When the going gets tough ...

Clutch hitting? Well, no. The Marlins don't have ANY kind of hitting, so why should there be clutch? They're down a run last night to the miserable Cubs in the bottom of the ninth, get two runners on with no out and can't score -- a botched bunt by JP, a whiff by Stanton. Of course.

Marlins are now 5-17, same record as the '62 record Mets, and ahead of the 2003 Tigers, who were 3-19.

NOTE: I'm off fishing till Tuesday. Or more exactly, going to NY, where I'll see the 2012 Marlins play the Yankees on Saturday night. 

"Protecting" Stanton

    At the beginning of the year, all the sports writers were talking about "protecting" Stanton by having a good hitter behind him.
    Well, guess what. The main problem concerns the batters in front of Stanton. They're not getting on base, and so there's no reason to give him a good pitch.
    As of Wednesday afternoon, the Marlins' lead off spot is batting .176, with an on-base percentage of .213 -- worst in the majors. No. 2 spot has an OB of .264, 27th in majors. Third spot (Stanton, mostly) is 29th, with an OB of .344. The cleanup hitter has an OB of .341, not great, but his OPS (on-base plus slugging, the main measure for a No. 4 batter) is a respectable .746, 14th -- in the top half of the 30 teams.
    JP, is your career over? 
    NOTE: I have been comparing Marlins' pathetic run production -- which has now climbed to 2.57 runs per game -- with the worst-ever 1908 Cards, which averaged 2.42 for the season. But that was during the "dead ball" era and I knew that the pathetic 2013 Fish couldn't do worse than that. 
    Clark Spencer in today's Herald points to a better comparison, the 1968 White Sox, which set the record for fewest runs in a 162-game season, with 463, or 2.85 a game.

OH MY JOSH

    In the first game against the Twins Tuesday, the radio announcers mentioned one of the less-remembered bad moves of the Marlins, the dumping of Josh Willingham in 2008. Management's thinking was that Willingham's back was problematic, and the Marlins had a new phenom, Jeremy Hermida, to take his place. That's what the announcers said.
    Well, Willingham, now the Twins left fielder, has hit about 30 HR each of the last two years, with 100 RBI. Hermida has basically vanished from the big leagues, with one homer and eight RBI, total, in the past two years.
    But wait! We got some players when we traded Willingham and Scott Olsen to the Washington Nats in 2008. What happened to them? We got Jake  Smolinski, now 24, a weak-hitting outfielder with no power and career minor league average of .263 who is now in AA; P.J. Dean, a pitcher who apparently has been out of organized ball for several years, and Emilio Bonifacio, dumped in the Blue Jays trade last fall.
    After splitting with the Twins on Tuesday, the Marlins are now 5-16. The '62 Mets were 5-16 also at this point, the 2003 Tigers were 2-19.

HELLO, TWINS!

    We're  playing a doubleheader today against a team that is as bad or worse than the Marlins in some hitting categories. Marlins are second to last in total bases, with 178. Twins are last with 177. Marlins have six homers, Twins a mere 9. Could make for some close games, but consider: Twins have 64 walks, Marlins a mere 47, helping Twins score 63 runs to Marlins 43.
    Oh, maybe I should point out that the Marlins have played 19 games, the Twins 15.

WORST TEAM IN MLB IN 2013

    I was feeling sorry for Sanabia on Sunday afternoon. He had a "quality start" after six innings, holding the power-hitting Reds to two runs. In the seventh it was obvious Sanabia had run out of gas, but the bullpen had pitched eight innings on Saturday, and Redmond left him danging out there in the seventh, as he put one, then two and then three runners on base.
    With a good team, Sanabia would have had a solid start that would have helped his stats. With the Marlins, his numbers for the day showed five runs in six innings on 109 pitches.
    As of Monday, Marlins are last in ML in runs, home runs and batting average. Their slugging average is a horrendous .286 -- far below the next worst, the Mariners at .346.
    Their record is 4-15. The '62 Mets at this point were 3-16, the Tigers 2-17. Thanks to scoring four meaningless runs in the ninth on Sunday, the Marlins increased their run average to 2.26 per game, still below the 2.42 of the worst-ever 1908 Cards.

JUST PLAIN BAD?

    So at the start of play Friday night, R wisecracks that the Marlins have put a guy in cleanup that has never had a big league hit. Which is true.
    Joe Mahoney, who was 0-4 last year with the Orioles, was plunked down in No. 4 spot Friday as the "protection" for Stanton, who by the end of the night was hitting .162. Mahoney went 0-3.
    And still -- this is what makes baseball wondrous -- the Marlins scored two whole runs and won the game.
    Marlins are now 4-13, compared with 2003 Tigers' 1-16 and '62 Mets 3-14 at this point.
    When I suggested several days ago on Fishstripes.com that Marlins could be in hunt for worst team ever, Michael Jong shot back: "Everyone needs to calm down. This team is just bad, not some sort of historic awful."
    I find that kind of depressing. If your team is the worst ever, that's a reason to pay attention. To be "just bad" is ... well, that makes it rough to keep paying attention.
    Marlins have now scored 35 runs in 17 games -- 2.05 per game. That's well below the average of 2.42 runs by the the 1908 Cards, the lowest-scoring team in ML history.

A Day that Will Live in Infamy

    Oh, now it's really getting bad. On Thursday night, our phenom Jose Fernandez gets hammered and the Marlins score their typical one run. Hechavarria goes on DL and our brooding All-Star, Stanton, is well below the Mendoza line.
    After Thursday night, the Marlins are 3-13. The '62 expansion Mets were 3-13. The 2003 non-expansion Tigers were 1-15 at this point.
    Remember 2003? The Marlins were on their way to a world championship. The Tigers were setting a record for most losses ever (119) by a non-expansion team.
    Since then the Marlins have become a laughing-stock while the Tigers have gone to the playoffs the last two years, boosted by their MVP Miguel Cabrera.
    One big reason for the change in fortunes:
    On Dec. 4, 2007, the Marlins traded Cabrera to the Tigers for a bunch of "can't miss" prospects:
    Andrew Miller – a pitcher who flopped with the Marlins and is now in the Boston Red Sox bullpen.
    Dallas Trahern – a pitcher who never made it to the majors. He apparently last pitched in the minors in 2011.
    Eulogio De La Cruz – another miserable pitcher, who was sold (?!) to the San Diego Padres, who quickly released him. He was signed by Brewers organzation last winter.
    Burke Badenhop – another pitcher, who did some mediocre relieving with the Marlins, was traded to the Rays and is now with the Brewers.
    Cameron Maybin – an outfielder who in his “breakout” season with the Marlins, 2010, played 82 games, batting .234, with 8 HR and 9 SB, before being traded to the Padres.
    Mike Rabelo – a catcher who appeared in 34 games with 2008 Marlins, batting .202. He was granted free agency in 2009 and has not appeared in the majors since then. 
    Those are the six names of the apocalypse.