Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

After a tough series in Philadelphia, the Padres head to Miami for three against the Marlins. I recently caught up with Craig at Fish Stripes, and we talked a little about his team.

Ducksnorts: The Marlins are off to a surprisingly strong start in 2008. What have been some of the key factors, and will they be able to sustain their early success?

Craig: The Marlins have basically slugged their way into first with the help of an excellent bullpen. The Fish are second in the NL in home runs (37), fourth in slugging percentage (.444), tied for second in triples (8), and sixth in batting average (.261).

Along with a bullpen that has picked up where it left off last year and is fourth in the NL in bullpen ERA (3.16).

Yes, there is a chance they can hang in the race. There is reason to believe the offensive can continue slugging at this rate since the young Marlins set the team records for HR, RBI, TB, XBH, SLG in 2006 and proceeded to break the team records in those categories in 2007. In fact this year’s squad just set a new team home run record for the month of April with 36. The real question of whether they can hang in the race comes down to: Can the starting pitching improve? As the Marlins stand right now they only have two starters who can put up quality starts consistently. The other three may go five innings if everything is perfect. If the Marlins can continue to put runs on the board long enough for some of the starters on the DL to return or if the present bottom three starters can actually learn to pitch at the major league level, then it is possible. Likely? Who knows, but I wouldn’t bet the rent on it.

Ducksnorts: I have a soft spot for players who establish themselves as big leaguers a little later than most. One of my current favorites is Josh Willingham. What can you tell me about his game beyond what the stats show?

Craig: It was always known Willingham could hit but early on the organization was having trouble trying to find a position for him in the field. They eventually put him at catcher in the minors. After the great fire sale of 2005 when the next season the Marlins brought mainly rookies to camp Willingham was listed as the “possible” starting catcher. As it turned out, he wasn’t a very good catcher and he was plagued with disc problems in his back, which still persist today. Since his bat needed to be in the lineup, late in spring training the club put him left field, a position he was quite unfamiliar with.

The jump to the majors is a big adjustment for most players but to do that while trying to learn a new position on the fly can be overwhelming. Willingham tied for seventh in the 2006 ROY.

He is still learning to play the field, in between the times where his back is bothering him. He comes forward on the ball well but still has some problems going back, but is improving. Willingham may or may not be in tonight’s game due to injuries but you should see him sometime this series, I hope.

Oh, for fun, Willingham hunts alligators in the Glades. I’m not sure what he does with it when he catches one and I’m not sure I want to know. How his contract allows him to do participate in this activity, I will never know.

Ducksnorts: The Marlins are a complicated organization. They’ve never won their division but they have two World Championships to their credit in 15 years of existence. The owner exhibits no obvious desire to invest in the team. As a fan, what is it like to follow a club that appears from the outside to have no growth potential?

Craig: Being a Marlins fan is not for the timid or the normal causal fan because once you start liking a player, he is gone. Buying some gear with a player’s name on it is a certain kiss of the death. The rally cry used by most fans is that: “We’re cheering for the name on the front of Jersey, not the name on the back.” I have never found the rally to cry to be real comforting.

It’s not completely true that the front office won’t invest in the club; they have in the past. They did in 2003, 2004, and 2005, when it was thought the team could make a playoff run. Now, they didn’t invest by Yankee standards, mind you, but they did increase the payroll and did add some free agents.

In the last few years the Marlins have sold off every player once they start earning a “major-league salary” for prospects. The baseball people have a good eye for talent and the Marlins minor-league system is good at grooming them, so at any time they could close the revolving door and grow the team. It is the hope of most fans that the revolving door will shut once the Marlins get a stadium of their own.

As for me, I will believe it when I see it.

Ducksnorts: How amazing is Hanley Ramirez, and how difficult will it be to see him leave when he becomes too expensive?

Craig: I used to think that Miguel Cabrera was the most gifted hitter I had ever seen in person — now, I’m not so sure. Hanley is unbelievable! I could list stat after stat after stat to back that up but it would just be easier for everyone to look them up.

Of course, it is not a forgone conclusion that Hanley won’t remain with the Marlins throughout the rest of his arbitration years; he could, and I don’t own anything with Hanley’s name on it. So there is a chance, but I think I have a better shot at winning the Florida State Lottery than seeing that happen.

If he goes, of course it will be tough to see him go. Will it be harder than Cabrera, [Dontrelle] Willis, [Josh] Beckett, [Brad] Penny, [Carlos] Delgado, [Mike] Lowell, [Luis] Castillo, [Jeff] Conine, [Alex] Gonzalez, [Moises] Alou, [Gary] Sheffield…? I don’t know. I guess I will find out if it ever happens. In the meantime I will just enjoy watching him play and if that day comes, I will do what I always do: mope around the house for a few hours and then break out my copy of the Baseball America Propect Handbook and try to find out who the heck is on the team now.

In other words, I am a Marlins fan and this is what we do.

Ducksnorts: Andrew Miller, part of the haul for Miguel Cabrera, has stumbled out of the gate. Presumably the Marlins saw something in Miller that they liked. What have you seen so far?

Craig: Andrew Miller has electric stuff but he has problems with the mastery of his pitches. His has no consistent control over any pitch he throws, and his velocity is all over the place. One fastball may be clocked at 97 mph and the very next one could come in at 93 mph. So far his starts have consisted of finding the one pitch he can get over the plate with any regularity and just throwing that one over and over again.

Miller really should have started the season in the minors but with the attrition to starting staff — it’s on-the-job training in the majors. But I will say this: If he has few more starts like his last one he may be minor-league bound real soon, which is just fine by me. One day Miller may be an excellent major-league starter but he isn’t there yet. Shoot, what am I saying, you can’t even see there from where he is right now.

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Thanks again to Craig for chatting with us and providing some insight into what it’s like to be a Marlins fan. Here’s hoping the team can find a legitimate ownership group at some point in the future and maybe create a little stability in that market. Closer to home, here’s hoping the Padres can take the weekend series…