The Runner Sports
Home / Cities / Miami / Overreactions And Other Opening Day Traditions. Updated Miami Marlins Predictions

Overreactions And Other Opening Day Traditions. Updated Miami Marlins Predictions

628x471

After months of offseason, weeks of Spring Training, and hours of pre-game ceremonies, it was finally time for the Miami Marlins to play a baseball game that would count. It was March 31st, Opening Day! That also meant the next day, the day people would be writing about Opening Day, would be April 1st. The 2013 season ended on a positive note with Henderson Alvarez’s no hitter against the Detroit Tigers bookending a four game winning streak. However, that does not hide the fact that the team lost 100 games. 62 wins. 100 losses. No matter how much growth, no matter how many great pitching performances, no matter how well the team started to play together, the loss column will always show triple digits for the 2013 season. The franchise had only ever experienced one other triple digit loss season, a 54-108 embarrassment in 1998. That season was particularly tough for fans because it followed the 1997 season which saw the team win the Wild Card with a 92-70 record and beat the Cleveland Indians for the franchise’s first World Series Championship. The 2012 team only won 69 games, so the drop off to 62 wasn’t nearly as difficult for fans to stomach. However, as insignificant as it might be in the grand scheme, losing 100 games just sounds…bad.

 

With Opening Day 2014 behind us, now is the time for Marlins fans to gather their thoughts about their team. Spring Training stats don’t count, and more importantly, really don’t matter. What does matter though is the regular season. The first game of the season counts as much as the last game, which counts as much as any game in between. April (or March 31st) results are equally important to September results. The 2014 Miami Marlins are different. They have one win and zero losses. That’s 61 fewer wins than last year, but 100 fewer losses! The 2013 Marlins scored 10 or more runs in only four of their 162 games. That’s 10 or more runs 2.5 percent of the time. The 2014 Marlins have scored 10 or more runs once in one game. That’s 100% of the time! Marcell Ozuna had 3 hits on Opening Day: a homerun, a double, and a single. Casey McGehee had 2 hits and 4 RBI. Throughout the entirety of the 2013 MLB season, Casey McGehee had 0 hits and 0 RBI. He spent the year in Japan playing for the Rakuten Golden Eagles, but now he’s back putting up 4 RBI games. Given yesterday’s results, here are my updated projections for the 2014 season:

 

David A Marcillo’s predictions for the 2014 season, as of APRIL FIRST, 2014:

 

Christian Yelich: .400, 324 runs, 162 RBI, 486 strikeouts. This kid needs to keep those strikeouts down if he ever wants to score and drive in this many runs in 2015!

 

Jeff Baker: .000, 162 runs, 162 RBI. Baker won’t record a base hit this entire season, but he will drive in and score a lot of them.

Giancarlo Stanton: .400, 324 runs, 324 RBI. Giancarlo will disappoint some by not hitting any homeruns in 2014, but his batting average and run/RBI totals will help alleviate that emotion.

Casey McGehee: .500, 648 RBI. Marlins fans will be wondering who else they could have grabbed from Rakutan as McGehee runs away with the MVP award and obliterates the record for RBI in a season.

Garrett Jones: .000, 486 strikeouts, 162 walks. Jones will be on base once per game, but it will be because opposing pitchers feel bad about his flailing and want to see him get a chance to run the bases.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia: .250, 162 infield hits. “Salty” will become the first catcher with 162 infield hits (I didn’t even have to research this statistic)

Marcell Ozuna: .750, 162 homeruns, 486 runs, 162 RBI. McGehee’s only competition for the MVP award, Ozuna will prove that the BBWAA cares far too much about RBI. He will end the season as the only Marlin to hit a homerun.

Adeiny Hechavarria: .750, 324 runs, 162 RBI. Adeiny did NOT like my article about his 2013 performance so he showed up with a historical 2014. As Derek Jeter retires, Adeiny becomes the #1 offensive shortstop that makes-it-look-like-he’s-good-at-defense-but-really-isn’t. Sabermetricians lose their minds.

Jose Fernandez: 162-0, 1.50 ERA, 1458 Ks, 162 homeruns allowed. Jose will start and win every game the Marlins play. He will personally take the strikeout record out back and shoot it. He will, however, allow too many homeruns and Rafael Palmeiro will win the Cy Young award.

2014 Miami Marlins: 162-0, first place in the NL East. 1620 runs scored, 162 runs allowed.

 

I believe this set of predictions to be the ones I will come back in October to confirm. My other set of predictions did not take into account an actual game that would count in the 2014 season standings.

Author: David Marcillo

David has been a Marlins fan since 1993. ’97 and ’03 were nice. Best of times, worst of times, mediocre times in between.

You can follow David on Twitter: @DavidMarcillo77 or you can email: [email protected]

Twitter