Are The Fish for Real?

It's been nice having baseball back every day. For the most part, the divisions and leagues are relatively how I predicted them. The Giants are pleasantly surprising, out of the gate at a 6-2 clip and win yesterday over the West-rival Diamondbacks. I predicted the Giants to finish third in their division, but if they keep this up, look out. 

Another pleasant surprise are the Miami Marlins. With their bright green stadium and brighter orange jerseys, the Fish have jumped off to a quick 5-3 start, taking 2 from the Rockies to open the season and then taking 2 from the Padres to complete their west coast tour.

Things slowed down a little bit today when they ran into the Nationals, who are a much better team than either the Rockies or Padres. The Marlins lost 5-0 to the Nats, who were powered by a great start by Gio Gonzalez, who went 6 innings, allowing only 3 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5. 

My good friend who is a Marlins fan texted me today saying "The crappy Marlins offense is back :(" which made me wonder - are the Marlins for real? Or are they slowly reverting back to their sputtering offense of 2013, when they scored only 513 runs? 

In terms of runs scored, the Marlins have scored twice as many runs as they have allowed (before today's game), which is incredible. Thanks to great starts from Fernandez and Eovaldi to kick off the season, they held a potent Colorado offense to 14 runs in 3 games, and a less potent San Diego offense to 6 runs in 3 games. 

Here's my theory: with the offseason acquisitions of Saltalamacchia and Furcal (among others), the Marlins are a competitive team. They are talented, though at some positions it is B-list talent. That said, when they play teams like Colorado and San Diego, those guys will be able to compete. But, when they play the top of the top like the Nationals or the Braves (which they will both play 19 times throughout the course of the season), unfortunately I don't think they will be up to snuff. I don't think they'll be as bad as last season, but don't expect them in the title conversation or anything. My buddy is optimist they will be at .500 for the year. I think that is an admirable and reachable goal for the Marlins. They have the pitching; Fernandez is obviously great and the rest of their rotation is solid. They then turn the ball over to Steve Cishek whose odd delivery and even more oddly spelled last name makes him a great closer - 34 saves last year for a team that won 62 games. 

No, the Marlins are not 'for real' but I think they can compete and play spoiler down the stretch. Either way, they are a fun team to watch - despite the stadium. Thanks for reading!