Offishial news, 7/16/21: More draft reaction; second-half breakout candidate

New Farm System Report

• Thursday’s MiLB scores: Jacksonville won, 7-6; Pensacola won, 2-1; Beloit lost, 5-3; Jupiter won, 9-2 and 2-1 (doubleheader); DSL Marlins lost, 5-1. LHP Luis Palacios through his second consecutive (seven-inning) complete game and SS Yiddi Cappe hit the first home run of his professional career.
• Baseball America considers Max Meyer the Marlins’ most outstanding minor league player of the first half of the season. Meyer tossed six strong innings in his first post-Futures Game outing.
• Aram Leighton, who joined me on Thursday’s podcast, recaps the Marlins’ draft class on a new Locked On Marlins.
• Keith Law likes Marlins seventh-round pick RHP Gabe Bierman as a draft sleeper.
• SS Bennett Hostetler, the club’s 18th-rounder, could begin his professional career any day now. Brace yourself—some of the organization’s veteran players will be getting cut to make room for the incoming draftees.
• The Marlins team flight arrived Philadelphia at 5:36 p.m. ET on Thursday.
• Philly’s four probable starting pitchers for this series (in order) are Matt Moore, Zach Eflin, Vince Velasquez and Zack Wheeler.
• Jesús Aguilar has upped his trade value of late and Jesús Sánchez has the batted ball skill to break out in the second half.
• I’m not usually one to recommend particular sports bets, but Trevor Rogers being offered at +150 odds for NL Rookie of the Year on SportsBetting.ag is a bargain.
• Check out Fish Stripes Live on our Twitter/Twitch/YouTube accounts from 3:05-4:05 p.m. counting down to first pitch of the series opener.

• Despite just getting peace of mind on his 2022 contract, Don Mattingly’s seat is moderately warm, says Greg Cote of the Miami Herald.
• Check out the updated Fish Picks leaderboard! Rather than awarding the monthly title to those with the most total correct picks, winners will be determined by highest percentage of correct picks (must pick at least half of all Marlins games in a given month to qualify).

• David Samson was asked to name the five strangest players from his Marlins tenure and came up with Joe Borowski, Burke Badenhop, Cliff Floyd, Scott Strickland and Al Leiter.