Home Opener Is Here

After taking 2/3 from the Mets to start the year, the Marlins return home tonight to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2010 home opener. Chris Volstad gets the nod for the Marlins while Hiroki Kuroda gets the start for LA.

The opening series against the Mets might be too small a sampling to declare anything definitive, but some in Marlin land are already quite nervous about the bullpen. As bad as the pen was in surrendering a 5 run lead (and make no mistake, 9 walks is all kinds of awful); the guilty parties were two guys (Jose Veras, Renyel Pinto) who, to be kind, were not going to be very good this year anyway. Veras is on his 3rd team in a year and the Marlins spent much of the offseason desperately offering Pinto around only to find there was no interest. Leo Nunez is still the same guy who is either lights out or an iron mike machine, and the juxtaposition of Wednesday and Thursday reenforce that.

For me, the most troubling thing was how long Fredi stuck with relievers that clearly didn't have "it.". We carry 12 pitchers for a reason, use them.

Beyond the strategy of the situation, nothing that was done during the Wednesday meltdown was all that egregious, nor surprising. Hopefully it just means we see a lot less of Pinto and Veras as a pseudo-set-up staff.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/firstplacefish