Miami Marlins better than the Blue Jays? Trollosi strikes again

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

So it seems Fox Sports’ Jon Paul Morosi is in the best trolling shape of his life this spring training as he once again set out to poke the proverbial bear that is the Jays fan base.  In a recent article titled “Blockbuster Deal set to pay off for pitching-rich Marlins,” Morosi wastes no time taunting Jays fans.

"One year later, the Miami Marlins are better off than the Toronto Blue Jays.A loaded statement? Perhaps. But it’s true. For all the justifiable criticism of Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria after his 2012 fire sale, the Marlins will win more games than the Blue Jays over the next three seasons."

Clearly Morosi has never talked with Paul Beeston and been alerted to the fact that if they Jays don’t win this year, they will win next year and if they don’t win next year they will win the year after.

Now as much fun as it would be to rail against Trollosi and his methods I figured I would instead take a look at just how pitching-rich the “pitching-rich Marlins” really are.

Morosi lists Jose Fernandez, Nathan Eovaldi, Henderson Alvarez, Jacob Turner, Brad Hand, Tom Koehler, and Kevin Slowey who is currently on a minor league deal. Now I’ve left Jose Fernandez out of the conversation because he’s a stud. And I’ve also left R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, and Brandon Morrow out of the conversation when looking at what the Jays have as they are essentially known commodities at this point.

So I decided to compare the Marlins mentioned by Morosi to the pitchers fighting for the bottom two rotation spots on the Jays, namely.  J.A. Happ, Dustin McGowan, Kyle Drabek, Todd Redmond and Drew Hutchison.

I figured the easiest way to begin ranking these pitchers was by innings pitched. Because if 2013 taught us anything it’s that a pitchers most important ability is DURability! (see what I did there?)

Glass armed

has more innings pitched than all but 1 Marlins pitcher. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Of this group of pitchers Happ leads the pack with 682 career innings, in second is Slowey with 624 innings. Those innings make him the only pitcher in the Marlins organization with more innings than…. wait for it…. Dustin McGowan, yes that’s right the injured for eternity and relegated to the bullpen, still has more innings than anyone projected to be in the Marlins starting five.

Another damning indictment that this group of pitchers are hardly world beaters (both teams included) is that Todd Redmond has the highest K/9 of the whole bunch at 8.74. Kevin Slowey once again leads the Marlins with his rate of 6.79.

Now as much as I’d love to continue to delve into these numbers and prove how wrong Morosi is on this front the numbers are just so uninspiring for both teams that a little bit of me dies inside everytime I look at the table. But if you really want to see the whole story it’s here in all its grim detail at Fangraphs. 

Morosi then uses spring training numbers to backup his claims about the Marlins superlative pitching staff. He does however hit the nail on the head calling out Toronto’s front office for their inaction over the offseason and the inability to sign either Ubaldo Jimenez or Ervin Santana.

He follows that up by pissing all over the idea of Aaron Sanchez being in the rotation. Which although is the correct way of things but his way of explaining it just seemed a little odd. Morosi explains.

"He is talented enough, but it’s not fair to ask a 21-year-old with zero experience above Class A to rescue the Blue Jays because they made no moves of consequence during the offseason."

Now that sentence is 100% true, but to say that in a piece praising the smart moves made by the Marlins who just a year ago did the exact same thing with Jose Fernandez is quite laughable. Now obviously Aaron Sanchez is not Jose Fernandez as their minor league numbers show a great disparity in performance, however it was still a similar situation from an organizational perspective.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that despite the lacklustre offseason following a beyond lacklustre season Toronto is still in a much better place than the Marlins. You’ll notice Morosi paid no attention the Marlins position players with the exception of the all world Giancarlo Stanton.

Hopefully we as Jay’s fans can have some winning baseball to put an end to the the click baiting from the likes of Morosi as the 2014 season gets underway.