Marlins

Sweep of the Cubs and its 5 wins ot of 6 for us and up above .500 for the first time this season as 7-6

Hanley is on fire right now after a slow first 8 or so games he has been leading the team over this homestand.

The starting pitching has come good and Heath Bell has knuckled down and righted the struggles of his early save chances and converted 2 in a row easily enough.

I said we had 2 winnable series over the Astros and Cubs and we went 5-1 (with a blown save in the 9th in the loss) so mission accomplished

Head to Washington now which will be a decent test for both teams.

We've also gone 3-0 since Ozzie return and the boos wern't noticeable at all really, although attendance was down a bit, were see how things go from here on in.

Urgh

seems a long time ago I made that post above, we haven't won since then and now sit at 7-12 and a long way away from challenging.

The offense is just horrific we have scored just six runs and managed only 28 hits in the last 6 games, not surprisingly all defeats. The top 3 of Reyes, Bonifacio and Ramirez went 4-57 in the 6 game trip

Reyes was rested last night to try and light a fire under him, Hanley has gone hitless since his hot streak of last week, Bonifacio is slumping to, Stanton and Morrison are still dealing with niggling injuries and getting days off, Buck is worse then last year offensively.

Only Infante in the batting lineup is performing up to standard.

The starting pitching isn't doing to badly, which is one of the most frustrating things as we are wasting the decent starts they are giving us, the pen is the real issue and mainly Heath Bell who has been a disaster

Ozzie didn't help the situation by leaving him out to dry (although not literally as the rain was pouring in that 9th inning meltdown Thursday)

Why do managers do that with closers, he threw like 47 pitches, if that was any other reliever he would of been yanked after allowing the 1st walks but because its the 9th the guy gets left in. I know they say the closers confidence is the most fragile on the team and taking him out shows a lack of trust etc but leaving him in surely didn't help him at all.

This team needs a fire lit under it quickly

Heath Bell is becoming a real problem for us, he blew another save tonight, we thankfully went on to win in extras but Bell is just all over the place

He is blowing just the 1 run leads either, it tends to be more then that, His ERA is now 11.57 which for a closer in May is just horrid, especially one that got a bucket load of Money in the offseason.

He will probably keep the job for now as we are paying to much for him to be just mop up guy but maybe for a week or so reduce him to that role to get his confidence back and work out the chinks.

Unless he is struggling with an injury in which case he needs to let the team know now as he is nothing like the guy we thought we were getting.

Been a great month for us, 20-8 in the month of May which is the franchise record for most win in a single calender month (record was 19 in August 97)

Been such an improvement on such a poor and disappointing April, Stanton is just a beast right now, terrible April but is just crushing the ball the past month, Hanley has found some consistency and Reyes is slowly raising the batting average to what we expected.

Juan Carlos Oviedo (Leo Nunez) has also returned to Miami although he now has to serve a 8 week suspension which IMO seems a bit harsh, we could be with another arm in the pen.

Poor homestand so far for us

0-4 including being swept by division rivals Atlanta, the bad run was always gonna come after being so hot for the past 6 weeks or so but its frustrating the way its coming about.

We are getting guys on but can't buy a hit with RISP right now, Hanley who is the key to the offence has gone cold on this homestand and need him to warm up again, where he goes we seem to go.

So a disastrous homestand is complete with a 10-2 mauling vs the Red Sox

an 1-8 homestand coming of the back of a red hot May is very disapointng, the offense is in a shell right now, we are missing some players and others are carrying niggles but thats no excuse.

got to rebound quickly as in this division a run like this could be a killer.

You certainly can't afford many more homestands like that Lee. Attendance has been pretty good so far at the new park, but much more of that and it'll likely fall away pretty rapidly.

God we are in a funk right now, from 8 games over to 1 game under in June, this season has mirrored Last year so much so far, riding high in May, then June came and we just flatlined completely, same thing happening this year and its showing no signs of stopping

We'll be lucky to finish at .500 we are playing so poorly right now, the starting rotation has hit the skids, especially Zambrano and Nolsaco is struggling too, Buerhle has lost form and all at the same time.

Luckily My main focus and attention has been on the Heat for the past month or so and havn't seen as many games as I usually would of or I think I'd be even more disappointed in thew way things have gone

4-14 in the Month of June now after blowing a 2 run lead in the 8th

We stink, nothing else to say really, Only the Twins and Padres have a worse run differential then us in the entire Major leagues.

When you think of the moves we made in the Winter upgrading the pitching staff and signing Reyes its fair to say this year has been one huge disappointment and a letdown after all the hype going in

We are only 3 games under .500 but falling backwards and losing ground in the tough East very quickly.

Our chances of making the playoffs are looking very slim right now.

Lee, what do you make of Heath Bell’s comments about Ozzie Guillen? Is there any chance that he is still the Marlins manager next season?

"It's hard to respect a guy that doesn't tell you the truth or doesn't tell you face-to-face," Bell said. "There's probably reasons why."

I'd say its about 10-90 in favour of him not being here next season

This season has been 1 train wreck after another, 1st Ozzie makes the remarks about Fidel Castro which got him in trouble, since June we've been absolutely terrible on the field, made the trade dumping the "Face of the Franchise in this new ERA", Ozzie attacks the owners and now these remarks.

I guess we always knew it was gonna end this way with Ozzie, Loria dosn't like outspoken guys, (see the way Giradi was treated despite delivering a miracle season back in 06 and Morrison was demoted last year for comments he made on twitter) and they don't come more outspoken then Ozzie

Apparently he was close to being fired in April after the comments about Castro but the feeling was you couldn't fire the new manager who was supposed to herald in this new era after 3 weeks, the product on the field hasn't been good enough and his comments last week about the owners was surely the last straw for them, Bells comments are just the icing on the cake I think in getting him out of here.

I'd be amazed if he isn't let go the day after this season mercifully ends for us.

The high hopes we had for the season has made this the least enjoyable I've ever known.

this was a very interesting read. I didn't realise the creation of the new Marlins Stadium has/did upset so many people.

Miami Marlins keep Lying about the Stadium

Well I was right with my 10-90 prediction above

He was treading on thin Ice and very lucky not to be fired in April after the Castro comments but the results and the slating of the FO in late September made it almost certain.

Who do we get now? a young first time manager or do we go for someone with experiance?

Interesting few weeks ahead

For the results, blame Loria and it's well past time someone had the guts to call out Miami's FO. In any credible organisation Loria would have been drummed out long ago, but Selig will never do anything about him.

Bobby Valentine's been linked with the Marlins job on previous occasions and certainly has the motivation after the Red Sox debacle, maybe a veteran skipper is the right choice for a youngish lineup?

Manny Acta's available but he doesn't seem to be management material and has a track record of losing the clubhouse pretty quickly and won't be getting a management role in the next 12 months.

I wonder if the Blue Jays 3B coach, (I think it's Bryan) Butterfield has been long regarded as a future leader and at 54, is running out of time to get his foot in the door, I guess he could be an interesting option.