Kuzul

As the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approaches, the question is, will the Marlins ultimately become buyers or sellers? The team is currently 10.5 games out of first place in the National League East Division with the Braves, Mets, and Phillies ahead of them.

Also, they are seven games back in the National League wild card race. My prediction is that they are going to be sellers at the deadline, which will be to the chagrin of many Marlins fans. The season is pretty much over and it would take some kind of cataclysmic disaster and a miraculous downfall by the teams ahead of the Marlins, in order for the Marlins to get back in the conversation.

The fact is,they need to acknowledge the cold hard facts. The team looked listless and uninspired. Most importantly, they need to give their talented young players the necessary amount of Major League experience. The Marlins should take advantage of the opportunity to analyze and scout some of the young prospects the team currently has in its system.

For example, I think it would be a good idea to give Logan Morrison an opportunity to prove himself as the Major League level. Therefore, it’s time for some of our young players to face the music. 

The Marlins have been extremely disappointing and frustrating to watch this season. The biggest reason why the team has struggled this season is because of the terrible bullpen in which the front office put together over the offseason. The bullpen has caused cardiac arrests and the increase of Pepto Bismol.

The bottom line is, they failed miserably in putting together a legitimate bullpen. They have the second worst bullpen in baseball, right behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. Believe it or not, only Arizona has more blown saves this season than the Marlins. As a result, the Marlins have blown 13 save opportunities, while Arizona has blown 14 saves.

In addition, the team has committed the second most errors in baseball, with 71 on the season. Another aspect the Marlins have struggled mightily in this year is the situational hitting department. For example, with runners on second and third with two outs, the Marlins have failed to come through in this type of situation.

Also, the clutch hitting factor has been absolutely nonexistent.  All of these glaring weaknesses summarize why the Marlins are sitting in fourth place in the National League four games under .500 with a record of 42-46.  Despite the team’s struggles in certain offensive categories and despite the team’s erratic defense, the biggest problem has been the bullpen. 

Don’t be shocked if the Marlins ultimately decide to deal Jorge Cantu, Cody Ross, Ricky Nolasco, Nate Robertson, and even slugger Dan Uggla.

I think the Marlins should hang on to Uggla because of his tremendous power.  He leads all National League second basemen in home runs with 16 and he has done a nice job driving in runs. I still believe you need to have a legitimate power source in your lineup. I strongly believe Dan Uggla’s value is irreplaceable.

There is no way you are going to be able to replace his power at second base.  However, if they were to hypothetically move Uggla to another team, then they would have last year’s NL rookie of the year, Chris Coghlan, move to second base. Coghlan has bounced back from a rough start to the season. He is currently hitting .270 with 87 hits, five home runs and 28 runs batted in.

I’m completely against the idea of moving Coghlan from the outfield to second base, especially because his infield defense is basically just as mediocre as Uggla’s. I don’t see how this potential position move would improve the team.

Interestingly, what has become very apparent is the fact that Marlins are starting to change their offensive philosophy. The focus is beginning to shift toward situational hitting and moving runners over. As a result,their goal is to develop  more consistent and productive hitters such as rookie sensation Gaby Sanchez, who is batting an impressive .302 on the year.

Except for Dan Uggla, the Marlins should be opened to trading Cantu, Ross, and Nolasco as long as they can receive sufficient value in return. I don’t want to see any salary dump deals. 

As we approach the deadline, the Marlins have some very tough decisions to make. It will be very interesting to see which prospects the Marlins decide to promote as the season moves on. Will Logan Morrison get called up? Will Cameron Maybin get another shot to prove himself?

The Marlins will be open to making deals with the goal in mind toward building and planning for the future. You can take that to the bank. At this point, it is all about 2012.

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As the second half of the MLB season begins, the top teams will undoubtedly be looking for potential additions to bolster their roster heading into the final stretch of the regular season and then the postseason.

The New York Yankees currently have the best record in baseball at 56-32.

The other division leaders in the American League are the surging Chicago White Sox and the Texas Rangers, who already added a quality piece in Cliff Lee.

In the National League, the Atlanta Braves lead in the East, while the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds hold slim division leads in the West and Central, respectively.

With four of the six division leaders leading by two games or less and no team in any division ahead by more than five games, late summer trades will make the difference between playing postseason baseball and watching on TV.

Here is a list of 10 players the division leaders should consider picking up before a rival team does.

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Cliff Lee was the first big name to get traded, and certainly no player on the block has been more discussed this season. Roy Oswalt, Dan Haren, Corey Hart, and Prince Fielder are the most recognizable of the remaining names that are being bandied about by sports commentators and trade “experts.”

Still, others seem to be of interest to every team. David DeJesus and Ty Wigginton get more ink than a pen factory.

However, there are a good number of highly tradeable, highly expendable players out there that haven’t yet been ground up by the rumor mill.

These are the top 10 most expendable, and simultaneously, tradeable players you haven’t heard talked about.

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Fredi Gonzalez is gone, but the Florida Marlins keep losing ground.

As the Atlanta Braves slowly walk away with the National League East, the Fish remain 10 games out of first, and four games below .500.

With the Midsummer Classic in a few days, Larry Beinfest and Co. must decide whether to become a buyer or seller.

Can the team pull off a win streak and stay in the race?

At this point in time, it appears to be the latter.

Word within the organization expresses the sentiment that everyone but Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson is on the market to be traded.

Ramirez, who will be the NL’s starting shortstop in the All-Star game for the third straight year, feels like his sub-par season could be at fault.

“Cody [Ross], he’s blaming it on me if he gets traded, because we’re not winning,” he said. “I need to go to Home Depot and buy a rake.”

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Mike Stanton is on his way to the Florida Marlins.

No, not that Mike Stanton. 

It’s the 20-year-old Los Angeles native, an outfielder currently in the Florida Marlins farm system. 

Several outlets have recently announced that Florida would call up Stanton sometime next week.  Some say they might be rushing the young outfielder who can’t even legally consume alcohol yet, but who can blame them for rushing?  In 50 games this season at double-A Jacksonville, Stanton is hitting .299 with 20 HR and 51 RBI. 

While Mr. Stanton will be given a starting job in the outfield from day one, that also means that one of the current Marlins outfielders will be losing a very decent amount of playing time. 

Florida isn’t calling this kid up just to give him a taste; they plan on keeping him here. 

Florida’s current three starting outfielders are Chris Coghlan, Cameron Maybin, and Cody Ross, from left-to-right. 

In less than a week, one of those starting outfielders will be a fourth outfielder. 

So who’s the most likely candidate to take a seat while Stanton gets to show off his stuff?

Let’s look at each guy’s credentials.

Chris Coghlan

.254 BA, 3 HR, 15 RBI

He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2009, leading the entire National League in hitting in the second half of last year. 

He certainly didn’t look like ROY material in the beginning of 2010, batting just .195 with 3 RBI in the first month of the season. 

He’s definitely straightened up since, though. 

In his past 26 games, he’s hitting .310 with 11 RBI, mostly coming out of the one or two-hole in the lineup.  He’s also been reliable in left field, recording five outfield assists and only one error on the season, thus far. 

Cameron Maybin

.227 BA, 5 HR, 19 RBI

Talk about a long way to fall. 

In 2005, Maybin was tabbed the third-best hitting prospect in the MLB draft.  Two years after being selected 10th overall by the Detroit Tigers, he was traded after the 2007 season, as one of the main cogs in a package that netted the Tigers Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from the Marlins. 

Maybin has disappointed in his first three years in Florida thus far, hitting only .261 with 9 HR and 33 RBI in 110 games.  He’s still only 23, so his talent is still extremely attractive to keep in the lineup. 

Cody Ross

.299 BA, 5 HR, 30 RBI

The veteran of the three current outfielders, 29-year-old had a career year in 2009, nailing 24 homers with 90 RBI.  Ross has been a starting outfielder for Florida since 2008, which is seniority, which might give him an edge in keeping his job once Stanton finds his way to the bigs. 

The only downside the Marlins could see to keeping Ross in the starting outfield would be they see the potential of Coghlan and Maybin to be more valuable than the assets they already know they would get from Ross. 

Coghlan has proven he can hit big league pitching for an extended period of time, and that swing of Maybin that had scouts calling him one of the best players in the 2005 draft has to still be there somewhere… right?

Not an easy call for Marlins’ manager Fredi Gonzalez to make.  But it’s sure an easy call for me to make, because I don’t have to make the lineup card everyday. 

In my opinion, Maybin has struggled for a little too long to be ignored now.  Very few players come up to the majors, struggle mightily for the first few seasons as Maybin has done, and then have successful big league careers. 

Coghlan is a current .301 career hitter and maybe the best defensive outfielder on the team right now, so you’d be crazy to take him out. 

Ross is currently the right fielder, but can easily move over to center field to accommodate Mike Stanton, who is also a right fielder. 

These next couple of years will be Ross’ prime, and when he gave you decent power and RBI numbers last year, it’s not fair to sit him either. 

Maybin has performed the worst of the three, it’s just a fact.  It’s not in the stats, but as a nightly viewer of MLB highlights, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Maybin overrun or misjudge a fly ball in the outfield. 

When Stanton gets called up within the next few days, Maybin should be the one to take a seat. 

If he’s not, it’ll be a pretty big injustice, because the choice wouldn’t have been made due to baseball priorities. 

Sorry Cameron, but right now, you are the weakest link.

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<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Happy Memorial Day everyone, we hope you had a good day doing whatever it was that you did.  It was an absolutely gorgeous three day weekend here in upstate New York with perfect weather every day. 

However, please don’t lose sight of why we celebrated this weekend.  Take a moment to thank those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this great country of ours, and thank those who are currently serving.  I have the utmost respect for every single person who has ever been in the armed forces as well as their families who have the difficult job of carrying on with their loved ones away. Thank you for all that you do! 

And now, back to baseball.

Wow, talk about hot!  Ubaldo Jimenez outdueled Tim Lincecum and ran his record to 10-1 on the season with another complete game shutout on Memorial Day.  Jimenez scattered four hits over nine innings and struck out nine. 

I would imagine that he has to cool off eventually, there is no way that Baldy can go 26-2 and have an ERA under 1.00 for the entire season.  Even though it is inevitable that he will have some bad starts on the horizon, he certainly has become one of fantasy’s finest this year and should be treated that way.

Yunel Escobar looks like he finally might start hitting as he had back to back multi-hit games on Sunday and Monday and drove two runs today. 

Escobar was a guy that I liked coming into the season as a possible guy to have as a backup or in your middle infield position if your league requires that spot.  He has averaged 12 homers and 68 RBI with a near .300 batting average the past couple of seasons. 

He is going to have to start doing some work to get to those numbers again, but I feel fairly confident that he will have a few nice hot streaks during the season and is someone that is at least worth being injury insurance for your middle infield. 

Cody Ross has been an underrated source of power the past few seasons, but through the first two months of 2010, he hadn’t really done much. 

His batting average has been hovering around .300 which is a nice change for Ross, but a guy who has averaged 23 homers and 81 RBIs over the past two years had just four coming into today and two of those were in the same game. 

Well, Ross pounded out his fifth tater of the season on Monday and maybe this will get him going.  If you drafted Ross you might want to keep him on your bench, although like I said his batting average hasn’t been bad. 

I would definitely give him more time to turn this around, and hopefully he will go on a tear and cross that 20 homerun plateau again this season.

Rickie Weeks is still healthy and is still swinging a hot bat here in 2010—and while I am not a Weeks believer it is hard to argue with what he is doing. 

After a two homer game on Sunday Weeks was at it again with another two hit game and he drove in two more runs.  Weeks is already getting close to his career high in most categories, although he is hitting just .251. 

Ride the hot streak as long as you can with Weeks at a premium position, just don’t be surprised if he slumps badly or gets hurt. 

Stephen Strasburg is now supposed to make his major league debut on June 8th against the Pittsburgh Pirates (I almost typed Steelers, ha ha). 

I am not sure why they gave him the extra start in AAA, maybe they wanted him to face the worst possible team so instead of Cincinnati he will now mow down the Pirates in his first start. 

Mark your calendars, this should be exciting. 

Garrett Jones hit his sixth homer of the season on Monday, and although he still isn’t hitting for the power he did in 2009, he is doing better than I thought. 

I would like to see his batting average improve, but he did hit just .207 in April, so the fact that his average is now .261 is an encouraging sight.

The thing that I am liking about Jones is that he is actually driving in runs this season.  Somehow with 21 homers in just 81 games last year he managed to drive in just 44 runs.  This season, although the home runs are down, he already has 31 RBIs and that is with a disappointing start. 

I think if someone let him go in your league I would scoop him up and stash him on the bench for a while, I have a feeling that Jones is going to get hot with the power sometime soon. 

Brad Lidge was activated off the 15 day DL after missing 18 games with elbow stiffness.  He came into a lopsided game and pitched a perfect eighth inning, striking out one. 

He might get eased back into the closer’s role a little, but I would say by the end of the week at the latest he should be back closing out the end of games for the Phillies.  How he will do, or when he will get hurt again is anyone’s guess. 

If you are running with Lidge this season (and going forward for that matter) you are playing a risky game, and could roll craps at any time.  He is one of the ultimate high risk/high reward type of players.  Jose Contreras likely works into the 8th inning role for the time being, but if you picked him up I would hold on to him.  He was three for three in save opportunities and will become valuable again if something happens to Lidge.

Derek Jeter left the game on Monday in the seventh inning with tightness in his hamstring, a few innings after being hit by a pitch. Manager Joe Girardi just said that it stiffened up on him after a base hit in the seventh and he would be evaluated tomorrow to see the extent of the injury. 

Throughout his career Jeter has proved over and over that it takes nearly amputation of a limb for him to miss a game due to injury so I would be surprised if he missed any more than one game, and wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he was in the Yankee lineup tomorrow.

Somehow the Blue Jays are being very successful when two of their stars from 2009, Aaron Hill and Adam Lind are both disappointing.  However, both have started to show some signs of breaking out recently. 

Hill had two hits and drove in his 18th run of the year, but in the last ten days he hit four home runs with six RBIs.  Unfortunately, he is still batting in the .170s, but I believe that has to improve. 

Lind hit his eighth home run, his second in the last ten days, to go with five RBIs.  His batting average is also a horrible .226 but he is another one that I think has to turn it around.  Opportunities

I have more faith in these two Blue Jays than I do in Jose Bautista and Alex Gonzalez —the two hitters that have carried Toronto offensively for the first two months of the year.

We welcome your comments anytime right here or by emailing us at fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  We guarantee a response within 18 hours.  Remember to listen to Fighting Chance Radio on Tuesday night at 9:30 PM EST and Sunday Night at 11 PM EST on The Fantasy Sports Channel or www.blogtalkradio.com/fightingchanceradio .

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Baseball is the chess of team sports.

There’s a lot of sitting around and strategy abound. Managers make double switches to prevent pitchers from hitting in key situations. They pull pitchers for matchup purposes based on statistics.

Baseball’s also a sport of failure.

A hitter with a .300 average gets commended for the job, despite getting out seven of 10 times. A reliever that comes in to face just one batter gives up the game-winning grand slam.

There are also situations that pop up in every game, no matter the team, player or score.

From an umpire’s makeup pitch to a redeeming at-bat, follow the slideshow to find out just what they are and feel free to leave your additional scenarios as a comment.

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The rumor mill is swirling with talk of the Marlins potentially recalling super prospect Mike Stanton as soon as today (Mike Lamb was recalled instead). 

It never made sense (especially considering the financial implications of waiting another week), but there is no doubt that now is the time to stash him away if you are in need of a power boost.

Chris Coghlan has been awful this season, hitting just .212 with two home runs, 12 RBI, 18 R and five SB over 165 AB. The 2009 NL Rookie of the Year was buoyed by a .365 BABIP last season, but that has taken a huge hit as expected (.266 in 2010), helping lead to the poor average. The other issue is the strikeouts, increasing to a rate over 24 percent.

Coghlan lacks big speed and power, meaning he never had much of an opportunity to be a must-use fantasy OF option, even in five-outfielder formats.

The fact that he could be the odd man out to make room for Stanton should be music to fantasy owners’ ears, because they no longer would need to decide on his potential value.

Cameron Maybin, the perpetual breakout option, has shown signs of coming around and has the potential to force Coghlan to the bench full-time. Still, the likelihood is that the two share time in LF, as neither has been overly impressive. In 155 AB, Maybin has hit .239 with four home runs, 16 RBI, 29 R and four SB.

The major problem with Maybin is that he continues to simply look overmatched at the plate.  He’s currently striking out 31.6 percent of the time, consistent with his 31.3 percent career mark. He’s only gone back-to-back games without a strikeout twice this season. He is currently tied for 10th in the league with 49 Ks, an unacceptable number considering his lack of power.

The only other way he could get around it would be with exceptional stolen base totals (like Will Venable, who has 12 SBs despite 50 Ks), but he’s not doing that either.

The current Marlins OFer who appears safe is Cody Ross, who would likely take over full-time duty in center field. Ross has been heating up of late, with his average up to .308 with four home runs, 26 RBI, 23 R and two SB. 

There is a concern with his power, a big reason why fantasy owners were originally drawn to him, but there’s an anomaly in his underlying statistics. 

Ross’s HR/FB rate is consistent (currently at 11.8 percent), but his fly-ball rate has seemingly fallen off a cliff. Just look at his last three years:

2008 – 43.3 percent
2009 – 47.6 percent
2010 – 25.6 percent

There’s just no way that continues. He’s shown that the power is there, he just needs to start getting the ball in the air once again.

For his major league career he’s at 42.3 percent. From 2005-2007 in the minor leagues he was at 50.1 percent.

There’s little doubt that the power is coming, all the Marlins (and fantasy owners) need to do is not panic. He has been productive in other areas thus far, but the best is yet to come.

The Marlins aren’t going to recall Stanton to have him platoon, so someone is going to lose playing time. In looking at the numbers, the move that makes the most sense, at least offensively, is for Coghlan and Maybin to share time (unless one gets hot), leaving Ross and Stanton to play virtually everyday.

While we still don’t know exactly when Stanton will join the Marlins, in all likelihood it will be sooner rather then later. If you are in a five-outfielder format and are using either Coghlan or Maybin, it’s time to start looking at a potential replacement before it’s too late.

What do you think?  Should the Marlins use a Coghlan/Maybin platoon or should one play more then the other?

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