Valid

Didn't Gary Sheffield actually say he wanted to play here later on his career? Of course, he wasn't close to the same player at that point, but I think he liked it in Miami a lot. EDIT: Went back and realized you were probably specifically talking about international FAs. Carry on.

This Christian Yelich kid looks pretty good. We should trade for him.

Damnit Silver. I told you not to build that freaking treehouse. Don't tell me: you built the secret Brewers treehouse too and that's why Lewis Brinson stunk for us this year.

I think what people fail to understand is that the Marlins simply do not have the capital to build a winner just like that. We have had PLENTY of teams with a lot of talent, but because we have just never had the revenue, we haven't been able to get over the hump. Think about this for a second: up until last year, a legitimate argument can be made that we had a top five talent in all of baseball dating all the way back to the Miguel Cabrera years. First, Cabrera. Then, Hanley. Then, Stanton. We also had guys like Josh Johnson, Jose, Yelich, Ozuna, etc. sprinkled in. That's great, and if we had the kind of money the Yankees or Red Sox have, you better believe we probably would have built a winner. But we don't. The Marlins basically HAVE to get lucky in absolutely nailing drafts/international prospects/trades in order to win, i.e. the 2015 Royals or the Astros that we are currently watching. Heck, even the Yankees--as spendthrift as they are--have done a TREMENDOUS job of building their team through scouting, superb drafting and shrewd trading. Sans Big G, most of that team is homegrown. So, yeah. It's easy to say, "The Marlins had Stanton, Yelich and Ozuna and they let it all go!!!" but if you do, you're either not comprehending the specifics or you are actively choosing to ignore them to try and make a point. Hopefully, Jeter and Co. can start identifying talent and begin to stockpile it so we can build a winner for the long haul.

The way Yankees fans have treated him this season is absolutely disgusting. Sanchez bats .180 and loafs around all season and doesn't hear a peep from the fans. Stanton leads the team in home runs and RBI and gets booed. Funny how that works.

Lol. Stanton slashed .266/.343/.509 with 38 homers and 100 RBI and had a 7.5 UZR and 18.3 UZR/150, and you're saying he had a "subpar" year? What are we? Yankees fans? Hope he smashes a whole bunch of home runs this postseason just to shut everyone the hell up. Rooting hard for him.

They might as well hold on to Harvey for now and see if he builds up any value before the trade deadline. It's not like they would get anything of significance for him at this point, anyway.

For those saying this is a "good move" and that it "had to be done," think about this: the Marlins just traded arguably the most dominant hitter in the game for a salary dump. I'm one of the most optimistic people on this forum, but even I know this deal sucks. At least when the Marlins traded Cabrera and Willis, they got two blue-chip prospects (at the time) in Maybin and Miller back. I know that situation was a bit different due to money and all, but still, this is an awful, awful deal. As for the Yankees? They just landed one of the best players in baseball for virtually nothing and are going to add him into a lineup that made it to Game 7 of the ALCS last year and they didn't even have to trade a single one of their top prospects to get the deal done. Hats off to Brian Cashman. The dude is phenomenal. As long as Stanton stays healthy, the Yanks could end up winning a few World Series.

My guess is Clint Frazier has to be included in this.

It's kind of weird how there hasn't even been any speculation on what prospects would be coming back to the Marlins.

I had some hope that Hech could be a .730 OPS kind of guy with stellar defense after his 2015 season, which actually would have made him one of the best shortstops in baseball. But, he was really bad (like, almost historically bad) offensively last year and he's already 28, so he probably isn't going to improve. I'd say this is a fine return for a dude who OPSed .594 last season.

So you didn't give up on the team when they had firesales after the 1997 World Series, 2005, 2007 and 2012, but trading J.T. Riddle and his .605 OPS will be the straw that breaks the camel's back for you?

Yeah. It's April 16th. Plenty of time for him to bounce back.

Maybe because he struck out 114 guys with a 2.28 ERA and 2.80 FIP in 86.2 innings last year?

#FirstPlace #IKnowItsApril #IDontCare

Would this be worse than if you bought the team?

Does this mean @Das Texan is a Marlins fan again?

And you think Ivan Nova would have fixed it? The dude has a lifetime 4.26 FIP and 1.365 WHIP. A couple of good months with Pittsburgh doesn't change the fact that he is really no better than anyone else in our rotation. Nova is a guy you add when you have a good 1-2-3 punch at the top of your staff and need a decent back-end starter (i.e. Tom Koehler); not when you have what the Marlins do.

LMAO at that Infoplease article that was cited in this. So trying to win = no class? I know it was written 20 years ago now, but still. Funny.

Definitely, especially over the past several years. Heck, they've even starting re-signing their own guys, which is something they never really did before.

Lol at Oakland. Billy Beane is the most overrated front office executive in the history of professional sports. He's teflon, though. He literally does the same thing the Marlins do (without the two World Series titles) and gets a pass for it because "Moneyball."

What's with all of this talk about sucking ass? That's disgusting. There are children here (maybe).

He's really not, to be honest. He's pretty much on par with them as a starter. He's actually basically another Tom Koehler as a starting pitcher. Phelps the starter is a completely different pitcher than Phelps the reliever.

Honestly, the sheer lack of serious interest in Encarnacion around the MLB in general is puzzling.

Phelps started for most of the first four years of his career and posted ERAs in the mid 4s, WHIPs around 1.4 and didn't strike guys out. He is 10 times better in the pen.