At the end of the third week of the season, the Marlins are still clinging to a first-place lead.  Allbeit the slimest of slim leads- 1/2 game. A lead is a lead is a lead though.  Just ask the 5 teams that have lost to the Marlins by 1 run. 5-0 in 1 run games….including 2 wins on the 4-2 homestand.  Good teams find ways to win the close ones.  Although you won’t win many
games when you kick the ball around the infield in ways that would make David Beckham jealous, like Saturday night, winning when your team isn’t playing at its best is always a good thing. Welcome back to Florida Wes Helms!!!  It was good to see Wes settling back in and getting a game-winning (my goal in life is to banish the term ‘walk-off’ from ever being used again) hit on Saturday.  You can tell that he has great chemistry with the team by their reaction and compliments of him.  Getting him back was a heads-up move by Beinfest.  You need verteran leaders on a young squad, and they don’t come any more professional than Wes.

The only game I saw from start to finish since Tuesday was the gem that Olsen (3-0) pitched today, so here are just a few random thoughts and obersvations I have made….mostly from the box score.

1. Uggla might not be flashy, but he is getting on base.  Despite the fact that he is getting less hits than this blog page, he is walking, so it’s not all bad. Hang in there Dan
2. After another triple this weekend, I think my Josh ‘Wheels’ Willingham comment might have been a Nostradamus-like prediction.
3. Smoltz has still got it.  10 K’s in 5 innings? wow
4. I’m not worried about the decline in Olsen’s strikeouts. I think he is learning that as long as you keep your walks and ERA low, strikeouts don’t matter. Sometimes it’s best to let the hitter get himself out.
5. Let Badenhop pitch.  He got squeezed by the ump a few times from what I saw of his start on Saturday. He deserved a better fate.  Let’s see this kid for another few weeks before we get a feel for him
6. Doug Waecter. I know I spelled his name wrong, but I don’t care.  There wasn’t a better arm they could call up from the minors to replace Lee Gardner? I know he pitched 2 scoreless innings this weekend, but I don’t like the former (Devil) Ray at all. Not at all, not at all, not at all.
7. Throw your fastball inside to lefties Tankersley.  You have a good breaking ball, but if you keep slinging it across the zone, hitters will sit on it and lay off it when it is a ball.  Mix in a few more fastballs, and you will do better. Great job on Sunday by Tank to come back and get Johnson after what happened on Friday!!!!!!
8. Hanley Ramirez is quickly becoming one of the best offensive players in the league…..if he isn’t already.  The front office might have been right when they said they have the best SS in the division.  We are watching a superstar in the making right now.  Enjoy it, and hopefully Hanley will be here for years to come.

So the homestand was a good one.  4-2 to boost the record to 11-7.  Now a tough road trip with 2 apeice in Pittsburgh and Atlanta.  Then a weekend series in Milwaukee.  I’d like to see 5-2, but 4-3 would be good enough for me.  The Marlins have struggled over the years in PNC Park, but are facing 2 pitchers there who haven’t won a game yet.  Tough to ever expect a sweep, but still…..

When the Marlins schedule came out, I looked at the first 20 games and said that with so many against the Nats and Pirates out of the gate, that it was possible to get off to a good start.  It’s going to be a tougher road over the next month with games against the Braves, Mets, Brewers, Phillies, Dodgers and Diamonbacks.  If this team was going to do anything this year, a good start against this part of the schedule was imperitive, and they have responded thus far. Even if they are playing teams that were picked to finish last, they were too, and they still had to win against the bad teams. They did win a series against the Braves, and did tatoo Hudson in between, but let’s see them do it again.  It’s tough to take a team’s temperature after each game, so I give it till the end of May, early June before we can really evaluate where the Marlins stack up against the rest of the NL. I think they’ll still be hanging around then, but we will see.  First place fish are hitting the road! Let’s come back 5 games over.

P.S. As I finish typing this, I have SportsCenter on in the background, and not even a mention of the Marlins in the whole show. Unbelievable.  The average sports fan who turns to ESPN to get their scores has no clue that this team is doing so well early on. Considering their payroll and lack of respect, one would think that a highlight of them winning would be a good story. Not to mention Hanley Ramirez’s 2 homers, and Olsen’s seven fantastic innings. I’m not asking for a whole 7 minute package talking about this team, but would a 20 second highlight be too much to ask?  I guess the suits at the Entertainment and Sports Television Network would rather show arena football highlights.  It makes me sick. Not just about the Marlins, but overall, ESPN the last 10 years or so has degraded so much. Take your X-games and shove them up your teleprompters.