ESPN Places Few Marlins on MLB Top 100 List
The Miami Marlins don't really get a lot of respect from the national media.
Whether it's taking digs at them for the ballpark attendance or just not really paying attention to the team and other potential, national media tends to dismiss Miami when looking at either the NL East or the league as a whole.
This morning, ESPN's baseball writers got together and published their Top 100 player rankings for Major League Baseball, with Miami garnering only four spots in the top 100.
It could be worse, mind you - three teams, the Nationals, Rockies, and Athletics had none - but only four? For a team that made the playoffs last season?
The reigning two-time batting champ, having won in the American League in 2022 and the National League last year, is Miami's highest selection with a ranking of 42. For Luis Arráez, they discuss his "wizard" like ability to make consistent contact and predict him to win a third-consecutive batting title in 2024, a feat last done in the National League by National Baseball Hall of Fame member Tony Gwinn.
Young phenom Eury Perez makes the list at 67, the youngest player on the list. They discuss his likelihood of being on an innings limit this season - he pitched a combined 128 innings between AAA Pensacola and the majors last season - and predict him to be "near the top of the NL leaderboard" with an ERA under three.
Fellow starter Jesús Luzardo, the Opening Day starter for Miami, comes in at #79 on the list. Writer Alden Gonzalez's prediction is that Luzardo "might just vault himself into the Cy Young discussion" this season.
And the final Marlin to be selected is our Drip King, Jazz Chisholm Jr., with the centerfielder coming in at #94. Again, Gonzalez makes the prediction, calling for 150 games played for Jazz, although he caveats that as "more of a hope than a prediction". But with Jazz's recent focus on health and his body, that seems more likely than at any other point in his career to date.
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Managing Editor for Blackerby Media, covering the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins Also: Senior Baseball Writer for Auburn Daily, member of both the National College Baseball Writers Association and Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (where he won the 2023 Prospects, Minors, & College Writer of the Year award)