Offishial news, 10/8/22: Kim Ng addresses media; MLB playoffs underway

Marlins Podcast Episodes

• Friday’s MLB postseason games: The Guardians beat the Rays, 2-1; the Phillies beat the Cardinals, 6-3; the Mariners beat the Blue Jays, 4-0; the Padres beat the Mets, 7-1. The first day of playoff competition predictably had some dominant starting pitching, particularly from Shane Bieber and Luis Castillo. Max Scherzer, on the other hand, yielded four home runs, matching his career worst in any game...ever! All of Friday’s winners have the opportunity to clinch berths in the Division Series today.
• The Mesa Solar Sox beat the Salt River Rafters again, 6-3 (F/7). Salt River home games are the best because they come with public Statcast data and a television broadcast. Victor Mesa Jr. went 1-for-2 with a walk and a no-doubt two-run home run. He also had a throw home from left field which was measured at 97.4 miles per hour, the strongest throw from any fielder in the game.
• Kim Ng held a virtual press conference on Friday. As usual, she kept her real intentions close to the vest, so nothing earth-shattering to report. The first round of managerial interviews will be conducted soon. She provided a lengthy response to my question about how to recruit talented people to join the Marlins organization, which MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola transcribed here.
• Just for fun, SportsBetting.ag set betting odds on who Ng will hire as the next skipper, listing Joe Maddon as the slight favorite.
• It took barely a day for LoanDepot Park World Baseball Classic ticket packages to sell out. A select number of individual game tickets will be made available soon.
• For the first time in a couple years, we brought back the staff roundtable article format. Inside, you’ll find 10 different perspectives on the state of the Marlins franchise, plus 2022 World Series picks.
• Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer broke down the role that unpredictable pitch usage plays in Sandy Alcantara’s success.
• Once the offseason gets underway, we will be frequently streaming new Marlins Jeopardy contests. Your audience-submitted trivia makes it all possible! Use this link to send in questions to be featured on the show.
• Craig Mish and Jeremy Taché announced that, at least for this offseason, they are suspending production of their Swings and Mishes podcast. My thanks to them for providing outstanding content there for nearly five years. Mish will continue to report on the Marlins on his Twitter account and as a contributor to the Miami Herald, while Taché will occasionally feature Marlins-related guests on Bally Sports Florida’s Miami Mic’d Up pod.