Marlins finalize 25-man, Batting order for Opening Day

Not any surprises here in the Marlins final 25-man roster or the batting order for Opening Day.

It goes like this.

Chris Coghlan, CF

Omar Infante, 2B

Hanley Ramirez, SS

Mike Stanton, RF

Gaby Sanchez, 1B

Logan Morrison, LF

John Buck, C

Donnie Murphy, 3B

Josh Johnson, P

The bench will consist of: Wes Helms IF, Greg Dodds IF/OF, Emilio Bonifacio OF/IF, Brett Hayes C and Scott Cousins OF.

It is a classic batting order, but I would have done it differently. LoMo would leadoff, then Hanley, Gaby, Stanton, Coghlan, Infante. The rest of the order really doesn't matter that much. The batting order is a bit overrated, but it can be optimized.

The starting rotation is:

Josh Johnson, RHP

Ricky Nolasco, RHP

Javier Vazquez, RHP

Anibal Sanchez, RHP

Chris Volstad, RHP

The bullpen is:

Leo Nunez, RHP (closer)

Clay Hensley, RHP

Randy Choate, LHP

Mike Dunn, LHP

Edward Mujica, RHP

Ryan Webb, RHP

Brian Sanches, RHP

That is close to being, but not the best lineup of pitchers the Marlins could field. And no, I don't plan to let Burke Badhop's demotion go. Ask GameFish, it just isn't my style.

In order to get everyone on the 40-man roster, John Baker was placed on the 60-day DL. Which isn't surprising in the least. Baker had Tommy John surgery in September of 2010. Catchers are much like pitchers in their recovery time, 12-18 months. The reason being is that catcher is a throwing intensive position. It is possible he will play sometime at the end of the season, but I wouldn't count on it.

More than likely, Brett Hayes will be the backup catcher all season long, if he remains healthy. That shouldn't be a problem but I'm worried that the team will over catch John Buck wearing him down towards the end of season. Hopefully that won't happen, assuming they learned anything about over catching Ronny Paulino last year.

Anyways, that is your Florida Marlins for the start of the season. It will be interesting to see how long it last. And trust me, there will be changes along the way. There always are.