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Congrats to Marlins prospects and Missouri natives Monte Harrison and Kameron Misner on Super Bowl LIV, as their Kansas City Chiefs won a title for the first time in 50 years.
And with that, Monday marks the unofficial start of the 2020 baseball season!
MOVE OUT THE WAY, IT’S MARLINS BASEBALL SEASON NOW pic.twitter.com/hg1P8o2pp5
— Fish Stripes (@fishstripes) February 3, 2020
Here are your Fish-flavored links.
Speaking of “unofficial”...
The Marlins still have not announced their signings of major league free agents Matt Joyce and Brandon Kintzler (and their two corresponding 40-man roster moves). But there is no longer any doubt about those being finalized—both veterans were invited on MLB Network Radio to discuss coming to Miami.
“They think they’re really heading in the right direction,” Joyce said. It is his understanding that the Marlins will deploy him in a similar role that the Braves did in 2019, with frequent pinch-hitting opportunities and occasional starts in right field.
Kintzler likewise cited the franchise’s big-picture progress during his interview. More on his mindset entering 2020:
“I don’t like to feel comfortable going to Spring Training, ever. I feel like that lets me settle too much starting the season, so I’m just gonna go there acting like I need to compete for something and see what happens.”
Spoiler alert: Kintzler will be the team’s closer as long as he makes it through the Grapefruit League injury-free.
First “win” of the year!
Soon. pic.twitter.com/r7SuLYN0iV
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) February 2, 2020
On Sunday, the Marlins had one of their most engaging social media posts of the entire offseason: a beautiful photo of the ballpark fully lit up at night with the roof open.
That’s cool and all, but I’m still anxious to find out more about the new artificial turf that they installed. Some close-ups of that, please!
South Florida swing?
Emboldened by MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds predicting the Marlins to go 80-82 this season, Kevin Kraczkowski of Marlin Maniac does a roundup of the recent positive developments for each of the local market’s professional sports teams. Fan ought to have much more to cheer about in 2020 than they did last year.
Walk-off Links
- Yes, Fish Picks—our daily prop bets contest—is returning for 2020. We shook off the rust with a special Super Bowl edition of it.
- There is a growing consensus that the Marlins have five of the current top 100 prospects in Major League Baseball. The newest list comes from Prospects Live, featuring Sixto Sánchez, JJ Bleday, Edward Cabrera, Jazz Chisholm and Jesús Sánchez.
- Danny Martinez has a new episode of Marlins Unfiltered previewing the upcoming FanFest on Saturday.
- On the Fish Stripes YouTube channel, the Pitch Arsenals video series continues with a breakdown of Jordan Yamamoto.
Coming up soon: Pablo López.