wilksthequaker

I agree with this article, there's plenty of pitching in the organization and this trade saves money while snatching a great player or two in return. Cabrera on the other hand should be kept foeva! I love him, but this is the point you cash out on him. Teams are pitching hungry and will overpay for him this offseason. Fill the lineup out and save $24 mil for the next three years (that'll pay for our whole team for one )

8/100 million for miguel cabrera Cabrera has three more arbitration years coming up, in which he'd make $4, $6 and $12mm? Probably something similar to what Soriano made - I'm not sure what that would be. After that, he's probably a $15 player. If you add 3 more years at $15, you're at $67. 6 at $70 makes sense and you can tack on two more to get to 8/$100, so I agree with you there. He's been making pennies over the past three+ years and paying him $12.5 a year going forward would give him about $5 million a year more than he'd make over the next three years. I think you'll have to pay him more up front to get him to lock up beyond what would be his free agent time. Dontrelle has two more arbitration years left I believe and might be something like $6 and $9. If you want to lock him up for seven more years and assume he's worth $10 per year going forward (I don't like paying more than that for pitchers), you can backload to help sign Cabrera and hope to secure a stadium. $7-8-9-10-11-12-13 would make for a 7 year/$70 mil contract, which I think would make sense. That would mean $20 million and increasing by $1 million per year over the next six to keep the two around. Definitely affordable given that the rest of our team won't be making much at all for the next two years. That's the way I'd try to do it, but I think Loria's too cheap. Because I know Loria won't do it, I think we would be best off (don't shoot me) trading Dontrelle and locking up Cabrera. As much as I love Dontrelle, Cabrera is a once or twice in a lifetime talent. Dealing away Willis could help us fill that hole in CF and bring in some more young arms, while dealing us a downgrade where we can best afford it and saving us $10 million a year. I'd hate to do it, but that's my prediction with what happens. Willis is one of those few players that many teams would likely overpay for.

Can't we all agree on a happy medium? I'm sure 28 other teams are jealous. Reyes right now is much better than Ramirez is, but Ramirez has done much more as a rookie than Reyes ever did. Just wait and see. Are we keeping in Willis to let Met fans drool over him some more?

I was in Vegas about 2 months ago and the odds on the Marlins winning the World Series were 100-1. I couldn't pass up the opportunity and put down ten bucks. So if the unthinkable were to happen, that's $1000 coming my way! This team has been just unbelievable and they are playing with all heart. There's no reason why they can't clinch the wild card. Once they are in the post season, anything can happen!!!! LET'S GO FISH! Two months ago, we probably had less than a 5% chance of making the playoffs. Even once you make the playoffs, it's a crapshoot (1-in-8), pushing odds well below 1%. I would have had a hard time making that bet back then, but maybe that's why I'm not a gambler.

Any close play there and he's out. No ump will be remembered as the guy who questionably called the 27th out "safe" and broke up a no-hitter. Who cares ESPN. Game over. Anyway, it's not like a fan potentially reached out over the field in game 6 of the NLCS.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marlins 4, Mets 0 I randomly loaded the page up at work and had to check it three times and pinch myself another three.

a huge payroll doesn't allow you to win, winning allows a huge payroll Right, because we're shelling out $7.5m per ring that we've earned over the past ten years. Putting fans in seats, having good TV deals and the like allows for a huge payroll. Ricciardi does have a point though - we're not competing for the division title this year but do have a shot at the playoffs. We would be in a situation very similar to the Blue Jays if we were in their division regardless of whether our payroll was $15m or $70m. Over 162 games, teams who can spend 2-3x as much on players will have a decisive advantage. The Blue Jays have to rely on their big FA they signed away from the Marlins because they don't have many outs, whereas the Yankees could care less about Pavano getting hurt falling down in the shower or whatever he's done lately. To quote a personality on WFAN on the Abreu trade - "who cares about the money ($7m that the Yankees took on), the Red Sox should have offered similar talent to the Yankees." I could be missing something, but to some teams, that $7m represents half of their payroll and is still a lot to almost everybody.

John Kruk was the worst athlete in the game and he was a career .300 hitter.. What the hell does your 40 time have to do with hitting? Last I checked we already have a fast CF who can't bat his weight. (pick one) People have different reasons for favorite players. You run the 60 in baseball, chief. You're being as dumb as a rock for trying to debate against someone's favorite player. If that player is their favorite, he just is. Considering your favorite Marlins are Juan Pierre and Hanley Ramirez, it looks like you're kind of biased towards speedy guys. Nothing wrong with that. I think people understand what you're trying to say, but you put it in a way that you would trade away a stud lefty pitcher for a borderline major leaguer. People become GMs partly because they're able to put personal biases aside. Gathright wouldn't be a bad guy to take a chance on in the offseason if the price is reasonable, but we'll probably bring in more of a sure thing. That is, if Mr. Loria shells out money for one.

We can go 20-6 the rest of the season which would give us 88 wins, to get 82 wins we would just need to go 14-12. With our pitching we should win 3 out of 4 games (.750 baseball) which is 19 wins...well 19.5 Ws There are no teams in baseball with a .750 winning percentage right now (over a full season that's 122 wins). It's nice to think we can do it, but I think 17-9 will give us a shot to make the playoffs. Willingham said fifteen of the next 26, but I don't think 83-79 will cut it. We've got sixteen of our remaining games at home - pray for good weather as I don't want to be calling Comiskey our new home again. Being at home should be nice and the road trip is bounded by two much needed off days. Based on what we have done home and away this year, the extra home games should average out to one more win than splitting the games 13 and 13. 3 - ARI 4 - PHI 3 - NYM [off day] 3 - @ ATL 4 - @ NYM 3 - @ PHI [off day] 3 - CIN 3 - PHI San Diego has only 9 more home games and has to make trips to SF/CIN/LA and STL/ARI. Cincinatti looks to have the most favorable schedule of them all, with 13 of 25 at home and with 13 of those games against bottom feeders PIT and CHC.

I'll say this again... I want a young CF with some pop, speed and a good arm. Because those pass through waivers just about everyday... Right now, all we can hope for is a servicable upgrade. Juan Pierre probably won't happen, but we're not gonna get much better than him.

"If Jeff Loria fires Joe Girardi, it will be the biggest mistake of his life, except for the two firesales." -John Kruk :lol um, you forget he owned Montreal and did the same kind of thing (except there it was a neverending firesale) He'd probably get more fans in Florida during a hurricane than in Montreal on the night of a Canadiens game. Everyone down there - stay safe.

Wow, I'd hate to see Conine in a Phillies uniform. Conine is the official Phillies killer. No reason he can't stay the Phillies killer. He does get more chances to help knock the Phillies out of it than he normally would

"I really hope my ankle isn't broken. I've been swinging a hot bat lately." - Aaron Rowand Guys who appreciate the game are the guys who become great players. As I said before, Rowand has been through a lot this year. He's a warrior and he's turning into one of my personal favorites. Sad to see him out for 4-6 but he'll be back. You think the Phillies are making the playoffs or something? The season's only got a month and change left and Gordon just got shelved too.

There really shouldnt be any goals. As long as everyone gets experience and improves for next year, then I dont care if we finish last. I predicted a 100 loses this past offseason, so I am happy already. I agree with this. I know I will get blasted for this, but I honestly believe a higher draft pick(in what will be one of the strongest drafts since the Prior/Mauer draft) is more important than finishing .500. This year was about getting the young guys experience, not wearing out the young arms, and seeing who fits for the future. So far we've accomplished all 3. Who's Mark Prior? I haven't seen much of him since October 2003. (Yes he did have an okay 2005, but little good it did the Cubs)

I was off from work for once on a Saturday and decided to walk around downtown Manhattan and noticed that a Modell's was closing and had a lot of stuff on closeout. Lots of Mets and Yankees stuff and a bunch of junk - Texas Hold'em chips and what not. However, I managed to uncover something worthwhile while rummaging through the tables: a stack of 2003 World Series programs. They're not in 100% mint condition but pretty close to it - probably have been sitting in a storage room for the past three years after Beckett tagged Posada in Game 6 - so I decided to pick up two. The price? $2 - total plus the outrageous sales tax we're paying to fund, among other things, two new stadiums. I don't know how many they'll have left but if anybody's taking a trip to Lower Manhattan, stop by 200 Broadway and check it out. If I end up getting back there and they have some left, I might pick some up and see if any of you want them. I have no idea how easy it would be to get these down in Florida, but I was surprised to get this lucky.