Florida Marlins

Andrew McCutchen, Dexter Fowler, Tommy Hanson, J.A. Happ and Chris Coghlan are candidates for the 2009 NL Rookie of the Year award.

Writers nominate their picks on the final week of the regular season, and they mention who they selected in the final game of the season in Sunday's newspapers.

This writer thought Coghlan's chances were slim at best in winning that award a month ago, but as the weeks have flown by, Coghlan's play garnered attention.

FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal campaigned recently on Coghlan's behalf as this year's Rookie of the Year.

Jorge Cantu, Cody Ross, and Gaby Sanchez propelled the Florida Marlins back into the playoff race last night in a big way, launching doubles and homers into the field and stands of Land Shark Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 38,000 who had withstood a two-and-a-half hour rain delay at the start of the game.

A lot has been said about the six degrees of separation between a person and Kevin Bacon.

Does anyone know if he's a Marlins fan because every six years we've seen the Marlins do what they are doing this year.

The MLB All-Star Game is one of the greatest games in sports. It is a time when both leagues put forth their best players and play to see who's better.

But most of all, it is a time to reflect on the first half of the season as well as look ahead to the second half.

In this "Great Debate", the top teams of the NL East have put forth their top writers to discuss what will happen in the second half of the season.

Mets top writer Richard Marsh and I have selected the participants.

For the Philadephia Phillies, we have Scott Eisenlohr and Cody Swartz.

Four games—that's how far back the Marlins are off the Phillies at the All-Star break.

It's also how many games the Marlins will play against the Phillies in Miami to start the second half. 

For the Marlins to be contenders, they need to win this series.

Splitting simply will not be enough.

Four games is hard to make up, especially with the Phillies playing the way they have as of late. The Marlins have the best chance of making up ground when the two teams go head-to-head.

One thing is for sure about these Florida Marlins: They are streaky.

They were the hottest team in baseball in April. Then in May they flat-lined and fell several games behind the NL East leading Phillies. Then in June they were one of the hottest teams in baseball again.

Now the Marlins find themselves one game out first in the NL East with a bright future.

Why a bright future you ask?

Because the much-hyped Marlins pitching staff is finally living up to its expectation.

The Twins released Luis Ayala on Monday after showing his disgust to Twins manager Ron Gardenhire about not being used in the setup role, never mind that role has belonged to Jose Mijares all season.

With the Marlins looking for help in getting someone for relief, Ayala is available if the team is interested.

The Florida Marlins have enjoyed a nice recovery thanks to Interleague play. Taking two of three against the Yankees and sweeping the Orioles have helped them climb back into NL East contention.  

There seems to be a battle for the team RBI lead. Hanley Ramirez currently has 47 thanks to two grand slams in the Baltimore series. Jorge Cantu is in second with 46, while Cody Ross and Dan Uggla are tied for third with 45. Emilio Bonifacio has 13 stolen bases, while Ramirez has 11. 

Maybe if the Marlins had not spent two weeks in first place fans would have a little more patience with manager Fredi Gonzalez.

Expectations were set high after the Marlins started the season five games up on their division opponents after two weeks. That lead disappeared quickly as the Marlins played like the Nationals for an entire month. Fans looked for someone to blame, and Fredi Gonzalez received much of it, but for good reason.

Even as the Marlins have climbed their way back into the thick of things I still have a problem with the way Gonzalez is managing.