Pitchers and catchers are reporting to the Miami Marlins today, so today we will start our Miami Marlins Season Preview with our yearly feature, Important Numbers. The premise of the format simple: for each player playing a prominent role on the Marlins in 2012, we post an important number to look at for the 2012 season. Today, we will begin with position players.

John Buck: 20

One would think that, after a 2010 season that saw Buck hit a career-high 20 home runs and a 2011 campaign that saw him drop to 16, his goal in 2012 would be go back up to 20 homers again. But in fact, the 20 listed here is not so much about home runs (though that would be nice) as it is about doubles. Buck's ISO fell from .208 in 2010 and .178 career to .139 last season despite a 16-home run campaign, and much of it likely had to do with his distinct lack of doubles. Every year since 2005 in which he has had around 400 or more PA, Buck has hit at least 18 doubles. Last year, he hit 15, displaying the sort of power he showed in his earlier career. The problem is that Buck's primary offensive benefit is that of power, so if he loses that, he contributes a lot less as a catcher and as a player overall, as he is a below-average defender at the plate. Depending on the source that you ask, Buck was worth anywhere between one and two Wins Above Replacement last season, but with the ballpark getting bigger, it may be difficult for him to improve on the one thing he does best, which is hitting balls a long ways.

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Recently, Baseball Prospectus released their latest version of their projection system, PECOTA. PECOTA strives to be the best projection system in the business, but projecting players is really difficult, and it is not always successful, much like other systems. At the same time, PECOTA is among the best projection systems in the game, and one of the coolest features of the system is the "Comparables" section. The system uses the comparables to find similar players in order to identify a possible aging pattern, but most readers like looking at that list of names in order to dream about a future to be with their favorite players.

Hey, here at Fish Stripes, we are not that much different than other baseball fans. We like to dream too, and PECOTA's comparables are an excellent way to do that. Let us look at some interesting comps for the team's players.

(By the way, if you want to check out the rest of the PECOTA goodies along with tons of other great things that Baseball Prospectus offers, take a look at what the Fantasy section has and sign up!)

Mike Stanton

*TAv is True Average, Baseball Prospectus's all-encompassing offensive stat. It works very similarly to wOBA, and it is already park-adjusted. It is on scale with batting average, with the league average set to .260 every year.

#MONSTERDONG is already one of the most exciting players in baseball, and by the looks of those numbers and those comps, he could be in for an even better time. Upton is well-established as one of the better outfielders in the game, though he is not known as elite, but merely an "All-Star." Of course, Upton has a lot of pedigree behind him, and baseball evaluators still rave about his skill set. Dunn was quietly one of the better power hitters in the 2000's, and we know that Stanton's defense is much better than Dunn's. And Strawberry? The former New York Mets first rounder hit .252/.343/.467 (.289 TAv) in his age-22 season, but he followed that with a monstrous .277/.389/.557 (.331 TAv) campaign at age 23. In other words, some bright things are on the way for Stanton and the Marlins.

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A couple of weeks ago, Yoennis Cespedes officially became a free agent able to negotiate a contract with major league teams. Last week, Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus held the most interesting of articles regarding the Cuban free agent and current heated interest of the Miami Marlins. The question was simple: who would you rather?

I polled big-league executives, many with extensive international experience and in-person looks at Cespedes. I didn’t expressly ask about tools or projection; I asked whether the exec would take Cespedes over a series of five 20-something, ultra-toolsy outfielders who have yet to fully break through. I offered a simple proposal: You can either have Cespedes or each of these five outfielders for the remainder of their career for free—so cost should not enter into the decision.

It's a pick'em game for the rest of the players' respective careers. Who you got between Cespedes and these five outfielders? I figured I'd play as well and post my thoughts as well.

Colby Rasmus

Scouting Report: Rasmus was once one of the top outfield prospects in baseball. He seemed to be growing into stardom during his second full season, but clashes with Tony La Russa led to a 2011 trade to Toronto. Things were no better north of the border; Rasmus limped to a final batting line of .225/.298/.391.

Once upon a time, in 2010, Rasmus was an All-Star and had a bright future ahead of him. Yet somehow, he ended up on the bench more often than not, and in 2011 he had a horrific third season. When looking at Rasmus, you are fairly certain you will get power (career .181 ISO), but not certain about his strikeout problems (career 22.7 percent rate). He has a lot of tools, but there are definite concerns about whether he can handle center field long-term.

In fact, a lot of that sounds a lot like Cespedes himself! Like Rasmus, Cespedes appears to have undeniable power, but may lack the plate discipline to succeed long-term. He also has some questions about his defense in center field. The two players are very similar, but the nod should go to a player who has physical potential much greater than the other. I'd give a slight not to Cespedes here.

Pick: Cespedes

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This is an ongoing series regarding Ricky Nolasco and his consistent problems with runners on. See the first two parts here and here.

Last week, we went a little more in-depth into the problems Ricky Nolasco has had in the stretch. This week, we are going to explore another area of Nolasco's game, that being the balls in play that he allowed.

First, let us review the observations we made based on last week's data.

Without examining much further for now, we see two interesting points from this data:

1) Nolasco is not hitting the strike zone as often with runners on

2) Nolasco is using less of his effective curveball and more of his less effective fastball and slider with runners on

We suspect that Nolacso is not hitting the strike zone often enough. Perhaps he is being too careful in order to allow juicy pitches to come through the zone with runners on, with the possibility that they might be crushed. But has avoiding the strike zone assisted Nolasco in getting hit less hard? Let us take a look at the data to find out.

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Last week, Prince Fielder signed with the Detroit Tigers for nine years and $214 million. This deal constituted the fourth-largest contract in major league history, behind only Alex Rodriguez's two free agent deals and Albert Pujols's most recent ten-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels.

Why do I bring this up at Fish Stripes, a Miami Marlins blog? Well, if you will recall, the Marlins were major free agent players this season and at one time or another were linked to both Fielder and Pujols before they were both signed by other teams. Many fans were clamoring for either of these moves, as these players would have been dynamic additions to the Marlins' current team. However, it is clear from the size of these two deals that the Marlins actually avoided major pitfalls by falling by the wayside in their attempt to acquire either player. See, with the amount of money the Marlins appeared to have been willing to spend this season, it could have been very easy for the team to "go nuts" and pick up one of these two guys. The problem with either move would have lied in the concept of the "winner's curse."

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About a month back, I re-introduced the question of why Ricky Nolasco was struggling with runners on. Today, we are going to dive a little more into the question of why Nolasco is struggling. What is happening differently between his work with runners on and with the bases empty?

To start, let us revisit that data since 2008.

Again, you can clearly see a major discrepancy in the data. And yet, when we looked at the numbers in terms of pure "stuff," we did not see a major difference in his stuff from with the bases empty compared to with runners on.

So where could the difference be? I took a look at some zone data to find out.

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As you will recall, I have previously written about the idea that Mike Stanton should receive a contract extension this season in the midst of the Marlins' significant spending spree. It seems the Marlins have that idea in mind as well, but since they are in no rush to sign him because he is under team control for a long period of time; the Marlins have Stanton under control until 2016. I have heard the arguments that there just is no need to commit right now from fans as well

I venture that the Marlins should be interested in rushing an extension to Stanton's hands. As I argued before, the earlier a team can secure a young player, the cheaper those future years of that player come. And while a player that is approaching his prime during arbitration (think Gaby Sanchez and Dan Uggla before him) could be at risk to bottom out and not be worth a long-term deal, a player like Stanton at his age is hardly a danger to lose value.

Perhaps the most important thing in signing Stanton early is that it avoids the very real future costs of arbitration. Mike Axisa of MLB Trade Rumors dwells on this idea and more:

The Marlins went on a spending spree this offseason, importing Ozzie Guillen, Jose Reyes, Carlos Zambrano,Heath Bell, and Mark Buehrle, but perhaps their wisest signing could be locking Stanton into a long-term deal. There's certainly no rush since he won't be arbitration-eligible until after 2013 or a free agent until after 2016, but power pays in arbitration and Stanton could get expensive in a hurry. Look no further than Fielder, who turned his impressive power output into $33.5MM during his three arbitration years. It would have been more if he hadn't given up his first two arbitration years as part of a two-year, $18MM contract.

As Axisa mentions, power can get really expensive during arbitration, and this is a prime reason for exploring a Stanton extension as soon as possible.

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