CTOD: Florida Marlins

Many felt the Marlins were primed for contention last season after a surprising 2009 in which they won 87 games. Others pointed to their lack-luster run differential and figured that those 09 Marlins received a few too many breaks. Regardless, the 2010 Marlins looked eerily similar to their predecessors throughout last season. Every year feels like the Marlins are going through the same process: hope the young pitchers - who are very good - can log enough innings, hope a few star players can carry the offense, and hope that the awful defense doesn't completely implode. Last year was no different. Johnson, Nolasco, and Sanchez once again proved that they are the real deal, but also proved that they struggle to get out there every 5 days as the Marlins didn't have a starter go over 200 IP. Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez provided most of the offense, yet again, but also provided some seriously ugly defense up the middle.


Still, despite their flaws, the Marlins were somewhat competitive last year and figure to be similar this year. Uggla is gone but the Marlins are hoping that man-child Mike Stanton, who put up MVP numbers in the last two months of the season, can fill the gap on offense. Defensively, while Omar Infante may be a defensive upgrade over Uggla at 2b there are once more huge questions at other positions: Chris Coghlan, who was sketchy in LF last year, is expected to play CF this year, and youngster Matt Dominguez is expected to take over at 3b regardless of the fact he couldn't hit AA pitchers last year.

Finally, we come to the case of Javier Vazquez, whose dramatic fall-off last year ranked as one of the biggest surprises of the season. Scouts say a diminished fastball, hovering around 87 mph, was the reason for him posting career lows across the board. Additionally, early reports from spring training still have him struggling to regain velocity. Regardless, the Marlins are hoping on 200+ quality innings from Vazquez to shore up the back end of their rotation and ease the burden on their bullpen.

Prediction: 4th NL East. While this team can compete with anyone on most nights their inconsistencies will prevent them from being much of a factor in a tough NL East.

Surprise Player: Ricky Nolasco

Is Nolasco the unluckiest pitcher in baseball? Despite impressive supplementary numbers Nolasco put up a gawdy ERA for the second year in a row. In fact, only two pitchers had a better K/BB ratio than Nolasco last year. Those pitchers? Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. So what gives with Nolasco? Is the Marlins defense really letting him down or is there just something about him that makes him susceptible to the big inning? Is he the anti-Matt Cain? For now, I am willing to bet that he has just been unfortunate.