Fish Bites Episode 41: Exclusive with Marlins CRO Adam Jones

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Speaker 1: Fish Bites is back again. This is Eli Sussman, managing editor of Fish Stripes, guiding you through the beginning of the Miami Marlins off season. We're going through a bit of a transition here on the pod. Danny Martinez is away for an extended period. No doubt, he's been the leading voice of this fish Stripes podcast network in twenty nineteen. I hope to get him back on the airwaves and the website at some point in the future, but in the meantime, we need a plan accordingly, so you will hear a lot of myself and some of the other staff members handling the hosting duties. Danny stepped up and he made Fish Bites a truly weekly programmed for the first time ever, one that consistently waged on topics that fans were passionate about. He was so proud of his coverage. That's why we're going to find a way to continue doing it in the same spirit that he did, so that you guys still enjoy the pod and recommend others to subscribe on whatever podcast platform they prefer, as well as on fishtrips dot Com. You can find every episode up there. Coming up on this episode, an exclusive interview with Adam Jones, chief revenue officer of the Marlins. Jones was hired as soon as new ownership came in two years ago, and since then he's been extremely influential in the process of rebranding the franchise's image and restoring relationships with fans and local business partners. The changes you've already noticed from the ballpark to the uniforms, to the ticket and concession pricing, and those that will be coming to the ballpark in the near future, that's Adam Jones, so please stay tuned for that. Here what differentiates him from many other Adam Joneses in the baseball world and otherwise, he really is a unique talent and leading minds in terms of innovating sports franchises, and we're pretty fortunate to have him. But before all that, there's still work to be done. Reflecting on the twenty nineteen Marline season and what we've learned from following this team, I've picked out a dozen stats, half of them positive and half negative, a mix of team and individual stats from the past season that are especially insightful. Some of these you've already seen mentioned maybe on Twitter at fish Stripes or my personal account incorporated into articles that were on the website at some point, but for the most part, these ought to be unique and new to you. Next level analysis that will encapsulate what we've learned from following the team this season. One that they came in with low expectations of finishing the last place, and true to that expectation, they did finish in the last place. A lot of lows along the way and not all that many highs to keep us really entertained. So if you were following that regular season all the way through, this is something that will reinforce what you may have noticed, and even more importantly, if you had checked out at some point for understandable reasons for different entertainment and you didn't necessarily see everything that went into this season, I think this will be very helpful and pointing out the key takeaways that actually matter in twenty twenty and then moving forward beyond that. I'm eternally grateful to Fangrafts, Baseball Savants, and Baseball Reference for the research assistance both in this case and for a lot of the other stuff we do with fish stripes. All those tools highly recommended, and they helped me identify these twelve takeaways from the twenty nineteen Miami Marlins season. Sandy al contra game score of fifty or better and ten of his final eleven starts of the season. That's where we're going to start with Sandy the alstar representative of the Marlins this year. I wasn't shy of pointing out that Sandy was somewhat of a depressing representative for the team because he honestly did not pitch all that well in the first half. He had those couple high moments won in his first start of the year and then unforgettably against the Mets, a complete game shoutout and one that took only about two hours to complete. But aside from that, he was very inconsistent in the first half, especially on the road, and it raised some concerns about what exactly he would become here in his rookie season. And he put all those concerns to bed during the second half of the season, which was really by far superior half of the year. Now, there were some luck involved with this one. Batting average on balls in play during these final two months of the year. On August and September, opponents hit barely two hundred against him when they actually made contact and put it in play. That's abnormally low, even for a guy that manages contact the way he does. That being said, the results are just terrific in those eleven starts, combining for two seven to eight ERA down the stretch. And for those not familiar with game score, what it does is items to assign a single number to evaluate the performance and the results that a pitcher had in a given outing, and fifty is right about average. The maximum score is actually over one hundred, and it is possible to get below zero if things really blow up on you early in the game. But it combines the length of the start, the base runners you allowed, the strikeouts, and how deep you pitched into the game. It's traditional more to just point out quality starts when you go more than six innings or allow three earned runs or fewer, but I find those to be pretty arbitrary those milestones. Game score itself is a little bit more specific because it accounts for the base runners and it prioritizes the depth that you go into the game. And that's what made Sandy so valuable this year to the Marlins, making every scheduled start and in so many of those starts working three times through the order, and even a couple times was beginning the fourth time through an order, and that's something that is such increasingly rare in Major League Baseball today, even by ace pitchers and CYI young candidates. The fact that he was able to do that was so impressive. The innings that he racked up were a franchise record for a pitcher in his rookie season, and he's not abnormally old for a rookie. This was just his age twenty three season, celebrating his twenty twenty fourth birthday just a month ago. But anyway you sliced, it was impressive bottom line results, especially down the stretch. So the adjustments that I saw him make use his sinker more often. That's a pitch that across baseball is becoming less popular and for the most pitchers it's just not very effective. This was such an encouraging stretch for Sandy considering how polarizing he was as a prospect. Was some evaluators convinced that he's best utilized in the bullpen and working minimal endings, and others seeing that high ceiling that he had based on the velocity and the movement that he generates and other pitches aside from his sinker. That compliment it based on this stretch that he had in August and September that definitely swung the conversation to the latter and seeing that future where he could have a very significant role starting on a contending team. That's what the Marlins are hoping on, and it couldn't happen to a better guy. Moving on to the Marlins offense, twenty times this year, they were held scoreless, the most enfranchised history, and you could see it coming. I mean, they didn't invest all that much in improving it over the offseason. Their big free agent act was positions, and I say that very sarcastically. Neil Walker and Curtis Granderson. You put those guys combined, and they weren't anything close to a league average hitter this year for the Marlins. By the end of the year, Granderson was entirely buried on the bench, and so they were relying on some of these young guys to take a step forward. Brian Anderson did, Garrett Cooper did, now that he was finally healthy, and there weren't a whole lot of super encouraging stories Jorgel Farrow to a lesser extent, and we're gonna talk about him later, but twenty two times held scoreless. That made up almost once a week throughout the entire season. The big concern with that is that this was a consistent issue throughout the year. Their longest streak of having games where they actually scored consecutive games with at least one run was fifteen straight games. They had won those streaks from mid June to early July, and then again for the final fifteen games of the season. Something that a lot of the industry can agree on is that those games at the very end of the year the least meaningful statistically. So I'm just gonna throw that one out and say that, really, the only encouraging stretch for this offense came right in the middle of the year, before that All Star break. That's when Starlind Castro started to wake up a guy that's probably not gonna be with the team this year. That was when Garrek Cooper had returned from one of his several injuries and was at his absolute hottest stretch, really barreling the ball consistently, and it just was a really incomplete offense. The whole year. You were just guys had their hot streaks come and go. Brian Anderson after the All Star break, and the run support wasn't there. Guys like we talked about already. Sandy Alcntra, for all his big strides he took this year, he had a six and fourteen record because he had won the worst run support in Major League Baseball. Trevor Richards had I think even worst run support than Sandy did before they traded him to the Rays in the middle of the year. One of the factors that contributed to this, aside from just a simple lack of impact talent, was the highest team ground ball rate in Major League Baseball. That was something that was also twenty eighteen, but taken to a new level this year in twenty nineteen, where even the field good stories the breakouts. Like Harold Ramirez, he is extremely reliant on ground balls, something that helped him beat out a lot of infield singles, but also makes him more vulnerable to double plays. Marlins. I believe hidt one of the highest double play totals in the league, maybe not the highest, because they simply didn't have a lot of base runners on first to be doubled off, But nonetheless, you understand the issue here. The fewest home runs in Major League Baseball. That's a big part of it in this era where it's a lot of all or nothing. You can blame the ballpark for part of it, but honestly, the lion's share of the blame just comes down to the players and the front office for putting these players together, some of whom simply didn't show up as expected. The silver lining to all this is there's really nowhere to go but up for the Marlins offense. A lot of the players that could potentially leave via free agency did not have strong years offensively. A guy that they would have had a toughness, Miguel Rojas signed his contract extension a few weeks ago, very well deserved, someone who for the time being is in an everyday roll near the top of the lineup based on a variety of improvements he's made to his offensive game. That's not necessarily what he'll be doing if this team turns the corner and becomes very competitive for a playoff spot, but nonetheless he'll have a role. Bottom line is they're gonna have to wind up spending some money in free agency to add to their current crop of offensive players, because it's really not much that they have in place already. There's still room to improve, whether it's in the outfield or at first base, and they have plenty of room in their payroll to look into that. And there will be a number of interesting guys that should fit into their spending comfort level this offseason. But they're gonna have to bid against other teams and win that bidding, something that we really haven't seen them do at all since new ownership took over heating into year three. That's going to be a step that they need to take is actually invest invest in the most direct level in improving some of these weaknesses that the team currently has and put it all together, and this is an offense that would be much more consistent. Let's talk base running runs. That's a stat from Fangraphs that combine stolen bases, taking extra bases on balls and play, how you avoid grounding into double plays, and etc. More on that, just these different factors that contribute to what you do as a base runner and how that compares to the rest of the league. In particular, we're starting with John Birdie, who in his rookie season was worth six point four base running rounds above average. That's essentially the same as a twenty ten version in the twenty twelve version of Ameilio Bonifacio and twenty sixteen d Gordon, those guys, says comparable playing time to Birdie about half a major league season in a regular role, and they were so valuable just with their legs alone. For Bertie, nearly as many stolen bases as any of his teammates this year. That's despite time spent at Triple A. He missed some time with injury and a bleakue issue, and yet seventeen seals. Constantly he's going from second home on singles, from first to home on doubles. As he said, base running runs. It factors all that into play. John Birdy, in particular, what stuck out was his maximum running speed is sprint speed of twenty nine point eight feet per second. That's from Baseball Savant. That's elite. That bud. You really in the top few percent of the entire Major League baseball in terms of how fast he's moving at his very best and how often it is that he reaches that sprint speed when he's on the bases. No matter his physical condition or exactly where he has to run. He's the guy that is a big not a I'm not going to say a breakout star. He's a breakout player for the Marlins. He's a breakout contributor, a big piece said they're gonna need in twenty twenty because he's on the short list of their most valuable players. Definitely during the second half of the season. That's why he started starting on a consistent basis, either at third base or center field, and a little bit shortstop in between when Rojas and Brian Anderson were injured. There's good reason to be skeptical about Bertie's bat. He did still strike out a little bit more than the typical hitter. The power he showed up surprisingly Some of that has to do with the juice ball, I guess, and maybe you could roll it over, but I'm not sure. He's a guy that necessarily will hit double digit home runs consistently year in year out. He is someone that will find the gaps, and even if he doesn't find the gap again, it's his legs that allow him to turn routine looking hits into doubles or routine looking outs in the infield into hits just a really big surprise for a guy that's in his late twenties. For whatever reason, he didn't quite get a significant opportunity at the major league level until now, and some of that has justified if you look back at his stats. He was a poor performer at TRIPA for most of his career. The power was non existent back then, and even just getting on base was a challenge for him against lesser competition, and all of a sudden, just something clicked for him. And it's been a really good story and it's been very useful for the Marlins. As we've already covered, their offense was awful, and one of the bright spots was John Birdie, a guy that just individually, he did a lot of interesting things once he got on base, and you could see how that affects subsequent batters. When the pitcher has to worry about a guy potentially stealing not just second base, but third base, as Bertie did on a couple of occasions, it really gets inside your head and it changes the way that the defense has to play, knowing that those extra bases are coming if a hit finds grass in front of him. He's a really interesting player, someone that they snagged on really a no risk, minor league deal, and now they can just retain him as a controllable player for the next handful of years a league minimum next year and then the year after that. Eventually he'll come up on arbitration. We'll just take it one year at a time, and for now he looks like one of the ultimate utility men that Major League Baseball has to offer, in one that the Marlins have not had at this quality in recent memory. Nice find by the front office a year ago and a big part of what they're going to be doing in twenty twenty, no doubt. Speaking of base running runs, John Verdi was one of the lone bright spots for the Marlins in that aspect. As a team, twenty three point nine base running runs below average. Negative twenty three point nine base running runs above average was their team score this year as an entire roster. Remember Birdie was at a positive six point four. The team as a whole negative twenty three point nine. You take out Birdie, they would have been worse than negative thirty either way. It's one of the worst marks the National League has ever seen. It was the worst mark in all of MLB in twenty nineteen the worst for the Marlins in their franchise history again and the status is coming from Fangrafts in their database, and it's the third worst for a National League team over the last one hundred seasons. I look back on it comparing it to National League teams because of the obvious difference DH or no DH, and how base running is a more significant factor in the National League when you know there's gonna be more bunting coming in play from the pitcher spot, and the way that batters have to adjust around the pitcher spot, and the differences in the game made it easier to compare to other National League teams. There have been some other bad American League teams either way, this was ugly for the Marlins in twenty nineteen and it was very disappointing. I'd say, about as disappointing as any other aspect of the team is that they did not try to make themselves better on the bases and do what they can that way. And that's something that I believe they spoke about definitely coming up on the twenty nineteen season, is they acknowledged that the power hitters weren't going to be there. They had guys that had questionable on bass skills and that in the opportunities that they got on base it would try to force the issue and be aggressive, and to some extent, that aggressiveness hurt them in this category and in a lot of other instances had hurt him because they weren't aggressive at all. They did not follow through on that promise. A big issue was grinding into double plays. As much as we like what rojast died overall as a player this year, he grounded into too many starblind castro especially during the first half, but even during the second half when he caught fire, he was a guy that did it all too much. Harold Ramirez couldn't keep the ball off the grounds. They had so many of these different players that did not like buy in all that much to the launch angle revolution and that so often just bury the ball into the grounds and didn't give the base runners an opportunity to do much. But even when they did, the Marlins were pretty passive in terms of sending runners. John Birdie had the green light and very few other run did. Rojas was a guy in particularly that had a low stolen based success rate, and as a team they were picked off one of the higher totals of any team in the league, just being picked off bases, not necessarily trying to steal the way that they utilize pictures being at the plate. That's been an issue going back a few years under Don Mattingly, is how these pitchers have really struggled to hit and to get down bunts effective sacrifice bunts, and how base runners have worked off of that situation knowing that the bunt was coming. It's been pretty disappointing over the past one hundred seasons. Only the two thousand and two and two thousand and three Brewers among National League teams rated worse than the Marlins in this category. There's some internal improvement coming from let's say Magnari Sierra, who's out of options next year. He'll very likely be on the roster. He's a guy that shows a lot of promise here, John Birdy coming back, Starling Castro, Martine Prado going away, Mia Walker going away. It's going to depend on who they spend that free agency money on and which of these young major one of these young top prospects actually sticking the majors in what they do. Monte Harrison is a guy that profiles is a really valuable based runner. So we'll see where that goes. It needs to improve because in this ballpark they keep the dimensions the way they are, then, yeah, it's gonna be difficult to build a power hitting team here, but you can take advantage of the dimensions in other ways. The Marlins failed miserably to take advantage of their surroundings. Brian Anderson, You know that has to be a positive stat, right anyway you slice it. The most valuable player on this Marlins team, especially defensively, eight defensive runs saved at third base, five defensive run saved at right field. That playing time split between those two positions, third base in red field, and to be legit, great with the glove at those two positions. It has no precedent in Marlin's history. There's not been anybody quite like that used in those spots and so successful in those two spots. If you look across all Major League baseball history, it's really hard to find a guy in one season who played those two positions and played them so well. We got a taste of that, of course, in his rookie year of twenty eighteen, where he was maybe a little bit disappointing as a defensive third baseman. They didn't shift in to write for that reason. It was only because by necessity they were low on outfielders and moved him to right for the majority of his rookie year, and he really found his footing there. The one constant across both years was the throwing arm that was very accurate and very precise. I think he took that to a new level this year with some amazing highlights that we've shared with you on Fish Stripes, and I'll probably upload one with this podcast when it goes up as well. In the attached article version of it, he is, Yeah, he's really been impressive. The fact that he didn't have any experience whatsoever in right field earlier in his pro career, even in his amateur career, I don't think there was much of many ripes for him at that position. So the way that he's been able to adjust to it has been a big boost and something that has serious long term implications for the Marlins. The fact that he could play either position. He was always thought of as a third base prospect coming up, and this year he took big strides at that position. His reaction time looked better, his hands were better, his accuracy on his throws across the diamond were a lot more consistent. The athleticism that he has is something that you don't necessarily expect he just looking at him walking around, you may see him as a little awkward or stiff, and that's just not the case at all when he's between the lines. So he turned a lot of really great highlight plays this year in addition to all of the routine ones. And it's interesting to project what exactly his role will be with his team moving forward, because the pipeline for future third base prospects looks really dry. You expect him to stick there, but the way that he's played in right field this year as well as last year, is it's such a big asset to this team. And the reality in the way that baseball is trending is that you won't see as many players necessarily fixed to one position. The versatility over the course of the season is what wins games, and if that is what it takes, then Anderson looks to be up for that challenge, and the Marlins should consider him still utilizing him in that position even when the competition isn't there. At third base, and even if they have a plethora of options in the outfield, it's going to depend exactly on what the rest of the roster is comprised of. But he's going to be a fit no matter what. That's the fun part about it. We've been very vocal about him in recent months as an extension candidate. No word on how that is progressing or whether it will regardless, he is under team control for another four years, and it's going to be fun four years for Marlins fans because at the very least, he is a very good, everyday major league player who still has the ceiling to be even better. He'd, in my opinion, he'd be the easiest guy to project as an All Star for the Marlins in twenty twenty. Always inside the park, Lewis Brinston failed to hit a home run in all two hundred and forty eight played appearances for the Marlins. Only Billy Hamilton came to bat more often in the Majors this season without going deep. Now that we have the juice ball, everybody's supposed to have these occasions where if you put a solid swing on it, it will carry further than you expect and to Brinston's credit may maybe give him credit for half a home run because he hit one in Colorado. This was shortly after being recalled from Triple A in August to dead center field, projected at about four hundred and twenty eight feet if memory serves me right, four hundred and twenty eight feet, and it didn't get out because Raymel Tapio leaped over the wall to bring it back and rob.
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Speaker 2: Him center field, deep topia, going back and stunt, think he's too.
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Speaker 1: Dead, shut up fielder. But another was Prince It can't believe it?
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Speaker 2: How about that chat used to be on the highlight reels for a long time.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that was the closest that he came at any point. Not a whole lot of warning track power to speak of. And there's not a lot to be encouraged about with Princeton, where at worst you expected, well, his rookie year was what it was. There's no way he could take a step backwards, and he did. The strikeout rate remained pretty consistent. This issue was when he made contact, it was worse contact. He didn't have those occasions where he ran into a ball and hit it ten rows deep down the left field line, didn't have that pull power, didn't have that opposite field power either. He came back from TRIPAA with willingness to use more of right field, but not with any authority that he was hitting the ball overall in twenty nineteen, his average exit velocity, it was down three miles per hour from twenty eighteen. Across all his major league time, he barreled the baseball. That's, as defined by Baseball Reference, six total times that he got it on the barrel of the bat and put it in play. Christian Yelich, who he'll always be linked to no matter what. If you look at his twenty nineteen season a good week and he was hitting six barrels a good week compared to Brinson's nightmare of a season, there's still this unusual split between his weighted on basis average and is expected weighted on base average. Now, this is usually a tool that we use to identify lucky or unlucky hitters because it looks at all their quality of contact and it compares it to historical averages. It just sees whether or not it felt for a hit or not, and whether it should have. If you compare his splits each year in his major league career, even including his cup of coffee in twenty seventeen, he's been unlucky in this regard. The problem is, even if you factor in normal luck in this situation, he's still one of the worst hitters in the league and a guy that you don't really see having everyday playing time as a starting outfielder, which would be yeah, which would be pretty ugly turn of events considering what the Marlins originally build him to be. To this Marlins team, it wouldn't be all that shocking if they found a way to part tize with him over the offseason because historically, I looked into the numbers, he's going to be entering his age twenty six season in twenty twenty, and nobody as an outfielder in baseball history has hit as poorly as he has in as many opportunities and played appearances that he's had entering his age twenty six season and gone on to any sort of significant career. For the most part, there's no one even it's been on his level of incompetence to this point in his career, at these ages of his career. Trying to compare apples to apples, the best way we can when adjusted for average, it's been a nightmare and no sugarcoating that. Thankfully, the Marlins have a lot of outfield alternatives because they're going to be needing them. Jeff Brigham's improved stuff. Brigham allowed a one seventy eight expected weighted on bass average on his slider in twenty nineteen. Just putting that in perspective, it's right in between renowned closers Roberto Osuna of the Astros and Carlos Martinez of the Cardinals and what they allowed on their slider. The dominance of that pitch is pretty critical for Brigham moving forward because he made that transition from being middling starting pitching prospect to one who has an interesting potential as a reliever. That decision was made entering twenty nineteen when he was still in TRIPAA, and what he made an adjustment was cutting out his change up almost entirely, making him a two pitch pitcher fastball and slider. And he actually throws the slider at an extremely high rate, one of the highest rates in baseball on amost fifty percent of the time. So he's going back and forth between the two pitches and almost any count. Although the sliders frequently used as a putaway pitch with two strikes. What happens also is that probably helping the slider be so effective is that his fastball velocity has played up. He got his call up with the Marlins in September twenty eighteen and made a few starts, a few uninspiring starts. It was at the end of the season, and it was for this guy that has a history of some injuries, so you always wonder exactly what his body was feeling like. In September of twenty eighteen, when he got that call up after the minor league season, his average fastball velocity was at ninety two point nine miles per hour, less than ninety three miles per hour. Compare that to twenty nineteen, it spiked all the way up to ninety six point six. And I feel like this went under the radar because Brigham, although he had some good stretches with the Marlins this year, wasn't necessarily put in that closer's role for any significant amount of time. He was pitching a lot of low leverage situations, even indifference to guys that were not getting the job done. Again, that was Don Mattingly's bullpen management. What you're gonna do? What are you gonna do? I mean some of the choices are hard to justify in any way. But Brigham's fastball is fastball Vila went up nearly four miles per hour. When Adam Connelly made that kind of jump from being a starter and reliever and did something similar to last year, I feel like I got a lot more attention than Brigham did. I mean, his delivery is not as unusual as Connolly's is. He didn't have the type of track record in the majors. I mean, for a variety of reasons, he was considered more of a fringy player, and I can understand in some ways why it didn't get as much attention, but it should have. It really matters the way that this fastball has played up and the results they is getting on the slider. It's not a coincidence. This improved stuff is really valuable for him moving forward. And in my eyes, on Marlin's bullpen, that was pretty disastrous this year. Aside from Harlan Garcia, who we're gonna spotlight in a few minutes, there's just not a lot of guys internally that you definitely trust to be part of a strong bullpen moving forward. Bring him, I feel is more likely than not to be a keeper in this new role, and it was a good job by the Marlins to experiment with this rather than giving up on him entirely. He's going to be twenty eight years old entering next year, so not necessarily someone whose stuff will continue to improve. But if he just stays at this level and he experiments some more with how to rotate these two weapons that he has, he's someone that you can see making a pretty big leap in a short amount of time. Across all Major League Baseball relievers do this. They come out of nowhere, they figure out exactly how they want to maximize their filthiest stuff and build up those swings and misses, and then they really put it all together pretty quickly. So he could go either way. He might be a non factor at this time next year, or he might be their closer at this time next year. I'm excited to follow the storyline, and I just wanted to bring up his name because his stuff improving the way it has, he goes Marlins an interesting asset heading into next year. Wouldn't you like to see the world the way that Jorge al Faro does. To me, it's like he's playing a different sport than everybody else. And the number we're pointing towards here is fifty point four percent chase rate. That's according to Fangrafts. The numbers vary a little bit depending on the source, but about half of the pitches thrown to him that are outside the strike zone he swings at. And that's something that just does not have any recent precedent at the major league level in terms of players that actually stick at the major league level. It's the worst on record that Fangrafts has for a player with at least two hundred and fifty played appearances in the season. There are some familiar names that are close behind him relatively, Pablo Sandoval, Salvador Perez, Corey Dickerson. These are guys that multiple times have ranked near the top of the league in their chase rate, not in the not fifty percent, but in the load to mid forty percent range, and the difference being that those guys consistently make contact well at least more reliably they make contact on those bad pitches than Alfaro does. And there's nothing inherently wrong of being a bad ball swinger. The thing is you actually need to justify that by putting those balls in play every once in a while. This is actually an improvement in one sense. It is the worst chase rate that Alfaro has had in the majors. But you look at the contact percentage on these pitches outside the strike zone. In twenty eighteen with the Phillies, it was only fifty two point nine percent contact on these bad pitches, and that jumps up this year about ten percent of fifty two percent. So more than half the time when I swing at these bad pitches is making contact. But the rest of the league, that's that pales in comparison. Guys that are in the seventies and eighties at the top of the league is usually about ninety percent on these bad pitches. It's a bit of a red flag to me in that I mean, pitchers stuff are only getting better. There's more in struction out there about how to design your own pitches and how to maximize it, how to tunnel your pitches with each other. That's been the trend to cost their league is that strikeouts go up and up and up because pictures more often can throw their pitches out of the zone and mis bats with it. Al Farrow just takes it to an extreme. That's why he strikes out so often, one of the highest strikeout totals in Marlon's single season history, even though he didn't actually have a qualified season as a catcher, and one who missed a little bit of time with injury and who sat a little bit more frequently than your normal primary catcher does. Yeah, he didn't even bat five hundred times this year and he struck out, Yeah, over one hundred and fifty times. Well, it's a bad combination. It's one he's been able to overcome because of his hard contact that he makes when there is contact there and the way that he runs, especially a typical four catcher, to get down the first base line as fast as he does. He's really entertaining. I enjoy watching him. I'm not fully convinced that he's everyday primary catcher on a great team because of this issue. He's not identifying pitches the right way. If he was consciously making that choice, then you would see someone that is making more contact on these pitches. But the combination of chasing and still whipping when he's chasing is alarming, to say the least I promised before we would give Harlan Garcia some love, and here we are. In particular, it's with his change up dominance. He allowed a one twenty nine weighted on base average with that pitch, nearly one hundred points better than in twenty eighteen. Last season. He gave me a big scare the way that he was in the rotation early on and then quickly faded, and then they brought him back into the bullpen. They kept switching up with his role, and in whatever role he was getting hit hard. He was getting hit hard with every of his pitches, including his change up, but especially his fastball. There was a point last year where he was just one of the worst pitchers in the majors. He had that gopher idis home runs were up, not quite as up as they are right now, but he was more susceptible to them than anybody else. He wasn't a really bad funk with both his stuff and perhaps even mentally emotionally, he just was not in a good place as twenty eighteen went on, and I was worried exactly how he's going to bounce back. He started this year in Tripa a, New Orleans, and he got called up, and you didn't notice immediately anything was different. But then as the summer war on and as other bullpen options faded, he had increased importance. We got to the end of the year and Harlan was I think pretty much consensus the best reliever in the Marlins bullpen. You guys voted him that way when he had our Fishies Award voting last month. He's really interesting guy moving forward in the biggest factor in that to me is going to be his changeup. Fangrass provides estimates of weighted pitch values during the course of the season. For Harlan Garcia, he was worth about four runs above average for every one hundred changeups that he threw this year. At that rate, he was one of the very best in all of baseball, regardless of role. It was ahead of the National League era leader jin Ryu. It was ahead of old friend Zach Gallon, who gets a lot of acclaim for his nasty changeup. Harlan's pitch isn't as gifable. I mean, he doesn't with as many batters as some of these other guys do with their changeup, but he gets soft contact. He got slightly more ground balls this year. In years past, it's just a really nice weapon in his repertoire, and so unlike Brigham that is consolidated into two pitches, Harlan has been able to lean into this change up and he's been able to keep batters enough off balance in interchanging it with his fastball so that they don't know what's coming, and it had a lot of success this year. He was stranding runners more effectively than a year ago, and just the bottom line run prevention with an era in the low threes. He's gonna be an interesting piece moving forward. And it's nice to see him go this way because this year could have gone very different way with him falling out of favor entirely had things carried over from twenty eighteen. Instead, he bounced back, and it's with this changeup that you're going to want to follow a lot moving forward. The intentional walk discrepancy watching intentional walks isn't as painful as it used to be now that you don't physically throw the four pitches, just a signal from the dugout will suffice. Still with your team, you want there'd be situations where your pitchers are aggressive and challenging hitters and as an offense, you want to command some respect in those situations with runners on base. An intentional walk is a sign of very flattering sign that they aren't certain that they can get you out in a tough situation. For the Marlins, it got pretty ugly in that their pitchers allowed fifty two intentional walks during the course of the year. Their batters only drew with sixteen, allowing over three times as many intentional walks as you draw yourselves. Is an indictment of how non competitive you are. The fact that teams are never in a situation where they have to you on usually because they're leading in the first place already, and that a lack of trust that John Mandley had in some of his pictures that so many times he had them intentionally put opponents on base rather than challenging them and giving him an opportunity to prove themselves as young pitchers at the major league level. During the entire first quarter of the season, as you guys remember, Marlins got off to a ten to thirty one start, which was the worst in franchise history. Had people talking about this being one of the worst teams ever, and although they rebounded a little from that since during that entire forty one game stretch to start the year, nobody on the Marlins was put on base intentionally, zero intentional walks for the Marlins lineup through a full quarter of the season. So although sixteen were drawn from that point onward, as we got later in the year, it was Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing the fact that you just had all these names and all these situations and you couldn't force the other team to feel vulnerable on your oppontent. Just it feels comfortable against you. That's kind of the ultimate sign of how far away you are from being where this rebuild is supposed to take the Marlins. Now that Mattingly is coming back against some of our expectations and some of our wishes, just something I imploring him to do, particularly early in twenty twenty when he still has these young players. They're trying to figure out exactly what these pictures can do in the majors, ones that don't have long crack records. One in doubt, you want to have these pictures challenging the opponents and seeing if they can miss some bats in those tough situations with runs and scoring position, rather than putting someone on. We don't want them constantly facing opposing pictures and high situations rather than real batters. I didn't like this whole philosophy that matting Lees had because this is not a one time affair. They may have actually allowed more intentional walks in twenty eighteen than they did this year. It's definitely part of his DNA as a manager to be cautious and to try to seek out favorable matchups, WHI actually taking on more risk in the process, because if you can't actually retire the weaker matchup, then it's just more runners on base to come around and score. There were numerous times this year when Marlins walked or hit issued a hit by pitch that brought in a run with the bases loaded. When you have these young pitchers, that kind of volatility is going to be there. But I'd rather see them in I'd rather see them challenged. I'd rather see them put up against real offensive players and let their natural stuff take over, then trying to cop out and then embarrassing yourself that way. The final positive stat in our episode centers around the Hawaiian five to zero Jordan Yamamoto. He held opponents to zero for thirty at the plate against the slider to begin his major league career. That's just one weapon in his arsenal, along with a four seamer, a curveball, a cutter, a changeup, and that slider. And those five pitches in the way that he mixes them up made him that intriguing prospect coming up through the Marlin system. Of course, he was on our radar as part of the trade package along with Brentson, Monte Harrison and Is san Diez that came here for Christian Yelich and in twenty eighteen, through several different levels, he dominated, which put him even more on a legitimate level as a prospect, including in the Arizona Fall League. Started this year at Double A Jacksonville, and really more out of convenience than actual performance. He earned that promotion in the middle of the year when the Marlins rotation faced some injuries. There wasn't necessarily that expectation that he would stick in the rotation the rest of the season, but aside from a brief time out with a forearm strain in September, he did stick in the rotation and it started with that bang that people remember, the back to back scoreless starts, and with the lader in particular, that effectiveness with that pitch continued on for several more starts to contribute to that for thirty streak. The whole season overall, he had his best stats on opponents trying to hit that slider as well, and his stats at the major league level we're about as good as the stat at the Double A level, which really defies convention. But his ability to really alternate between these weapons and have a lot of confidence in each of them, that's what makes him somewhat of a viable rotation candidate moving forward. Even as guys with higher potential in their arms come up through the Marlin system and these next few waves of talent ones that we're back and reach a higher velocity or have more dramatic movement in their pitches. But Young Moto's slider in particular is pretty legit, and he makes it move in a couple of different ways depending on the situation, using it in different counts as well. The variety that he offers gives him a lot of hope with sticking around. This is just his age twenty three season, and it's pretty likely that he's gonna have some role on the staff coming into opening Day twenty twenty as well if he just stays healthy. So that's gonna be the big question mark with him, as well as someone like Jeff Brigham, though we brought up earlier, when you have a history of injuries in your past, and if there are a variety injuries like with Yamamoto it's been the shoulder in the previously and now the forearm, and the build that he has a little bit smaller than your typical major league starting pitcher. That's that's gonna lead to the expectation that eventually will transition into a more limited role. But for the time being, his first time through the league with this pitch, in particular the slider, he had a lot of success with it, and now that he has all these other weapons that he disguised the pitch with and offer a lot of variety to both right handers and left handers, he gives them some hope of sticking arounds. And in the meantime, he's just a really fun ambassador for the game, someone that has a lot of fun on the mounds and isn't afraid to show some personality and speak his mind. And unfortunately we need to wrap up this segment with the eighty million dollar man way in Chen, but the key number with him is not the contract value, but the er. A six y five nine earned run average. It was the second worst from Marlin's left hander in a season of fifty plus innings, only trailing the washed up Al Lighter in two thousand and five when he was a thirty nine year old Chen being converted into a reliever for the first time in his career, given a very undefined role. Ha to be fair. When you're a reliever under Die Mattingly, it's your first time relieving. There's a lot that could go wrong in that situation. And he bounced around pretty consistently, pitching in low leverage situations, but not always knowing when he was going to pitch or how long those outing could be. And it was a disaster, he said, a franchise record for the most home runs allowed in relief in the single season. The problem is he got hammered on anything that was in the zone. His stuff simply isn't there. He didn't profile as a guy that would see an uptick in the stuff. With a conversion to the bullpen. He was more of a junk baller. That tries to get soft contact, and he failed to get soft contact all throughout the year. He had a hot streak there in the middle where he got some help from his defense and had more success at limiting long balls, but that didn't last. And again at the end of the year it looked a lot like the shoes he had at the beginning. You seldom pitched at all in September, once the Marlins actually had their choice of relievers to put into the game. So clearly a low priority guy, and his trade value is shot. Heading into twenty twenty one more year left on that infamous contract, twenty two million dollars guaranteed, he'll be the high plaid player on the team by a considerable margin, one of the higher paid relievers in Major League history at any point to bitch in the majors in that role for that value. And what I'm hoping is that the Marlins see the light and just let him go his separate way and release Chen. And now he's holding one of their valuable four tardy man roster spots coming up on a time of year where that's a very valuable commodity heading into the Rule five draft in December, the Marlins hold the number three overall pick. It's a consolation for being one of the worst teams in baseball during the regular season, and their reward for that is being able to pluck a player that couldn't be protected in another organization. And they're not going to be able to use that advantage if they don't have an open spot on the forty man roster. One of the easiest ways to create that opening is get rid of a player that no longer has value to you. You tried, and by all accounts, he's been a good citizen for this team. Nothing for him to personally feel responsible for. He was given a lot of money, just as anybody would be coming off of the kind of years that he had earlier in his career, and it just didn't work out a combination of injury and transition to a new role, and this role treated him very poorly, and the Marlins didn't exactly find clever ways to get the most out of him. If they're not going to do that, this money is guaranteed to him either way, and he might be more valuable someplace else. My recommendation to the front office decision makers and the best interest of everybody involved is to simply release him, transitioning from somebody who has no specific role in the Marlins future to one that has a pivotal role in making these big decisions about what they're doing off the field. I present an exclusive interview with Marlin's Chief Revenue Officer, Adam Jones. On this episode of Fish Bites. We are joined by a special guest. Many of you already recognize his name, but everybody organizes his work. He is quite simply one of the most influential people in the Miami Marlins organization right now. Originally hired by new ownership as Senior VP of Strategy and Development, now serving as the Chief Revenue Officer. Please welcome Adam Jones. We've been looking forward to this for a while. Adam, thank you for taking the time to join the show.
00:48:19
Speaker 2: My pleasure, ELI grateful for the opportunity.
00:48:23
Speaker 1: Of course, let's begin just with how you joined the Marlins in the first place, because you had spent practically all of your professional career with Price Waterhouse consulting with franchises across several different sports, being able to have a major impact across the industry. So what were your motivations for deciding you'd rather commit to a single organization and frankly, an organization that was in such a vulnerable position at the time of your hiring two years ago.
00:48:49
Speaker 2: Well, you're very grateful for the industry perspective I was able to build through my career with PwC, leading the sport practice working across the industry is as you said, But with the Miami Marlins and the opportunity I had to advise ownership on the acquisition of of the franchise. Uh, you know, there was an opportunity to take what I did across the industry, all of the lessons learned, all of the leading practices observed, and and drive those into a single organization. Uh. That that truly has an opportunity to evolve and grow into a best in class brand, a world class sport and entertainment enterprise. Uh. And there are a lot of challenges that we we accepted in day one of this journey. But that's what makes it as h as exciting of an opportunity you that that we we accepted at day one. Yeah.
00:49:58
Speaker 1: Well, well you were one of the first high really when the ownership transition happens a couple of years ago and Wells. Dusenberry. The Sun Sentinel put out a great feature on you prior to the season where Derek Teacher largely credits you for creating the dm low campaign, which compiles fan feedback both online and in person at Marlin's Park. So that seems to be one of the signature differences that you've made in this organization already. Where did that idea originate from? Were there other franchises across the industry that had already been doing that to the same extent? Who inspired you in any way?
00:50:30
Speaker 2: Well, I think the credit is, you know, shared with what Derek Bruce, our ownership and you know, largely the entire organization, and that we understood you know day one are our primary objective is we need to build trust. And in order to build trust, we truly understand where the organization has been before we can take it forward. And the best way for us to develop that direct understanding is to have the conversation or in the case of of d Melo, for us to listen and uh, you know, we were able to launch that campaign initially envisioned as a year one initiative to capture as much perspective and insight and feedback as we could and use all of that feedback to inform our decisions are our plans, whether that's validating some perceptions we had coming in, or refining or or or pivoting on some of that direction based on on that feedback. And and what we received was overwhelming engagement from a first generation of a fan as well as the broader community among residents and businesses. UH. And we welcoming welcoming us with with open arms, with their perspectives. UH. And what became was initially a one year initiative really has been driven into the core of of our organization. UH. And how we're going to authentically engage with with the marketplace.
00:52:09
Speaker 1: Can you try to quantify approximately just how many responses the Marlins get from d MILO online or in the ballpark, either in terms of I guess, hours of footage or just number of responses that you're sorting through in order to, you know, find some of these solutions that you think work for the franchise.
00:52:27
Speaker 2: So there are a number of different channels under the campaign or or feedback loops. On the survey side, we receive thousands of responses to the longer form surveys around h people's perceptions of our brand, their experiences here at at Marlins Park. We've run a number of series of topical questions via our social handles around uh, you know, their experience, around their preferences and interests and all of that. That in great engagement has been incredibly informative to our process. And then when it came to the in park booths that we had this prior season, we had over eighteen hours of video content from the sixty second clips that fans uploaded while they were at the ballpark, which created tremendous context to the feedback where not only were you reading and hearing their words, but you could see their faces. And what was somewhat supporting for us was how balanced much of the cinema was, how encouraging most of the energy was in terms of the feedback that was being offered.
00:53:52
Speaker 1: And the first year of that feedback during the twenty eighteen season. That played a pretty major role in the ballpark enhancements that the Marlins implemented last year. So those included the construction of those reimagined seating sections at the ballpark, the new concession options, repainting the interior to match the team's new color scheme from the rebrand. So, now that one full season has played out since those went to effect, which of those changes are you most satisfied with? Do you feel that Vans have validated the changes in any way with what you know, the responses they've given you to what they've seen, or will take like a larger period of time to know for sure whether these were the appropriate moves for you to make. Well.
00:54:31
Speaker 2: I think we're taking the long view on on all of our initiatives. We're committed to this market and we're here for the long haul, and we'll be putting forth initiatives that in terms of return we we know will take some time, but some of the early returns this year we're very encouraging from the launch of the brand and the market's response in the cinema we have around that brand, you know, very very encoura Ridging to the feedback we received on the enhancements to the ballpark experience, what we hear through d MOLO in terms of fan satisfaction as well as member satisfaction with their overall experience marked improvement year over year within those scores, as well as their perception around satisfaction with cost of attendance as well as overall value of their experience. By affecting the price reset in tickets, bringing the three h five menu and the food and beverage, we were able to pull forward a lot of engagement from our existing buyers as well as earn a lot of new buyers, and a lot of our initiatives is broadening the appeal or position of Marlin's Baseball and Marlin's Park to not only address those avid baseball consumers, but create a broader social entertainment experience that can with the much broader set of leisure and entertainment options that are here in South Florida.
00:56:07
Speaker 1: One of the media changes with those enhancements involved deassembling the home run sculpture, the colorful one beyond left center field, and for twenty twenty, it's m's my understanding that that's going to be reassembled away from the playing field but outside on the premises. Aside from that obvious difference in the aesthetic of the whole facility will more or less the ballpark look very similar in twenty twenty as it did in twenty nineteen.
00:56:35
Speaker 2: Well, we're excited to reintroduce the home run sculpture and have it anchor the East Plaza on the exterior of the ballpark, and we're appreciative of the partnership we had with the app and the county and all other stakeholders in that decision, which created a tremendous opportunity for us to address a gap within our in ballpark experience, creating and an in bold group hospitality space on the lower level of Automation Alley, and then create more standing view experience for all fans as part of that expanded Budweiser Terrace and Skyline Terrace experience, which from day one on opening Day all the way through Game eighty one was a tremendous vista and a gathering spot or destination for a lot of Marlins fans as well as you know, visiting team guests. You know, as we look to to twenty twenty, there are additional experiential spaces that we're looking to introduce introduce into the program, as well as further investments within you know, the overall experience and the cost of that experience, So holding firm on that price set within ticketing, making sure that our product is affordable and that cost is not an objection or reason why not to attend the Marlins game, but also holding on to three five menu and then looking to address some of the other transactions within the game day. So we heard a lot of feedback this year around the parking rates and moving into twenty twenty, we will affect a price reset on both the end week and weekend rates for parking within the Marlins Park garages and surface slots of savings up to twenty five percent off what fans incurred here in the twenty nineteen year. Similarly, on the retail side, looking to introduce new introductory pricing around many core apparel items, whether that be a hat or a T shirt. Again, the focus in terms of earning fans and attendees moving forward, which we need more fans and we want to build the attendance so that we have that sustainable business in place so we can continue to reinvest within the that we're bringing up into the major leagues. Is that we have a value that earns the business and the time of every consumer out in the market.
00:59:12
Speaker 1: The parking is a huge one. I'm very excited about that. That's a good idea that even my staff, riders and pretty much anybody that's been in the area. I think that was a very common gripe that people had, so that's very exciting to hear. We're speaking with Adam Jones, chief revenue officer of the Marlins, and Adam throughout the past couple of years, one of the big milestones coming up on the horizon has been the process of negotiating this new regional television deal for the Marlins. Current contract with Fox Sports Florida expires after the twenty twenty season, and that deal has very legitimately been cited as a reason why the team maintains a low major league payroll. That lack of TV revenue to some extent, pressured the front office to trade some of the most valuable players on the team two winners ago, and the majority of fans understand why those transactions were necessary. But nobody wants to be in that position again when you know they're building up exciting team and have to tear it down all of a sudden. So would you consider those negotiations over television rights be your number one priority over this next year.
01:00:18
Speaker 2: It's among, you know, one of the highest priorities. There's a number of fundamental, you know, building blocks to a sustainable sport enterprise. And a TV rights agreement at a market rate, and we find ourselves well below market rate today working through the back end of you know, the deal negotiated in the early two thousands, we have an opportunity in that particular line of business to see a considerable gain moving out of twenty twenty and into twenty twenty one and look forward to resetting that rate to market. But just as importantly focused on, uh, you know, the type of content and how we're distributing that content. So as we're looking to build a market, we we both are are monetizing at a rate we deserve, but are creating a product you know that you know, earns the trust and engagement of residents and businesses and market as well.
01:01:26
Speaker 1: And in terms of the timing of reaching a new deal, the Colorado Rockies, for example, had a very similar situation to the Marlins, that were their contract was set to expire at the same time with their regional sports network at and T sports Net, and they just announced an extension of that deal. So do you think there's a possibility that the Marlins are able to hammer out that new deal this offseason or is that something that doing your due diligence you think will have to go mount more down to the wire before everybody is satisfied with the outcome of that.
01:02:00
Speaker 2: It's a primary of focus for the organization, and to the extent we're successful and achieving the desired outcome, sooner than later, we will be happy to you know, close out that process and move on to the next areas of focus. But one of key area of focus is that we want to make sure that we set this organization up for sustainable success and making sure that we achieve an outcome on that particular deal and find the right partner to deliver the right product you to our fans and at the right rate. You know, that allows us to build and fill into those building blocks of a sustainable business.
01:02:47
Speaker 1: Just to close up this conversation here, I'd like for the audience to understand that you are relatively young for a top tier executive management position in Major League Baseball. You're not yet forty years old, So understanding there's no such thing as a normal career arc in the sports industry. I think some people would consider what you currently have right now to be a quote dream job, but maybe you strive for something more. I'm curious if there's anything in particular, whether it's with the Marlins or just long term in your career that you want to accomplish in the sports industry to feel totally fulfilled and have a certain impact. What is it that keeps you motivated and whatever has helped you get to this point, but also some of the traits that you think are important to the rest of your careers as being someone that affects change at the highest level of sports.
01:03:39
Speaker 2: Well, I think I have a tremendous opportunity as all those who've you know, joined me in this this venture to you know, with the Marlins, you prove out a concept you know that originated in the early nineties around baseball in South Florida, and UH, myself and the rest of this organization hold a very bullish outlook on our ability to prove out that that concept and deliver to an elevated standard as to what a sport enterprise can be within not only this market, but in the overall you know, sport industry landscape. You know, for me, I seek the challenges and and with those challenges the opportunities to UH explore new and emerging concepts and ideas continuing to not only move our organization forward, but pioneer where possible for for the industry as as a whole. You know, being a thought leader is something that I was very proud to to be within my role consulting within the industry, but see equal opportunity, if not better, to continue to serve in that capacity here as one of the leaders with then this up and coming organization.
01:05:05
Speaker 1: Well, you've made a lot of progress so far and being with Fish Stripes and having an eye on this organization, I think it's pretty clear that anybody that's interacted with you since you've come over to the Marlins has been very impressed with just your creativity and your way to balance particular initiatives with like a broader goal that the organization has. Adam Jones, Chief Revenue Officer of the Marlins, thank you so much for coming on Fish Bites, and we hope to check in again in the future as the team continues to progress with this build towards being a sustainable contender.
01:05:39
Speaker 2: My pleasure, Eli. We're looking forward to helping everybody back in March for the twenty twenty season.