It Would Be Physically Impossible To Create A Worse Playoff Series Than Marlins/Phillies

Terrible, awful graphic^^

MLB Playoffs are underway. This is a preview blog about how much better the Phillies are at baseball than the Marlins. Pretty simple. 

We talk Rays/Rangers here

And we talk Blue Jays/Twins here if you're into that stuff. 

This time we're talking Marlins/Phillies and again, not very close however you want to slice it. 

Personally, I prefer 7 distinct categories: starting pitching, catching, infielders, outfielders, DH/bench, bullpen and manager. 

This one's UGLY

Tannen Maury. Shutterstock Images.

Starting Pitching

It could (and should) easily be a clear advantage for the Marlins but Sandy Alcantara regressed this year and is out for the playoffs. Insert Braxton Garret and Jesus Luzardo - talented arms no doubt. But also no Sandy. So this one becomes much easier to lean into the Wheeler/Nola 1-2 punch despite the Marlins wealth of young arms. 

If this goes 3 games, the Phillies at least have choices to play match up. The Marlins, despite remarkable momentum, have way more questions to answer about their rotation, making this an easy pick. 

Advantage Phillies. 

Catching

JT Realmuto may not be a hall of famer, but he's absolutely one of the best of his era and this isn't close. The Marlins have a disgusting platoon between Nick Fortes and Jacob Stallings. And honestly they'd need Pudge Rodriguez circa 2003 for this to be a conversation. 

They don't and it's not. 

JT Realmuto is the clear advantage. 

Infield

The Marlins made massive upgrades at the trade deadline adding Jake Burger to 3rd and Josh Bell to 1st. Mix in Luis Arraez at 2nd base and you've got a nice little mix in the infield. Certainly enough to make the playoffs, but there's a glaring hole at SS. Joey Wendle split time with Garret Hamspon down the stretch, eliciting zero confidence from anyone about the position. Burger has been a revelation and Arraez has the best bat-to-ball skills in the world right now. But is that enough opposite Team USA with the Phillies? 

Bryce Harper is playing 1st. Trea Turner plays short. Bryson Stott has been outstanding at 2nd and Alec Bohm posted 97 RBI's at 3rd base. That's a championship caliber infield and probably better than all but the Braves in the NL depending on where Mookie plays. 

So it's another easy advantage to the Phillies. But worth pointing out this is a weaker advantage compared to the others here. The Marlins are still absolutely good enough to outplay them. 

Still. 

Advantage Phillies. 

Outfield

Brandon Marsh has been sensational in his 1st full season with the Phillies. His 127 OPS+ is higher than both Castellanos and Schwarber, as well as every outfielder on the Marlins. So that's nice. 

So is Schwarber's 47 homers and .527 career slug in 200+ October plate appearances. And so is Nick Castellanos at home (.900 OPS vs. .678 on the road). This one's hard to overcome. 

The Marlins will try with Bryan De La Cruz in left, Jazz Chisholm in center and Jesus Sanchez in right. It's not awful, but objectively mediocre compared to the rest of the playoff field. 

Another topic, another clear advantage to the Phillies.

Bullpen

Would you believe it? The Phillies have a deeper pitching staff. More options. More proven arms and talent to close out games. So we don't really need to complicate this with nuance. The Marlins 4.72 2nd half bullpen ERA is enough. 

The Phillies are a full 1.5 runs better in the same time frame so let's just lock this one up. 

Advantage Phillies. 

Manager

Skip Schumaker has the Marlins in the playoffs for the 4th time in franchise history in just his 1st season managing. Amazing stuff that has clearly impacted their culture. They've gotten this far with so little compared to the rest of the league. Skip deserves all the credit. 

Rob Thompson is simply more experienced though. He's one step removed from the top of MLB manager discussions, and the only thing holding that back is more opportunities. He's done a masterful job following up a historic World Series run in 2022 to get the Phillies back in the playoffs despite the Atlanta Braves running away with the East. And for many reasons, they stand the best chance to take down Atlanta in consecutive years.

This is by far the closest of the comparisons, but I'm still going Rob regardless of the recency bias brought on by Skip. 

Motivation and super soft stuff? Maybe Skip has the edge. But preparation and experience and bullpen strategy? That's Rob Thompson folks. 

Advantage Phillies. 

Pick

A clean 8-0 sweep to the Phillies means the Marlins probably win this in 2 games convincingly. That's how lopsided this one is on paper. So much that I assume the Baseball Gods can use this to teach us a lesson. That's how much I love the Phillies. You'd need divine intervention to send Miami to the DS round.

Disagree? 

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