The Marlins' leaky spring

By Adam Cancryn

Heath Bell was supposed to be one of the Marlins' strengths, but he's quickly turned into their greatest weakness.

We are not yet a month into the 2012 season, and already the Miami Marlins have sprung a leak. Literally.

A number of the panels across the organization's 8,000-ton retractable roof have submitted to Florida's relentless spring showers, treating unlucky fans in a certain few sections to the drip-drip of the new stadium's inevitable growing pains.

Leaks are a normal occurrence in retractable roofs, Marlins chief arm-twister David Samson assured the media on May 2. Stadium workers have been busy in recent days opening the faulty panels and patching their joints. It's just a matter of plugging the trouble spots with gum, he joked. (Though it's not much of a stretch to venture that Samson doesn't actually know how the panels are fixed. He's paid to get things done, not to worry about how they're getting done.) Fixing the problem for good could take take the entire year, but all told, a few raindrops rank as just a minor issue.

What weighs heavier on the organization's mind is its on-field leak, closer Heath Bell. Bell was supposed to be the Marlins' ultimate stopper, a lights-out pitcher who would secure the team's late-inning leads. Instead, he's become the largest tear in the fabric of Miami's carefully constructed team.

The Marlins had good reason to believe Bell would earn the $27 million they gave him this offseason, a a princely sum within a broader market for closers that is less than enthusiastic. He had ranked among the best relievers for five years, and was a top closer for the past three. From 2009 to 2011, Bell recorded 132 saves — most in the Majors — against just 14 blown saves, a 90 percent success rate. He had been a workhorse in his time with the Padres, and would serve as the anchor for the Marlins' bullpen.

But just as $515 million can't guarantee a stadium without leaks, there was no absolute guarantee that Bell could remain on his fantastic path. And so far this season, Bell is lost in the woods. The closer has blown three saves, turning the Marlins' prospective wins into crushing losses. During one of those losses, Bell threw 42 pitches. The effort yielded four walks, two runs, and just two outs. He ended April with a 10.80 ERA and two saves in five chances.

Amid his struggles, there have been whispers that perhaps the Marlins should have seen this coming. Bell is 34 years old, placing him squarely on the downside of his career. Hidden behind last year's gaudy headline numbers was a significant drop in his strikeouts per nine innings, to 7.3. Bell had never dipped below 8.2 in his entire career. And San Diego's spacious Petco Park is notorious for boosting pitchers' stat lines. All seemed to foreshadow a regression, one that has played out so far this year. Bell is striking out just 5.9 batters per nine innings, while walking a staggering 9.4 per nine. Those ratios are a pitcher's death knell.

The Marlins aren't buying into that line of thinking, though, at least not yet. Nine games is a tiny sample size for a closer used to pitching 60+ games, and April is baseball's weirdest month. Albert Pujols has no home runs. Tim Lincecum's racked up a 5.74 ERA. Marlins Park is leaking. Odds are, these early disappointments will be little more than blips in the long run.

Bell is already doing his best to prove that, hurling a 1-2-3 ninth to save the Marlins' 2-1 win on the first day in May. Miami hopes it's a sign that thing are getting better. At 10-14 and sitting dead last in the division, things must get better. Otherwise, not even all the gum in the world will be enough to patch up the Marlins' floundering season.

Adam Cancryn is an editor and co-founder of Began in '96. Earlier parts of the season-long series on the Marlins can be found here.