St. Louis Cardinals News: Breaking down the Miami Marlins

To get ready for the St. Louis Cardinals’ upcoming three-game set against the Miami Marlins, we sat down with Ehsan Kassim of Marlin Maniac to break down the Fish and their season to-date.

With the Marlins over 10 games under .500 in a struggling National League East, it’s a matter of perspective whether the glass is half-full or half-empty, but apart from Giancarlo Stanton, there hasn’t been much excitement in South Beach so far this season.

Here are the highlights of our conversation.

1) This season began with high expectations for Miami. However, things haven’t exactly panned out. What went wrong?

The high expectations for the Miami Marlins coming into the season were misleading. I always thought this was a true talent level .500 team and if they wanted to contend for the playoffs, they had zero margin for error. Unfortunately, they’ve sent three starters to the DL and not everyone else is playing to the level many expected.

The Marlins are 30-41 and while they still think they can contend, it’s an absolute longshot now.

2) Dee Gordon has been an All-Star, hands-down. Who would you take in a head-to-head matchup? Gordon or Kolten Wong?

I’ll take Dee Gordon right now because he’s the more established player and has played at an amazing level this season, but long-term, I’ll take Wong. He’s 3 years younger than Dee and has some nice pop from the second base position. I also don’t think Dee’s performance this season at the plate is repeatable. Both are damn good players though.

3) What is the feel amongst Marlins fans regarding Dan Jennings stepping into the dugout? Is this a feasible long-term plan?

Marlins fans still really haven’t warmed to the idea of Jennings as the manager. There is a lot of second guessing going on for most the moves he makes. Marlins fans actually point the finger more at Jennings for assembling a flawed roster than they did at MIke Redmond for getting off to a slow start as the manager.