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Marlins a sleeper?

By craig

This guy thinks the Marlins are in line for a "HUGE offensive year."

The youthful talent on the Marlins makes it easy for chemistry to exist, due to the fact that most of these guys have been through the same struggles of making it into the majors. The addition of Cameron Maybin will most likely result in Hanley Ramirez moving to the three spot in the lineup which will result in a HUGE offensive year. The lineup could look similar to this:
  1. Cameron Maybin
  2. Dan Uggla
  3. Hanley Ramirez
  4. Luis Gonzalez
  5. Jorge Cantu
  6. Jeremy Hermida
  7. Mike Jacobs
  8. Matt Treanor
One can only imagine how this offense will strive this season, but right now, it looks very promising.

There are a couple of problems with his projected lineup, the first being:  Where the heck is Willingham?  If Gonzalez starts in place of the Hammer -- I will have a field day(s) railing about the stupidity of that.

The second is: I will be very surprised if Maybin is on the 25-man roster when camp breaks.  And if he is, I doubt he will be in the leadoff position.  At this point in his career is a proven .143 BA hitter with an OBP of .208.  Of course, this will one day change, but I find it hard to believe it did over the winter.

Maybin may have a good spring training at the plate, he did last year.  (.429 BA, .520 OBP, .905 SLG)  But that doesn't mean he should be up in the Majors.  If I had to guess, and it is just a guess, the game in the bigs is still a little fast for him.  One day it won't be.

Anyway, scoring runs wasn't the Marlins problem last season.  The 2007 club set a team record for Runs Scored, Hits, Doubles, Home Runs, RBI, Total Bases, SLG and of course, Strikeouts. And still finished last in the division.

Naturally the records included the outputs of Cabrera and to a much lesser extent, Willis. But the majority of the lineup is still the same.  And even without the two, the Marlins offense will score runs.

Whether or not the Marlins have a season where they contend will rest solely on pitching and defense.  And as I said yesterday, the pitching remains iffy and the defense should show a marginal improvement.

The team should be fun to watch, but I don't think contending for a playoff spot is in the cards.  Now, next year, or the year after that, that is a completely different matter.

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