Dead in the Water

This isn't how a season dies. This isn't supposed to be how a team goes from playing meaningful games in September to all of a sudden coming up a bit short. No, this is sabotage. And it comes from within and burns with the betrayal of a close friend. It stinks like a rotting fish - which is what happened now.

The Marlins dismissed AJ Burnett for the rest of the season. McKeon called him into his office, told him the news that Josh Johnson was going to get the ball and to go and spend time with his family. AJ responded, "Right on.". This coming only after a few days after the 'explosion' that rocked the Marlins teal universe - AJ's rant on McKeon and the coaching staff.

Unfortunately, AJ is right. And only part of the problem has been dealt with here.

Ask yourself why Miguel Cabrera, the fun-loving young Marlin phenom, now sits in the locker room quietly as if at a funeral. The fun of baseball and of this team has been sucked dry - as if a ghoul was sent to this team to do so. That ghoul would take the form of a cigar-smoking 70-year old manager. And Rob Dibble was right all along.

Most of us in the stands never saw it coming to this. We were too blinded by our teal-colored lenses to see what was going on. We never thought Jack's curmundginly style and AJ's bitter angst would come to a contest such as this. The concoction was bitter from the start, and we are only now getting the bill - bad fish is the agent.

The Marlins just giving up is not even worth annotating. It has happened, as clear as the most recent box scores indicate. Players have given up not because they are bad players or bad people, but because they dont want to play for this team, for this situation. They are tired of it. The players themselves are good guys, hard working and serious about winning and about their jobs. There are a few bad apples that spoil the bunch and only one of them has been tossed out. AJ is gone.

But McKeon should have taken his own advice he gave to AJ. And he would have been trimming out the biggest spoiled fruit of them all.

The healing process is going to take time for this team. Mr. Loria has a lot to answer for now that his team, for the first time in its history, has underperformed. And that should be a good thing because expectation with this franchise has never been high until Mr. Loria got in here. This is about as bad as it could get, but there is hope. Change is most definetly coming - and it couldn't come at a better time.

Marlins magic is done

The Marlins are mathematically still in the wild card race, but you cannot realistically involve them in the race for anything other than spoiler at this point. Even as a fan.

The Marlins are now 3 games out, losing in extra innings to the Mets who may have already nailed the coffin down even tighter on this 2005 season for the Marlins.

This team has not played consistently enough to assert its position, despite taking over the lead of the wild card race when Dontrelle Willis got his 20th win of the season. It wasn't that long ago either, only 2 series back against the Astros, as the Marlins took the first two games of that series.

Then the Phillies rolled into town, and instead of exacting revenge for the poor showing the Marlins had in Philly, they blew a 2-0 lead with Willis on the mound to lose the game in the top of the 9th inning. If that is even possible, but the Phillies put a 10-spot on the board to rip the game out of the Marlins' collective jaws.

That may have killed the season. But the Marlins bounced back the next day and beat the Phillies to avoid the sweep. That damage, it seems has already been done.

The loss to the Mets last night at Shea may just be piling the dirt. It looks bleak, and although the Marlins are still in the race, it just seems like it would take a miracle - bigger than Bartman - to get it done.

Opportunity Knocks

Knock knock...

No, this is not some bad joke, it is the NL Wild Card race. And boy, is it wild.

The Marlins started out their road trip .5 games in back of the Astros. They go 6-5 against the Nationals, Phillies, and Astros and come back home, .5 games in back of the Astros.

Could it be worse? Oh yeah. They dropped 2 of three against the Phillies, and that let them back into the race. The Phillies went on to beat the Braves 3 out of 4 times. The loss today to Atlanta is what kept this from being 'worse'.

Yet, there is providence in all of this. Because it could be a lot worse - the Astros could have swept the Brewers and could be further ahead right now - and it isn't, the Marlins still have hope. Opportunity is knocking, and it is time for the Marlins to answer the door.

Standing outside and ringing the doorbell is the Phillies. They arrive into Miami tomorrow for a 3 game weekend fling. If it goes well, it is a 2 team race. If it goes bad, well, it is still a two team race. Just without the Marlins, quite possibly.

Opportunity is also knocking on an individual level: Brian Moehler is ushered back into the starting rotation and the Marlins are hoping for a 'vintage' quality start from Moehler, circa the All Star Break. There is hope there as well, Moehler has a pretty solid ERA at home (3.66, away it is 4.39) and if the Marlins can generate some runs, they could set themselves up for a sweep.

And how opportunistic would that be. Time to get the door.

Marlins luck out once again

So, the Marlins lost today 11-1 to the Phillies and end up losing the series as well. They also gave life to a franchise that had lost 5 straight before they opened this series, and seemed to lose out on what once was a one-sided meeting.

To continue the bad news, the Marlins starters, in all three contests, failed to get past the 4th inning and the bullpen not only got overworked, but overexposed. The Marlins offense looked sluggish, at a noted hitter's park, while displaying some offensive power at RFK against the Nationals, a spacious park, in the series before.

As it stands, the Phillies are now alive and well in the Wild Card hunt and sit at only 1.5 games back behind the leading Astros.

But that is also the good news in this loss for the Marlins.

The Astros lost again today, dropping 2 of 3 to the Brewers. Although the Marlins got buried by the Phillies today, it could have been 50-1 and it wouldn't have mattered. The Marlins still sit at .5 games back, no worse than they were when they opened the series against the Phillies.

Being a fan of baseball requires some perspective. Unlike football, the season is not make-or-break with one game. It takes several games to even begin to see some kind of progress, and even then there is still plenty of time before sounding off any panic alarms.

So the Marlins lost today, so what? They lost the series? No big deal. But this is where it starts to turn - for either the better or the worse. The Marlins have a 4 game series against the Astros. That series was shaping up to be a big one before today, and now it just reached monolithic proportions. The Marlins got lucky, playing their worst baseball at what seemed to be the best time to get away with it. This next series, they may not be so lucky.

Dontrelle reels in 20th win

Congratulations to Dontrelle Willis, who got his 20th win of the season in a crucial game against the Washington Nationals. It was the first 20th win by a pitcher in a Marlins uniform - ever. It was also the 13th time an African-American pitcher has won 20 games, the last to accomplish the feat was Dave Stewart (1994) who pitched nearby to Dontrelle's hometown.

In fact, a book is scheduled to be released about the "12 Black Aces", but now it seems there will have to be a revision. There is a 13th one that just arrived and he may prove to be just as great.

It has been an impressive year where Dontrelle has been able to not only excel and grow as a pitcher, but also has been the most consistent starter on the staff and has also become the anchor of the staff. He started off the second half with a bit of a slump, but quickly got it together and now stands atop 20 wins. And still at only the ripe old age of 23.

This is the mark of many days of hard work. Willis showed up early at spring training with Juan Pierre and started working hard on his conditioning, losing some weight and working on his mechanics with pitching coach Mark Wiley. But this has been the process of a couple of years in the making. Dontrelle was pushed by then-pitching coach Wayne Rosenthal in 2004 to work on his delivery and smooth out the mechanics. The high leg kick was tweaked in order to give Willis more balance and better body control. Also, his wind up from the stretch had to be shortened in order to be more effective in holding runners on.

This all lead to some early struggles for Willis in 2004 but he was able to perservere this season and put up a Cy Young worthy season with a 20-8 record and a 2.52 ERA.

Congratulations, once again Dontrelle. Just as impressive as the 20 win season is is how you have handled yourself all along. No one has been more humble and more deserving and such a joy to watch as the "D Train" has been in motion.