Offishial news, 4/6/21: Marlins drop series opener; March Madness ends

Colombian man wins #MarlinsTwitterMarchMadness

“Absolutely crazy.” That’s what Daniel De Vivo tells Fish Stripes after receiving more than 1,200 votes to upset Brendan Tobin in the Marlins Twitter March Madness championship. His account gained more than 100 new Twitter followers during the week-long tournament, organized by Fish On The Farm.

De Vivo co-hosts FOTF’s Swimming Upstream podcast. The Marlins fan and father of two lives in Barranquilla, Colombia. He attributes the Cinderella run to the passionate support of his countrymen.

You can follow him at @DanielDeVivo.

Frustrating night for the Fish

For the third time in four games, the Marlins offense had very little production against the opposing starting pitcher en route to a loss. In the case of Cardinals right-hander Daniel Ponce de Leon, at least they hit their fair share of long fly balls, but all of them landed innocuously in an outfielder’s glove.

One of the few bright spots from Monday night was Jordan Holloway. I suspected that his call-up to the major league roster would be very temporary, but he impressed with a high volume of nasty sliders and a fastball that touched 98 miles per hour.

Sandy Alcantara gets the start tonight.

Walk-off links

• Any day now, it’s expected to be announced that Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, will host the 2021 MLB All-Star Game [insert Home Run Derby jokes here].
• FiveThirtyEight gives the Marlins a 51% chance to win their next game against the Cardinals. Hector Rodriguez (@Hector_Baseball) will handle Fish Stripes’ credentialed coverage tonight from LoanDepot Park.
• With a COVID-comprised roster, the Nationals are finally cleared to play their first regular season game this afternoon, hosting the Braves.
• Mike Ferguson’s Marliniversary articles have returned! Find them all at fishstripes.com/history.
• The Marlins radio broadcast was ranked 14th-best in Major League Baseball by the FanGraphs audience. Expect that to change—either for better or worse—entering next season now that Glenn Geffner and Dave Van Horne are scheduled to call games separately moving forward after previous being paired together.
• You’ll find Marlins pitchers Sandy Alcantara at No. 42, Pablo López at No. 56 and Elieser Hernandez at No. 100 on Bill James’ updated starting pitcher rankings.
• Baseball America’s Ben Badler has new insight into several of the international amateur free agents who the Marlins signed earlier this year.
• Former Marlins prospect Kyle Keller is on the move to Pittsburgh.
• Congrats to Daniel Castano whose alma mater Baylor University had an emphatic win to clinch the NCAA men’s basketball championship.
• Photographers Joseph Guzy, Robby Illanes and David Roth are sharing their beautiful work from the Marlins-Rays series. Some examples below.

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