Miami Marlins links for Wednesday, March 7th
Lewis Brinson goes DEEP
Tuesday’s game wasn’t televised, but the consensus among eyewitnesses is that Brinson resembled Giancarlo Stanton with his no-doubt home run against Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty. Aside from being his first long ball since arriving in January’s trade, it broke up the right-hander’s no-hitter in the fourth inning.
MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro caught up with the top prospect in the clubhouse:
“First one in a Marlins [uniform], it felt good,” Brinson said. “He was tough. Flaherty has good stuff, and he had it working today. I was trying to look for something up, and he was staying down in the zone real good with all of us…That felt good, yeah.”
The first of many for @LewisBrinson. #MarlinsST | https://t.co/euTaKCrjeW pic.twitter.com/j6SBoY2Qhb
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) March 6, 2018
Through nine Grapefruit League appearances, Brinson is batting .350/.381/.700 with five extra-base hits and strong center field defense. It will be tough to deny him an Opening Day roster spot if he keeps this up.
Death, taxes and injuries
They are inevitable. Three weeks after pitchers and catchers initially reported, the Marlins finally had one of their players suffer from a new, significant health issue: right-hander Brett Graves was diagnosed with a left oblique strain.
“I’ve never dealt with an oblique or anything like this,” Graves told assembled media, including Joe Frisaro. “I have no idea what to expect. You kind of take it one day at a time and see how it responds tomorrow.”
According to Roster Resource, the 2017 squad had 17 different players spend time on the major league disabled list during the regular season.
Martin Prado’s status
Frisaro mentions that the veteran third baseman took live batting practice on Tuesday morning against teammates Nick Wittgren and Brad Ziegler. Prado underwent right knee surgery last July.
Andre C. Fernandez of the Miami Herald clarifies that there still isn’t any specific timeline for his Grapefruit League debut. The Marlins are uncertain if the 34-year-old will be active on Opening Day.
Brian Anderson would be next in line to handle the hot corner. Like Brinson, Anderson has had several exciting moments this spring.
2018 starting rotation configuration
SiriusXM’s Craig Mish takes an educated guess at who will crack the Fish’s initial rotation:
So this is my best guess right now
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) March 7, 2018
1. Dan Straily
2. Jose Urena
3. Jacob Turner
4. Sandy Alcantara
5. Jarlin Garcia
6. Caleb Smith
Personally, I’m skeptical of Jarlin Garcia’s chances. The team is firmly committed to stretching him into a starter, but why such a rush to the majors? Garcia has zero career experience at the Triple-A level.
Also, Sandy Alcantara’s spring training “success” comes with some big caveats.
On a random note
Early this past offseason, I launched a Fish Stripes “very random stat of the day” series on Twitter, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. With contributions from fellow editor Kevin Kraczkowski, we’ve kept it going for more than 100 consecutive days!
Always open to your reader stat submissions, too.
DID YOU KNOW: It’s our 100th straight day with a very random stat!
— Fish Stripes (@fishstripes) March 4, 2018
In 1996, Gary Sheffield had the only Marlins season with 100+ RBI, 100+ R and 100+ BB.
That’s our very random stat of the day. pic.twitter.com/uPcpxhCUlu
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