It is safe to say that this may be the most exciting season in Marlins history (I almost said "Miami Marlins" history, but of course, it is that team's first season). With Spring Training just around the corner for the Fish (pitchers and catchers report on February 22!), the season is almost upon us, and it is more prevalent then ever to preview what is in store for the Miami Marlins in their inaugural season at the new ballpark.

This is why Fish Stripes has stepped in to provide you the ultimate in season previews with the Fish Stripes Marlins Season Preview! Starting this week, we will delve into the various aspects of your 2012 Miami Marlins from an analytic and objective standpoint as well as a fan's perspective. We are going to look into every angle of the Miami Marlins and try to figure out what we have in the team this upcoming season. Here are just some of the things that we will cover in the Marlins Season Preview:

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Since Fish Stripes rebooted in November, we've heard a lot from me and the new voices here on the site. However, it was always my goal to get as many people involved as possible in the new Fish Stripes, and today I am happy to introduce some of the new faces here on the site who will help to bring some more diversity to Miami Marlins coverage.

The New Fish Bites

The first thing that I am excited to introduce is an increase in the Fish Bites coverage here on the site. We initially planned to do Fish Bites twice a week, but it has lagged recently in part due to my busy school schedule. In order to help cover as many Marlins-related links as possible, Fish Stripes is bringing in three writers to cover links for the site, which adds up to five days of Fish Bites link coverage every week for Fish Stripes.

Terrence Hunley, Monday Fish Bites

Terrence is a 22-year old sports writer who currently works for Amarillo.com in Texas, along Route 66. Terrence has been a baseball fan since 2006 when he read an article on Jose Reyes in Sports Illustrated. Since then he learned all there was to learn about the New York Mets and everything about baseball. He quickly embraced sabermetrics though he doesn't understand all of the more advanced aspects. He is a recently converted Marlins fan, as he followed Jose Reyes. Terrence is excited to see how everything goes.

Brian Mati, Thursday Fish Bites

Brian will get a chance to introduce himself later this week, but he too is very excited to be contributing to Fish Stripes.

Scott Gelman, Friday Fish Bites

Scott's history as a Florida Marlins (now "Miami Marlins") fan has been brief but full of excitement. He attended his first game at then Dolphins Stadium in April of 2008. He instantly fell in love with the team, as he enjoyed watching young superstars such as Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla at the peak of their careers. Although he was not a fan for either of the two World Series Championships, he has done his research and has loved learning about this franchise's exciting history. Scott joined Fish Stripes about two years ago, as he gained a passion for sports journalism. He looks forward to an eventful, exciting future in the new stadium as a Marlins fan. Go Fish!

Analysis Game

In addition, we are adding two analysts into the fold, especially with the departure of Chris Towers from the site (good luck to Chris in his new, lucrative job with CBSSports Fantasy Sports). These two writers will be adding to the analysis game, including a look at the Miami Marlins' prospects and minor league system.

Eric Ely, Analysis

Having been born and raised in Wisconsin, Eric's Marlins fandom has been largely from afar and dates back to the 1997 World Series victory. His earliest baseball memory was staying up past his bedtime by sneaking to an extra bedroom his family had in their house and watching the series. He will never forget Renteria's single in the bottom of the 11th inning and Counsell coming around to score the winning run with his arms raised in celebration.

Dontrelle Willis is his favorite all-time Marlin. His leg kick and delivery are unforgettable. His rookie year and the second World Series in 2003 were so entertaining to watch.

Outside of baseball Eric is a history major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With any luck he'll graduate in a year and finally enter the real world. In his free time, he enjoys reading and traveling. Believe it or not, he considers himself lucky to have made a trip to see a series in the final season at Sun Life Stadium. Unfortunately the series was against the Brewers in early June, which wasn't the best of times for the team. On a more positive note it is such an exciting time to be a fan of the Marlins. The future looks very bright. Eric looks forward to writing here at Fish Stripes and being able to interact with everyone. Go Marlins!

Eric Weston, Prospects Analysis

Eric lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of the local San Francisco Giants fans are still bent out of shape by the 2003 playoffs and Scott Cousins's enthusiastic hug of Buster Posey, but he quite likes the Marlins. His father is not native to Northern California and has been a Marlins fan since the 1993 expansion, so he has been as well. Eric has always had a deep respect for the team's attempts to compete on a shoestring budget, although that era may be coming to an end. It is certainly an exciting time for Marlins fans and Eric is very excited to be joining the Fish Stripes team. Eric will be providing analysis on the team's minor league system, so stay tuned for my take on the state of the farm. Go Fish.

Dustin F, Weekend Caption Contests and Polls

As Dustin already alluded to below, I forgot to include him in the original list of new additions. He will be adding a most interesting aspect to the site: caption contests and polls for the readers! This will give the readership a new way to interact with everyone around them and get involved with Fish Stripes in a whole new way. Look for Dustin's pieces on the weekends.

You've gotten a chance to read the content of the new Fish Stripes, but now you too can have a chance to contribute at Fish Stripes! Fish Stripes is looking for authors to contribute weekly to the site in the following capacities:

- Contributing writers would be responsible for one post a week about a theme of their choice, whether it be analysis, humor, fan experience, or whatever. If analysis is to be your game, you must use a sabermetric-slanted approach. This doesn't mean you have to know everything, but you do need to come somewhat prepared. If you choose another theme, you're in the clear with regards to what and how you do your thing.

- In addition, writers have to contribute to the game recap rotation. Basically, all of us alternate between games to recap, with a rotation set prior to the beginning of the month's worth of games.

- Writers will also have to contribute one link to each of our two weekly Fish Bites link dumps.

Alternately, Fish Stripes is looking to expand our Fish Bites section to almost daily linkage to the news and events of the Miami Marlins. To do that, we are looking for:

- A once-weekly Fish Bites piece covering that day's or the previous day's various Marlins-related links. You would get to choose a day to do this and decide on what links you want to provide, as well as recap the previous day's work on Fish Stripes. You would also be free to editorialize on the links you provide, with some restrictions related to analysis that we can discuss. A Fish Bites piece would be due by noon EST.

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Around Miami Marlins country, there's not much to get excited about. Sure, we just signed a big free agent closer and there are rumors that we are looking to lock up more free agents during the Winter Meetings, but other than that, offseason life is pretty boring.

You know when life was exciting? When we were all complaining about uniforms and team colors, of course! And with that in mind, Fish Stripes is beginning a new line of T-shirts at their new Fish Stripes Gameday Depot store. Right now, we have just three shirts of interest for you to peruse today, and they all have something to do with the uniform and name changes that our beloved team has recently undergone.

For example, if you'd like to announce to the world how poorly done our new Marlins colors are, what better way to do that than to flaunt them brightly with your thoughts emblazoned in the front?

There could be no greater message about the failure of the team's color scheme than to have that angry clip art Marlin in yellow and blue frowning in your direction.

After the jump, we have some more designs for those of you interested in representing the old school. Also, you can post ideas about shirts for the store in the comments below! Here at Fish Stripes, we're always looking for suggestions.

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I apologize for missing out on yesterday's NL Cy Young announcement. The winner, you ask? Congratulations to Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies AND Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. That's right, they had a picture-perfect tie for the finish, which I find to be an awesome feat to accomplish.

Today, we'll discuss the SB Nation selection for American League MVP. The race looked tho be all but over after the first half ended, but a relatively cool stretch by the leader along with hot finishes by a variety of other very worthy candidates made this one too close to call. Who got the nod according to the baseball bloggers of SB Nation?

Congratulations to Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays for winning the SB Nation AL MVP.

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