Miami Marlins Quarter Season Updates and MVP’s

Roughly a quarter of the way through the MLB season, the Miami Marlins streaky season of ups and downs has them at an even 24-24. The Marlins have had six winning or losing streaks of at least three games through their first 48 matchups of the year. Miami currently sits third in the highly competitive NL East, but the Fish are just 1.5 games behind Milwaukee in the Wild Card race. With well over 100 games remaining, the Marlins will look to build on their competitive play and advance to the postseason where South Florida teams have found incredible recent success.

The Marlins have managed to achieve a .500 record and be in the middle of the pack while having a -56 run differential. That run differential ranks fourth worst in the MLB, with the three teams below them all being more than ten games under .500. The Marlins’ ability to win close games has kept them in the midst of the wild card hunt so far. The Fish are 15-2 in one run games this season and 9-22 in all other games. While being able to win close games is a great asset for a team, it is not sustainable to rely on winning one run games at this rate. 

The Marlins will need their offensive output to increase throughout the remainder of the year to stay in the playoff hunt. Solid pitching and clutch performances in close games have carried them this far, but an offense that ranks 28^th out of 30 teams in runs scored isn’t going to cut it as the season continues. The Fish have struggled to manufacture runs and are near the top of the league in the number of baserunners left stranded. Miami ranks 14^th in the MLB in batting average, but can’t seem to find a way to get guys across the plate once they reach base. This has been the biggest hinderance to the Marlins so far this year and a big reason they’ve struggled to pull away from teams. 

Twenty-five percent of the way through the season, the offensive MVP for the Marlins is obvious. Second baseman Luis Arraez leads not only the Marlins, but the entire MLB, in batting average by a significant margin. Arraez is hitting .383 on the year, the next closest player in the MLB is Ronald Acuna at .342. Arraez also made history by hitting for the first cycle in franchise history earlier this season. Arraez is on pace to set the Marlins single season record for batting average as he currently sits over 40 points higher than Hanley Ramirez current record from the 2009 season.

On the rubber, many expected Sandy Alcantara to be far and away the Marlins best pitcher this year, but Jesus Lazardo has made a convincing argument for that spot. Lazardo has a 3.83 ERA in his 10 appearances and has recorded five ‘quality stars’. Alcantara’s recent struggles have raised his ERA to over five in his nine starts. I would give Lazardo the pitching MVP for the Marlins thus far, but they’ll need Alcantara to return to last season’s form to make a run at the playoffs.

With about 120 games remaining, the Marlins offense will need to do a better job getting runners across the plate and helpingtheir pitching staff. Winning over 88% of one run games isn’t something they’ll be able to do at that clip for the rest of the yearand if that averages out, they’ll find themselves well outside of the playoff picture.

The Marlins will look to get things going in the batters box as they take on the Rockies and the Angels during their big West Coast road trip.

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