As Dan reported in last night's comments, Andrew Miller has once again landed on the minor league DL for a gimpy ankle.
According to Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez, pitcher Andrew Miller rolled his right ankle Wednesday afternoon during his second minor league start with Triple-A New Orleans. Gonzalez said the play happened while Miller was chasing down a bunt down one of the base lines. Prior to the injury, however, Miller had another poor outing. In one inning, Miller gave up four earned runs, while walking two and hitting a batter. In two starts, Miller has now gone 0-2 with 10 earned runs and 11 walks, six hits and eight strikeouts.
Truthfully, it doesn't matter whether Big Game Andrew is healthy or not. He is not going to factor into the Marlins immediate plans as the fifth starter. Badenhop can do it or at least until Anibal Sanchez returns.
Anibal Sanchez's progress.
Anibal Sanchez threw a bullpen session Thursday and looked good, according to Marlins skipper Gonzalez. Sanchez is scheduled to start on Sunday for Class A Jupiter. Sanchez will be on a 60-pitch limit for the Hammerheads, and Gonzalez feels he will still be about three rehab starts away from being able to rejoin the big league club...
That has him returning to the Marlins, if everything goes well and it rarely does, in the second or third week of August. The Marlins are either going to be lacking for a fifth starter or a long reliever. Now if my math is correct it would only require Badenhop to make two total starts until Anibal comes back.
Of course, the problem is that who knows what the Fish are going to get when Anibal rejoins the team. But the best guess is that it isn't going to be the Anibal of old. So what it amounts to is that the Marlins are going to have a hole somewhere.