Dwork On Sports: Marlins Getting Hot, Dolphins Back To Work
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Don't look now but the Marlins are showing real signs of life! Combine that with the Dolphins being back on the field for OTAs and minicamp and suddenly May and June aren't quite so boring.
It's Wednesday, May 31st and I'm already getting excited for football season.
MUCH LOVE FOR THE DOLPHINS
The NFL Network is running through its annual Top 100 Players and it's nice to see several Dolphins being recognized. So far there have been four Miami players on the countdown, which reveals a new 10 players every Monday night.
No. 42- Jarvis Landry
No. 55- Ndamukong Sun
No. 62- Cameron Wake
No. 69- Jay Ajayi
The 2016 list had just three Dolphins players crack the countdown; Landry (No. 98), Suh (No. 40) and Reshad Jones (No. 64).
It's likely that we won't see any more guys from Miami on this year's list though. The Dolphins' four Pro Bowl players from last season have already been named.
Could Ryan Tannehill be on the list? It's possible. The unique thing about the Top 100 Players is that it's voted on by the players themselves.
The last five quarterbacks revealed were Cam Newton (No. 44), Marcus Mariota (No. 50), Andrew Luck (No. 51), Jameis Winston (No. 57) and Kirk Cousins (No. 70). How many players in the NFL would rank Tannehill higher than those guys?
OTAs WEEK TWO
The second OTA practice open to the media was Wednesday at the Dolphins practice facility in Davie.
It seems the theme this week has been defense.
Led by an ascending group of defensive backs, Miami's D has been all over the offense with several (would-be) sacks and interceptions.
Keep in mind, there is no tackling and players are not wearing any pads, only helmets.
At the end of Wednesday's practice the DB's were seen playfully trash talking the Dolphins receivers.
Considering how much talent Miami has on both sides of the ball, having the two units pushing each other to be better could end up working out nicely for the Fins.
MARLINS TURNAROUND
After (hopefully) bottoming out at 13 games below .500, the Marlins have shown some real signs of life over the past week.
Over the weekend they took two of three from the Angels to claim their first series win in over a month.
Last night they won their third straight game, the first time that's happened since a mid-April series against the Mets.
Today the Marlins completed a 3-game sweep over the Phillies, their first of the season.
Miami has gone 7-3 in their last ten games, scoring an average of 6.5 runs per game during that span while giving up 4.1.
A big catalyst for the offensive outburst has been Don Mattingly's decision to move Giancarlo Stanton into the second spot of the batting order.
The Marlins have won five of the seven games played with Stanton in the two-hole and the slugger has gone 12 for 29 (.414) during that span, cracking three home runs and collecting seven RBIs.
Miami has outscored their opponents 48-22 in the seven games Stanton has hit second.
Stanton was given Wednesday off after suffering some hamstring cramping on Tuesday night.
Surrounding Stanton with a pair of lefty hitters in Dee Gordon and Christian Yelich was wise of Mattingly as both are excellent at getting on base.
Gordon has also been on a nice hot streak, hitting .452 in his last ten games while scoring ten runs and adding four steals and four RBIs.
Combine that with the consistent hitting from Marcell Ozuna and Justin Bour and it's easy to see where Miami's offensive surge has come from.
