The Crane Pool Forum

It's a big day for B-Teamers as Brandon Nimmo is joined in the lineup by pretty much everybody on the bubble.

One big hit or heads-up play this afternoon can make the difference as to who comes north, as everybody in the lineup (save for the starting pitcher, who has already been farmed out, and only appears here as a special guest) has a decent chance of grabbing a roster spot.

#	Player	Pos.	#	Player	Pos.
1	Brandon Nimmo (L)	lf	1	Vidal Bruján (S)	2b
2	Tyrone Taylor (R)	cf	2	Nick Gordon (L)	cf
3	DJ Stewart (L)	rf	3	Jesús Sánchez (L)	rf
4	Luke Voit (R)	dh	4	Avisaíl García (R)	lf
5	Omar Narváez (L)	c	5	Jon Berti (R)	ss
6	Ji Man Choi (L)	1b	6	Dane Myers (R)	dh
7	Jose Iglesias (R)	ss	7	Christian Bethancourt (R)	c
8	Joey Wendle (L)	3b	8	Trey Mancini (R)	1b
9	Zack Short (R)	2b	9	Jonah Bride (R)	3b
	Pitcher			Pitcher
	Christian Scott (R)	sp		Patrick Monteverde (L)	sp

MLBN Channel for those still with TV's an DVR's...

Some big bodies on that squad. They might have had to use a flatbed instead of a bus to get them to the away game.
Later

Marlins wearing a variation on their nineties pastels. That's a team that has never been able to settle on a look.

Marlin outfielders struggling to pick up the ball. Tyrone Taylor has had a triple scored for him, but it bounced right out of a sunblinded Jesús Garcia's glove. Mets nonetheless come up empty in the first.

Ya' gotta' clean those bags to make the bigs, guys.
Later

Announcer: "We'll talk to Skip Schumaker after the break!"

Me: "Really? WHY? ... Oh yeah, he's managing the Marlins and is the defending manager of the year."

Marlins announcers very impressed by Christian Scott.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 2:13 pm Marlins announcers very impressed by Christian Scott.

So am I. 4 IP 2H 1R 0 BB, 7K


Later

Edwin Diaz not his dominant self this time out.

The three utility guys at the bottom of the order are now 3-for-6 with two walks, a double, three runs scored and an RBI.

(That was written before Zach Short just made out.)

And Brandon Nimmo just plated two of them with a dubble!

Marlins feed is less of a baseball broadcast than a talk show with a game in the background.

Luis Moreno is getting some calls that the Marlins don't like.

Both Omar and Jeffrey De Los Santos are in the game.
Later

A lot of faceless figures involved in the action.

Ji-Man Choi appears to have played himself out of the picture today, with an 0-4 with three strikeouts.

His minor league replacement, Joe Suozzi, has put on a clinic on how not to field, with two errors in two chances.

He's not the only special guest living a nightmare. Luis Moreno has now twice been lifted from the game mid-inning with the bases loaded.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 3:46 pm Ji-Man Choi appears to have played himself out of the picture today, with an 0-4 with three strikeouts.

His minor league replacement, Joe Suozzi, has put on a clinic on how not to field, with two errors in two chances.

Joe is related to (son?) the NY Congressman who just replaced ousted Rep George Santos.
Later

Not a single actual camper in the game for the Mets at this point.

Speed is Omar's game. He stole third and later scored on a fly ball by Suozzi.

Later

Who gets the last spot on the bench? DJ Stewart had the inside track but hasn't hit this spring. Choi started well but is hitting under .200. Voit hasn't done anything. They know more than we know but I don't know who gets that spot.
If only there was a player with 300 HR career HRs available.

It's a hard-to-say, but Choi had a pretty bad game, and wasn't sitting pretty going in. Voit made some good contact, but probably not enough to overcome the hole he had dug so far.

I'd guess that it's down to Stewart vs. Iglesias. They could also both come north and knock Short off the roster.

Still six more games, including two on one day on Sunday, so there's still some drama to come.

True... but Iglesias, Short, and Wendle might be seen as redundant.
Stewart has an option while they can lose Choi if he doesn't make the team.

I would certainly see the three of them as redundant, but some managers like to carry multiple reserve infielders.

In fact, I tend to think that managers who were infielders like to carry a lot of infielders. (Willie Randolph, for instance, tended to have three reserve infielders which forced him to use them in the outfield.) I sometimes suspect that managers subconsciously manage in a way that justifies their own playing careers.