Marlins Stumble, Lose Division Lead

1/10th of the way through the new season and the Marlins have pretty much played up to their expectations, and more. This team is probably capable of playing 500 ball for stretches at a time, but ultimately I think their lack of quality starting pitching and a lineup that refuses to bat for average will hurt them. I think I'll stand by my prediction of 68 wins.

A few days ago the surprising Marlins did have the division lead, but lost it late last night after blowing a 4-3 lead to the last-place Nationals. Heralded prospect Andrew Miller pitched an average game against Washington, but the frustrating thing is that it was his best outing of the season. Miller has posted a terrible 9.68 ERA in his first 4 starts. I'm aware that he is a young player, but there are other rookie pitchers out there showing better stuff on the mound. He better pan out after having to trade our best player.

The biggest problem on offense continues to be that nobody is batting for average except Hanley Ramirez. Hanley is batting .377 and is the only regular starter to even have sniffed 300. This early in the season you should have at least 3 guys over .300. We already have 4 guys in double digit strikeouts and have 4 more ready to join that list in the next game or two. Eventually Fredi Gonzalez is going to have to tell them to stop swinging for the fences so much or we won't be winning many more games.