DelGOT2Rings

I think the goal is to make sure whoever is in the 2 hole will work the count to see more pitches so EB can work his magic on the bases. You don't need to have a 1-2 speed connection. That's more a global issue of wanting the speed up front, but speed in the 8 hole isn't bad either. For example, maby Maybin can still a base and let the pitcher/ph/lead off drive him in from second or move him to third.

what great memories...i forgot about the thome double-play ball in the 11th. also the charles johnson play to keep the game alive in the 9th...livan warming up in the 11th after throwing 140 pitches in game 5...i forgot all those moments. i hate how they skip around innings though, seriously...just play the video start to finish, nobody's watching this but a few marlins fans. show the whole thing!

thanks for the recap. i think sarnoff makes fair points, but my primary gripe is bringing it up at the last minute. did he just think the marlins would accept those material changes during the hearing without examining the impact of those changes (forcing a re-examination of the whole deal)? in the end, the marlins will have a tough time rejecting sharing money from the naming rights or allowing the city/county to share in any profits from a sale of the team. one point sarnoff did make, that I find quite interesting, is that he used the example of a potential sale of only a small percent of the team - implying that the team might look to sell off minority interests. what does anyone make of this? i do agree with his point that the city/county should share in the profits of not only a sale of the entire team (which I thought was restricted for a period of time), but the sale of any minority interest as well.

Getting rid of Jake is addition by subtraction. Adding a young MLB-ready arm is icing on the cake. No problem with this deal whatsoever. I hope the Marlins got a guy they liked, and if so I'm happy. BTW, how much does Nunez make? When is he arb-eligible?

Absolutely hilarious! What in the world is Cody Ross dressed as?? Also, who was Nacho Libre? I loved when the Burger King rolls into McDonalds. It's a bit crazy to think that these guys ended the mets season. Someone needs to send Omar Minaya a nice card with a picture of these guys dancing in times square with a little note that says "you lost to THESE guys???" I love it.

I thought they were going to possibly have street cars/trolleys from the megaplan going to and from the stadium?

It's really not that complicated. After more than half a season of scouting reports, opposing teams have learned our weaknesses and taken advantage of our inability to adjust. Pitch hanley away, particularly with two strikes. Stop throwing Jacobs first pitch fastball strikes. Pitch Cantu up because he kills the lowball. Get ahead of Uggla (particularly by throwing early breaking balls) so he'll swing at anything with two strikes. Pitch Cody breaking balls and fastballs up. Don't be afraid to pitch Helms and Gonzo inside, since they lack the power to hit those out anymore and will probably roll over the ball for a weak groundout. Oh, and here's the most important one...don't abandon your scouting report when runners are on, because our players never change their approach to move runners over or drive in a guy from third with less than two outs.

how about...i know this is crazy....a LEFTY/RIGHT platoon! Yes, I know, absolute crazy talk here...but I think this team needs to think outside the box! In all seriousness, this is such an obvious move that I know for some reason we WON'T do it.

The Pirates are the ones who TURNED DOWN the Marlins offer...they didn't think it was enough (Hermida, Tank, Coughlan), and they liked what the Dodgers were offering. I'm assuming Boston had the same prospects going to the Pirates no matter what, although with Beinfest's demands for $2 Million to cover compensation picks, maybe that's too much of an assumption. I also think this deal speaks volumes about what the league (or at least the Pirates) thinks of Hermida. Which, is not that much, or at least not as much as the people on this board. Maybe Hermida can use this to fuel his passion to play, and maybe one day he can prove the Pirates wrong. I still would rather have Manny, but I seem to be in the minority here. I think we lack situational hitters, and Manny, for all his shennigans, is one of the best situational hitters out there. He works a count, drives in runners when he has to with sac. flies, and generally makes the whole lineup more dangerous. I think we need someone like that. We don't need another masher, but anyone who watches Manny knows he's more than that. 3 quick thoughts about this whole thing. One, I wonder if Hermida PLUS Gaby would have sealed the deal with the Pirates? If so, it makes me question the Rhodes deal. Wouldn't you rather have Manny (positional player) than Rhodes (situational lefty)? And, I really question whether the demand for $2 million dollars for the extra picks was justified. It is not as if the picks do not end up benefiting the Marlins (you can't underestimate compensation picks, as Volstad, West, Tucker, etc...that was the last time we were able to take advantage of compensation picks). Two, anyone want to place bets that we sell out that series against the Rockies if we get Manny? That's reason enough right there if you're the FO, particularly when Manny's salary was paid for by Boston...selling tickets is important. The four game series against Colorado was sparsely attended for a team right in the thick of the hunt. Third, are the same people questioning a "2 month rental" for Manny also questioning our deal for Rhodes? Because that's the same thing, only we don't get compensation picks, and we gave up a good pitching prospect (yes, we have better ones, but he wasn't chopped liver). It really doesn't speak much on that point. It speaks to what the worst run team in baseball thinks of Hermida. As you can tell bu the deal we gave them and the deal they ended up getting, there were going to sheer quantity over quality. Boston didn't want him either. Just saying. BTW, I don't think wanting LaRoche is necessarily a "quantity over quality" discussion. There are legitimate arguments that LaRoche > Hermida, considering that, among other things, he plays a more valuable position (3B over corner outfield).

The Pirates are the ones who TURNED DOWN the Marlins offer...they didn't think it was enough (Hermida, Tank, Coughlan), and they liked what the Dodgers were offering. I'm assuming Boston had the same prospects going to the Pirates no matter what, although with Beinfest's demands for $2 Million to cover compensation picks, maybe that's too much of an assumption. I also think this deal speaks volumes about what the league (or at least the Pirates) thinks of Hermida. Which, is not that much, or at least not as much as the people on this board. Maybe Hermida can use this to fuel his passion to play, and maybe one day he can prove the Pirates wrong. I still would rather have Manny, but I seem to be in the minority here. I think we lack situational hitters, and Manny, for all his shennigans, is one of the best situational hitters out there. He works a count, drives in runners when he has to with sac. flies, and generally makes the whole lineup more dangerous. I think we need someone like that. We don't need another masher, but anyone who watches Manny knows he's more than that. 3 quick thoughts about this whole thing. One, I wonder if Hermida PLUS Gaby would have sealed the deal with the Pirates? If so, it makes me question the Rhodes deal. Wouldn't you rather have Manny (positional player) than Rhodes (situational lefty)? And, I really question whether the demand for $2 million dollars for the extra picks was justified. It is not as if the picks do not end up benefiting the Marlins (you can't underestimate compensation picks, as Volstad, West, Tucker, etc...that was the last time we were able to take advantage of compensation picks). Two, anyone want to place bets that we sell out that series against the Rockies if we get Manny? That's reason enough right there if you're the FO, particularly when Manny's salary was paid for by Boston...selling tickets is important. The four game series against Colorado was sparsely attended for a team right in the thick of the hunt. Third, are the same people questioning a "2 month rental" for Manny also questioning our deal for Rhodes? Because that's the same thing, only we don't get compensation picks, and we gave up a good pitching prospect (yes, we have better ones, but he wasn't chopped liver).

OMG, he ONLY made ONE questionable / bad decision. He didn't bring in his closer for the 9th inning. Big whoop...Fredi doesn't have a bat in his hands; these are professional players...they went 1-10 with .RISP today. I said it last night, while everyone was going goo-goo-gaa-gaa over the win. The hitters were terrible last night, and 9x out of 10, when you play like that, you lose. Well, they did it today again...and lost. Scott in the 6th after only allowing 1 hit and being under 100 pitches.... he needs to go back out for the 7th... If you want Rhodes to come in and pitch and he strikes out 1 guy, dont go to Pinto unless you need to pinch hit for Rhodes.. instead he just brought pinto in.. Now this one is questionable... but with the bases loaded, Cantu at bat, down by 1 run in the bottom of the 9th with less than 2 outs... im putting the suicide squeeze on 99.9% of the time... Agreed. Taking him out was a costly mistake. How was it a costly mistake, we didn't give up any runs in the 7th?

I think that the Derrek Lee and Luis Castillo trades were the worst. Spooneybarger for Hampton was actually a GOOD thing for us, because we weren't strapped with his whole salary. He hasn't pitched in years, and I doubt he ever will. Yeah but for us, he was one of our highest paid players, and he was piching against us a lot, being with Atlanta. I'm not sure what you're complaining about. You do understand that we had to pay SOME of Hampton's contract to have Colorado take Preston Wilson's crippling contract and have the Braves ultimately take the bulk of Hampton's, right? In sum, we unloaded a monster contract that nobody wanted to take, received an inexpensive CFer who went on to set the table for the eventual WS champs, and saddled the Braves with an injured Hampton who the Braves had to pick up the bulk of the contract. We were only responsible for a small portion of Hampton's contract. Even if you added what we owed to Hamption straight up on Juan Pierre's salary, I think we make out light bandits. The only reason that money was significant, was because the Marlins' payroll is so low that ANY money we take on for a player who doesn't play for us is too much money. That said, objectively we won that trade.

As terrible as Uggla played, the A-Hole Of The Game Award goes to Billy Wagner for blowing the lead and letting the game go into extra innings. Relievers blow leads all the time. It's a very common occurrence. When was the last time you saw a guy make 3 errors and also fail to drive in the go ahead run in extra innings from 3rd with less that two outs twice while also strking out with a runner on in another AB and in one of the ABs with the runner on 3rd he hit into a DP? He had one of the worst games I've ever seen. I think he'll have bad memories about it for the rest of his life but I don't think it will adversely impact on how he plays the rest of the year. I think we were typing our rebuttal posts at the same time! Totally agree!

We just can't admit when our guys mess up. i would bet if Uttly had the kind of game Uggly had, we would be reading that another pitcher allow 2 runs Who's admitting that our guys didn't mess up? They did. They didn't cost the NL the game, though. Honestly, I think Uggla did cost the NL the win. Blaming a pitcher for blowing a save is so common place now, but Wagner isn't the only goat. Uggla hit into a double play with the go-ahead run on third in a tie game, and THEN struck out in a tie game with the bases loaded and only one out. This doesn't take into account the THREE untimely errors he had, or his other TWO strikeouts. The fact that Cook got the NL out of the inning unscathed does not take away from Uggla's putrid performance at the plate. The only good thing about this whole fiasco is that apparently Uggla isn't really too bothered by it. It looks like he is letting it roll off his shoulders, which shows what kind of character he has. Hopefully, this can be used as a positive for when the games really count, and Uggla can continue his strong season into the second half.

The Urbina trade was a great trade for us. Everyone completely underestimates what getting Urbina meant for the rest of our bullpen, and our starting staff. There's no way we win the WS without him. He was vital (as was just about every member of our roster, which is what makes a team a champ. team). That being said, everyone likes to point out how great Gonzalez was (and is) when he was traded. Unfortunately, he was traded, not just because Texas wanted him, but because he was stuck behind Jason Stokes on our depth chart. Was that a monumental error by our FO - um, yes, goes without saying. But Gonzalez would never turned into an all-star on our team. So, understanding this REALITY, the trade turned into a great trade for both teams. Also, I know Detroit signed Urbina to a two year deal afterwards, but did we end up getting draft picks for him?