No Surprise in MLB Odds with Florida’s New Manager

November 30th, 2010 Betting on MLB Baseball

The MLB odds are not expected to change much on the Florida Marlins even though they have a new manager.

Edwin Rodriguez had been the interim manager for the Marlins since Fredi Gonzalez was fired.  Rodriguez got the news on Tuesday that he will stay as manager for the rest of this season.  The Marlins won vs. the baseball odds on Tuesday for their new official manager.

MLB odds on the Marlins are oftentimes tough to predict. Florida has some very talented players like Josh Johnson and Hanley Ramirez but the Marlins are still below .500.  The Marlins got the news about Rodriguez staying as manager just minutes before Tuesday’s game against the New York Mets. Owner Jeffrey Loria actually told the team in the dugout just moments before Tuesday’s game.  Rodriguez is the first Puerto Rican to manage in the Major Leagues.  The Marlins and Mets are playing a three-game series in Puerto Rico so perhaps Loria was influenced by the locale of the series.  Or perhaps he just couldn’t get the person he wanted to take the Florida manager job.  It was thought that the Marlins would be hiring current ESPN announcer Bobby Valentine as their new manager but that never happened.

Rodriguez was managing at Triple-A New Orleans before getting the call up to the Marlins to take their job.  Florida is below .500 this season but Loria has not given up on the season.  He believes his team should be much better and that they have the talent to make the playoffs.  Loria said that the new coaches hired along with Rodriguez would also stay through the end of the season.  John Mallee, Brandon Hyde and Tarrik Brock were brought up from the minor leagues at the same time Rodriguez was hired.

Part of the problem for Florida has been their home record. They are just 21-22 at home this season.  Good teams simply don’t have losing records at home. If the Marlins want to make a run at the playoffs in the National League they simply must start to win at home. The Marlins have a decent offense that ranks 9th in the league in runs scored but their pitching does need some work.  They are just 15th in the league in ERA and they would be far worse than that if not for Josh Johnson who is having an All-Star season.

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