FanPost Friday: The game is on the line...

Prompt: With a tie ballgame in the bottom of the 9th, which Marlins player (current or former) do you want to see try and win the game?

As the Marlins have seen three times this season, being the victim of a walkoff loss is brutal. From a fan’s perspective, it’s my least favorite way to lose a game. Well, just having a “favorite” way to lose a game sounds ridiculous, but if you’re a Marlins fan then I’d be willing to bet that you’ve called several losses “moral victories” this season.

Regardless, the walkoff losses to Milwaukee (4/21), Atlanta (5/20), and San Diego (5/30) all sucked, for lack of a better word. Especially when all of your Atlanta-based family and friends want to call and tell you how proud they are of Dansby Swanson seemingly out of nowhere.

Those three games put the Marlins on a similar trajectory as last season where they were walked-off seven times. The similarities between the two seasons seems pretty clear to me: poor bullpen management that leads to hot opposing batters facing a closer that has little to no breathing room in regards to the score. Either way, losing like that is painful and deflating, so let’s see if we can conjure up a little fiction to make a future tense situation seem a bit manageable!

Side Note: This reminded me of one of those weird new rule proposals that gets brought up every few years. I think it’s fun in jest, however if it became a serious rule change concept I would be personally very opposed. The idea pretty much springs from a conversation on the Rich Eisen Show back in February. Apparently, he heard “whispers” from some baseball front office executives that there’s a conversation to let a losing team in the ninth inning use any three batters it wants to start the inning, regardless of the batting order. Do I think that will happen? Nope, I’d put that at about 0.0001% chance of being approved by Rob Manfred, but knowing that it won’t actually happen makes it a much more entertaining conversation.

If you had the chance to bring up any current or former Marlin to step into the “clutch” role in the 9th inning with the game on the line, who would it be? You can interpret this as either a closer coming in and shutting down opposing batters or a batter that’s there to walk the game off and send us all home happy.

Whip us up a FanPost and let us know what you think!