Now that the Phillies' three-game carpet bombing of the injury-depleted Colorado Rockies is over, the Florida Marlins come to town on Friday.
Make that the NL East leading Florida Marlins. 
But are the Marlins for real? Every year, there's a ball club that unexpectedly wins a lot of games in the first portion of the long season only to fade away as time goes on. A few years ago it was the Washington Nationals and this year -- remember, you heard it here first -- the Florida Marlins are this year's team to fade away.
This isn't just a bold prediction, I've got reasons to back it up:
- Through Tuesday's games, the Marlins record was 30-21, way too high for a team that has only allowed 13 runs fewer that it has scored.
- Several regular players on the Marlins are having seasons far and above their established career averages. Jorge Cantu's league-adjusted OPS is 13% higher than his career average and Dan Uggla's is 59% higher than his career average.
- Along those lines, nearly every Florida Marlin has a positive OPS minus predicted OPS, and for a batter, that's a negative.
- Nearly every regular Marlins pitcher has an ERA lower than his fielding-independent ERA [FIP], so either their defense isn't very good behind them or their peripheral stats [strikeouts, walks, home runs, etc.] indicate their ERA could get a lot higher. Either way, that's not a recipe for a division-winner.
Based upon numbers such as these, I'm more worried about the Atlanta Braves putting things together more consistently or the Mets showing some life than I am about the Marlins.
Hopefully, this weekend the Phillies will be able to expose these Marlins for the bottom-feeders they really are.
