The Marlins are cooked in 2009 with 3 games left they are long out of the race for the NL East title and the Wildcard spot.  This season started with the Fish going 11 and 1 to start the year with a Rookie in Emilio Bonifacio going 4 for 5 on Opening Day with an inside the park home run.  Bonifacio has barely gotten off the bench in the last 6 weeks as he can barely hit a lick.  Now Chris Coghlan has taken over the Marlins (besides Hanley Ramirez) hitting .318.  He came up in May barely playing left field before he started there May 10^th (his first start with the Fish was at his customary position of second base two days earlier).  Coghlan is a star we have not seen since Miguel Cabrera in 2003.   He obviously does not have Miguel’s power but Coghlan is a superb contact hitter.  FYI: Cabrera is making $14.4 million a year with the Tigers.  Hanley Ramirez.  What can you say as he has been spectacular this year hitting .341 on his way to finishing the year with the best average in the NL (first Marlin to do so).  He has cut down on miscues at shortstop with 10 errors compared to 22 in 2008.  He is a star developing in front of our eyes but who is going to witness him at Land Shark Stadium….about 1,000 a night.  Absolutely horrible!!!!  Finally let’s get to Josh Johnson who has done a phenomenal job in his breakout season.  He is 15-5 with a 3.08 ERA that had been in the 2’s for most of the season.  JJ has been dominant coming off Tommy John Surgery in August 2007 that sidelined him until July 2008.  Ricky Nolasco started Opening Day but JJ would soon be anointed the Ace of the staff while Nolasco needed time at AAA to work on his stuff.  Nolasco would be joined by Andrew Miller, Sean West and Chris Volstad in the minors at some point this season because these young pitchers needed more time in the minors to refine their repertoire.  Why were they in the Majors so young?  Well that answer is easy: ownership does not want to spend real money like 90 % of the rest of the league does.  The owner wants to work cheap so that involves bringing up young talent not ready for the Big Leagues.

2009 was a good year for the Marlins picking up the third most wins in franchise history.  It kept the Fish fan thinking playoffs a lot later into the year than normal.  In the end you get what you pay for in Baseball.  When you spend nothing on free agents you cannot, will not and do not expect to make the playoffs!!!!!

Remember seating is limited for Opening Day 2012…Hurry up and get your tickets now!!!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.