LHPMarlin

Hill is the guy who traded Straily for Luis Castillo two years ago, and now Castillo is the Reds' opening day starter.

Ironically, a couple of the guys who have sucked (Granderson and Herrera) are likely going to make the team.

I think the infield is set: Anderson, Rojas, Riddle, Castro, Prado, Walker. Reading the tea leaves, I think the outfield will be: Brinson, Granderson, O'Brien, Herrera. I don't much like the idea of Herrera over Austin Dean, but the powers that be seem to be seeking versatility.

We are paying him big money and it would be idiotic to just throw that away. He showed last year that he has some value (at least in home starts). You continue developing the young pitchers and use Chen to eat innings and (hopefully) get you some wins. Now, if he is terrible then, yes, you consider cutting him.

it's like you're creating a straw man argument in order to defend current leadership. "People said (or probably will say) with Jeter's leadership we won't have any real major league players in the lineup. Well that is not true! We have several bona fide major league players in the lineup. People are so unfair to Jeter with this criticism. Loria is to blame!"

The guy obviously misspoke by using the phrase "big league contracts". I assume he is curious why Granderson is not on the 40-man roster but a "minor league" player like Rosell Herrera is.

It would be better if it was full of rookies, like in 06. Then we would be able to watch the future. And, the lineup is only "decent" b/c we know the players. If we trade Realmuto and have Wallach or even Tucker Barnhart at catcher, this will be a terrible lineup. Lots of guys hitting .240 -.270 with 8 home runs and 32 rbi's.

Marlins picked up Brice and announced it at the same time to create impression that they got two players in the trade. Frisaro’s headlines support that misinformation campaign.

Ridiculous. We basically gave away Wittgren, who is a serviceable major league reliever. In return, we get a 27-year old who doesn't even get a spring training invite.

In addition to getting Brinson and Alcantara, the Marlins sold the trades as restocking the farm system and “layering” stud players throughout. It is pathetic that none of the other heralded pieces from the trades are in the top 100. It also doesn’t help the narrative that Bronson sucked last year.

Let's be honest here. If they don't do a deal before the expiration of this 7-day deadline, and Wittgren is lost, then it is incompetence.

If they deemphasize the "baseball" portion, they may lose out on the main demographic of FanFests - kids who want autographs. There seems to be a tension in the marketing department between appealing to the typical baseball crowd (families with kids) and some idealized version of the Miami nightlife crowd. I get that for games, but not a FanFest.

The email I got advertised the festivities as including "live music, food trucks, merchandise, giveaways, autographs, on-field access". The last two were in smaller font than the others. I find that very odd. The only reason to go to a FanFest is to get autographs, selfies, etc.. with, you know, the baseball players. Who cares about live music and food trucks?

People who say it doesn't matter if they lose 90 or 110 must not watch or attend games. Wins/losses don't happen in a vacuum. There is a long season to sit through. A 90 loss team is still a competitive team, and may even be "in the race" for a good portion of the season. If a rebuilding team wins 90 games it generates interest in the community and makes people feel good about the future. A 110 loss team on the other hand is a disastrous, historically bad team. It creates negative energy around the organization and people are pessimistic about the future. So, it matters a great deal.

Ok, so your argument that Yelich was always going to be a decent player here and would only be a superstar if he left applies only to him, selectively, and not to anyone else. Makes no sense to me.

The notion that Yelich was only every going to be a "nice" player here but a superstar in Milwaukee makes no sense. That sounds like a disingenuous way to justify the trade. I get the ballpark issue, but how do you explain Stanton hitting 59 home runs here and only 30 in Yankee Stadium?

So we have fans defending the trade because he was allegedly “unhappy” here? What’s next, we agree to a bad deal for Realmuto because he tells Jeter he’d rather play for another team?

You judge a trade by looking at the results of the players who were traded. The notoriously bad trades in baseball are guys who turned out to be hall of famers being traded for nobodies. The "we thought he might be a clubhouse cancer" excuse is not a good excuse if the performance on the field shows you got taken to the cleaners. Really, I think Jeter was smitten with the "tear it down" approach that Dave Hyde and most on this board espouse - which is trade everybody worth trading for whatever you can get, be prepared to absolutely suck for several years, and hope it all works out in the end.

I reject the notion that the Marlins were going to lose 90 games with or without the group from last year. How can that be said definitively? Look at Yelich - he is just coming into his own this year. I keep hearing people say again and again that the Marlins "lost with these same players". But players get better - look at Yelich. Here's what happened, and it's pretty clear to me. The new ownership group looked at Yelich's season last year, which was disappointing. And they gambled that it reflected the player he was. They lost on that bet b/c he is clearly much better than that. And, if the Brewers were looking to trade him this offseason, he would command a much higher price than the Marlins got for him. I don't see how this trade can be defended, knowing what we know now.

It is interesting to me that other Marlins players were at American Social. I don't remember hearing that. It is perhaps telling that none of them would go with Jose on the boat and Jose found these other two guys (one I recall he barely knew and the other he didn't know at all) to go with him.

The reported attendance last year was 1,651,997. The reported attendance this year is about half that. So we are supposed to believe that last year’s “real” attendance was half of what was reported? I don’t buy that at all.

Could be. I assume that most on here will say that they don't care if the Marlins play that game or not.

I agree with all of that. But at the time (if my memory is correct) it sounded like both Yelich and Realmuto expressed displeasure at the other trades and wanted out. They traded Yelich and not JT, probably because they got what they believed to be a good return for Yelich but not JT. Then before this season in the media they portrayed Yelich to be a malcontent and JT to be a team player. Seemed disingenuous to me.

Maybe so but should have kept Yelich. No reason to trade him (unlike Stanton and Ozo).

If nothing matters then nobody is at fault and there is nothing to criticize. Just move along and don’t ask questions. I seem to remember that some of you guys were bragging early in the year that the team was on the same win/loss pace as last year so wins/losses mattered at some point.