The other teams in the league are becoming believers .
One reason the Marlins start is not an aberration, Arizona manager Bob Melvin asserts, is ''they don't have any big holes. Everybody complements each other.'' And, he said, you know who's underrated? Catcher Matt Treanor ''is a big part of their pitching success. Some of his defensive prowess goes unnoticed. And this is the best I've ever seen Mark Hendrickson'' (at least before Sunday).
Here at FishStripes, we've noticed Treanor's prowess behind the plate a long time ago. That's not to say that Rabelo doesn't do a good job, it is a given that Mike is a better defensive catcher than Olivo ever was. Meaning, he can actually catch the ball. All I'm saying is that Treanor does an excellent job of handling the pitching staff. (And that doesn't mean Rabelo can't or won't.)
Bob Melvin should know a thing or two about catchers since that was his main position back in his playing days.
But Melvin isn't the only taking note: there is also Mets GM Omar Minaya .
"I'm not surprised by it," Minaya said of the Marlins' fast start. "You're talking about a young group of core guys that have been developing there, guys like [Dan] Uggla and [Hanley] Ramirez. … They've got some good veterans in [ Luis] Gonzalez and [ Wes] Helms andJacque Jones. It's a good mix of guys."
I guess what it comes to is that the baseball people think that the Marlins are for real. And that is a good thing.
Of course, they could just be justifying the reasons the Marlins are, or have, beaten them. But I don't think it is that simple.
We know the hitting is for real and the bullpen is excellent. The starting pitching needs to come around by going deeper in the games and the defense needs to continue to improve and they are showing some signs of that.
But it's nice that the people in baseball are becoming believers even if the National media isn't.