PennFishFan

I'll say this despite Mystikol kinda pointing it out already. Joe Nelson, the career minor leaguer, didn't even make it into August as a Major Leaguer, I think it's safe to say we made the right decision not giving in to his demands. Doug Waechter, with his history of injuries, got DLed twice and injured three times this season including tearing his labrum for a second time. I think it's safe to say we made the right decision not giving in to his demands. And we followed that up with making the wrong decision by signing Scott Proctor...

Stanton with a monster game for Jax today: 2/4, 2HR's (including a grand slam) and 6 RBI's.

Stanton already has a 2-run shot tonight, his 8th at AA (and 20th overall for the season). The game is currently in the 5th and he's 2-3, raising his average over .250.

This guy was absolutely miserable as a Marlin in '06. He made Jorge Julio look dependable. No thanks!

What's Volstad's current super-two status?

Needs to end. This guy seems to have had an adequate opportunity to get the bat going, and at this point he's just taking playing time away from Cody Ross. It was a good idea, but the way Ross has been mashing there's no need for this Jacque Jones tryout to continue. Thoughts?

Here's another source on the JJ outing: Great news from Jupiter today where right-hander Josh Johnson pitched five innings in a Gulf Coast League game against the Cardinals. Johnson allowed one run on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts. He threw 60 pitches. He?ll start again in five days. Johnson underwent reconstructive elbow surgery on Aug. 3. The fact that he is pitching now means he is slightly ahead of schedule for a comeback from the surgery. But Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez wouldn?t speculate as to whether Johnson could join the Marlins some time after the All-Star break, whether in August or September. Gonzalez did say that JJ would start for the Marlins once he returns and not pitch out of the bullpen. Source: Joe Capozzi, PB Post http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content...n_pitching.html

Does anyone know the date of the super two deadline?

I know that there was already a topic about Joe Morgan's comments on Hanley Ramirez during a recent Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. However, Morgan went a little more in-depth about the team's performance, and Hanley specifically, during today's ESPN.com chat: robert:florida: what do u think of the marlins? Joe Morgan: (10:41 AM ET ) The Marlins have done well, but it is because they may have the best all-around player in the game in Hanley Ramirez, when you consider hitting, fielding, running the bases, steals etc. When it is all put together I think he is the best all-around player in the game. He hits at the top on the lineup and makes things happen. So I am not too surprised they are playing so well. I do not think they will win the division, but I do think they can be a contender.

My prediction is about 15 strikeouts for Santana.

Not to mention that he'd be the tallest player in the league...

Why would the team call up Gall, another position player, when the bullpen has already been overworked this season?

Beef O'Brady's is probably also worth a shot since it's pretty close to where you are. If you haven't been there before they have 2 west Gainesville locations : one on Archer (west of I-75) and one on NW 39th Avenue. It's a pretty nice place to watch sports, and they have a solid menu.

Extremely frustrating that we can't even see one of the few Marlins games they're actually supposed to broadcast in G-ville....

This guy was absolutely dominant for us in '04. If medical tests seem to indicate he can pitch anywhere near that level in '07, this would be a huge pickup.

Great idea, and we need some more Florida Gators on the team anyways (especially if they're UF's all-time HR leader)...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/base...tard/index.html Prospectus Matchups Those who repeat history are doomed to repeat it By Jim Baker, BaseballProspectus.com Always with one eye on the future and another on the past (with a third still minding the present), we examine today a unique baseball curio that deserves to be dusted off and appraised for possible reuse. On Sept. 27, 1963, the Houston Colt .45s fielded an all-rookie starting lineup. What made this something more than a novelty act is the fact that it included a future Hall of Famer (Joe Morgan) and a couple of other guys who went on to have excellent careers in the persons of Rusty Staub and Jimmy Wynn). (Imagine having a core of Morgan, Staub and Wynn with the average age of 20. In hindsight, the possibilities seem endless.) Jerry Grote and Sonny Jackson also had careers of decent length, too, with Grote still being active 18 years later. The Houston starters in this game were especially young. At 21 years, six months, Wynn was the oldest. Most were teenagers and Morgan was just this side of 20. In fact, the '63 Colt .45s unleashed a total of nine teenagers on the world. No other team in history is even close. In spite of what we have been led to believe, there weren't really all that many teenagers playing big league baseball during World War II. The 1944 Dodgers used six and a number of teams, like the Yankees, never used any at all. The other team with the most teenagers was the 1915 A's who also used six as Connie Mack seemed bent on giving every wayward lad on the East Coast a shot at making his team. Furthermore, the .45s had a number of other very young rookies they could have started as well. Dave Adlesh and Ivan Murrell were all very young and handy. Nineteen-year old rookie pitcher Chris Zachary had started three days before and would close out the season two days after this game. Admin Yellen was supposed to be the starting pitcher but had to opt out because he was observing Yom Kippur. Most famously -- and I think I had it in my head that his moment of glory came in this game but it did not -- was John Paciorek. The 18-year old would make history two days later by reaching base in all five trips to the plate in his one and only major league game. Houston's starting lineup: Sonny Jackson, ss Joe Morgan, 2b Jimmy Wynn, cf Rusty Staub, 1b Aaron Pointer, rf Brock Davis, lf Glenn Vaughan, 3b Jerry Grote, c Jay Dahl, sp Every reliever the .45s used was a rookie, as were the other substitutes save for one. Carl Warwick pinch-hit for pitcher Jim Dickson in the eighth inning. Given that Murrell and Paciorek were around, it's a shame one of them wasn't used instead although in Paciorek's case, preserving the all-rookie presentation would have been trading one novelty for another. The ninth-place .45s lost the game 10-3 to the last-place New York Mets, a team they led in the standings by 14 games. Since then, no other team has ever started an all-rookie lineup, even with all the possibilities that Sept. 1 call-ups present. I would propose that should change this year. We have in our midst a ballclub that, with very little tinkering, could very easily replicate the Houston trick. The Florida Marlins have the personnel to make this a reality. There doesn't even need to be too much contriving involved since they already have so many rookies on hand playing regular roles. The lineup could look like this: Hanley Ramirez, ss Dan Uggla, 2b Mike Jacobs, 1b Josh Willingham, lf Jeremy Hermida, rf Reggie Abercrombie, cf Lee Mitchell, 3b Paul Hoover, c Josh Johnson, sp Heck, the lineup already looks almost like that. Everyone except Mitchell and Hoover have had significant playing time this year. Hoover has had just four at bats making Mitchell the one pure contrivance. He's currently the third baseman for the Carolina Mudcats of the Southern League. Since the men playing third for the Marlins at Triple-A have too much big league time to be considered rookies, it would fall to Mitchell (.214/.314/.405) to fill out the lineup. The other option would be to move Ramirez to third for the day and let Robert Andino start at shortstop. In addition, the Marlins also have enough rookie pitchers that they could -- a lengthy extra inning game excepted -- not use a single non-freshman in the game. Chris Resop, Renyel Pinto, Carlos Martinez, Taylor Tankersley and Yusmeiro Petit are all rookies who have done bullpen time this year. This does nothing to mention which starter would get the call. I've listed Johnson because he's having the best year on the team, but they have other choices as well. If, when the time comes, it's not his turn, there are a host of others who could get the call. All have pitched well enough that the Marlins would not be compromised in the same way the '.45s were in 1963 when they chose as Yellen's replacement the adolescent Jay Dahl, a 17-year old making his major league debut. Dahl was cuffed around by the Mets and left trailing 8-0. No such fate would await the Marlins if Johnson were to be out of turn and they chose to start Anibal Sanchez, Ricky Nolasco or Scott Olsen. All three have double-figure VORPs. Sanchez has pitched well enough to win his past four starts. He's walking a few more than you'd like but sporting the lowest BABIP on the team, so all's well that ends well. There is a cautionary note that should be sounded, though. What the second-year .45s were doing -- apart from generating some ink for a team playing out the string -- was announcing to their fans that there was plenty to look forward to in the future. There is no such message to be sent to the fans of South Florida. While the Marlins have outperformed all expectations so far this year, we can't forget that the season began with city representatives of San Antonio, Texas attending the team's season opener against the Astros in Houston. While it would certainly be something to talk about and remember fondly, an all-rookie Marlins game might be hard-pressed to outdraw the original, a contest that attracted just 5,802 customers. Regardless, it's worth doing. It could even be scheduled for the home game against the Reds on Sept. 27 -- 43 years to the day after the Colt .45s pulled the stunt.

And this one, from ESPNdeportes: By Enrique Rojas ESPNdeportes.com MIAMI -- At least for now, rookie pitcher Anibal Sanchez is part of the Marlins' rotation. How he pitches in the near future will determine whether he stays there. "I don't want to go back to the minors," Sanchez told ESPNdeportes.com. "I don't want to imagine going back to the minor leagues, nor do I want to be sent to the bullpen ? but that depends on how well I pitch." Sanchez, 22, has had mixed results in his first year in the majors. In his debut, the right-hander shut out the powerful Yankees for 5 2/3 innings at Yankee Stadium. But then he was pounded by Boston and Washington for 12 runs in 9 1/3 innings combined. He then came back, and in three starts, limited Houston, Washington and Atlanta to one run in 21 frames. In his victory over the Astros, the Venezuelan native outdueled Roger Clemens. In three starts from July 14 to July 25, Sanchez allowed just one earned run over 21 innings.But then in his last start Sunday in Philadelphia, Sanchez gave up eight hits and eight runs in 4 1/3 innings to raise his ERA from 3.00 to 4.46. "Learning to pitch at the major league level is a process that takes some time, and I think I'm adapting," said Sanchez, who is 4-1 in seven starts with Florida. At the same time Sanchez was having his ups and downs on the mound, the pitcher he replaced in the rotation, Brian Moehler, returned from a foot injury. Now Marlins manager Joe Girardi has to decide between Sanchez and Moehler for the last spot in the rotation. "Sanchez will take his regular turn in the rotation on Friday against the Dodgers," Girardi said Tuesday. "The way he's pitching, I think it would be a mistake to take [sanchez] out of the starting rotation," Marlins catcher Miguel Olivo said. "The guy can throw all his pitches for strikes: two types of fastballs, a slider and changeup. And he's not afraid to use them." Sanchez, originally signed by the Red Sox in 2001, was part of the trade that also sent Hanley Ramirez, Jesus Delgado and Harvey Garcia to the Marlins for Josh Beckett, Guillermo Mota and Mike Lowell. He was called up from Double-A on June 25 for an emergency start against the Yankees, and earned a 5-0 win. "Every start is special, but I'll never forget my debut," he said. "I'd like to have a lot more special games this year." Enrique Rojas is a reporter and columnist for ESPNdeportes.com and ESPN.com.

The guy has been putting up great numbers lately, and even though the outfield is quite crowded, it looks like he's a keeper beyond this season. He's most likely not the long-term answer for center field, but the Marlins should keep on finding a way to get his bat into the lineup.

I think Miggy's exact quote was "I know how to get $30 off your cingular bill," but the reporter from San Francisco mistakenly thought he had said something about Felipe Alou...

The thing that to me is the most telling: Tommy Hutton, the eternal optimist, even said during last night's game that Reggie should be getting experience down in Triple-A, not up on the big league club.

Yeah, why not. Since Helms isn't going to be starting for our club, it would absolutely be worth looking into. He's a good bench player, but not irreplaceable.

After waiting anxiously for the game to start at 1:00, I turned the channel to Sunshine/SunSports in Gainesville, only to have a fishing program on instead...unbelievable. Anyone else gonna call Cox cable in Gainesville to bitch?

Gainesville is frustrating...last season the Cox cable channel would show the Marlins games that weren't on FSN, but this year they don't seem to be doing that. So only 1 of the the 4 games has been on in Gainesville so far.

I find it funny that San Antonio's political leaders are trying to capitalize on the fact that a large portion of San Antonio's population is hispanic, while also saying that a team there would be of interest to all of Latin America... If he's trying to play the latino card, maybe he failed his geography lesson, and didn't bother to notice that Miami, the most latino-influenced major city in the U.S., is the "Gateway to the Americas." Certainly, San Antonio's latino population can't offer anything to major league baseball that Miami's doesn't.