Banner seasons unrewarded
Stanton, Ozuna, others offset by Marlins’ lack of pitching depth
MIAMI — The Miami Marlins posed for their official team photo Tuesday, and as in so many past years it wasn’t a happy one as they began the day on the brink of playoff elimination.
The empty chair in the middle of the front row also carried more significance than usual. It’s become standard procedure for the image of owner Jeffrey Loria to be superimposed later.
But soon, Loria won’t be part of the picture at all, assuming the sale of the team to a group headed by Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman is finalized in the coming weeks.
After the photos were snapped for posterity, president of baseball operations Michael Hill spoke about what went wrong for a team that began the day 10 games under .500 as well as prospects for the offseason.
“I think we’re just waiting for an opportunity to see what happens, and hopefully we’ll meet and assess our current inventory [of players] and areas we need to improve and go from there,” Hill said.
Hill was vague on his vision for the offseason, and it is understandable until the ownership situation is resolved.
Jeter and Sherman held a series of meetings earlier this month with the heads of various departments, ranging from baseball operations to marketing and sales, to ease the transition.
“Those meetings were in-house deals, and I think we’ll be able to talk more on that whenever everything is official and the ownership change has happened,” Hill said.
With less than two weeks left in the season, the only suspense concerns how far a few players can push outstanding seasons in the final dozen games.
Notably, Giancarlo Stanton, with 55 home runs, began Tuesday with 117 RBI, four away from Preston Wilson’s club record. Marcell Ozuna was close behind with 113 RBI.
Dee Gordon has scored more than 100 runs for the first time in his career, and with 55 stolen bases has topped the 50-steals mark for the third time.
Stanton and Gordon have combined to become the third duo in MLB history with more than 50 homers and 50 stolen bases (most recently, Sammy Sosa, 50 homers and Eric Young, 54 steals, for the Cubs in 2000).
What sunk this season for Miami was a horrific May (10-18) and losing 13 of 17 to begin September.
“You look across the field, there’s a lot of good things offensively. Obviously our starting pitching didn’t hold up the way that we would have liked it to,” Hill said, while singling out Jose Urena and Dan Straily as exceptions. “But it just speaks to the lack of depth that we have in our starting pitching, and obviously an area that we need to improve and improve the overall depth.”
He said lack of depth in the minor league organization remains a concern, though the trades of Adeiny Hechavarria, David Phelps and A.J. Ramos did bring encouraging returns.
Outfielder Braxton Lee (.309/.395/.384 in DoubleA) and pitcher Merandy Gonzalez (5-2, 1.78 ERA, 1.05 WHIP in High-A) appear most promising.
Big numbers
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the numbers put up by Stanton, Ozuna and Gordon carry considerable significance in his view, despite the overall failings of the team.
Mattingly said he had challenged Gordon to strive for scoring a run per game; he had 103 through Monday.
“That’s a really good number for him and shows how effective he’s been,” Mattingly said. “His on-base [percentage] has bumped a bit this year. He’s swung the bat really well. Everything has trended the way you want it to go.”
Curiously, Mattingly pointed to Ozuna as the team MVP, despite Stanton’s remarkable home run binge during July and August.
“He’s been consistent, he’s been over .300 pretty much the whole year, he’s hit homers, he’s driven in runs. So, he’s been a really consistent offensive player,” Mattingly said of Ozuna.
Being Ichiro
The other notable offensive achievement is Ichiro Suzuki’s emergence as a premier pinchhitter. His 26 pinch-hits are a Marlins season record. He also set major league marks with 100 pinch-hit plate appearances and 94 pinch-hit atbats.
“What he’s been able to do is just keep being Ichiro. He keeps doing something that nobody else has been able to do,” Mattingly said. “He is, for me, a treasure. I love watching everything he does, from the way he takes BP to the way he works in the outfield and prepares for games. He’s just a treasure and a real joy to watch.”