the end of this year a lot of those guys did fall off jacob berry was even one of them so i'll give him a good trade on just getting him off to give other guys a chance to play at triple a jacksonville um And then what other moves, the lack of, I guess you go back to the Hicks trade a little bit. I know you, you, it did make the most sense, but I mean, at this stage I was asked on foul territory, can this constant churning of players be a success in this market? And Hicks was actually one of the, not the most marketable guy on the team, but one of, and one of the best performers on the team. And to do it at the deadline in which you are clearly still trying to make the I would have waited for an offseason to make that trade or maybe even traded Stowers instead, even though he's probably more marketable and probably the higher upside position player, even though he's got a lot more flaws in his swing. It was just tough. We'll see. If it ends up working out, we'll see. Obviously, the fans take it very negatively, that Liam Hicks trade. But overall, I still think Peter deserves the benefit of the doubt. With every move that he has made, there is some clear upside. But that one, it's going to be tough if none of those three guys make it as everyday major leaguers.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: The very quick things to touch on this year in particular is the two starting pitching trades they made at the very start of the year, trading Eddie to the Cubs and trading Weathers to the Yankees. Weathers had a very good year for the Yankees, although he's hurt right now at the end of the year. Certainly missed him as the guy that put up a sub-4 ERA and has been working deep into games when he was healthy. And decent prospects they got in return, but no guys that are impacting the current team. And in the Eddie trade, the headliner was Owen Casey. And on that standpoint, they haven't really missed Eddie at all because he's had a mostly lost year for the Cubs. He's pitched terribly when he's been healthy and he's been on the IL several different times. Casey, despite making that amazing first impression as a whole this year, the strikeouts have been overwhelming. The defense in right field has been very bad. There's still upside there, but he's a guy that's gotten a good amount of playing time this year and overall has been at best a replacement level player and probably a little bit worse than that. So it felt like that was the appropriate time to sell high on Cabrera, but also they didn't actually As it turns out, didn't really get anything to improve their current team. They're putting a lot of faith in Casey to really click as a rookie, and there's been so much streakiness to that, that as a whole, that was an opportunity to... Maybe there were other deals out there that could have gotten them other major league-ready position players that could have given them a bit more consistency there. So with that, we're going to take another break. We're going to hear from... Who would we like to hear from next, our sponsors? Let's hear from Quince. And we'll come back on the other side, look ahead to this Dodgers series, and start wrapping up this show. So stick with us.
00:30:59
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00:31:58
Speaker 1: And we're back on FOF Live with Eli and Isaac right here. One thing I'll acknowledge very quickly in the chat, from Marcel to clarify Leo, Leo Menes did clear waivers and the Marlins released him. So I know people were wondering about whether we might, might, might not have seen the last of him, but if the Marlins are going to get him back, we'll have to re-sign him to a new minor league deal in the off season. He is in free agency as of now. So that, yeah, kind of, kind of predictable where I don't know why they were so concerned about him being claimed or whatever. It's that, that whole saga is something we'll have to dive into later on because it did cost some games and it was something that, uh, just a head scratcher the way that they handled Jimenez this season. Um, talking about the, this is one reason why this series against the Mets is so important, why this whole homestand was, uh, we've been looking at this for a while. The upcoming schedule is, is a mess. Like it's, it's a pretty intimidating, um, and it really heats up this weekend against the Dodgers. Like that is why it felt like it's a little margin for error because you weren't going to be perfect during this final couple of weeks when the level, the, degree of difficulty heats up so much. Uh, it's a Dodgers team. I'll acknowledge off the front. Shohei is going to be out. No Otani for he's landing on the IL. So I'm not going to have to deal with him for these few games, but Isaac, this is a team that is knocking on the door of a hundred wins again. Uh, they always seem to fight with that. If not get to that number entirely. And, um, even though it's in Miami, it's at home. You know this experience when big market teams come to town the way that the Cubs did last weekend. Most of the fans in attendance, we would imagine, are going to be rooting for the two-time defending champs. Even though the starting pitchers haven't been formally listed in MLB's system yet, the Marlins are going to be facing Blake Snell in that first game, Tyler Glass now in the second one, and then Emmitt Sheehan in the finale. Even though they're not eliminated and we I think these guys could still be playing hard. Simply winning this series is going to be a tall task, just given the obvious, given the star power that they have and the just tremendous amount of talent that the Dodgers have.
00:34:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was talking to one of my friends about this upcoming series, saying that Shelly's no longer going to be there, and they're all bummed out. I'm like, don't worry. There's still another three surefire first ballot Hall of Famers on the roster and a couple other ones that could also be Hall of Famers. So it's always going to be a treat to watch these guys play up close. You mentioned the crowd. It really does rub me the wrong way that any time... And the Marlins are not the only team where this happens. It's not the only stadium that this happens. But when the visiting team is so clearly outweighing the crowd, it just sort of... It's an uncomfortable feeling. So hopefully the Marlins come out and support a little bit. Marlins fans come out and support. And it's going to be an extremely tough task to even salvage one of these games, especially against Blake Snell and Tyler Glass now. Sheehan has had his struggles. I've actually had him in fantasy. But... We know the type of lineup they're going to put out tomorrow night, so I don't have super high hopes. And then to face Tyler Glass now is just standing over you at 6'8 and throwing 100 miles an hour with a devastating curveball. It's also going to be tough for these hitters. Don't get to face them that often. I don't think they faced Snell when they were in Los Angeles early in the year when they actually took two out of three at Chavez Ravine. But it's going to be a really tough task, even without Shohei, for Ryan Gusto and Tyler Phillips. I assume the models, you know, ask them to go a little bit deeper than usual this time around, just given how many innings, the bullpen that I throw the last couple of series, but it's going to be tough for gusto for Phillips. And I guess it's Yuri on Sunday. That should be a really fun outing. It'll be also don't show Willis bobblehead day. He'll be inducted into the hall of fame to the Marlins hall of fame, I should say. Um, but nevertheless, no matter what happens, it's going to be a really entertaining series at Lone Depot park. Two years ago was when show hit did the whole six for six for 50, 50, um, at Lone Depot park. Uh, Nothing like that will happen this time, but it's still going to be fun to watch Freddie and Mookie and Blake Snell up close.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: Remind me, was it either you or Kevin that was at that game and left early for whatever reason? I'm trying to patch together the details of that game. Yes, yes.
00:36:03
Speaker 2: Kevin and I left after we missed the Vidal Brujan home run where he homered off him, where he went three-quarters of the way up the upper deck. But, yeah, we both left, and we had to acknowledge that to Jack McMullen and his introductory– appearance on Fish on First. But yeah, that's not one of our finest moments at all.
00:36:21
Speaker 1: So we'll see. Noah Tani, Mookie Betts is playing pretty well, cleaning up after what had been a pretty uncharacteristically bad year and a half from the future Hall of Famer. He's there. Freddie Freeman is quietly hanging around in the batting title race, as he always does, even though he hasn't been front of mind. He might be the one guy that could potentially catch Louisa Rise in that race. So that's something on an individual level that He'll be playing for it. We get to see Tanner Scott again come back to the building. He had a very rocky first year with the Dodgers last season, and now he is, I wouldn't say better than ever, but he's close. He's been really good for them this year, spending most of the year as their closer with Edwin Diaz hurt. That's another, it's such a, the Dodgers, man. You just think about not only all the talent they have, but all the talent that either they miss or they underperform on, and yet they still wind up in the same spot. They've got nothing from Edwin Diaz this entire year, and they're still in this position. If he comes back in time, and if Otani is back in some form, even if it's just as a hitter, they're likely going to be favorites again heading into the postseason, and understandably so. I'm glad that you mentioned the D-Train thing. I overlooked that for whatever reason. Of course, Josh Beckett just got inducted into the Marlins Hall of Fame last Sunday, and now it is D-Train's turn as the second and final member of this 2026 class, and he has an offense to Beckett, but I think D-Train has He resonated with fans in a different way. I think a lot of people are going to be there, and those who will be there are going to be super passionate about him. He really connected with people, even on a level more so than, I would say, Conan or Castillo. That was a phenomenon, especially that first year with him, and then a couple years later, contending for a Cy Young Award. How distinct he was, the personality he has. And he's a guy that is very proud to be a Marlin. Because like Beckett's case, I kind of went over it. It was kind of awkward because he spent more years with the Red Sox. He had more regular season success with the Red Sox. He won another World Series with them. But D-Train, even though he bounced around to a bunch of different teams after leaving the Marlins, those were not very memorable stints. And some of those were minor leagues. All of his success came with the Marlins. So even though it was kind of short-lived, all things considered, just five seasons and three and a half, four good ones, that guy is beloved by this fan base.
00:38:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, when I was a little kid, I guess his 2005 season, I was seven years old, and I just remember after he was traded to Detroit, I would follow all of his steps to see where he'd go because he was just one of the nicer guys that this team had ever employed, really, truly speaking. He was one of the better hitting pitchers that the Marlins have ever had as well, and that's just what made him so much more likable on top of the personality and on top of the unique, funky personality leg kick and delivery that he did have. Everybody at school was just trying to replicate that pitching lineup, even if they were right-handed. It was really tough to see the way his career went post-Marlins because I thought he still had a lot left. He was coming off a season where he started 35 games. It wasn't great for Miami, or for Florida, I should say. But he still showed legitimate stuff, which is why he was packaged along with Miguel Cabrera and that very infamous trade. And then after that, man, it was just, you, he never was a replacement level pitcher again. And it was tough to see, but he has made a hell of a post-playing career. He's working for the Dodgers. He's working and doing all sorts of things for Fox. And like I said, he's one of the better guys that has ever put on a Marlins uniform. And, uh, It'll be good to see him on Sunday. Hopefully fans get there early, get their bobblehead. And I'm sure the video montage at Lone Depot Park will be pretty awesome.
00:39:57
Speaker 1: All right. So we're going to hear from Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida and head into prediction time. Stick with us. Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida. They present all of our podcast efforts here on Fish on First. Miami's best jet ski and boat adventures. Jet ski rentals of South Florida with six jet ski locations and over 120 boats. There's something for every style and every budget. Ride jet skis right in front of the downtown skyline in Ferris wheel or book your own private boat starting as low as $ 300 with the captain included. Bring your drinks, your friends, and enjoy the water your way. The boat is completely yours for the time you reserve it. The reservation based only to book call 305-990-2192 or check them out online at sfjetskirentals.com. Make sure to use our promo code FISHONFIRST and that gets you a 10% discount off your next booking. Again, that's 305-990-2192 or online at sfjetskirentals.com. This is Prediction Time. I do not have time to import the video clip to this new app yet, but that is my voice that does the real clip anyway, so there's my impression of it. As we look at the updated leaderboard with just five series remaining in the season, we've been taking these predictions all season long from our FOF staffers and our valued super subs, other livestream guests. A low-scoring series this past one because a lot of people were holding out hope for the Marlins to win it, and they did not. So it's mostly status quo at the top. David Fernandez, one of our super subs, two points clear of Jeremiah Geiger as we had, as I said, five series left and it's a max of three points per series. So some of these people on the screen, including myself are mathematically eliminated already, but just giving you an overview about where things stand as we head down the stretch. As always, we predict how many games the Marlins will win, who will be the series MVP, um, Isaac, of course, knows how this works and put the names back up there. I'll have to add the music in post-production for the social media. We'll start with you, Isaac. Three games against the Dodgers. The tone that we've expressed on this show kind of speaks for itself where even though they're not eliminated yet, this team is probably lacking some confidence right now. How do you think the Marlins will do?
00:42:16
Speaker 2: I'm pretty confident that the Marlins are going to come away with at least one win here this weekend at Lone Depot Park. Probably won't be on Friday, but they'll win one out of three, lose two out of three to the Dodgers, and I believe that Freddie Freeman, the notorious Marlin killer, will be MVP.
00:42:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll have to keep it pretty straight-laced here, where I think the Dodgers win two out of three. That does feel like the most likely outcome, and I think the Marlins keep these games close, as they have for most of the year. It should be reiterated that even when things have gone poorly for this team, these games have been mostly very competitive towards the end so i think they uh they win one game they maybe they surprise us and rally against old friend tanner scott to get that win right and walk off fashion get one more walk off win at lone depot this season long but lose the series overall uh for series mvp i'll go with blake snell i'll go with the lefty there have been quite a few lefty pitchers against this marlin team that have had their way um so even in the post leo jimenez era that means that Davis and De La Santos is in there, and Jared Serna and Brian Navaretto, or probably all three of them. And I think Snell has an amazing outing that wins that opener for the Dodgers. So that was our show. Yeah, we're going to still get our feet wet with this new program. Our streams are going to be a lot sexier these last couple weeks of the season as I get the hang of it and all the bells and whistles. But thank you all for joining us on this one, on this Marlins off day. Eli Sussman with Isaac Azut here on the Fish on First podcast. presented by Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida, and we're part of the Foul Territory Network. So we'll have another show after the Dodgers series on Sunday, and then just a couple weeks left in this season. So we have declared the team dead in the wild card race, but we hope they, I'd be rooting for a surprise. I'd love for them to prove us wrong and really turn it up out of nowhere and turn things around. But given the expectations, that's kind of where we think this is going, and we're going to still break it down for you the rest of the season and into the offseason because all this does build towards what they're doing moving forward with this team. So we're excited to have everybody along with us. Thank you all so much for the support. And as always, go fish.
