Series Preview: Brewers at Marlins

The Brewers take their 3-3 record and head on a three-city road trip, starting tonight in Florida.  The Marlins are a tough team not to like: they have a miniscule payroll--literally, less than one-half of Milwaukee's--and a lot of promising young players.  That starts with some of the pitchers we're going to see this week:

• Monday, 6:05: Jeff Suppan vs. Anibal Sanchez
  
  
• Tuesday, 6:05: Claudio Vargas vs. Ricky Nolasco
  
  
• Wednesday, 6:05: Dave Bush vs. Sergio Mitre

This is back-of-the-rotation versus back-of-the-rotation, but there's still some potential for a low-scoring game or two.  Tuesday's game will be particularly interesting, because it will be Vargas's and Mitre's first start each, and fans of both teams will be interested to see how those guys will do as starters.

Here's some background reading on the Fish:

• Beyond the Boxscore: My team preview, written about a month ago
  
  
• Fish Stripes: Jorge Julio is still the closer?
  
  
• Marlins Today: injury updates on Hanley Ramirez, Josh Willingham, Jeremy Hermida, and Miguel Olivo
  
  
• Turns out there aren't very many Marlins blogs.

Today at The Hardball Times, John Beamer compares THT predictions to Vegas's predictions, finding that while THT likes the Marlins as about a .500 team, the betting public figures Florida is more like a 77.5 win team.  (There'll be a tie, or something.  And yes, I know that's not what it really means.)  I bring this up merely to point out that the Brewers should be a better team than the Marlins, especially when some key Florida players are out of action.  Short of insane lineup antics, I'm expecting 2 out of 3 at Dolphins Stadium.

Update [2007-4-9 17:34:50 by Jeff]: Never mind about Nolasco tomorrow. Apparently Ricky Nolasco is going on the DL, so Rick Vanden Hurk (no, I hadn't heard of him either) is starting in his place. Here are Vanden Hurk's cumulative numbers last year: filthy, but nary an inning above single-A. The guy has never pitched an inning in double-A. I would get cocky about our chances on Tuesday, but the Brewers have had their struggles against unknowns.