Stop the Steal… and more

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Readers of BallNine know that it is not only about the big things in MLB; it is about the little things, too.

Picking on the Marlins is easy, and for the most part I’ve avoided it, simply because no one really cares about the Marlins – just look at their abysmal attendance figures – but there are times they deserve it, and this is one of those times.

No one is expecting miracles from the Marlins, not only because they don’t spend money, are in constant rebuild mode and have a front office that appears determined to reinvent the baseball wheel.

The Marlins do not have a lot going for them and they were just swept away by the Dodgers in LA in a three-game series where once again many of their baseball flaws were exposed. On Wednesday the Dodgers easily stole three more bases in the 12-7 victory over the Marlins, meaning the Marlins have already surrendered an astounding 56 stolen bases according to Elias, most teams have about half that total, and we are just getting to May. The next closest teams, Elias noted, are the Braves and Rockies, who have allowed 36 stolen bases. The NL West leading Dodgers have allowed 31.

It is fitting that the Marlins are getting abused by opposing base stealers. This is a franchise that has stolen the love of baseball from so many Marlins fans in South Florida, essentially an organization that has no chance of winning a division because of ownership and current team leadership. The Marlins are in last place in the NL East with a 12-18 mark.

Two years ago, the Marlins were in the postseason, but only four players from that team remain. Last year the Marlins finished dead last in the NL East with a 62-100 record. In 2023 the Marlins finished third in the NL East at 84-78, nine games ahead of the Mets and that was good enough to get them into the Wild Card round, where the Phillies bounced them in two games.

…In fact, one reliever corkscrewed himself into the ground on Wednesday against the Dodgers and fell.

That seems like ages ago, in fact, since 2009 that is the only time in a full season the Marlins have finished over .500. The Marlins have those two amazing World Series titles to their name, 2003 and 1997 and both times they were led by baseball men, Jack McKeon in 2003 and Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland in 1997. Then came tear downs.

The reason I’m focusing on allowing so many stolen bases is that the current baseball boss Peter Bendix is telling the world the Marlins “need to be excellent in every component of baseball operations,’’ yet if the team can’t do a basic baseball thing like preventing so many stolen bases, how can we believe they are going to do the bigger things right?

In the minors this April I have seen Marlins games where their pitchers have walked 22 batters and 14 batters in a game as they play the velo and let it go game. An accomplished former major league pitching coach and front office executive sent me a note recently stating of the Marlins pitching approach: “There is a complete disregard for command. All velo. Effort. Live BP for side work. Just a complete nightmare.’’

Clearly, the Marlins are not working on holding on runners, and yes I will give you it is much harder to guard against the stolen base in Rob Manfred’s World because he has added pizza box bases and limited disengagements, but there are still ways to try to corral the baserunners, something these Marlins have no clue about. It’s not only on the catcher it is on the pitchers as well but from what I’ve seen of the Marlins pitchers, especially relievers, it is all about velo and sweepers, in fact, one reliever corkscrewed himself into the ground on Wednesday against the Dodgers and fell.

I believe all teams should be stealing way more bases than they are currently stealing. The runners just are not getting the jumps that are out there to get. Most pitchers can’t hold runners on. I asked one of the top talent evaluators, a former pitcher, to get his opinion on the issue, and, as usual, he nailed it.

“We have a whole generation of kids, who, until they made the pizza box bases, the stolen base became irrelevant, so they were never taught how to hold runners,’’ he explained. “They look over, and I’m going, ‘Throw over,’ they don’t know a tell, they don’t know anything, they don’t have any idea on how to hold a runner.’’

They sure don’t.

And the Marlins lead the world in that baseball shortcoming. And there are other failures.

Another major problem for the Marlins is their lack of baseball instincts. Centerfielder Jesus Sanchez completely misread a fly ball to center that became a two-run triple for Mookie Betts and later turned a Shohei Ohtani fly into another triple. On the base paths, Sanchez was on first and somehow got thrown out at second after Dodger left fielder Michael Conforto dropped a fly ball and the ball kicked 15 feet away. New manager Clayton McCullough, a former Dodgers coach who worked with Ohtani on stealing bases, was clearly perturbed by Sanchez’ embarrassing base running.

Before the Marlins can get the big things right, they have to get the little things right and that means those at the top must make those little things a priority, that is, if they even recognize that it is a priority. The Metric Men running teams, many of them have no clue about the nuances of the game because they just don’t see it and instead try to bedazzle with their word salad on how they will turn the team around.

The Marlins defense was so poor on Wednesday that at one point Dodgers analyst Eric Karros, a player with a great sense of humor that I knew from his Dodger days, sarcastically said Dodgers hitters were able to spray “glove repellent’’ on the baseballs because of the way the Marlins were fielding. In one inning there was an error by the second baseman Otto Lopez and then the shortstop Xavier Edwards attempted to go to his left on a bouncer but never opened his glove up so the batted ball actually hit the closed outside part of glove, not the pocket, and of course, in this day and age where Manfred and his minions are looking for any help they can get in raising the embarrassing batting averages, the Dodgers official scorer ruled the closed glove fielding attempt a base hit, not an error, which it clearly was in years past.

Gotta get those averages up to .221.

Start with the small stuff, Marlins, you know, like fielding a ground ball or taking the proper route on a fly ball and not missing it by five feet, going halfway to second on a fly ball to left when you are on first base and watching the flight of the ball to see if it was actually caught by the left fielder. Marlins, learn how to hold runners on and have your catchers throw into the baseline at second on stolen base attempts, something I predicted would be successful when the Easy Pass stolen bases came to life under Manfred.

Marlins, try playing baseball.

TOP DIVISION: For so many years the AL East was top dog when it came to divisions, but it is clear now that the best division in baseball is the NL West. The Dodgers are doing their thing, but believe me, they are vulnerable in a number of areas, including bullpen. Mookie Betts got two big hits on Wednesday but is only hitting .250, Max Muncy finally hit his first home run of the season and is hitting .194. Conforto is batting .156. Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman have helped lift the Dodgers to their 21-10 record.

The Giants have been a pleasant surprise, but it will be a test for them to stay at this .613 clip. The Padres are nipping at the Dodgers heels with a 19-11 mark, a .633 winning percentage and every game they play, especially at Petco Park, seems to be electric. The Padres are hitting the ball to all fields and that must continue for them to have success. The Diamondbacks have too much pitching to continue to stumble along at a .517 percentage.

The other great thing about the NL West is the Padres-Dodgers is the best rivalry in baseball. The Padres came so close to sending the Dodgers home in the postseason last year. Everyone points to the Padres’ bats disappearing in the two games of the best-of-five series, 8-0 and 2-0 Dodger victories, but I believe the Padres made a huge tactical error that they should never do again. In that Game 4 when the Padres had a 2-1 lead in the series, they were playing with house money but elected to start Dylan Cease on three days rest for the first time in his career. It did not work, and Cease did not make it out of the second inning. That swung the momentum to the Dodgers, and they took full advantage. The Padres went for the knockout and, in turn, got knocked out. The Padres feel they are the better team and are out to prove it this year, so this is much like the old days of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry.

With the Braves faltering, and the Phillies muddling along, the NL East is not competitive at this point because the Pete Alonso-led Mets are on fire. Meanwhile, over in the AL East, the Yankees lead the division. This is a two-team race. The Red Sox are showing signs of improving but there really is no other competition. The Rays can’t figure out playing outside at home, and as I’ve been saying for a long time, the Blue Jays front office knows how to spend money but may be the most overrated front office in baseball. Last place Baltimore should be in a much better position, but the Orioles leadership did not bring proven veterans in to help the young talent, yeah, they got cheap at the worst time.