Thursday, July 6, 2023

Newsletter Excerpt, July 6, 2023 -- "Fish Fly"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.

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"Ng has not been in Miami long enough, about 2 1/2 years, to have her influence on the team’s amateur acquisition bear fruit. She inherited Chisholm and Braxton Garrett and Eury Perez. Truthfully, one reason she got the job is because the Marlins had done such a poor job in the draft and international markets. You can see that in where the Marlins are getting production; of the 19 position players who have played for them this year, just two came out of the draft, and none from amateur free agency. Of the 24 pitchers they’ve used, just six have come from those paths. In total, the Marlins have less than four WAR from homegrown players. This isn’t your typical young team coming together, but rather an assembled roster playing at its peak.

"However they’ve been put together, the Marlins can pitch. Their starting rotation, with no Trevor Rogers, no Johnny Cueto, and a little too much Hoeing around, is 11th in the majors in ERA, fourth in FIP, fourth in strikeout rate, third in K-BB%. No group of starters throws harder -- a 96.3 mph average fastball, a half-tick above the team in second, a full tick above the one in third. The pen’s numbers don’t pop as well -- fourth in ERA, 13th in FIP, 11th in strikeout rate. They do limit walks, with the eighth-best walk rate of any relief corps. It’s mostly a Kim Ng Production, with Scott, Huascar Brazoban, Steven Okert, J.T. Chargois, and even A.J. Puk all picked up for free or nearly free. Rookie Andrew Nardi went full fastball/slider this year to become one of the toughest lefty relievers in the league."