BEST LINE: Pinnacle -102

The Marlins are the new Rockies. Colorado has long been known as a team that didn’t lose at home often but could not win on the road. Well, this season the Marlins are 17-5 at home and 6-17 on the road. That’s a remarkable discrepancy that we’re not going to ignore. Now the Marlins return home from a 4-7 road trip to face A.J. Burnett. Burnett threw 113 pitches in his last start through just five innings. He’s already walked 26 batters in 54.2 frames. Burnett has allowed 16 hits and 10 runs over his last 11 innings against the Blue Jays and Angels. Burnett’s four-seam fastball velocity has dipped to 91 mph and his swinging strike rate has declined from 11% to just over 8%. Burnett faced the Marlins back at Citizens Bank on April 11 and threw 106 pitches in 4.1 frames. A.J. is throwing more pitchers per batter than any starter in the league and one could attribute that to his altered delivery due to a hernia injury.

With Jose Fernandez lost to injury, the Marlins brought up Anthony DeSclafani to make his major league debut on May 14 against the Dodgers. DeSclafani went six full and allowed just seven hits and two earned runs. He also had a very nice BB/K split of 1/7. The 6'1" right-hander was a closer in college but both his original organization (Toronto) and his current one turned him into a starter. That experiment has been successful, as DeSclafani now possesses a plus fastball that reaches 96 mph, as well as a plus slider (that works better against RHB than LHB) and a change-up that is a work in progress. His walk rate of 2.1 in Double-A this year is actually the highest of his career, showing that control is DeSclafani's game. He consistently gets his strike out rate near 8 per nine so his command has always been top-notch. He throws strikes, works down in the zone, gets ground balls, strikes guys out, and doesn't walk many. We like this kid very much because he’s as game as any young pitcher we’ve seen this year. Besides that, all the Fish do is win at home, which makes them very playable as a small pooch against A.J. and the Phillies.