LHPMarlin

His base running mistake in the 9th was awful and arguably cost us the tying run. To call it a mistake is charitable because the root of it was his lack of hustle running to first. You can’t be lazy in that situation.

We had Cesar Puello (batting .180) playing CF the last few weeks. He got hurt yesterday and was replaced by Jon Berti (who struck out his first three times up) who misplayed a ball hit deep. Brinson surely is capable of hitting better than .180 and playing a better CF than any of these guys (plus Riddle) who we've played in CF the last several months.

He had 296 bats at New Orleans and had 100 strikeouts. That's a shocking amount. In 2017 he had 299 at bats for Milwaukee's AAA affiliated and had only 62 strikeouts. He's regressed. It's hard to be optimistic, but I'm hopeful. I bet we move him in the offseason if he doesn't click in the next two months.

What I don't understand is the Marlin's focus on acquiring "toolsy" players who strike out a lot. Brinson, Harrison, Alfaro, Chisholm. These guys can all run and hit for power. But when you play in a big ballpark it seems like we would focus on contact hitters. What am I missing?

The last couple of years I had my seats in the "promenade" level (that's what you guys are calling the "lower bowl") and it was frustrating having people move in and sit around you (or even in front of you) who probably paid $5 to get in. So, this year I moved my seats down to the "field" level. The seats are much better and, in general, they seem to not let anybody down there who doesn't have seats there. Having said that, people seem to sit anywhere they want in the field level too and the ushers don't seem to care. It seems like the only seats the ushers truly protect anywhere in the ballpark are the "special" areas - the ones where you can order food/drinks from the seats.

I went to both the Friday and Saturday games (I have a 20 game season ticket package). Attendance on Friday was bad, the game was never competitive, and there was absolutely no energy in the park. On Saturday, the attendance was a bit better, the game was very competitive and fun to watch, and there was a lot more cheering and enthusiasm from the crowd. Much better atmosphere. So, for all we want to talk about "experience", it really does depend most on the quality of the game. I haven't experienced the A/C problems, unless you are talking about the wind tunnel effect in the top few rows of the promenade sections. Beyond that, I haven't experienced any temperature issues. Finally, concessions are overpriced but not terrible. As someone said, there are two "value priced" concession stands. And, anecdotally, the refillable, souvenir sized soda is $8 but is $12 or $13 at Dolphins games. I don't really see what Jeter and Company can do to improve the experience other than put a better team on the field.

One thing that seems to be lost with the "it doesn't matter if we win or lose" crowd is that just being competitive makes the team way more interesting to follow. I have tickets tonight and tomorrow and am much more excited about going than I was a few weeks ago. Most of you seem to think "playoffs or bust" and deride the Stanton era teams as being "below .500". But those last few teams were in the WC hunt deep into the season and therefore were fun to watch.

I see Joe F and others making reference to "hit tool players". What does this mean? Players who can hit?

I went to Vandy so that’s one reason I want it to be Bleday. Another is we need help sooner rather than later. Having said that, this regime has talked constantly about defense and athleticism. They seem to devalue power hitters because of the size of the park. And they’ve seemingly concentrated on “five tool” guys in so many of their recent acquisitions. So, if there is a raw, athletic, five tool high school player available who struggles to hit breaking balls, that’s probably who they’ll take.

The guys we got are doing nothing and the guy we traded won MVP. How else do you judge a trade? Unless you want to take the position that you have to wait many years to judge. How about Ernie Broglio to the Cubs for Lou Brock? Was that a "fine" deal too?

Samson says that Jeter and Denbo are at fault for the horrible Yelich trade. Pro-Jeter fans push back and point out the bad trades that the Loria/Samson regime made. Absent in all of this back and forth is any mention of Mike Hill, who was the GM during both regimes. Mike "Teflon" Hill.

I really doubt they call up Harrison any time soon. Even though he is hitting better than before, he still strikes out way too much. The most troublesome thing about our many struggling hitters in the minor leagues is that it is the minor leagues they are struggling in. It is one thing to struggle at the big league level like Brinson is. Throughout the history of baseball there have not been very many successful major league hitters who could not hit in the minors. Guys who are successful at the major league level were pretty much stars at every stage below that. So, expecting one of these guys who are hitting .180 over an extended period of time at A or AA to be a major league player is asking a little much.

We should be active in the international market but, imo, it is no easy fix and we still have to focus our scouting attention on the draft. I say this for two reasons. First, the Trump administration's revocation of the deal with the Cuban baseball federation would seemingly hurt the Marlin's plans of going after top Cuban talent. Second, also, sure about you all, but I'm a little discouraged with VV Mesa starting out in Jupiter. Maybe that is just a conservative approach to his development, but I would have thought with his credentials that he would be further along.

Rebuilding is one thing. Scoring 1 run over a 3 game series is another altogether. For those of us who pay for a season ticket package (I have tickets for tomorrow night), this looks like a it's going to be a long and miserable season. Maybe a historically bad one. I hope that the players do feel some "pressure"; they have to do something to try to generate more offense. Sending O'Brien down and replacing him with dean or Ramirez might be a start.

I'm not sure how firing Mattingly would generate any worse PR than trading away all of the guys they have traded the last two seasons. Jeter/Hill would sell it by using buzzwords like "sustainability" and "culture" and "vision" and "fit".

You could argue that last night was the most humiliating loss in this history of the franchise. To get blanked 14-0 by a bad team, with a starting pitcher that you traded away for basically nothing. And, then the awful performances by Urena and especially Chen. Is there any possibility that Chen is "tanking", or, more likely, he just doesn't care anymore and would like to get released. He's going to get paid no matter what. He probably has no major league future beyond next year. And, he's probably unhappy about his relief role.

This may be the answer. We DFA'd Straily. Might do the same to Urena.

Dietrich hit two home runs yesterday. I still can't believe we let him go for nothing in return. Whether or not Marlins fans would "come out to the ballpark" just because of Dietrich (I doubt it), he was a fan favorite and should have had some value to the franchise.

You all that defend every move made claim that losing/getting rid of the star players has done nothing to affect attendance. In fact, the intelligentsia o this board like nothing more than pointing out that the attendance is unchanged. But, the same people apparently hope that improving the concessions, changing the uniforms, etc. will increase attendance. Do you all really think that the availability of a Novecento concession stand is more likely to lure fans than Stanton, Yelich, etc...?

I do think it would be interesting to know how much Mike Hill is involved in personnel moves now, as compared to under the prior ownership.

I think it was Dave Hyde today in the Sun Sentinel who pointed out that the Red Sox do not advertise the culinary options at the ballpark to attract fans. That's the main thing that the Marlins are talking about these days; that and the improvements to the ballpark. That is obviously because the team will lose near 100 games. Since we will likely be in the same boat in 2020, I would expect them to make other upgrades and sell those next winter/spring to attract fans.

I'm not sure that's the case. I mean, do you believe they released Derek Dietrich because they think that Rosell Herrerra "can bring them more winning"? Without Straily they will save money and they will also open a spot for the younger guys . And there is value to both, I'm sure. But, I don't think the move necessarily signifies a commitment to winning "this year".

How is getting rid of Dan Straily and receiving nothing in return a demonstration that ownership is committed to "winning" and "performance"?

Somehow, I don't think that releasing Straily three days before the season starts is perceived as a "good thing" to do to a loyal veteran. Teams have their rotations set and he is not on an opening day roster. If they were going to do the "respect for a veteran thing", they should have released him a week or two before.

In 2017 we traded David Phelps and received, among others, Pablo Lopez. How is it possible that we can get nothing at all in return for Straily (and Derek Dietrich, for that matter)? Phelps may be more versatile than Straily, but Straily is a legit major league starter.