This is a re-post from late May….

Your Tankathon simulations were futile. Sorry. The Miami Heat will be drafting 13th.

With that finally being settled, the Heat Beat/Five Reasons crew will be rolling out some piping hot draft #content for you. We — as in myself, Greg “Leif “Sylvander, and Jack Alfonso — will kick things off with some general big boards, covering players that may be available around Miami’s range. We started with the guards and added the wings. Now it’s time to knock out the forwards.

Tier 1

Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga, Junior, Forward, 6’8” 215 lbs

Stats: 16.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.2 steals, 3.2 blocks, 71/27/69 shooting split

Can you say Miami Heat player? Defensive versatility is the calling card for Gonzaga’s best all around player last season. Clarke possesses the fast twitch athleticism and defensive IQ necessary to be an All-NBA defender. He has that type of upside on defense.

Clarke moves his feet on defense like Bam Adebayo when guarding quicker players and is explosive off the ground, especially on the 2nd or 3rd jump. These physical gifts help offset his lack of size as a projected 4 at the pro level. His versatility also should allow him to defend multiple positions, even as a small ball 5 or oversized 3. Again, the versatility is intriguing. Instincts and ability to slide into pretty much any defensive scheme make him a particularly intriguing option for the always defensive oriented Heat. His success as a pick and roll defender add to his intrigue as it pertains to fitting in Miami.

Clarke’s offensive development, particularly increasing his range to beyond 17 feet, will determine his offensive upside. He may end up a bit like Shawn Marion was as an offensive player, which while limited, can still be valuable. The one downside would be the Heat sorely lack offense and this pick would be almost solely about defense initially.

One scout I spoke with, on the condition of anonymity, said of Clarke: “Incredible finisher, great leaper, super mobile, excellent rim protector and shot blocker, can switch a bit on the perimeter, has some passing chops, shot is not completely broken. He was the 2nd, or at worst 3rd, best player in college basketball this year.”

While I personally think that opinion is probably on the slightly optimistic side for Clarke, it can’t be ignored that Clarke turned heads with his team first play and all around defensive dominance last season. Think Kenyon Martin meets Paul Millsap with a smidge of Jordan Bell, an evolved Taj Gibson and maybe even a little Paskal Siakam from a stylistic perspective. If the offensive scoring punch cannot be acquired at 13, I expect Clarke (if he makes it to 13) to be another primary player of consideration for Miami. -Leif

Tier 2

PJ Washington, Kentucky, Sophomore, Forward, 6’8” 235 lbs

Stats: 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.2 blocks, 52/42/66 shooting split

Early indications are the Heat are intrigued by the skill set and potential fit of Washington as a stretch 4 alongside the existing core of #TheKids. The Heat like the offensive versatility that Washington brings to the table. He’s also wiry strong in a way that lends itself to being able to eventually matchup physically with most 4s in the league. Heat strength and conditioning regiments will only further develop the already strong Kentucky forward.

While Washington is undersized in a traditional sense, measuring 6’ 6.5” barefoot and 6’8” in shoes, he has some of the physical traits that are typically coveted by Heat brass, posting 7′ 2.5” wingspan, 8′ 11” standing reach and 6.85% body fat. A front court duo of Adebayo and Washington has the potential to be a potent combination due to both players ability to pass and initiate offense. Heat fans will also recognize Washington’s signature elbow jumper, reminiscent of a similar shot cultivated by Mr. 305 himself Udonis Haslem.

Ball handling and post scoring project to be two of the biggest areas of opportunity for Washington to expand his game. Luckily those are not necessarily the aspects of the PF position necessary to fit alongside the Heat’s core, provided they eventually find a way to add another alpha play maker at another position.

Although some may say #13 may be a bit high for PJ Washington, he is currently among my leaders in the clubhouse should the Heat stay at 13. Although I will caution that is far too early to nail down the most likely candidates at the back of the lottery. Surprises are sure to unfold as the draft nears. That said, Heat fans should get to know PJ Washington. -Leif

Rui Hachimara, Gonzaga, Junior, Forward, 6’8 230

Stats: 19.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 59/42/74 shooting split

It’s easy to see the intrigue with Hachimara. He’s a good athlete with elite measurables (hello, 7’2 wingspan!) and has no issue getting buckets. The Heat not only need a bucket-getter, but a long term option at the 4. Hachimara appears to check those boxes.

He’s a monster in the mid-post with the ability to finish over and through contests. The three-point shot isn’t as good as the numbers advertise, but there’s enough touch there to project plus-impact in that regard.

There are just some very obvious holes that I can’t really get past.

The biggest one: Hachimura has virtually no feel for the game at all.

He’s an absolute train wreck defensively with no real ability to track two actions at the same time. It’s true that he hasn’t played basketball for long, but that’s also part of the problem. You can (mostly) improve your tangible skills with enough reps — ball-handling, shooting, finishing. Feel is a trait that you either have or you don’t. Unless you’re putting Hachimura in a switch-literally-everything scheme so he doesn’t have to think, it’s hard to see him being able to defend well enough to be a real impact player on the next level.

I want no parts. And don’t worry, he’ll be one of the players I break down with film to further hammer home the point. -Nekias

Tier 3

Grant Williams, Tennessee, Junior, Forward, 6’7 236

Stats: 18.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.1 steals, 1.5 blocks, 56/33/82 shooting split

We can get the negatives out of the way early. The perimeter stroke is questionable. Williams is very much a mid-post-and-in type of player. He projects as a 4 at the next level, and his size makes that an odd fit in Miami long term.

What makes Williams intriguing is what makes Hachimura a no-go as a prospect for me. He knows how to play the game. Williams sees the floor incredibly well and can make the skips needed to keep an offense flowing. Add in his ability to finish, and he projects as a guy that can dice teams up in short-roll situations. He’s also a darn good defender that doesn’t mind mixing it up with players with a size advantage.

A Williams selection would make the most sense if the Heat trade back to the 17-21 range. I’m not sure that happens, but he’s a Heat pick if I’ve ever seen it. -Nekias

Cam Johnson, North Carolina, Senior, Forward, 6’9” 210 lbs

Stats: 16.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 5146/81 shooting split

Johnson is an incredibly reliable shooter with beautiful form. In an NBA world where spacing is everything, on a Heat team that has often been desperate for snipers, a guy like Cam who can move well off ball and knock down shots consistently is precious as gold. Ideally, Johnson and J-Rich beyond the arc give Justise and Bam the space they need to work inside.

There are question marks though. I’m not particularly high on his defensive potential. He’s not a great athlete and he’s pretty lanky. He can possibly hold his own on defense, but I’ll be shocked if he’s ever above-average on that end.

The biggest concerns are his health and age. He’s already 23, which is fine, but he wouldn’t give the Heat much upside. He’s also had knee issues and hip surgery that call into question his ability to stay on the floor consistently. There’s a fit in Miami, but I think he’s a guy you trade back for.  -Jack

Mfiondu Kabengele FSU, Sophomore, Forward 6’10, 240 lbs

Stats: 13.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 50/37/76 shooting split

This is another under the radar prospect worth keeping an eye on for Miami. Kabengele is one of the best shooting big men in this draft. He has a nice stroke from mid-range and can also make open threes from everywhere. He’s physically imposing to the point that he is unlikely to be pushed around by very many NBA bigs from day one. His athleticism and potential for a potent face-up game are intriguing.

He reminds me of Serge Ibaka — not as good in the low post, but maybe a bit more versatile. Already being 22 years old may cap his upside, but it doesn’t concern me much. He’s still raw in many ways, so this pick would require patience. However, his combination of NBA frame, strength, and shooting make him worth monitoring. -Leif

1,217 baseball players, both high school and college, heard their names selected in the 2019 MLB Draft. The glory of playing in the NCAA Tournament and College World Series will instantly be cashed in for a journey to the big leagues.

But that journey starts in the minor leagues, from the back fields in spring training facilities masquerading as a league to the various small towns in America to cites that look like they missed the cut.

Almost every matinee game ends with a long bus ride to the next venue. Those rides are the toughest part of the lifestyle but usually produce the best minor league stories.

“When you’re on the bus, you see all the crazy things guys try to do to find some sleep,” Marlins pitcher Pablo Lopez said in 2018. “I’ve seen guys in the compartments up top lying there. I’ve seen guys with blankets trying to make a hammock. They take memory foams and put it on the ground. Basically guys are smart when it comes to finding their sleep.”

Batavia Muckdogs third baseman Andrew Turner recalled a time during extended spring training when one teammate, Kobie Taylor played a prank on Milton Smith during an hour long bus ride to Port St. Lucie.

“Kobie Taylor made a Craigslist ad in Milton’s name and phone number saying that he was selling a bulldog,” Turner said. “Cutest dog I’ve ever seen in the picture, said he was selling it for about $200 because his family is moving and he can’t keep it anymore. We get on the bus after the game with the Mets and Milton has about 30 missed calls and about 35 text messages all from people saying they want to buy his puppy and Milton had no idea what was going on. The night went on, he said he got 15-20 more calls and texts all throughout the night and the next day Kobie told him and took down the ad so that was pretty funny.”

The best part about that prank was that Smith in fact does not have a dog. Got to be careful about those Craigslist ads.

Marlins pitcher Ben Meyer, who reached the big leagues last season but opened this season in Triple-A New Orleans, recalled a funny result of a long bus ride in the Single-A circuit.

“We’re bussing up to Lakewood, New Jersey, after a game at Greensboro, North Carolina in Low A and we had a sleeper bus,” Meyer said. “So I was on the floor of the bus in a little bed to sleep in. We pulled into the hotel at probably 3 a.m., and I was so passed out that none of my teammates woke me up. I was still asleep and all of a sudden my phone was going off an hour later. ‘Hey! Where are you?’ I’m still sleeping on the bus. I didn’t know everyone got off. I was underneath some seats, it was kind of a weird setup. But I blame my teammate because they knew I was down there and they didn’t wake me up. Everyone was half asleep so they didn’t realize I was down there.”

And that was with a bus ride that went according to plan. What happens when the bus breaks down halfway through a trip in the middle of nowhere? New York Yankees first baseman Luke Voit has that story from his time as a St. Louis Cardinals prospect in the Texas League.

“Our bus broke down in the middle of Arkansas,” Voit said last season, “and we had this church bus pick us up. We stayed at a church for three hours while we had to wait for another bus to come from Springfield to pick us up to take us another three hours. Our trainer went out and got us like 100 Taco Bell tacos and so we sat at this church for 3-4 hour eating Taco Bell and playing cards. We didn’t get back until 10:00 in the morning.”

The season’s still young so there are more funny minor league stories to tell.

Progreso.

Es lo mínimo que los fanáticos de los Marlins pedían de su equipo al comienzo de una temporada, en la cual se sabía que no sería de las más ganadoras en la historia de la franquicia.

Año dos de Derek Jeter al mando. Un período en el cual él mismo ha confesado que ha puesto a prueba su paciencia. La Pequeña Habana no es el Bronx; tal vez haya sido complicado aceptarlo desde el primer día que intercambió oficinas con David Samson.

No solo fue la adaptación geográfica de Jeter, sino el hecho de entender que el historial negativo de los Marlins lo perseguiría por mucho tiempo. El primer año estuvo plagado de polémica. “¿Vieron lo que hizo Christian Yelich? ¿Qué dijo Giancarlo Stanton sobre la postemporada? Eso no pasaba con Marcell Ozuna en los jardines. Estábamos a dos lanzadores, no hacía falta todo eso…”

Mejor pare usted de contar.

Pero esta tormenta está pasando, y con ella la exigencia irracional por ver incrementada la columna de victorias, en un equipo que no espera rendir esos frutos ahora.

El progreso en 2019 no se mide en victorias

El 2019 no sería evaluado por los triunfos. Estaba en los planes perder muchos encuentros, incluso volver a coquetear con la centena de reveses. Claro, sin llegar a ribetes históricos — llegó un momento en el que el equipo tenía una proyección de 122 derrotas en el año.

Pero el béisbol es muy noble. Es realmente difícil que un equipo pase una temporada completa sin tener al menos una racha positiva. Y los Marlins la tuvieron.

Llegó un momento que Miami era el equipo, junto a los Atléticos, más caliente en todo el béisbol. Un efímero período que pueden significar ciertos destellos del futuro, y no un simple período engranado por la casualidad.

El béisbol es un juego de pitcheo, dicen por ahí, y vaya que los Marlins se lo han tomado en serio. Esta reconstrucción está basada en los lanzadores; no es un secreto.

El progreso de Alcántara y López

Actualmente hay dos serpentineros que el aficionado común de los Marlins debe prestar atención especial. Sí, Caleb Smith, Trevor Richards y José Ureña han tenido sus momentos en esta zafra, pero son Sandy Alcántara y Pablo López quienes tienen la proyección de estar con este equipo por muchos años, hasta que la reconstrucción rinda sus frutos.

Es allí donde la palabra progreso entra en escena. Y no se refleja cuando Sandy está lanzando un blanqueo, o cuando Pablo tira siete tramos en blanco con un solo hit permitido. Sabemos que tienen el talento para hacer eso.

El progreso se evidencia, cuando están descontrolados en la loma, cuando un jonrón les cambia el panorama del juego, cuando no pueden sacar los outs. Cómo reaccionan a eso. A eso se le llama progreso.

Luego de la joya que lanzó en su primera apertura del año, Alcántara tuvo seis salidas que pudieron haber descarrilado a cualquiera. Acumuló récord de 2-5 con 6.25 de porcentaje de carreras limpias permitidas, con 23 boletos y 22 ponches en 36.0 tramos.

A partir de ahí, tiene cuatro aperturas en las que ha acumulado récord de 2-1, con 1.67 de efectividad (cinco carreras limpias en 27 tramos) con nueve ponches y 18 ponches. Progreso.

Ajustes = progreso

El 10 de mayo, López fue vapuleado con 10 carreras en solo 3.0 episodios ante los Mets.

Desde entonces, en cinco salidas, le han hecho seis carreras en 28.2 tramos, con 27 ponches y seis boletos, para una efectividad de 1.88. Incluidos siete episodios de un imparable ante el mismo equipo que ocho días antes lo había maltratado.

Nuevamente, progreso.

Si Sandy Alcántara y Pablo López lucen bien, no hace falta que vean la columna de victorias y derrotas, para saber que la reconstrucción va por buen camino.

Realmente, el nombre de este juego es pitcheo, y como dijo una fuente cercana del equipo, “Creo que estamos listos con los lanzadores. Tenemos un grupo élite”, dijo en estatus de anónimo. “Estamos mucho más cerca de lo que se piensa a nivel nacional”.

Por Ricardo Montes de Oca

Puedes escuchar los análisis de Ricardo Montes de Oca en este link de Cinco Razones Podcast junto a Alejandro Villegas y Leandro Soto. Nuestros enviados de cortesía al Marlins Park, para que se vea un poco mas lleno

One of my favorite features on Twitter is being able to see some of the interesting news and hot takes that I missed from the day before. However, with the good comes the bad. And there was a LOT of bad after Miami’s second day of June mini-camps.

Yesterday, my timeline was littered with terrible takes regarding the Dolphins way-too-early quarterback competition. Some believe because Josh Rosen is not taking first team reps, that this makes him a bust, un-coachable and lost beyond return. To those people I say….

I’ve been one of (if not) the biggest Rosen stans dating back to pre-draft 2018. At the time, I believed he was the most NFL ready quarterback in the draft. Furthermore, I believed him to have the skill-set and potential to be a franchise altering signal caller. Obviously, this did not happen in Arizona. And by many accounts, it has yet to happen (in the month) he’s been with his new team.

So why are so many people surprised? Why would we expect a 22-year old QB who just arrived in Miami a month ago, to beat out a 15-year veteran, who already had the inside track to the starting job? Why would we expect this to go any different? Worst of all, why are we so quick to discredit what Rosen has done all offseason?  After all, by most accounts he’s playing good football. The problem, however, is that Fitzpatrick is playing magical.

I don’t have the answer to any of these questions, but I do have a healthy alternative:

Everyone needs to calm down.

Because whether or not you believe there should be a fair QB competition.  Or that Rosen should be handed the keys to Chad O’Shea’s Lamborghini it is still extremely early on in the offseason.  And between now and the time meaningful football is played – a lot will change.  That means that whether you believe it or not, Rosen could come back from this ‘down time’ firing on all cylinders.  It is possible that after several weeks with the playbook and time to work with the wide receivers, he proves that he is ‘the man’ in Miami.

And then again, maybe not.

If Fitzpatrick continues to play at the high level many saw during OTAs, he could be named the week 1 starter sooner rather than later.  Because whether or not we want to admit it.  A 36-year old QB with 15 years of NFL experience, clearly has an advantage over the younger player.  But don’t take anything away from Fitzpatrick.  He may have pin-balled from one team to another, without ever having a legit chance to be a starting quarterback.  For the first time in a long time, he has that opportunity.  And will likely do whatever it takes to ‘seize the moment’.

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding this quarterback competition and a lot of people want to speculate on how it’s going to end.  For instance, the national media takes every opportunity they can to make it seem as though the 22-year old QB has been dreadful this offseason.  They make it seem as though he’s being significantly outplayed by the older, more experienced veteran.  Personally, I can’t say one way or the other.  But several beat writers have stated that Rosen has played very well.  Unfortunately for him, #FitzMagic is playing that much better.

We've watched this 50 times already… What about you?

Fitzpatrick >> @DeVanteParker11 pic.twitter.com/CDC3Tgfuzq

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) June 6, 2019

In the end, the 2019 season was supposed to be a wash.  No one expects the Dolphins to do much of anything.  And prior to the season, most fans were in full tank mode.  Sure, that may have changed drastically over the last several weeks.  But make no mistake about it, the 2019 Miami Dolphins are not going to be good.  Heck, they might be historically bad.  Or maybe, they fall into five or six wins and compromise any chance they had at drafting Tua Tagovailoa.  No one knows.  But what we do know, is that Brian Flores and his coaching staff are all about fairness and competition.  So like many other uncertainties to the roster and upcoming camp battles – the best man will play.

( Earlier this offseason, I did a film breakdown on both Dolphins’ quarterbacks.  Here is Ryan Fitzpatrick.  And here is Josh Rosen.  Enjoy! )

So why care that Fitzpatrick is the team’s starting quarterback at the conclusion of OTAs?  Truth is, we’ve seen how good Fitzpatrick can be in spurts.  We know that with the good, will eventually come the bad.  I just don’t think we’ll see enough of that player during training camp, to change the narrative of this QB competition.  And that’s okay.  Because at some point, the magic will wear off with #FitzMagic.

Looking over the schedule, maybe it’s better if the 15 year veteran begins the season as the #1.  Maybe it’s best, that he takes the beatings from Baltimore, New England, Los Angeles, and Dallas.  After all, the odds of Miami putting up a fight against four teams, that all made the playoffs in 2018, is very slim.  So let Fitzpatrick be the team’s starting quarterback heading into the season.  Let him take the abuse that those four teams will inevitable bestow upon the lowly Dolphins.  And then take the bye week to get Rosen ready.  Because those final 12 games will be his best chance he has, at proving to the organization that he is the future in Miami.

It has a been a long time since the Dolphins have had a legit quarterback competition.  And regardless of which quarterback you hitch your saddle to, the results this early in the offseason – means NOTHING.  These last few weeks of OTAs and mini-camps, have been nothing more than an amuse bouche.  The entree, is on it’s way.

This article was written by Josh Houtz (@houtz) he is a Dolphins’ fan that blindly supports Josh Rosen, because they share the same birth name or something like that.