Catching Up

Last night, Hand did his job, but didn't receive any support, which left everyone unfulfilled.

There's been quite a lot of Marlins news in the past couple days, besides losing their sixth game in a row last night. But at least the Miami Heat are on the verge of winning the NBA Finals.

Hanley Ramirez was placed on the disabled list Sunday evening. He's been out with a back injury but still having him on the active roster even though he couldn't play has really limited the Marlins options late in games. It's okay though, not like they've played five one-run games in the last week that need lots of maneuvering by the manager. Anyway, the team does feel he will be ready to return on the day he's first eligible, which is Tuesday June 14th, just in time to start a four game set against the Phillies. Never have I been so eager to get a .210 hitter back in the lineup.

Taking Hanley's spot on the roster is pitcher Brad Hand (pictured above) who last night made the start in place of still on the DL Josh Johnson. He performed more than admirably, going six innings and allowing only one hit. Unfortunately for Brad, the hit was a home run, and he didn't receive the Florida Marlins Handbook before the game and realize his team is in no way obliged to score any runs for him. Thus he lost the game 1-0. Still though, you have to be encouraged. He will get at least one more start before Josh Johnson is back so we'll see if he can duplicate his success and hopefully take Javier Vazquez's roster spot.

The MLB draft was on Monday night. It's on TV and I watched a bit. It's amusing to me the differences between the MLB and NFL drafts. You draft a guy in the first round of the NFL draft and you think next year he should be a big contributor. In the MLB draft, teams draft guys I've literally never heard of and the hope is that in three to four years they make the team.

The Marlins selected pitcher Jose Fernandez with the 14th overall pick. If you haven't read by now, he's an amazing story. He's from Cuba and survived a four defection attempts, with one resulting in him returning to Cuba and being put in jail for a year. He finally made it to the USA in 2008 and has been pitching for a Tampa high school. And during this year's state title game he broke an opposing players METAL bat. Sweet, this dude will be like the pitcher's version of Mike Stanton!

The action on the filed resumes tonight at 7:10pm against the Braves and Derek Lowe. Taking the mound for the Fish will be Pretty Ricky or LOLasco, hopefully the former.