Marlins vs. Nationals: Opening Day Game Thread

Baseball is back. Finally.

Pitching Matchup

For the 2017 season, our game threads here at Fish Stripes are going to serve two purposes. The first is the most obvious, to bring together Marlins fans to discuss the game at hand. Game threads will be up one hour before game time. There will be a community guidelines refresher up later in the week, but for now, know that anything is up discussion EXCEPT politics and religion, which I think you'll find is a standard on most blogs. Also, try not to make things personal. Differences of opinion are fine and welcome, personal attacks are not. Follow those two basic rules and this will be fun for all of us!

The second purpose is to continue Fish Stripes' time-honored tradition: Icthyomancy!

If you're unfamiliar with Icthyomancy, please take a moment to read the excellent breakdown Kevin Kraczkowski wrote last season. The rules are the same, right down to the scoring. If you aren't going to read it, let me offer a brief description.

Icthy is a predictions-based game where you post your guesses as to what may or may not happen in a given game. Alongside guessing the final score of the game and the attendance, you also wager a guess as to what happens with individual performances (IE Edinson Volquez will strikeout six, Stephen Strasburg will only pitch five innings, Marcell Ozuna bashes two home runs, etc.), and you are awarded points based off of said predictions. This contest runs all season long, with predictions being posted in these here game threads (all predictions accepted that are posted prior to the start of the game). Yes, if you're wondering, this would be the time to make some extra predictions for bonus points at season's end.

Every weekend, we will put up a post with the current rankings. At the end of the season, a winner will be declared.

One difference this year: The winner will be offered a chance to write an article, on any baseball-related topic, to be published and placed on Fish Stripes front page. A reward for sticking with us all year and being damn good at predictions.

This will probably be the most writing in a body of a game thread all year (though I reserve the right to change my mind in that regard). Going forward, most game thread bodies will be populated with information regarding the game at hand, pitcher and lineup tables, pertinent stats, etc.

There will also be a question at the bottom for you to answer if you so please, typically Marlins-related. The goal is to spark some interesting conversations with these.

The thread's main purpose is for chatter. So chat!

Question!

Do you think the Marlins will reach the playoffs this season?

Go Fish!