Jake Marisnick plays tremendous defense out in center field but his bat has been far from impressive in his limited time in Miami this season.

Sam Evans ( Baseball Writer and Marlins, Mariners Correspondent): Follow @RJA206

It’s not exactly easy to get excited about the average Marlins game this late in the season.

With the Marlins struggling to give their pitchers any run support and finding seemingly different ways to lose everyday, it would be easy to give up on the Marlins and just wait for next year.

However, thanks to topics like Jose Fernandez‘s quest for the N.L. Rookie of the Year Award and lefty Brian Flynn‘s recent promotion, there still are reasons to watch the Marlins in 2013.

Here are what I consider to be the top four things to watch for on the Marlins in the final month of the regular season (in no particular order). 

Fernandez shows quick reflexes to grab liner

Jose Fernandez looks like he can be relied upon to be the ace in the Marlins starting rotation for years to come. At age 20 to start the year and 21 to end it, the club decided to keep him up in Miami to anchor a young staff.

Jose Fernandez’s Case for NL Rookie of the Year

Jose Fernandez has had one of, if not the best rookie seasons of any player in Marlins history. His K/9 ranks second among all starting pitchers in baseball, his 2.23 ERA is second, and so and so on.

With his final outing scheduled to come on the 11th against Atlanta, Fernandez’s season is almost over.

For all those who still care about individual awards, Fernandez should be in the front running for the NL Rookie of the Year Award and a longshot for the NL Cy Young Award.

With unusually tough competition for the Rookie of the Year (Yasiel Puig and Hyun-Jin Ryu), Fernandez will have to impress in his final start to stay in the running.

If you watch one Marlins game for the rest of the season, make it Fernandez’s final start on the 11th vs. the Braves. 

Can Jake Marisnick turn things around?

I was thrilled when the Marlins called up Jake Marisnick and Christian Yelich in late July. Yelich has lived up to all of his high expectations, but Marisnick has left something to be desired.

In 110 plate appearances, Marisnick has hit .188/.239/.248 with only 1 HR and three stolen bases.

Marisnick, a true five-tool talent, has struggled adjusting to new levels in the Minors before, and he has always been able to figure out the league and take off.

That’s the reason I believe the Marlins continue to give Marisnick at bat’s to work out his struggles.

Jake Marisnick should be a big part of the Marlins future and it’s hard not to be curious to see how he performs in the last month of the season. 

Division Games

Twenty of the Marlins remaining twenty-three games are against N.L. East opponents. It will be interesting to see how the Marlins fare against competition that, for the most part, they’ve struggled against this season.

Miami has gone 18-27 in the East this season to this date. A huge accomplish and a reason for fans to get excited about next season would be if the Marlins could bring their division record up to .500.

Also it should be intriguing to see how the young franchise’s hitters respond when these division pitchers start to take advantage of their flaws at the plate.

Overall, it’s going to be fun to have that many division games in the final part of the season in Miami. 

Brian Flynn- How will he perform in his first month in the Majors?

Brian Flynn is just 23 years old, 6’7”, 240 lbs., and he’s a lefty. It’s amazing Flynn has gotten as little attention as he has gotten so far.

Acquired in the Omar Infante trade with Detroit, Flynn posted a 3.05 FIP in 138 innings for Triple-A New Orleans in 2013.

With Jose Fernandez nearing the end of his season, Flynn was brought up to Miami at the start of September to provide some quality innings as a starter.

The last month will likely be a big factor in the Marlins decision as to whether or not to give Flynn a role in the 2014 starting rotation.

Brian Flynn has flown under the radar for the majority of his career, but he has the chance to finally get some well deserved attention in the final month of the Major League Regular Season. 

It hasn’t been a banner year in Miami, for the second season at New Marlins Ballpark. They are dead last in Attendance for the NL -with, 1.367,100 fans in the 1st 71 games (19,254 fans per game) , whereas they drew 2, 219, 444 people in 81 home dates in 2012 (27,400 per game) during their 1st campaign at the new stadium  . This year they are 53 – 88, compared to 69 – 93 However, the team has exciting young (cheaper talent), that is not going to lose that many more games than last year’s squad.  If this team flourishes in the next few season’s, they will probably end up somewhere in the middle of these two figures.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

A big thank-you goes out to our ‘Marlins and Mariners Correspondent’ Sam Evans for preparing today’s featured article. Sam is a high school student from the Seattle area.

 He is a longtime Mariners fan, and has been an off-and-on season ticket holder for the last five years.

Sam enjoys interacting with readers and digging beneath the surface to find the truth in baseball.  Sam was our 2nd Intern who has graduated to the position of  Baseball Writer. For all of Sam’s archived articles- click here.

You can follow Sam on Twitter: Sam Also writes for the Marlins website Fish Stripes. Follow @RJA206

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