3 takeaways from this weekend

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The Marlins are just 3-7 through the first 10 games of the 2019 season. I told you guys a couple of weeks ago that I was going to try and bring you as much Marlins content as possible. With nothing new happening during Monday’s off day, I figured I would talk about three takeaways from this past weekend.

The Marlins played the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park. Unfortunately, they lost two out of the three games.

Offense

The first thing that jumps out when you watch this team play is the offense...or should I say the lack of offense. The Marlins scored just seven total runs in the three-game series against the Braves. To put that into comparison, the Philadelphia Phillies are averaging 6.33 runs per game this season.

This lack of run production shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone. If you look at the way that the roster is constructed, you can see why this team isn’t scoring a lot of runs. There are a lot, and I mean A LOT of young guys on this roster. Before you say anything, yes, Curtis Granderson, Neil Walker, and Starling Castro are still on the roster. However, Granderson and Walker are not the same players that they were before joining this ball club. When you take those three guys out, the rest of the Marlins roster lacks significant experience at the big league level.

Jorge Alfaro

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Alfaro is the catcher who the Marlins received in the J.T. Realmuto trade. Although it is a small sample size, Alfaro is slashing .280/.333/.640 which equates to a .973 OPS. That .973 OPS is far above the league average. The reason why he is my second takeaway is that he had his first multi-home run game this weekend. This happened on Saturday, and his second home run of the game was of the go-ahead variety.

Last season, Alfaro was the primary catcher for the Phillies. As I go to school in Pennsylvania, I was able to watch him play a lot last season. Alfaro’s defense is what got him to the major leagues. He has an absolute cannon behind the plate. For example, he has the three fastest throws to second base (velocity-wise). While his defense plays, his bat has often come up lackluster. My unpaid analysis of him is that sometimes he swings too hard. He has enough strength that when he makes contact, the ball jumps off his bat. Hopefully, Alfaro can stay hot.

Sandy Alcantara

Personally, I’ve been high on this guy since the end of last season. I’ve talked about him at least three separate times already this season. All three of those times were in a positive fashion. However, that is not the case this time.

Alcantara has shown that he can be wild. He has shown this is his very small major league career. In his first start of 2019, he threw eight shutout innings struck out eight and walked none. However, in his last start, he walked five batters in just four innings. The odd part is that he did not strike anyone out in this game.

I think Alcantara is the ace of the Marlins staff. His stuff certainly backs that up. However, his control is a big question mark. If he is unable to find his control, he may never reach his full potential. Even worse, he may be sent to the bullpen. I may be overreacting to one start, but the Marlins are rebuilding. During the first years of a rebuild, no one is safe and every play matters. I hope for Alcantara’s sake, he can figure it out before it’s too late.

Alex Peters has been a baseball fanatic since as long as he can remember. He plays baseball for Penn State York. You can follow Alex on Twitter at @alex_peters20.