Jay Ram

Yeah I mean it's Heaney that'll pretty much make or break this. If he's a really good #2, I like their chances to put together at least an average 3/4/5 from the other 6 or 7 competing arms. Pretty much. The hope is that Eovaldi, or possibly Conley or Nicolino or a dark horse can become a good No. 3 too.

I'm not as up on the Marlins current pitching situation. I'm not even sure Alvarez and Turner are more than fifth starters. Wouldn't make them the highlight if a great young staff. Not completely down on them, but after Jose and maybe Eovaldi, it's nothing more than potentially average. We can be great, moreso because of the potential of Heaney, Conley and Nicolino.

If I remember correctly, we asked for Kershaw, Kemp, LaRoche, and Loney or Ethier. They were willing to part with any three excluding Kershaw, and the Marlins wanted either Kershaw plus two or all four excluding Kershaw... Or something like that. We probably would have been a playoff team for many years had they just found a happy medium and made a deal with LA. We would have been better off, but Miller and Maybin were so highly touted that I think we have to be careful not to blame the Marlins too much here. It was more bad luck that they busted than bad judgement.

I agree Loria is going to just splurge when he thinks the time is right (hopefully not on Bucks, Bells, Dobbs, and Buerhles...) but Stanton is a different animal than Delgado and Reyes. His next contract is going to be worth more than those two combined. I think it's a lock Stanton gets a deal top 25 most lucrative in the history of baseball (that is assuming he does what we all think in 2014, 35+ HR/.900+OPS/etc). If you think that is crazy, Freddie Freeman got the 29th highest contract in the history of baseball. Freddie Freeman. Top 25 is $141 million, and I bet he pushes into Top 15 which is $160 million. Top 10 is $180 and if he really crushes, not out of the question. This is just not Loria splurge territory. He'll sign 3-4 free agents for that amount of money, which is still a heap of talented players. They missed their opportunity with Stanton. He gone unless he gets hurt and they can't trade him/still cheaper for 2015. Yea, it's going to be more than he ever did. I wouldn't put it past him. Just like I'm sure he would trade him soon thereafter. I agree they ruined it with him by not signing him yet.

If he does this Miami better lock him up next summer.

I just hope that if the Marlins do trade Stanton in the near future.....that they don't get a big bag of crap like the Tigers gave them for Cabrera. That was a shockingly bad return for the best hitter of this generation! Actually, it was a fair return at the time. Maybin and Miller were top ten prospects at the time. They failed miserably and the Marlins lost the trade down the road, however, at the time, it was probably the best and fairest deal available. We're never going to really know with these prospects and it didn't pan out that time.

Stanton doesn't want to stay in Miami. He will if they throw a boatload of cash at him and the years are limited enough to allow him to be a free agent in his prime (huge). It's that simple. 5 years, $90-100 million. That will get it done and thats all the Marlins can hope for at this time. next offseason, when he is guaranteed another significant arbitration tender, makes it worse and no shot they offer him a contract $200+ million because this is Loria we're talking about. Enjoy him while he is here. Actually, I think Loria is more than willing to spend money. He went and got Carlos Delgado. He went and go Jose Reyes and offered Albert Pujols. The issue isn't whether he would get impulsive and sign somebody. The issue is he would trade him 10 months later.