OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - The Miami Marlins

dannibalcorpse · 10-04-2022, 01:22 PM

Inspiration credited to ArtDeco for this dynasty - his work (with the Pirates especially!) was a lot of fun to read and I wanted to try my hand at taking one of the league’s also-rans and making them something worthwhile. One of the only teams that might be more of a pain to try and build into something is Miami - no money, no fans, a mediocre farm, and not a ton of talent on the MLB roster beyond some good starting pitcher and a star 2B. The cupboard’s not bare, but we’re down to a couple cans of Creamed Spinach and something called “Carbell’s Soup”? It’s gonna be tough restocking this one.

I’m more or less playing vanilla, out of the box OOTP. Scouting is medium, rated 20-80(5 point increments), injuries are set to Realistic Modern Day, league evolution is on but modified (no expansion, no changes to active/40-man roster sizes), and the one change I made from real life is changing September expansion to 30 players from 28 (just not enough!)

+++++++

2022 will be the Marlins’ 30th year of existence, and true to the nature of their hometown, Miami had been an all or nothing team to this point. 29 seasons, with only 7 winning seasons. Only 3 playoff appearances - World Series wins in 1997 & 2003 and a NLDS sweep at the hand of the Braves in the 2020 Playoffs. A young team where 4 of the franchise’s top 10 WAR producers were still active in the league - unfortunately, 3 of those 4 had been traded away by previous GMs. Looking to establish some sort of continuity, and maybe even win a few playoff games, the ownership group headed by Bruce Sherman turned their eyes west and brought in a new voice to lead the team - Tucson, AZ native Jackie Daytona has been hired as President of Baseball Operations, confirming all personnel moves in consult with General Manager Kim Ng, while also trying to generate more revenue for a team notorious for their difficulties in cracking 5 figures in nightly attendance. It will be a chore - the market has been burned so many times by past administrations that fan loyalty is in the tank, and it will take a lot to get the fans to buy in again. Unfortunately, the lack of fans makes it hard to make *that* happen, seeing as the Sherman Group is not in the habit of throwing good money after bad, and the Marlins will be operating with a bottom-third budget going forward.

The good news is that there’s something to work with here:

There’s a trio of strong starters here that are all 26 or younger, with arbitration eligibility remaining. Trever Rogers, Sandy Alcantara, & Pablo Lopez form an impressive backbone for the rotation; OSA also is high on this team up the middle, rating the important C/2B/SS/CF positions as top 13 or better versus the rest of the league.

Prospect-wise, the team’s best young talent is a few years away:

Eury Perez & Kahlil Watson are probably 2-3 years away; Max Meyer might make an impact this year, but the goal is to bring the #3 overall pick along slowly - COVID limited to 4 starts in 2020 and only 111 innings in 2021, so he shouldn’t push much past 150 combined innings at all levels this year. Jake Eder is probably MLB ready but Tommy John surgery won’t let us see him til 2023 at the earliest. The only other one of the Marlins’ top 20 prospects that might show up in 2022 is JJ Bleday - he struggled some in AA Jacksonville during 2021 but he’s 24 and probably close to fully realized. The dark horse is Lester Nin - the 18 year old July 2 signee has 60/45/65 potentials with a plus fastball/curveball/change combo and top of the rotation potential. Still a long road from the Dominican Complex leagues to the big leagues, but he’s a name to keep an eye on.

Going into the season the main roster looks like it’ll be shaping up this way:

C: Jacob Stallings is the reigning 2021 Gold Glove winner and was the big offseason trade acquisition. He’s the starter, with Willians Astudillo and his complete refusal to strike out will probably be the backup here (and at a few other positions, I’m sure.)

1B: After a couple years of scuffling, Jesus Aguilar rebounded to a .261/.329/.459 with 22 HR & 93 RBI last year. He’s got the first base job locked down as long as he keeps that production up.

2B: Jazz Chisholm, Jr. is 24 years old and coming off a strong rookie season - .248/.323/.425 with 18 HR & 23 SB. He’s locked in as one of the teams’ franchise players.

3B: For now, it’s Brian Anderson. He’s mediocre defensively but his bat is enough to keep him in the lineup. He’s probably a better outfielder than infielder, though, and it’s worth keeping an eye on that to see if he can be replaced at the hot corner.

SS: Miguel Rojas is locked in at this point, with not many options in the system ready to replace the 33 year old. He’s costing $5.5M this year and has a team option for $4.5M next year so he’s a good bet to get the lion’s share at short this year.

LF: 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler signed as a free agent this offseason, and coming off a .223/.316/.432 with 27 HRs last season with a $12M salary means that he’s locked in at a starting outfield position.

CF: There’s no strong center fielder on this roster - so 24 year old Jesus Sanchez, acquired a couple years ago for Nick Anderson, will hope to build off his .489 slugging percentage in 74 games last year while providing adequate defense in CF. He’s got 60 range so hopefully he can hold it down.

RF: Avisail Garcia was the team’s biggest signing this past offseason, with a 5/$60M contract signed after a .262/.330/.490 with 29 HR for the Brewers last year. Not a ton behind him in the pipeline, so he’ll get some PAs with that contract.

DH: Garrett Cooper is a corner guy (1B/RF/LF) with mediocre defense, so he’s the best bet to stick at DH, with a .451 SLG and 118 OPS+ in parts of 4 seasons with the Marlins - he’s a strong bat and will get the first crack to be a middle of the lineup bat at DH for 2022.

BENCH: Joey Wendle will be a supersub at 2B/3B/SS/LF and will probably drag 400 PAs out of that. Jon Berti plays mostly the same positions as Wendle, with less power and more speed. Willians Astudillo can pass at C when needed, and is a strong contact hitter. Bryan De Le Cruz was acquired from the Astros at the 2021 deadline and put up .296/.356/.427 in 219 PAs down the homestretch and can play all 3 OF positions.

ROTATION:
-Sandy Alcantara is a throwback - a guy who can clear 200 innings with a 4:1 K:BB ratio. He’s the ace of the staff.

-Trever Rogers is the rarest bird - a lefty who throws 96. He had a 2.64 ERA in 133 IP with 157 Ks and only 6 HR allowed. He needs to make the durability jump to just qualifying for the ERA crown this year, but he looks like a keeper.

-If Pablo Lopez is your #3, you’re set up pretty well. Lopez struck out 115 guys in 101.1 IP last year, with a 3.07 ERA and only 2.3 BB/9. His MLB career-high for innings is 111.1, though, so he needs to at least hit the 150-160 innings range before he can be a reliable #3.

-Jesus Luzardo & Elieser Hernandez round out the rotation - Luzardo walks too many guys but doesn’t give up a ton of homers and strikes out a ton of batters, while Hernandez has great control, gives up too many homers, and strikes out less batters. He’s a #5 if healthy. Sixto Sanchez is coming back from a torn labrum and should be ready mid-May, so he potentially knocks one of these guys into the bullpen.

BULLPENS: Tanner Scott is penciled in as the closer to start the year. He’s a flamethrower with amazing movement but mediocre control - the Marlins scouts have him rated 70/70/35 for Stuff/Movement/Control. The control could be an issue, but the hope is that having him pitch in short bursts will be able to paper over the control issues. He’s holding down the fort until Dylan Floro gets rounded into form. Floro is a groundballer with great control - only 2 homers allowed in 64 innings last year, and a fairly solid 3.7 BB/9 & 8.5 K/9.

The rest of the bullpen is a lot of journeymen and never-wases; Cole Sulser came over with Tanner Scott after a 2.70 ERA and only 5 HR allowed in 63.1 IP with a bad Baltimore team in 2021. Richard Bleier doesn’t strike out a ton of guys but has great control and keeps the ball in the yard (only 4 BB and 6 HR allowed in 58 IP last year); he’s a lefty specialist who can not be terrible against righties and has survived the 3 batter minimum. Beyond that it looks like the Anthonys Bass & Bender will be two of the other names to keep an eye on, as they’re the only other relievers rated higher than 40/80.

With the 2022 season just around the corner, Daytona has been advised by the ownership group that one of the main goals for the year is hanging around .500 while upgrading LF; the long-term goal is to try and get back to playoffs within the next 4 years. There’s not too many contracts to try and move this summer - Jesus Aguilar, Anthony Bass, & Miguel Rojas all have team options for 2023 so they might have some value in a trade due to that flexibility, but beyond that it’s mostly guys still with arb rights for the next couple years on the roster. The talent pipeline is still mostly a few years away at this point so it’s going to be a lot of juggling to keep competitive while still staying under the league’s 3rd-lowest budget.

10-04-2022, 01:22 PM	#1
dannibalcorpse Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 175	The Miami Marlins - Can They Be Good? (est. 2022) Inspiration credited to ArtDeco for this dynasty - his work (with the Pirates especially!) was a lot of fun to read and I wanted to try my hand at taking one of the league’s also-rans and making them something worthwhile. One of the only teams that might be more of a pain to try and build into something is Miami - no money, no fans, a mediocre farm, and not a ton of talent on the MLB roster beyond some good starting pitcher and a star 2B. The cupboard’s not bare, but we’re down to a couple cans of Creamed Spinach and something called “Carbell’s Soup”? It’s gonna be tough restocking this one. I’m more or less playing vanilla, out of the box OOTP. Scouting is medium, rated 20-80(5 point increments), injuries are set to Realistic Modern Day, league evolution is on but modified (no expansion, no changes to active/40-man roster sizes), and the one change I made from real life is changing September expansion to 30 players from 28 (just not enough!) +++++++ 2022 will be the Marlins’ 30th year of existence, and true to the nature of their hometown, Miami had been an all or nothing team to this point. 29 seasons, with only 7 winning seasons. Only 3 playoff appearances - World Series wins in 1997 & 2003 and a NLDS sweep at the hand of the Braves in the 2020 Playoffs. A young team where 4 of the franchise’s top 10 WAR producers were still active in the league - unfortunately, 3 of those 4 had been traded away by previous GMs. Looking to establish some sort of continuity, and maybe even win a few playoff games, the ownership group headed by Bruce Sherman turned their eyes west and brought in a new voice to lead the team - Tucson, AZ native Jackie Daytona has been hired as President of Baseball Operations, confirming all personnel moves in consult with General Manager Kim Ng, while also trying to generate more revenue for a team notorious for their difficulties in cracking 5 figures in nightly attendance. It will be a chore - the market has been burned so many times by past administrations that fan loyalty is in the tank, and it will take a lot to get the fans to buy in again. Unfortunately, the lack of fans makes it hard to make that happen, seeing as the Sherman Group is not in the habit of throwing good money after bad, and the Marlins will be operating with a bottom-third budget going forward. The good news is that there’s something to work with here: There’s a trio of strong starters here that are all 26 or younger, with arbitration eligibility remaining. Trever Rogers, Sandy Alcantara, & Pablo Lopez form an impressive backbone for the rotation; OSA also is high on this team up the middle, rating the important C/2B/SS/CF positions as top 13 or better versus the rest of the league. Prospect-wise, the team’s best young talent is a few years away: Eury Perez & Kahlil Watson are probably 2-3 years away; Max Meyer might make an impact this year, but the goal is to bring the #3 overall pick along slowly - COVID limited to 4 starts in 2020 and only 111 innings in 2021, so he shouldn’t push much past 150 combined innings at all levels this year. Jake Eder is probably MLB ready but Tommy John surgery won’t let us see him til 2023 at the earliest. The only other one of the Marlins’ top 20 prospects that might show up in 2022 is JJ Bleday - he struggled some in AA Jacksonville during 2021 but he’s 24 and probably close to fully realized. The dark horse is Lester Nin - the 18 year old July 2 signee has 60/45/65 potentials with a plus fastball/curveball/change combo and top of the rotation potential. Still a long road from the Dominican Complex leagues to the big leagues, but he’s a name to keep an eye on. Going into the season the main roster looks like it’ll be shaping up this way: C: Jacob Stallings is the reigning 2021 Gold Glove winner and was the big offseason trade acquisition. He’s the starter, with Willians Astudillo and his complete refusal to strike out will probably be the backup here (and at a few other positions, I’m sure.) 1B: After a couple years of scuffling, Jesus Aguilar rebounded to a .261/.329/.459 with 22 HR & 93 RBI last year. He’s got the first base job locked down as long as he keeps that production up. 2B: Jazz Chisholm, Jr. is 24 years old and coming off a strong rookie season - .248/.323/.425 with 18 HR & 23 SB. He’s locked in as one of the teams’ franchise players. 3B: For now, it’s Brian Anderson. He’s mediocre defensively but his bat is enough to keep him in the lineup. He’s probably a better outfielder than infielder, though, and it’s worth keeping an eye on that to see if he can be replaced at the hot corner. SS: Miguel Rojas is locked in at this point, with not many options in the system ready to replace the 33 year old. He’s costing $5.5M this year and has a team option for $4.5M next year so he’s a good bet to get the lion’s share at short this year. LF: 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler signed as a free agent this offseason, and coming off a .223/.316/.432 with 27 HRs last season with a $12M salary means that he’s locked in at a starting outfield position. CF: There’s no strong center fielder on this roster - so 24 year old Jesus Sanchez, acquired a couple years ago for Nick Anderson, will hope to build off his .489 slugging percentage in 74 games last year while providing adequate defense in CF. He’s got 60 range so hopefully he can hold it down. RF: Avisail Garcia was the team’s biggest signing this past offseason, with a 5/$60M contract signed after a .262/.330/.490 with 29 HR for the Brewers last year. Not a ton behind him in the pipeline, so he’ll get some PAs with that contract. DH: Garrett Cooper is a corner guy (1B/RF/LF) with mediocre defense, so he’s the best bet to stick at DH, with a .451 SLG and 118 OPS+ in parts of 4 seasons with the Marlins - he’s a strong bat and will get the first crack to be a middle of the lineup bat at DH for 2022. BENCH: Joey Wendle will be a supersub at 2B/3B/SS/LF and will probably drag 400 PAs out of that. Jon Berti plays mostly the same positions as Wendle, with less power and more speed. Willians Astudillo can pass at C when needed, and is a strong contact hitter. Bryan De Le Cruz was acquired from the Astros at the 2021 deadline and put up .296/.356/.427 in 219 PAs down the homestretch and can play all 3 OF positions. ROTATION: -Sandy Alcantara is a throwback - a guy who can clear 200 innings with a 4:1 K:BB ratio. He’s the ace of the staff. -Trever Rogers is the rarest bird - a lefty who throws 96. He had a 2.64 ERA in 133 IP with 157 Ks and only 6 HR allowed. He needs to make the durability jump to just qualifying for the ERA crown this year, but he looks like a keeper. -If Pablo Lopez is your #3, you’re set up pretty well. Lopez struck out 115 guys in 101.1 IP last year, with a 3.07 ERA and only 2.3 BB/9. His MLB career-high for innings is 111.1, though, so he needs to at least hit the 150-160 innings range before he can be a reliable #3. -Jesus Luzardo & Elieser Hernandez round out the rotation - Luzardo walks too many guys but doesn’t give up a ton of homers and strikes out a ton of batters, while Hernandez has great control, gives up too many homers, and strikes out less batters. He’s a #5 if healthy. Sixto Sanchez is coming back from a torn labrum and should be ready mid-May, so he potentially knocks one of these guys into the bullpen. BULLPENS: Tanner Scott is penciled in as the closer to start the year. He’s a flamethrower with amazing movement but mediocre control - the Marlins scouts have him rated 70/70/35 for Stuff/Movement/Control. The control could be an issue, but the hope is that having him pitch in short bursts will be able to paper over the control issues. He’s holding down the fort until Dylan Floro gets rounded into form. Floro is a groundballer with great control - only 2 homers allowed in 64 innings last year, and a fairly solid 3.7 BB/9 & 8.5 K/9. The rest of the bullpen is a lot of journeymen and never-wases; Cole Sulser came over with Tanner Scott after a 2.70 ERA and only 5 HR allowed in 63.1 IP with a bad Baltimore team in 2021. Richard Bleier doesn’t strike out a ton of guys but has great control and keeps the ball in the yard (only 4 BB and 6 HR allowed in 58 IP last year); he’s a lefty specialist who can not be terrible against righties and has survived the 3 batter minimum. Beyond that it looks like the Anthonys Bass & Bender will be two of the other names to keep an eye on, as they’re the only other relievers rated higher than 40/80. With the 2022 season just around the corner, Daytona has been advised by the ownership group that one of the main goals for the year is hanging around .500 while upgrading LF; the long-term goal is to try and get back to playoffs within the next 4 years. There’s not too many contracts to try and move this summer - Jesus Aguilar, Anthony Bass, & Miguel Rojas all have team options for 2023 so they might have some value in a trade due to that flexibility, but beyond that it’s mostly guys still with arb rights for the next couple years on the roster. The talent pipeline is still mostly a few years away at this point so it’s going to be a lot of juggling to keep competitive while still staying under the league’s 3rd-lowest budget. __________________ Last edited by dannibalcorpse; 10-04-2022 at 01:39 PM.