Marlins links, 8/10/18: Players’ Weekend nicknames, minor league notes, new Fish podcast

Embrace your velo

Cornelius Thomas is back from presenting at the 2018 SaberSeminar in Boston. His topic? Determining the ideal pitch mix for hard throwers (think José Ureña, Sandy Alcántara and Jorge Guzman).

The big takeaway is that a well-located, high-velocity fastball is still among the most lethal pitches in baseball, even as some MLB teams want to emphasize secondary stuff.

Read the whole thing on Fish Stripes.

Minor league scoreboard

Triple-A: Iowa 0, New Orleans 1

Double-A: Mississippi 16, Jacksonville 8

High-A: POSTPONED

Low-A, Game 1: West Virginia 5, Greensboro 3

Low-A, Game 2: West Virginia 9, Greensboro 7

Short Season A: Auburn 4, Batavia 3

Gulf Coast League: GCL Marlins 8, GCL Cardinals 4

Dominican Summer League: DSL Braves 9, DSL Marlins 4

Thursday box scores courtesy of MiLB.com

Batavia NY-Penn League All-Star reps

The Marlins are reluctant to send their very best prospects to play in Batavia for understandable reasons. None of these three rank among the organization’s top 30 prospects, per MLB Pipeline.

The 20-year-old Jerar Encarnacion is worth getting somewhat excited about. He’s been an offensive stud this season despite terrible plate discipline (four walks in 39 games).

But for now, focus on the positives—congrats to Encarnacion, Reynolds and Rodriguez.

“Swings and Mishes” debuts August 21

@jeremytache/Twitter

Craig Mish is a must-follow on Marlins Twitter and veteran radio personality. Jeremy Taché is an associate producer for 7 Sports Xtra on WSVN. Together, they are...”Swings and Mishes” (didn’t like our recommendation, apparently).

The podcast will focus on the Marlins and branch into more general MLB topics. It’s part of South Florida’s own Five Reasons Sports Network.

Taché tells me to expect new episodes once a week.

MLB Players’ Weekend nicknames revealed

Every Marlins player on the active roster—plus a few currently on the disabled list—went with some sort of unique nickname on the special edition uniforms that they’ll wear August 24-26 against the Braves. You’ll recognize many of them from 2017, which was the first-ever Players’ Weekend:

Brian Anderson: “ANDY” / Kyle Barraclough: “BEAR” / Justin Bour: “JB” / Lewis Brinson: “SWEET LEW” / Starlin Castro: “ALL STARLIN” / Wei-Yin Chen: “WEIGH-IN” / Adam Conley: “ACON” / Garrett Cooper: “COOPALOUP” / Derek Dietrich: “DIETZ” / Isaac Galloway: “GALLO” / Jarlin García: “JARLIN THE MARLIN” / Brett Graves: “BUMP” / Javy Guerra: “JAVY” / Tayron Guerrero: “EL DE BOCACHICA” / Elieser Hernandez: “LILO” / Bryan Holaday: “HOLLY” / Pablo López: “PACHÉ” / Chris O’Grady: “GRIZZ” / Martín Prado: “PRATT” / J.T. Realmuto: “REAL” / Trevor Richards: “RICHIE” / JT Riddle: “T” / Yadiel Rivera: “TIZNAO” / Miguel Rojas: “MIGGY RO” / Drew Rucinski: “RUSINSKI” / Magneuris Sierra: “MIYAGUI” / Caleb Smith: “SMITTY” / Drew Steckenrider: “STECKASAURUS” / Dan Straily: “THUNDER” / José Ureña: “EL NUEVE”

MLB.com’s Cut4 liked “Jarlin the Marlin” most of all, and it’s hard to disagree. But that’s what the comments are for! What do you think?

All this gear is being sold through MLB Shop.

Huge weekend in MLB “Tankathon”

Both the Marlins and Mets seem destined for top-10 picks in the 2019 MLB draft. Where exactly they fall in the draft order will be largely determined by their head-to-head matchups down the stretch, including this Friday-Sunday at Marlins Park.

The Fish have not swept a series this entire season. As long as that doesn’t change now, they’ll remain behind the Mets in the standings...and ahead in the tankathon.

The series opener features Zack Wheeler vs. José Ureña at a 7:10pm start time.