A Groundbreaking/Game-breaking Sandwich

Posted by Eric Polsky on Monday, July 20, 2009 at 12:00 am

Saturday July 18, 2009 will go down as a very significant day in Florida (soon-to-be Miami) Marlins history.  The day featured a groundbreaking ceremony that was sandwiched by two game-breakings. Here’s your sandwich:

The top slice of bread: Early Saturday morning/late Friday night, the Marlins lost Game 2 of a crucial four game series against the Phillies in the race for the NL East title. The game ended so late because of a rain delay that lasted over an hour. We’ll get to the game-breaking aspect of that game in a minute, and it’s not just the rain…

The bottom slice of bread: Saturday night’s rainout of Game 3.  After two innings of play, with the Marlins leading 2-0 (their only lead of the series), the skies opened up and the rain wouldn’t stop, forcing the postponement of the game. The game will be made up on a date to be determined in September.

The meat in the middle: Saturday morning, the Miami Marlins (rolls off the tongue) broke ground on their new stadium, set to open in 2012. The event commenced the building of the stadium and consummated the seventeen-year quest by three different ownership groups to secure a new stadium, which involved countless battles in the courtroom and in local and state government over taxpayer funding.

The groundbreaking ceremony featured speeches by owner Jeffrey Loria, commissioner Bud Selig, a ceremonial first pitch from Charlie Hough to Benito Santiago (the Marlins’ battery on their first ever Opening Day in 1993) and an unveiling of the blueprint for the new stadium. The new stadium will feature a retractable roof, sliding windows exposing a striking view of the downtown Miami skyline beyond left-field, a beach-style pool, and 37,000 seats with intimate views. For those interested, you can view the building of the stadium on this online web cam http://mlb.mlb.com/fla/ballpark/webcam.jsp.

The new stadium will be a definite upgrade from the current Landshark f.k.a. Dolphin f.k.a. ProPlayer f.k.a. Joe Robbie Stadium that the Marlins now share with the Miami Dolphins and Hurricanes.  If the stadium provides only one benefit at all, it will be that fans won’t have to worry about rainouts and rain delays, both of which were involved on July 18, and both of which occur all too often in South Florida’s summer months and threaten nearly every home game. 

So there’s your sandwich. But let’s look closely at the top slice of bread – Game 2 – and we’ll see that it’s unsafe for consumption. 

Tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 2, Emilio Bonifacio led off with a single, and Hanley Ramirez walked. With nobody out and runners on first and second, Jorge Cantu flied out to left.  Cody Ross then struck out, and Ronny Paulino grounded out, sending the game into extra innings.  But let’s second guess here. Why didn’t manager Fredi Gonzalez call for Cantu to sacrifice bunt or hit and run with a grounder to the right side? This would have put Bonifacio at third and Ramirez at second with one out.  Then, a fly ball to anywhere would have scored the speedy Bonifacio and ended the game. Chalk that (in)decision up to Gonzalez, but there’s more on his blackboard….

Still tied 4-4 in the top of the 12th inning, Jimmy Rollins led off with a single. Shane Victorino sacrificed him to second. With one out and first base open, the Marlins decided to pitch to Chase Utley, who promptly delivered a single to center field, scoring Rollins and giving the Phillies a 5-4 lead.

After Ryan Howard grounded out for the second out, moving Utley to second, backup catcher Paul Bako came to the plate.  Bako was put into the game in the 10th inning as part of a double switch. With first base open this time, Gonzalez ordered pitcher Burke Badenhop to intentionally walk Bako, a hitter with an OPS of .540 this season and .620 for his career. But All-Star Jayson Werth was waiting on deck, and he delivered another RBI single, giving the Phillies a 6-4 lead.  The Marlins scored once in the bottom of the inning and lost the critical game, 6-5.

It’s bewildering to think about the decision to walk Bako with first base open, but not to walk Utley.  Everyone should understand the difference between Utley and Bako, but just in case: in Bako’s twelve-year career, he’s hit a total of 21 homers. Utley already has 21 thus far in 2009.

That wasn’t the only time this game that a decision not to use the intentional walk was a factor. In the first inning, Rollins led off with a double and advanced to third on Victorino’s groundout. Here, with one out and first base open, pitcher Ricky Nolasco fell behind on the count to Utley at three balls, no strikes. Rather than conceding ball four, Nolasco threw a fastball that Utley delivered over the right field seats for a two-run homerun. If Nolasco had walked Utley instead, it would have set up runners on first and third with one out, and set up a possible double play with the slow-footed Howard on deck. 

Now, choosing to not walk Utley on either occasion is one thing. There would be a valid debate over whether or not it would be best to walk him, and choosing not to do so is understandable (especially assuming we aren’t playing the result).   But choosing not to walk Utley on either occasion, combined with the decision to walk Paul Bako in the top of the twelfth inning, leaves the impression that Fredi Gonzalez has no idea what he’s doing.

This impression is not new for Marlins fans. Gonzalez has been questioned all season for game management decisions such as these. But aside from this there have been many other issues of concern.  These range from questionable handling of the bullpen (see my prior Pinto Memo articles), to starting the struggling Emilio Bonifacio on a regular basis, to fielders playing out of position, to lack of consistency in the lineup from game to game.
 
Bonifacio has started 84 of the Marlins’ 93 games. 72 of these starts have been at third base, a position Bonifacio had never played in his entire minor or major league career. His normal position has been second base, and he’s had some stints at shortstop and in the outfield, but never third base. The results thus far are not surprising – only Chipper Jones has a worse fielding percentage and more errors among MLB third basemen. 

And its not like Bonifacio is in the lineup every day because of his bat. No, that’s worse than his fielding. A lot worse. Only two players in all of baseball – Willy Taveras and Jason Kendall – have a worse OPS than Bonifacio (.622). And what’s…worse…, Bonifacio has inexplicably batted first or second in every game he’s started, aside from a handful of interleague games at the ninth spot.

This isn’t a slam of Bonifacio. The 24-year-old youngster’s trying his best and he’s playing on his third team in two seasons (after being traded from Arizona to Washington and Washington to Florida). But he’s just clearly out of place, both in the lineup and on the field, and those are the manager’s decisions.

One thing that isn’t in doubt is Bonifacio’s speed. He’s among the fastest players in the league, if not the fastest.  But Bonifacio only has 18 stolen bases this season and he’s been caught seven times.  If his main asset is his speed, why isn’t he attempting to steal more often?  By comparison, B.J. Upton and Jacoby Ellsbury, who have reached first base this season a comparable number of times to Bonifacio, have attempted 40 and 47 steals, respectively, and stolen 31 and 40, respectively. 

If the Marlins can’t bear to live without Bonfiacio, then they should (a) have him steal more often, (b) bat him at the bottom of the order and (c) play him at his natural position, second base, or secondary position, the outfield.  Second base is currently manned by Dan Uggla, who has provided average defense there. But Gonzalez could move Uggla to third base, where he’s at least played before (228 games over four seasons at third base in the minor leagues). Or, he could move Uggla to first base (16 games over two seasons in the minors), and shift current first baseman Jorge Cantu to third base, where Cantu’s also regularly played in the past, including the majority of games last season (129).

The outfield is normally manned by Cody Ross (CF), Jeremy Hermida (RF) and Chris Coghlan (LF), with Brett Carroll being worked in as a fourth outfielder. But the Marlins could move Bonifacio to left field, because guess what? Left field is also brand new to the rookie Coghlan, who played a grand total of one game there in the minors. Coghlan’s normal position is second base, and his secondary position is, amazingly, third base. To nobody’s surprise, Coghlan’s been struggling in left field (.968 fielding percentage, ranking in the bottom portion of MLB’s left fielders).  Why not make the obvious swap of Bonifacio to left field and Coghlan to third base?

The Marlins rank 24th in the league in fielding percentage.  It stands to reason that if players were playing positions that they’ve ever played prior to this season, their ranking would improve.  Some wonder if Gonzalez is just following directives from upper management, but he’s the man who’s in charge of the situation, and he deserves the blame.

Gonzalez also deserves to be questioned for his usage of his batting lineup.  The Marlins have used 62 different batting orders this season, which is actually surprisingly not a high number compared to the other teams in the league. But, the team has not had a consistent hitter in any spot in the order aside from Hanley Ramirez at # 3 and Jorge Cantu at # 4. Everyone else has been shuffled around, and it’s gotten to the point lately where it seems that Gonzalez is picking names out of a hat. For example, in this weekend’s series alone, Ross batted 7th, 5th, and 6th, Hermida 2nd and 5th, and Uggla 5th and 6th.  The lack of consistency in the order could be a contributing factor to the Marlins’ recent lack of offensive production (in the bottom third of the league in runs scored and OPS in July).

Gonzalez has gotten the Marlins to a .500 record thus far, but one has to wonder if the Marlins are winning games despite Gonzalez managing them.  They have a talented young pitching staff led by All-Star Josh Johnson, and feature one of the best all-around players in the game in Hanley Ramirez.  But the team’s had its share of struggles and this weekend’s three losses to division leader Philadelphia has set this team back significantly in its quest for a playoff bid. This could be a case of a young team just trying to find its way, but it also appears to be the a case of a young team trying to find its way without a suitable manager. Gonzalez appears to be rather stiff in his appearances with the media and rarely displays emotion on the bench during games.  It has become clear that this young team needs a more animated and outspoken leader in the mold of a Jack McKeon or Ozzie Guillen that led a young Marlins team to their 2003 World Series title.

So while July 18 will go down as a significant day in Marlins history, on July 19 and in days to come, Marlins fans can ask a significant question: Fredi Gonzalez is the coach of the Florida Marlins, but will he be the coach of the Miami Marlins?