Miami Marlins Season Preview
Good afternoon Tumblr. I'm sitting here watching the Marlins play the Yankees in a friendly during Spring Training in the new Marlins Park. This has me really excited for the regular season, and I've been meaning to write a baseball post. I figured why not write about my favorite team of life and how I feel this season is going to play out. The main idea? This is going to be one crazy baseball season, and definitely the season with the most hype in a team that has potential, and a franchise that has a future.
Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez Will Destroy
Dominicans running wild! Reyes stealing bases! Bonifacio (bonerface) stealing your purse! Hanley wrecking it. This is one serious top of the lineup. I can't recall a batting lineup in recent memory with this much speed at the top of the lineup. They have 3 batters with the potential to steal 30+ bases. Bonifacio and Reyes can each get 40 or more. This kind of reminds me of the lineup in 2003, with Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo at the top. Except this lineup is waaay faster and wayyy better. Just having Jose Reyes at the top makes it really dynamic, but add the possibility of Bonerface having a repeat performance of last year (at least hitting .280 with 40 stolen bases) and you've got a solid top 2. And then you put Hanley Ramirez hitting 3rd in the order (with the speed that he already provides) and that's pretty great. And oh by the way, Hanley's going to play like his old self again. I'm sure he'll hit .300 with like, 25 home runs, 100 RBI, maybe 100 runs, and possibly 30 stolen bases. But we'll see.
Giancarlo Stanton Will Take the League By Storm
Giancarlo pulling bitches in South Beach. This guy is the real deal. You don't understand. GIANCARLO IS MY FUCKING HERO. This guy is definitely hitting 40 home runs this season, I can feel it. The dude's a beast; he's a man amongst children. In his first full, start to finish season in the MLB, he hit 34 home runs. In 2010, he was called up some point in June I believe, and he hit 22. This dude is legit, I'm telling you. He's just putting everything together too. With this top of the lineup ahead of him, and some solid hitters (Lomo, Gaby) behind him, he's in prime position to have a breakout season. And he's relatively under the radar too. Not for long though. But seriously, he is the guy that really makes our lineup. He's our power hitter. This is our guy, and the Marlins better have some money reserved to resign this guy for like 8 years. Because he's going to break bank sooner or later. But we better pay him what he's going to deserve. But lets just stick with this season for now.
Josh Johnson Needs To Stay Healthy
No matter what anybody tells you (including myself, even) THE KEY TO THE MARLINS' SUCCESS IS JOSH JOHNSON. He HAS to stay healthy if we want to win this season. He makes our rotation go from mediocre to good. He's our ace, our stud pitcher. When he's healthy, he can duke it out (and even outperform) the likes of Roy Halladay, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, Ian Kennedy, etc. We need him to pitch 1/5 of the games this regular season if we want a chance. With this batting lineup, JJ can totes win AT LEAST 16 games, if he stays healthy. It was a shame. Whenever we had him, he would pitch for us and toss jems, and we would only muster one fucking run and lose. That's not happening this year (I think). So if his shoulder doesn't fucking fall off (he says he's feeling great) , then he's going to be in for a career season. Even the coaches, like Ozzie Guillen, are raving about how great JJ looks so far. Hopefully he can, like, not fall apart during the season. We'll have a great shot at that second wild card if he's healthy.
Heath Bell and Logan Morrison Are Going To Goon Up the Clubhouse
Watch out twitter: Lomo and Heath Bell are in the same team. The two funniest players in baseball, in my opinion are both playing for the same clubhouse. Honestly, I was watching a Panthers game, and they were being interviewed by Allison Williams (nicccce) during intermission. They were repping for the Marlins, and they were just...completely gooning out. I was laughing so hard. They're so ridiculous. It's fantastic. Let's not forget that Showtime's "The Franchise" features the Marlins this year, so we're going to see a lot of them on TV. I don't know about you, but I can't fucking wait to see the stuff they're going to do. And then look at them solely on performance. They're great players. Logan Morrison is a hitter under the radar; he's going to hit 25+ homers this season, maybe 85 RBI with a .280 BA. He's been one of our main prospects from our farm system, and he definitely has the potential to be an all star. Now, that doesn't mean he's going to be like Ryan Fucking Braun (it was the gafelta fish, I swear!) but he's going to be a reliable batter at the plate. Like, when he goes up to hit, you're not going to be like "Oh fuck, its this guy." And Heath Bell is a gift from the closer Gods. I mean, FFS the Marlins FINALLY have a good closer. And Bell's a GREAT closer (3 straight years with 40+ saves is rather legit) and we Marlins fans no longer need to fear the 9th inning. It's going to be great.
Ozzie Guillen and Carlos Zambrano Shall Be Interesting To Watch
This is really a sight for sore eyes. Zambrano and Guillen, best friends, serving under the same team. Ozzie Guillen and Carlos Zambrano are two fiery Venezuelan men, men who curse vulgarly and don't give two fucks about anything. Watching Guillen manage Zambrano, for me being a baseball fan, is going to be rather fantastic. I mean, I'm REALLY intrigued by this. They're going to be the best of friends one day, and the next? Well, probably a 3 inning performance followed by a fist fight in the dugout. Zambrano's really been in a downward spiral at this point in his career: he used to be the big money ace, but he eventually became their liability. It felt as though he lost his stuff, but he also probably lost his mind. But maybe Guillen can help him bring back both of those things. If anybody can get the best of Zambrano, its Ozzie, and that is something that I'm sure of. It's going to be really interesting to see their tempers flare in the hot summer months.
The Marlins Have the Potential to Win 90 Games
If all goes well, we're looking at a team that can go far. The new look Miami Marlins aren't just a team with a new look; they're practically a new team. A franchise reborn. Finally, this is a REAL team. They should be successful enough, both on the field and financially, to be able to spend money and afford to keep their players. They are finally playing in a stadium meant for baseball. A real baseball park. And they can finally keep their players long term as well as steal other teams' star players (and not the other way around, for once). But that's if things go the way the FO plans it. But I'm positive, and maybe a little bit optimistic, that things are going to be alright for us.
And hey, isn't April a time for optimism for all of us?
