This week’s episode of The Franchise was pretty sad, yet happy in a few ways. This Marlins team has quite a few characters as we know it, starting with manager, Ozzie Guillen and outfielder, Logan Morrison.

The episode opened with top Marlins front office members, including owner Jeffrey Loria and general manager, Larry Beinfest, in a round table meeting discussing the progress of the team so far, as well as the future. It is really interesting to see what these guys have to say about the current state of the team. However, that is not what stood out to me this episode.

LoMo’s Quest

Logan Morrison meets Derek Jeter.

LoMo was back home in Kansas City for the All Star Break and was on a quest to find his childhood hero, George Brett. Brett played for the Kansas City Royals from 1973-1993 and wore the #5, LoMo’s current jersey number. We see Logan asking random people, including children, if they knew where George was. Finally, LoMo was able to meet his hero, and seemed so happy to be there with him. It was pointed out how many times LoMo said, “I’m a big fan.” Brett seems to be a big fan of LoMo as well, since he said some really good things about him.

A hilarious moment from LoMo’s adventure was when he ran into New York Yankees star, Derek Jeter. Jeter was just getting off an escalator when the encounter happened. It went something like this:

LoMo: Hey D!

Jeter: Hey, what’s up, man. [walks away as if LoMo was some random guy]

LoMo: He has no idea who I am.

LoMo & Twitter

LoMo was talking about how people get on him about his tweeting habits. Basically, everyone thinks he needs to lay off Twitter for awhile and work on improving his work on the field. Ozzie said something that rings true, “When you are losing and tweeting, you look like an ass.”

LoMo has been having a tough time with his at-bats. Ozzie sat down with him and analyzed his at-bats and showed him where he needs to improve. Then, they went into the batting cages where Ozzie was working with him on getting better. Seems like the hard work has been paying off because LoMo has been hitting better, even hitting a couple home runs.

This scene was pretty awesome for me to watch because it shows that Ozzie truly cares about his players and does everything he can to help them improve. Ozzie can be a bit of a hard ass, but he is like that for a good reason.

Stanton’s Surgery

We were all happy when Giancarlo Stanton was selected to be in the All Star game and the Home Run Derby, but his knee was not having it. Stanton had to go in for surgery the same day of the derby to remove “loose bodies” on his right knee.

Giancarlo Stanton is ready for surgery.

The surgery scene was pretty interesting to watch (it wasn’t that yucky). Yet, I felt so sad for him because he really wanted to make it to Kansas City for the All Star game. However, I am sure he will have another chance.

Good thing is, he is recovering well and will make it back to playing in no time.

The Ruggianos

The scenes with our new bad ass hitter, Justin Ruggiano, and his little family were adorable and very sweet. His wife is very supportive and you can tell she is very proud of her husband. The kids are just so sweet. There was a scene where the family were playing with dolphins at the Miami Seaquarium that was too sweet for words. (I wish I can have a private meeting with the dolphins. Pfft…)

The Meltdown

Ozzie has been very frustrated with this team’s inability to win games. He was seen in a team meeting making fun of Emilio Bonifacio’s “Lo Viste” sign, which is basically a sideways peace sign over one eye. (Lo viste is spanish for, “Did you see that?”) Ozzie said something like this team should use “No lo viste” because we are so bad.

We also had another look at the meltdown of Heath Bell, which occurred in that game when he blew that save with one out left against the St. Louis Cardinals. Everyone was frustrated, but Heath was mostly frustrated with himself by saying, “I think the team is doing great. I think I suck.”

Heath Bell is not a happy camper.

I felt like we were seeing someone who is in the middle of battling some demons that are getting to him so bad, his performance on the field suffers. Are his struggles a mental issue? Maybe or maybe not. Maybe this is the beginning of the decline of his career. Either way, he is lacking self confidence and it is affecting him big time. I know that am in the minority, but I want to give him a chance to shine. I am hoping that putting Steve Cishek to close games opens his eyes and gets him to work harder to get back to pitching well.

I am dying to see what happens next week. Hopefully, we get to see what the heck is up with Hanley Ramirez and his under performing lately. Ugh!