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Michael Hill, Gary Denbo and everybody else in the front office has preached the same thing: the Marlins are building up their organization with athleticism as a top priority. They will roll the dice on volatile players who have special tools, confident that—with the right guidance—they can reach their full potential.
In the near future, we’ll be seeing that on display every night at the major league level.
But for now, that introduction is just getting us in the mood for this new toy from Statcast. Their customizable running splits leaderboard allows you to simulate 90-foot races between up to four MLB players at a time, using data from either the 2017 or 2018 seasons.
I recorded a handful of Marlins-related ones for your amusement.
To address some FAQ...
- These simulations rely on Sprint Speed measured during regular season games, which is explained here
- We don’t have the option to race with pitchers (unfortunately)
- In case embedded videos in this article fail to load for you, click the hyperlinks
When it comes to running, there are Hall of Fame-caliber catchers, and then there’s J.T. Realmuto:
Of course, flipping the All-Star to a contender and leaning on the stocky Bryan Holaday as the primary backstop would be a very different story:
There’s been a rush to judgement about the Marlins getting ripped off in the Christian Yelich trade. Still too close to call, in my opinion:
Meanwhile, Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals for Magneuris Sierra and Co. looks like a straight-up steal:
To those who feel Brian Anderson was underappreciated last season, this literal NL Rookie of the Year race yields the same result:
As the free-agent market continues to move at a glacial pace, these former Marlins outfielders are “chasing” a 2019 contract:
Dietrich/Maybin/Ortega/Shuck race
I’ll take more race requests in the comments and update the article accordingly, but it should be easy enough to do ‘em yourself.