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.

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Worst. Week. Ever.

Overview: The Marlins lost two of three in Arizona and have lost three straight to the Brewers.
Positives: [sits on hands] [whistles] Hey tomorrow is the MLB draft [fartsound]
Negatives: The Marlins are simply having a rough time. Already without their ace Josh Johnson, the team's main offensive weapon Hanley Ramirez has been sitting out since injuring his back last Sunday. With him out of the lineup the team has gone 1-5 due in large part to lack of clutch hitting. The team has left 29 men on base in the last three games. The team has lost four in a row, and all have been those crucial one-run games Edwin Rodriguez loves! The Law of averages sucks.
Line of the Week: The lone win of the week came in large part to Anibal Sanchez, who won his 4th game in May.

W, 8 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 8 K, 1 BB

Highlight of the Week: Logan Morrison gets the nod for a nifty catch in left field Saturday night, and thankfully he wasn't hurt.
Looking Ahead: The home stand continues with one more game against the Brewers before facing the Braves and Diamondbacks.

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Pay no attention to D-Roves

Way to be topical, D-Roves!

Three things about Marlins fan jokes:

1. They are fair game. Every fan base does things deserving of ridicule, even the pious Midwesterners that go to Cardinals games. Some fanbases get more than most (and perhaps that is true of the Marlins), but so be it.
2. Regardless of whether you're one of those Marlins fans who are the exception to the rule (and most of us are not, be real here - I haven't been to a game since 2006), enjoy the secret little world of Marlins fandom we've got going. It's easier to enjoy the anonymity now that we can all talk to each other on Twitter.
3. If you are going to make fun of Marlins fans, BE FUNNY. That means no Madoff jokes when the subject is 2 years past its funny expiration date.

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#MarlinsMovies

I was attending the roller derby last night, so I completely missed the Marlins hashtag game that broke out on Twitter. Take a look at all the #marlinsmovies our Twitter pals came up with:

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Posey Posey Posey

We're considering renaming the blog to Our Bay Area Cousins, covering only the Scott Cousins-Buster Posey imbroglio.

Posey released a statement yesterday, which basically screams "I don't want to deal with any of this right now."

I appreciate the continued support of Giants fans and others as I begin the process of working my way back. But in no way do I condone threats of any kind against Scott Cousins or his family.

As I said last week, I'm not out to vilify Scott. I appreciate that he made the effort to reach out to me on the night of the play, but I was in no physical condition to talk to anyone. I have not been back with the team since that night, so I haven't even been aware of any other messages he's left for me. We all need to move on, so it isn't necessary to have a conversation with him at this point.

My only focus right now is looking forward, getting healthy and returning to catching for the Giants.

Meanwhile, legendary catcher Johnny Bench decided to give his two cents, and he says Posey, not Cousins, is to blame for Posey's injury:

When I heard about the injury, I was anxious to see how this happened. Buster put himself in such a bad position.

Bench is not really helping here (indeed, he's basically blaming the victim, which makes no one feel any better about the incident). He went on to explain that he teaches young catchers "to stay away from the plate when you don't have the ball," in order to induce a slide out of the runner. "And if you have the runner on the ground, there's less chance of any severe collision," he concluded. He also likened Posey's positioning to "a disabled car in the middle of a four-lane highway. You’re just going to get smacked." Sound advice, if delivered in a tone-deaf manner.

As for Posey, he could have been more magnanimous, but I understand he's frustrated and wants to move on. Surely someone in the Giants' media relations department will arrange a meeting between Posey and Cousins at some point so the two can shake hands and call it a day. But hopefully for now Posey's statement will put an end to the controversy.

On the other hand, at least this dustup inspired another great t-shirt from Strip Club With Stanton:

Keep up the good work, SCWS!

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