More Marlins than you can shake a stick at

Editor's Note: This post is a few days old, and I was slow to put it up, perhaps because the writer trashes my Marlins analysis in the opening sentence of the post. Just saying... Anywho, here's another post from one of only 5 real Marlins fans on the planet, ladies and gentlefolk, Mr. Jesse Bryan:

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Inspired by Jason's ESPNesque "coverage" of the marlins in his last
post (seriously "The Marlins are young and so very up and down" is all
you can muster?!?!), I've decided it's about darn time for a fish
post.

The season thus far: Once again the team with the lowest payroll is in
playoff contention. To elaborate Jason's statement, yes this has been
very up and down year with more ups than downs. After a psychedelic
11-1 start, the fish fumbled in a pretty dramatic way losing a whole
bunch of games and not winning nearly as many. I first attributed this
fumbling to the vile new namesake of Joe Robbie stadium, "Landshark
Stadium." Being associated with Jimmy Buffet is never good for
business and the fish obviously went into a deep depression when this
change occurred. I'm surprised no one committed suicide because I
almost did after puking no less than 15 times. However, the fish
battled back and have put themselves back in contention. Then with
things heating up, they go and get swept by the nationals (after
series wins against the Dodgers (take that Jason), Cubs and Braves).
"Boo hoo" I thought and also exclaimed out loud. Next thing I know,
they sweep the Phillies and are right back in. Baseball.

So here we are with a huge series with the wild card leading Rockies.
Last August did the fish in. Except for the Nationals sweep, this
August has been excellent. The offense is scorching the ball like I've
never seen before from a marlins team. Now let's take a peak and what
has occurred this year:

Starting pitching: Except for JJ, completely inconsistent. What was
supposed to be the fishies great strength has been a battle all year.
Nolasco started off with a 9+ era only to get sent down and come back
and return to the Nolasco of last year. They had to call up Sean West
early due to injuries/demotions and he has done a very serviceable
job. Same with Vanderhurk. Sanchez got injured again, but he has not
been so hot. He's pitched some nice starts in the minors and should be
called up soon and the fish will need him to pitch well of they're to
make a push. If the fish starting pitching can someone stabilize (the
talent is there), then they could really go on a tear with bats
hitting like they are.

Bullpen: I got to give high marks to the pen although Fredi's
management of them has been quite bad at times. What was perceived to
be a huge weakness has been excellent for the toddlers in teal. Brian
Sanches, Kiko Calero, Dan Meyer, Burke Badenhop, Brian Donnelly and
Leo Nunez have done a great job. Lindstrom has not been so effective
and I cringe at him closing again. The pen has pitched a whole bunch
of innings, which means the starters really need to starting rattling
off the quality starts.

Bats: The fish started hot, then went ice cold. Uggla was having a
horrible year with his average below .200 at one point. Bonifacio was
just awful and so is Hermida. Then all of a sudden the fish have had
10 hits in the last 10 games for the first time ever. Everyone is
killing the ball right now (well except for hermida). Uggla has
finally hit his stride, Hanley is Hanley, Coghlan is a bad ass, ross
is clutch and the baker/paulino combo has put up the best numbers in
the mlb at the catcher position since the all star break. And Nick
Johnson has been absolutely amazing (he gets his own section). Gload
and Helms have been awesome coming off the bench. They rank 1st and
3rd in the MLB for pinch hits and Gload's walk off brought a tear to
my eye. Watch out phillies.

Defense: Definitely much improved. Besides Bonifacio's ineptitude at
third and hermida in RF, the defense has been good to stellar at
times. I recall there was a 10 or so game streak without an error.
Coghlan has become quite the left fielder considering his natural
position is 2nd base. Nice job fish.

Nick Johnson: In terms of impact, I would argue that NJ was the best
mid-season trade by any mlb team. This guy is the piece the fish were
missing. Bonifacio's OBP is about .290 while NJ's is over .400 and is
6th in the MLB. Having him hit between the smoking hot Coghlan (8
multi-hit games in a row) and Hanley has been huge for this team. On
top of that, Boni has flourished in the utility role. His gold glove
also hasn't hurt, although it has taken Cantu a little bit to get
settled at third.

Not to bad at all. And what's next for our fishies? I think the win
the division. The Phillies will collapse while the finish continue
their hot hitting with solid pitching to back up. Once the fish get
into the playoffs, we all know what happens next....