2 Miami Marlins

ENEMY LINES

A rival scout sizes up the Marlins

This is the strongest division in baseball, but I think they're going to be in the hunt the whole year.... [Defensively,] Hanley Ramirez just needs to improve on quickness—the ball gets on top of him really fast. It's about first-step quickness at third base, but he's such a good athlete and has such a good arm that he can compensate. He may not win a ton of Gold Gloves, but he'll be as good as most third baseman in the majors.... If Jose Reyes stays healthy and gets on at the top of the lineup, they'll score a ton of runs.... In about three years Giancarlo Stanton will be one of the premier guys in all of baseball. He has a tendency to think too much, so he takes a lot of third strikes. Guys with his kind of power need to swing the bat, even if it means strikeouts.... There were a lot of inquiries about Logan Morrison this winter, but the Marlins were smart not to trade him. He can go gap to gap, and he has power. His age [24] and the fact that he can also play first base make him very valuable.... At this point in his career Carlos Zambrano doesn't need more than three pitches. I'd limit him to a fastball, curve and changeup, so he doesn't wind up throwing too many pitches from too many different arm slots.... Josh Johnson looks exceptional, especially his slider, which is a monster pitch. His mechanics are so good.... Mark Buehrle brings professionalism to this staff. It might be a harder transition to the NL for him if Ozzie Guillen wasn't his manager. Ozzie knows him, and Ozzie may ride him a lot further than most NL managers would ever ride a guy.

THE LINEUP

With 2011 Statistics

MANAGER OZZIE GUILLEN

1st season with Marlins

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

NEW ACQUISITION (R) ROOKIE *TRIPLE A STATS