SO WHO'S BATTING FIFTH?

    Thanks to those woeful Mets and the upcoming hapless Phillies, things are suddenly looking up for the Marlins, and pundits are now talking about them as simply awful team and not the worst ever. Does that make you feel better?
    Marlins remain dead last in home runs and slugging, but they're now scoring three whole runs a game, on average. That's ahead of the worst-ever modern era performance -- 2.85 runs per game posted by the 1968 White Sox.   
    And after sweeping the Mets, the 2013 Marlins are now 16-41, the same record as the worst-ever 1962 Mets.
    The big-time experts at FishStripes.com are saying that this team is likely to get better -- with Giancarlo Stanton, Logan Morrison, Nathan Eovaldi, and Henderson Alvarez coming off the DL. That's LoMo (.230 in 2012), Eovaldi (4.43 ERA) and Alvarez (4.85). Anyways, Michael Jong says Fangraphs is projecting Marlins will be .406 won-loss rest of the way, meaning that they will have a mere 104 losses this season -- far behind the '62 Mets 120.
    Lucas is certainly a feel good story, struggling for a decade in the minors and now batting .625 (so why wasn't he called up earlier, ask we grumpy fans). But I think a major difference in the Marlins recent surge is Chris Coghlan. A no-power guy batting .140 in 2012 (not a typo) and .230 in 2011, this year team is so weak that he's been batting fifth. And surprise! He's started to come around. In the last 10 games, he's been batting .415 and he went 4 for 5 Sunday with two RBI.
    So is there hope? One of the commentators at Fishstripes.com prays this: "Let's just hope Loria doesn't live as long as Fidel, and that one day in the not too distant future real baseball will be played by two teams simultaneously in that nice new taxpayer funded stadium."