Stand pat, get healthy?

[Kingdom_of_Zito]

The marlins are almost completely unlikely to go after any big names on the trade market. It has been suggested that they might consider trading for pitching, possibly selling high on Mike Jacobs. They hit for a lot of power and score a lot of runs, but they always have to, 3/5th of the rotation is ugly. It's messy.

Good news: Scott Olsen, he's only 5-4 but has a 3.77 ERA. He was one of the many highly touted arms the marlins had going in their farm system but everyone knows last season, he took several trips down homicidal maniac lane. It's been the complete opposite story this year, and with that, some success. He is still wild, though, with 43 walks and only 64 strikeouts. But it's a start. Following him is Ricky Nolasco. He was never really consistent, spent time in the pen, had his moments, but now is on a winning streak. He's 10-4 with a 3.70 ERA and has fewer walks than Olsen with 30. That's the good, and that's about it. Fortunately, they've had good work from Nelson, Gregg, Pinto, Waechter, and Kensing out of the pen. Make no mistake, their pen and rotation is made up of young guys and slightly older guys who bounced around on other team's farm systems and never landing a spot. Weird concoction, it's been a lot better than anyone could imagine but..

Bad news: The other starting pitchers this season have been an all star cast of Mark Hendrickson (6.09 era, Realmofo's favorite dog to kick), Burke Badenhop (6.08 era, his first problem is that he has one of the worst baseball names ever), and then they briefly tried Rick Vandenhurk again, and well here's his numbers in his first two seasons: 6.83 era with 15 homeruns allowed (in just 81 innings!) and then 11.81 ERA in two starts which combined totalled a whopping 5.1 innings. Andrew Miller is going on the DL, he's either been pretty solid or pretty horrible, but he's one of their top arms and is still very raw (5-9, 5.63 era with a shit load of walks). This should be good reason to go out and get some stable pitching but maybe their best bet is to simply wait for Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson to return. More of Florida's past highly touted arms, that have had success, but unfortunately have been very injured in recent memory.

Yeah they're no sure thing, they can't stay healthy and who knows how they pitch when they do return, but possibly it's something Florida can afford more than trading for veterans. Only a couple of years ago, Johnson was one of the top candidates for N.L. rookie of the year, when he was 12-7 with a 3.10 era and 133 strikeouts. Anibal, in 2006 had the no hitter, but also went 10-3 with a 2.83 ERA.

[love_that_reefer]

Marlins still need a catcher and have been turned away when asking the Tigers for Pudge back. Marlins need a catcher and some lower end rotation guys if they want to stay in the hunt. Doesn't have to be big names but serviceable players.