The Near Future

Hanley is getting reinforcements.

The Marlins may or may not make the playoffs this year, but regardless, the prospect of having Chris Coghlan, Cameron Maybin, and Hanley Ramirez at the top of the lineup for the next four or so years has me salivating. Coghlan has put it together, hitting .309 with a .382 OBP after racking up 47 hits in August. If Maybin can produce the way he has in the minors (he hit .319 with a .399 OBP at Triple-A New Orleans this year), then he and Coghlan will make a formidable 1-2 punch in front of Ramirez at the 3-hole. The trio could be as successful as Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Miguel Cabrera were at the top of the lineup in 2006. Here were their numbers for that year:

                                                                  
              PA  AB   R   H HR RBI BB   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS OPS+
   Dan Uggla 683 611 105 172 27  90 48 .282 .339 .480 .818  112
Hanley Ramirez 700 633 119 185 17  59 56 .292 .353 .480 .833  116
Miguel Cabrera 676 576 112 195 26 114 86 .339 .430 .568 .998  159

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/6/2009.

Then there's Maybin's defense. I am quite happy to have these three guys locked in for the next few years.


Unrelated: Congratulations to Brett Hayes on his first career tater tot. Incidentally, he hit his home run off of Victor Garate, who was making his big league debut. Surely Tim Kurkjian took notice of this. This afternoon, the Fish go for their fourth sweep of the Nats this year, with Anibal Sanchez taking the hill against J.D. Martin.


AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez via ESPN.com