The Marlins AREN'T in Last???

It's funny. To write this post, I pulled up the Marlins' page on Baseball-Reference, and was confused that the Mets' page kept showing up. 'Why the hell are the Mets showing up whenever I click on the team that's in last??'

And then it hit me. The Marlins...had made it to fourth place. How crazy is that?

Now, granted...it ain't pretty. The Marlins have a serious shortage of good talent, especially considering the guy they primed from Milwaukee, Lewis Brinson, has been plowing through a TORRID full season, barely hitting above the Mendoza line, and leading the team in strikeouts-by-a-non-Justin-Bour. Some of the one-prime talent, like Martin Prado and Cameron Maybin, is now over the hill, and some of the younger talent, like Garrett Cooper and Yadiel Rivera, are disappointing. Only Brian Anderson is making any good rookie progress, but he's just one guy. A lot of the major players, like J.T. Realmuto, Justin Bour, and possibly Starlin Castro, might be gone soon.

The pitching's a mess, which is something even the last-place Mets can't say, Familia-loss notwithstanding. There's no ironed-down closer, a bunch of starters without impressive stats, and a lot of question marks. Even if the lineup does have some impressive pieces, the pitching holds them back. It's simply too mediocre to compete.

I'm not sure what the Marlins will retain after next week, but hopefully they'll have enough to EVENTUALLY return to glory. And if not...maybe they can figure out how to get rid of the guy that made this awful season possible in the first place.

Coming Tonight: If he were still in Toronto, he'd be leading his team in home runs. But...he's beginning to figure out that he may not be the center of power on his team, and that's perfectly alright.