NL East Race is Riveting

With the Phillies playing the Mets (and making tremendous ninth inning comebacks) and the Marlins battling the Braves, the NL East is rocking right now.

The Marlins have held their own. They could have overtaken first place with a win on Monday, but they kept pace with a nice recovery last night. The decision to call up Rick Vanden Hurk? Brilliant! He only gave up 0 hits in 5 innings.

By all accounts, Andrew Miller will be out until the end of July and Annibal Sanchez will be back soon. That means Vanden Hurk will probably make one more start, at most. When Miller gets back, the Marlins will have 6 starters for 5 spots. My hunch is that Chris Volstad gets sent back down, but performance could change that. It would be a shame, considering how well he's pitched.

Pitching Rotation Falling into Place for Fish

The beginning-of-the-year pitching rotation for the Marlins is becoming more and more obvious. It was a certainty that Mark Henrickson would pitch opening day (as previously mentioned) but now more information has been released. Florida will probably start with a 4-man rotation consisting of the following pitchers:

3/31 - Mark Henrickson
4/1 - Rick Vanden Hurk
4/2 - Andrew Miller
4/4 - Scott Olsen

Later Ricky Nolasco will join the rotation, likely in the series against the Houston Astros, but he is not necessary right away since there are two rest days in the first week of the season.

Way down the road, things will get interesting when Sergio Mitre comes back. It is unclear whose place in the rotation he would take or whether he would fit in at all. That will entirely depend on the way the Marlins starters pitch up until that point.

The Marlins Have No Pitching

When I say the Marlins have no pitching, I mean it a lot more literally than you would otherwise think. It's not that they don't have good pitchers, but that they're all hurt. Let's take a look.

Josh Johnson - Tommy John surgery, might return in August

Annibal Sanchez - Arm soreness, out until the All-star break, perhaps longer

Sergio Mitre - Forearm strain, out until at least June 1st

Scott Olsen - Arm soreness, probably out until at least the second series

In 2006, the Marlins had the makings of a great young rotation, with Willis-Josh Johnson-Olsen-Nolasco-Sanchez

Now, the only one ready for opening day is Ricky Nolasco, and he hasn't pitched well since he got injured last season.

With all the talk of the Marlins needing to fill Cabrera's hole at 3B, the real question will be the pitching; namely, how the committee of Andrew Miller, Mark Hendrickson, Rick Vanden Hurk, Chris Volstad, Gaby Hernandez, Burke Badenhop, and Daniel Barone plug the holes.