MarlinsinPBC

and all this attendance came from the extreme north of Palm Beach County and yet, the team still refuses to put the new stadium anywhere else than downtown Miami thus pretty much alienating all of their Palm Beach County fan base

signing Vlad wouldve made the Marlins the odds on favorites to win the national league and repeat champions Pierre Luis Vlad Lowell Cabrera Conine Choi/Cordero Castro Sea Bass with our pitching staff = WOW!!!!!

the reason why i think a retractable roof stadium is not because of rainouts. the marlins actually havent had a lot of them. the reason why its necessary is because we are not in a centralized metropolitan area. the marlins home game attendance base is spread over an extremely large area. central PBCounty is almost 60 miles away. now south florida weather is extremely unpredictable and inconsistent. it can be pouring in margate but sunny in coral springs for example. people that have to travel the far distances to catch a game may not want to take the risk that there may not be a game if the weather is iffy, especially where they live. a retractable roof stadium will improve attendance because people will know that there will ALWAYS be a game at the scheduled time of first pitch

Im sorry but you dont trade one of the most dependable defensive SS in the game for an unproven pitcher (and that which he has proved is that he walks too many guys)

Im telling you guys, Rosenthal is working to overhaul Neu's mechanics he has to go down to the minors to get used to the change the kid is what, 25 years old, he will be back in a few months and he'll be huge

redman may not have "broke the bank" to keep him but the team feels that they can get similiar production out of Oliver who will make $700,000 this year as opposed to Redman who will make $3.5 million another thing about Neu, rosenthal has been working extensively with Neu on overhauling his mechanics last week, I was watching wayne and neu working after the game and Neu was bouncing pitches 10 feet in front of the plate short term, the guy is going to have issues but in the long term it will make him a better pitcher give it time, he will be a very effective middle reliever as for Bill Murphy, he was actually the real target of the deal with the A's. the only thing that bothers me about Murphy right now is that he seems to have become buddies with Randall Messenger who might not be the best person for him to hang out with.

organization of the year has little to do with the success of the major league team if that was the case then organization of the year would just go to the team that wins the world series, wouldnt you think organization of the year is an award that is given out based on the teams farm system and if you think about it, all the trades that were made that brought in all those prospects, its easy to figure out why the farms were so strong in 1998

i was at the prospect camp today and I had a roster and allison was on it with an assigned number the rosters are updated every week so. and there was a kid that looked a lot like Allison, the only problem was that he was wearing a jacket and thus I couldnt see his number I but was under the impression that it was him. if it wasnt it sure did look like him.

but like the #16 said the dismantling of the team did end up bringing us Josh Beckett so there is a silver lining to every grey cloud :-) in retrospect Id much rather have it this way

I dont see Banks making the squad over Easley Easley gives the Marlins a serious right handed option as a PH and can play 2B/SS/3B. Mordecai is a better fielding option but doesnt carry the bat that Easley does. If any of those guys at those three positions goes down to injury Easley is much better replacement than Mordecai With Cordero on the team, who can play both 1B and the OF, what would be the advantage to keeping Banks? I like Banks, but positionally, it doesnt make any sense to keep him around.

right now, the Marlins attendance base is almost 20% from Palm Beach County even though they have the furthest travel distance. the closest point to the stadium is boca raton which is still almost 40 miles north of the stadium I know that all of you Miami people hate to admit it but the best site for all parties would be a stadium somewhere on the PBC/Broward County line. putting the team in miami alienates all of the PBC fan base because its so far away. plus all of the proposed miami sites are in unsafe areas, that are not the most easily accessable, and have very limited and very expensive parking just look how many empty seats you have at the AAA. we need a centrally located stadium that is fairly accessable to not only Miami-Dade County but also the fast growing northern palm beach county. they would get their best attendance there easily

Juan Cruz does have some great stuff his only problem is that he has had control problems I think Rosenthal can do good things with this kid

the thing that impresses me most about him is that he is dating that LeAnn Tweeden chick lucky SOB

another note about ETA's usually when a player is given an ETA that is not necessarily when the team is saying ok, this player is now ready and lets bring him up. ETAs are a measurement of when a player should be ready and if he isnt by that point he pretty much loses his "prospect" status and ends up eventually out of the organization. if you've noticed the order so far, the players at the tail end of the list are all players that seem to be getting at that age where they are getting close to that either now or never status. thats why theyre probably at the bottom of the list. cause I know that once upon a time both Kavourias and Magness were listed in the top 30 prospects in the Marlins organization by Baseball America. now that they are getting to the point of their careers where they either make it or they dont, does that mean that they dont have any strengths in their game that are worth praising?

well Derek Wathan is already part of the 40 man roster trying to earn a spot on the roster and if you are reading the articles youd have realized that the ETA's are for the most part when the player is expected to earn an invitation to spring training. not when they are expected to earn a starting spot. miguel cabreras and dontrelle willis' come along for a team once every 10 years if theyre lucky. the marlins got 2 of those guys in 1 year, which is absolutely unheard of I dont know why you think the write ups are overly optimistic. Every player has strengths and weakeness, aspects of their games that they need to work on, and aspects of their games that are already at a major league quality level. sure 99% of all prospects never make the majors. but then what would be the purpose of scouting???? one could just say "this guy sucks" and be done with it. i think the write ups have been very fair in their evaluations praising the players strengths and pointing out their weakeness.

the marlins also got a good one in LHP Bill Murphy from the Mark Redman trade some other possible good ones; Yorman Bazardo, Ron Belizario, Kevin Cave, Josh Johnson, David Marchbanks, and Jon Nickerson

judging by his performance in the AFL, Young can flat out hit the drays have some terrific prospects in both young and bj upton

youre right, and outside of those one or two top prospects everyone else fall into the category of either too young to consider a top prospect or still has holes to fill. the great thing about keeping track of prospects is that sometimes one develops his game to become either a top major leaguer or a very solid contributor.

I dont think the evaluations are OVER-positive. When talking about prospects, most teams are lucky with they carry 5 blue-chip type prospects throughout their whole organization. From that point on most of the other players have either a few glaring weakeness in their game or are too young to project as sure-fire major leaguers. Heck, even a lot of the blue-chippers never break in. You seem to have a problem with the way Magness is talked about. The guy hit pretty much .300, and was among the league leaders in homers, and rbis in a HIGH-A league (the florida state league) in 2002. the FSL is known for being a difficult league for hitters. Before his injury problems in 2003 he was actually considered a top 30 Marlins prospect by Baseball America. At that point he was only 24 and expected to be in Double A in 2003. The insiders report also made mention of the fact that for as good a hitter as he is, he really cant do much of anything else. the wasnt even allowed to play the field in college, let alone at a higher level. As for Wathan, I should hope that a guy that in a best case scenario projects to be a Mike Mordecai type NEVER cracks even the top 10 best prospects in an organization.