Quick Fix for the Florida Marlilns' Base-Running Mistakes

It's happening again. 

The Florida Marlins are once again starting to make those embarrassing mental errors known as base-running mistakes.

Lately, it seems I sit down to watch a Marlins game, and all of a sudden, a little league game breaks out. These base-running blunders are just plain inexcusable.

It became obvious early in the season that the Marlins were prone to making mistakes on the base paths—mistakes that were costly and killed some good rallies.

In a 7-3 loss to the Phillies on April 25, Hanley Ramirez hit a long fly ball to left-center that looked like it was leaving the park.

Now you've got to realize, this was around the time when Ramirez claimed he wanted to be traded because he was upset about the Marlins' newly installed dress code, so maybe he was sulking when he hit this fly ball in front of 29,000 fans.

Anyway, he thought the ball was going over the fence, so he starts a casual home run trot.

There's only one problem—the ball never made it over the fence, and Ramirez landed on second base when there was no doubt he should have had a triple or inside-the-park home run because the ball caromed off the fence and away from both outfielders

Ross Gload came up next and he hit a long fly ball to left-center. Ramirez went way too far down the line toward third, waiting to see if the ball was going to be caught. The left fielder made a great running catch, and Ramirez had too long of a trip back to second and couldn't tag up.

Then, with one out, Ramirez decided to try to steal third base and got thrown out by two feet.

Three base-running mistakes on three consecutive plays—that's got to be a record.

Ramirez started playing better, and he's having a great year. He's single-handedly carrying the team at times and is currently leading the league in hitting.

Fast forward to July 31—the last day of the trade deadline, when the Marlins acquired Nick Johnson from the Washington Nationals.

Johnson, a first baseman, is a patient hitter who will get a lot of walks and will allow Jorge Cantu to go back to his natural position at third base. 

But one thing Johnson doesn't do is run fast—I'd say he runs about as fast as Yogi Berra, and Yogi's in his eighties.

Johnson played for the Marlins on Aug. 1 against the Cubs and unexpectedly decided to try to steal second base.  He got thrown out by a yard, which killed a rally.

He then decided to try it again the following day with the same result. One would think that was going to be the last base-running mistake Johnston would make for a while.

But on Tuesday night against the Nationals, Johnson was on second, with a runner at first and Cantu was at the plate. There were no outs.

Cantu hit a line shot to center that landed a few feet in front of the center fielder.  Unbelievably, Johnson was thrown out at third base, and Cantu didn't get credit for a hit. 

I've never seen that before.

Let's go back to July 28 in a game against the Braves.  Jeremy Hermida, a strikeout specialist with men on base, slapped a single to left field and made a casual turn around the bag.

Hermida stoped his turn and walked back to first base without keeping his eye on the ball, and he got picked off with the relay throw.

That is something I have seen before—about about ten years ago in a beer league game.

These are just some of the base-running mistakes that this team has been making all year. These are the memorable ones—the kind that just don't happen.

So, how do the Marlins fix the situation? How do they stop this team from having  the mental lapses that they just can't afford, especially when their trying not to lose ground on the other Wild Card contenders.

Freddie Gonzales, who is a good manager, doesn't believe in sitting down a player to make the point, but there is no doubt that Hermida should have sat for at least one game.

But sitting a player down may not be the way to fix this problem—there is a better way.

Maybe it's time for this team and the television network that covers them to incorporate a new statistic into the group of statistics they flash on the screen when a batter comes to the plate.

Maybe it's time to show his batting average, home run total, RBI total and his "BRM" total—his base-running mistake total—so everyone can see how careless and mentally aloof the player is.

Let the viewers, people who would die to have the talent and huge contracts that these player have, see how many times they screw up because they just don't think.

And there's another statistic that could be flashed across the screen with this team—the total amount of runners the hitter has stranded on the base paths.

It's amazing that with all these mistakes and lapses that the Marlins are still in the Wild Card race. 

The pitching and timely hitting have obviously helped and  in Tuesday night's loss to the Nationals, where Josh Johnson had a two-hitter going into the eighth inning, it wasn't the bullpen allowing the Nationals to take a two run lead, that lost the game.

It was base-running mistakes and the stranded runners.