The Marlins made some big additions, as well as subtractions to their team this season. Derek Jeter left the team right before the season started, then it seemed like they were willing to spend a bit more. They signed Jorge Soler and Avisail Garcia to contracts, and they added Joe Wendle as well. On paper, it seems like this team is ready to compete. However, they still just don’t have much depth and they are in a bloodbath of a division in the NL East.
Pablo Lopez is a solid starter, but he has had some serious issues on the road in his career. He is still young at just 26 years old, so he has plenty of more time to develop, I just think that is sort of the Marlins in a nutshell right now. They have tons of young talent, and they are just about ready to make the next step, but they still need that extra season or two to get the experience. Signing players like Jorge Soler and Avisail Garcia definitely helps, but they need players like Jesus Sanchez and Jazz Chisholm to develop more for this to be a playoff team.
The Marlins seriously struggled against lefties last seasonputting up the second worst wOBA in the league at .285, in front of just the Pirates. They added a couple right-handed bats in Garcia and Soler which should make a bit of a difference, but not big enough. The Giants were very good at home last season at 54-27 while the Marlins weren’t very good on the road at 25-56. Carlos Rodon was hurt towards the end of last season, which is why he didn’t pitch as much. However, if he had continued pitching to finish the season, he could have very easily won the Cy Young over Robbie Ray. Pablo Lopez will get the start for the Marlins, and he has been much worse on the road. He was 2-2 with a 4.34 ERA on the road last season, and in his career, he is 10-13 with a 5.34 ERA on the road.
The Giants bullpen should be a strength again for them this season, although they did blow the lead late last night. The Marlins don’t have a terrible bullpen either, but the problem is they also used all their top pitchers yesterday despite the loss. The Giants have actually won 7 of the last 10 games between these teams at home, I like the value on the Giants here at home today.
