Miami Marlins links, 5/31/18: Fish lose on walk-off error

The breakdown

Poor José Ureña. The guy cannot buy a break. At 0-7, he is within one loss of owning the franchise mark for the worst record to start a season. On Wednesday though, he pitched six innings of one-run ball and left in line for the win before ultimately getting Zieglered in the ninth inning.

Perhaps inventing a whole new verb for blowing a ballgame is unfair to Brad Ziegler, given that the Padres won on a walk-off error, but he loaded the bases to put the team in that position and is now 0-5 on the season. He may beat Ureña to the ignominious mark mentioned above.

He spoke after the game:

Naturally, with one’s closer struggling so mightily, manager Don Mattingly had to address concerns there might be a closer controversy brewing:

Meanwhile, in court and elsewhere…

The Marlins named Venezuelan businessman Tobias Carrero as the owner of the British Virgin Islands company that is complicating the county’s lawsuit attempting to gain some of the profits from the sale of the team.

A refresher from Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald:

In March, the Marlins cited an international agreement governing disputes between entities in different countries to have the case heard in federal court instead of before a Miami-Dade judge.

A federal court would also give the Marlins and Loria a clearer path to arbitration, which would keep much of the dispute out of the public eye.

Team lawyers based their argument on Abernue, a holding company formed in the British Virgin Islands to buy an undisclosed share in the team as part of the Sherman-led purchase in October. Because Abernue owned part of the entity that bought the team, Marlins Teamco LLC, then Marlins Teamco “is a citizen of the British Virgin Islands” as well, Marlins lawyers said.

Team president of business operations Chip Bowers continued his “stadium tour” at Petco Park as part of an effort to enhance the fans’ experience at Marlins home games.

Hall of Famer and 2003 World Champion Marlin Iván Rodríguez’s son made his MLB debut with the Giants on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we linked to some pieces on Marlins drafts past and future. Well, it turns out that one past Marlin pick got away and is now a super star for another team.

Prospect progress (and lack thereof)

CBS Sports fantasy baseball analyst Chris Towers examines 11 talented MLB prospects with remarkable stats...for better or worse. Former Marlins pitcher Chris Paddack—traded for Fernando Rodney in 2016—cracks the list with his stellar strikeout rate, as does Double-A outfielder Monte Harrison, who has consistently struggled to make contact in 2018.

His first exposure to the upper minors hasn’t been a disaster—the tools are still evident in his .251/.322/.440 line with seven homers and six steals—but he looks a lot further away than we might have hoped before this season. Even with relatively little standing in the way in Miami, Harrison looks like he might need another year of development.

Up next:

The Marlins play the finale against the Padres tonight at 10:10 pm. Wei-Yin Chen will take the hill against Jordan Lyles. The Fish play the weekend at Arizona.