Doakle

Jamestown Jammers open up their season tonight at home. No idea yet if Sinkbeil is getting the start tonight or not, and it appears Chris Coughlan is yet to sign, but there are some other high picks set to make their debuts tonight. In particular outfielder Scott Cousins (3rd round) should be interesting to follow. http://post-journal.com/articles.asp?articleID=3505

Fortunately the fan vote only affects who gets to start, so it doesnt make a difference if a player gets voted 2 or 22. Of course Paul Lo Duca is in line to start at catcher, and he has an OPS of .701. Thats 49 points lower than our own Miguel Olivo There are a whopping 10 NL catchers with at least 100 ABs who have a higher OPS than Lo Duca. Of course there is more to being a catcher than just hitting, things like throwing out baserunners counts too. Of course Lo Duca is in the bottom half at that too

Personally, I'd rather have Chris Young. I think Carlos Quentin is destined to be a corner outfield, not a Centerfielder. Young is ... umm..younger, faster, has a bit more power,will play a better CF and has a much higher ceiling IMO. For all of Carlos Quentin's accolades I think he should be putting up much better numbers as a 24 year old playing in a hitters ball park in the minors. /agree. Was going to add something but actually you covered it all

Well with Willis its all about him locating the inside fastball and settling early as per usual. Daniel Cabrera has good stuff, but tends rack up high pitch counts very quickly, so we need to make him work. If we go out and have one of our chase the wabbit days at the plate, he has the ability to shut us down.

I am calling this season "Marlins Reloaded" and the next year is "Marlins Revolutions" in sort fo a Matrix theme.... Umm well I hope we don't end up with an overcomplicated team, full of wooden performances, leading to a rather unsatisfying conclusion.

There is no reason to call him up yet as the pitchers in the rotation, Moe included, are doing fine. Sanchez still has room for more development (both stuff and mentally), and it'd be nice to see him string a number of quality starts together before he gets called up. Of course there may be trades to come, and who knows what our record will be come late July. I would rather see guys like Pinto and Petit get their shot first, and let Sanchez develop slowly. Its in our long term interests to stagger our talented pitcher callups too, so they don't all hit arbitration at the same time.

Best way to get sports radio talking about the Marlins is to keep calling in all day to talk about the Marlins I would but I can't afford the long distance charges.

Is Pinto good Trade Bait?...i really don't believe he will oust any of other young studs and I don't see him as a reliever to put him in The Sandlot I wouldn't write off his chances for starting just yet. Any lefty with plus stuff will always have a shot of making it. I'd actually kind of like to see him get the first shot the next time a rotation spot opens up, if only to get a firmer grasp on his long term chances. He is older than Petit (who still has a lot of time to develop) and he has actually outperformed Petit so far in AAA. In particular he has just 3 homers given up through 55 innings, a good total considering its the PCL.

I don't have a problem with Petit being sent down to get work, it's with who replaced him. Fulchino has a minor league strikeout rate that wouldn't even frighten Josias Manzanillo and Ismael Valdez. Those who know prospects and projecting ballplayers know the strikeout is the most telling sign that a pitcher will succeed at the next level. Could they be wrong? Have they been wrong in the past? Sure. But I'd much rather have Cody Ross coming off the bench than Matt Padgett. Same for Fulchino whose place on the roster could be better utilized by Resop, German, Pinto, Ungs and that's just arms from AAA. I wouldnt say strikeout rate is the most important. What matters more is the ratio of strikeouts to walks as that tends to indicate control. Both hits per innings pitched and home runs given up also matter a great deal too, probably more so than then pure strikeout totals. None of that of course really changes the issue regarding Fulchino. The key here with the Fulchino call up is so they can see exactly what they've got as its close to final decision time on his future. If he completely bombs he could very possibly be out of the organisation altogether next year, thats the point, to find out. Most of our other younger and better prospects have a lot more time to go before we need to decide on whether they fit into our long term plans.

With all the quality starts we're getting, having a top prospect in the long relief role is clearly not desirable, so Petit got sent down. Bringing up a guy like Fulchino at this point makes sense. Keep in mind Fulchino is getting closer to his 6 years in the minor leagues and free agency, and with some decent performances during his career it makes sense to take a look at him at the major league level. We also at some point need to start clearing out some of our older pitchers to make room for the younger guys coming through, so we need to figure out which ones should be kept and which ones to let go. If Fulchino has some good outings it also helps increase our tradeable pitching depth, allowing us to move closer to acquiring a young CF.

I think that was a tear in Hanley's eye.

Actually seems weird to see Hanley on base, its been so long Edit: Ok actually he has drawn the odd walk, but you know what I mean

Blue Jays clearly skimped on their scouting reports on Olivo's hitting approach

On-Field Delay? Whats happening? Gibbons (Blue Jays Manager) got tossed for complaining about a called strike.

JJ is still a rookie pitcher, and this type of thing is going to happen from time to time. Hopefully we can keep it close, i'm guessing Petit could get some time though

403 feet to right center...not bad Looked longer than that, but I guess it went pretty high and came down pretty steeply.

For those who couldnt see it, Jacobs absolutely destroyed that one!

Shouldnt I still be able to get this on MLB.TV since its still on a Toranto tv station? Yep i'm watching it on mlb.tv now Two nice plays by Uggla for the first two outs I dont understand...it wont let me watch it. It says "We're sorry! Your data indicate that you are prevented from watching this game LIVE due to national live broadcast restrictions." wtf It's not letting me watch any game, they are all blocked :mad As its a saturday, they blackout all the broadcasts nationally I believe. I'm not in the States atm though, so I dont get blacked out. Maybe grab a laptop and make for the border?

Shouldnt I still be able to get this on MLB.TV since its still on a Toranto tv station? Yep i'm watching it on mlb.tv now Two nice plays by Uggla for the first two outs

If Eric Reed wants a career in the majors, the one key problem he needs to address isnt his slap hitting etc, its his eye at the plate. His strikeout to walk ratio is poor, and for a plus defender with no power, his ability to get on base dictates his offensive value. He currently has just 5 walks, but 20 strikeouts in 102 ABs. His average may be .294, but his OBP is just .324. His on-base will be the stat to continue to watch. If he can get it at least 50 points higher than he may still have a shot.

I think Hermida stands out because he is the one who is actually playing like a rookie I honestly have no fears regarding his development, in fact I still see him as putting up better numbers over the next few seasons then our other young hitters (Cabrera excluded of course).

Ok I hate rumors. Don't report something unless it's confirmed! I may end up being right after all! http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...KING02/60613011

If he is definitely projected as a starter (which he should be) then 2008 would be the earliest, and thats if he dominates. I guess he could occur in late 2007, but he'd have to have flown through to AA ball and been awesome there, and it would require injuries to the ML staff to open a spot. Its possible if he is moved to the pen that he could certainly look for a spot in 07, but really, that'd be a waste. So I guess i'd say 08 at the earliest, and again it would depend a lot on injuries/trades etc to open spots. The truth is he has a stack of pitchers already in the system that are ahead of him.

Strikeouts are incredibly unacceptable, it is the most unproductive thing a hitter can do. Hitting into a double play would be worse, as is an easy pop-up early on in the count. An easy ground out with nobody on base, early on in the count, is also worse. A 7 or 8 pitch strikeout does at least use up a lot of pitches. I don't like strikeouts either, but mainly when the player concerned doesn't draw a lot of walks either. That tends to mean bad eye/judgement, low .opb, and low chances of staying the majors. A guy who strikes outs 130 odd times, but still manages 90 odd walks, and has a slugging percentage over .500 can be an all star though.

The major stat that helps justify Uggla in the two spot is his lower strikeout rate, which is much lower than any of the other regulars on the team. Its always good to have someone making consistent contact at two, even if its nice also to have a lefty in there. I think the lineup is fine with Miggy at 4, its just that ultimately if Hermida hits his potential he'll be the ideal guy at 3. Jacobs and Willingham then become the 5/6 hitters, giving us a nice run of right/left/right/left/right from 2-6.