83Gator

Rangers signed outfielder Chad Allen to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. Allen, who spent a month with the Marlins last season, hit .323 with an 860 OPS for Triple-A Albuquerque. He probably won't make the Rangers as a backup outfielder. c/o rotoworld I can see the headline in the Herald tomorrow about this: "The Dismantling Continues"

i'd keep the entire staff together for now. there's no telling when AJ will be set to come back. when he does you don't know how he'll do, so for now i'd like them to keep the same rotation. work AJ into the bullpen, if everything's fine then trade a Redman maybe if you have to, or move someone to the pen. I agree with that. AJ won't be in the rotation for the first few months. If he is fit sometime during the summer, we'll probably have a hole in the rotation to fill anyway. It's almost impossible to keep an entire 5 man rotation healthy and productive for an entire season. And if for some reason we find ourselves with a full rotation and AJ ready to join it, then we can make a move during the season; it's a good problem to have.

Pudge apparently has said he would be willing to accept a deal to go to either the Yankees or the Bosox.? He also claimed these are the only other teams besides the marlins he would be willing to sign with. I caught the tail end of this on the radio just a minute ago so don't put too much stock into it, I haven't seen anything on the web yet so we'll see.? If anybody else heard/knows anything about this please add. Is it possible that you heard wrong and they said Alex Rodriguez? I read an article this morning where A-Rod said he'd go to the Yankees or Red Sox. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-r...ov=ap&type=lgns Only if Alex Rodriguez is now being called "Ivan Rodriguez of the World champion Florida Marlins". Then the person on ESPN Radio may have messed up. Doesn't it seem like an odd coincidence that two guys named Rodriguez both talk about going to the Yankees and Red Sox on the same day? Especially when the Yankees have no need for a catcher?

Pudge apparently has said he would be willing to accept a deal to go to either the Yankees or the Bosox. He also claimed these are the only other teams besides the marlins he would be willing to sign with. I caught the tail end of this on the radio just a minute ago so don't put too much stock into it, I haven't seen anything on the web yet so we'll see. If anybody else heard/knows anything about this please add. Is it possible that you heard wrong and they said Alex Rodriguez? I read an article this morning where A-Rod said he'd go to the Yankees or Red Sox. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-r...ov=ap&type=lgns

This was inevitiable but is still very sad to hear ... Mourning forced to end NBA career, needs kidney transplant November 24, 2003 EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) - Alonzo Mourning's NBA career is over. The seven-time All-Star center will soon need a kidney transplant and will no longer be able to play professional basketball, New Jersey Nets president and general manager Rod Thorn announced on Monday morning. "It is with great sadness that I make this announcement," Thorn said. "Alonzo is a true champion and a very courageous athlete who attempted to defy the odds with his comeback to the NBA. Unfortunately, his medical condition will not allow him to continue his basketball career. Our thoughts and prayers are with him as he continues his fight against this disease." The 33-year-old Mourning left the Miami Heat and signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Nets last July despite missing the entire 2002-03 season with a kidney disease. In 2000, Mourning was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disease that causes chronic kidney failure within a decade in more than half of the people diagnosed. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mour...ov=st&type=lgns

If there is a team with a high pick that has no need for Manning (example: Bears), he can be had. The Bears won't make the mistake of trading down again like they did last year. No, but the Lions might. They won't give up on Harrington yet. The Lions need secondary help and a RB. If the Dolphins keep stumbling and their #1 is in the middle of the first round, then there might be an opportunity there.

Bliss and Harrick pretty clearly needed to go. In Bliss's case, you could probably make a case for a criminal act in that he impeded a murder investigation, though it would be a stretch to actually charge him. He did try to make it seem that Dennehy was dealing drugs which would've sent the cops investigating in the wrong direction. Harrick and his son broke almost as many rules as Charlie Pell, especially with the fake grades. He definitely needed to go and should probably never be in charge of another program again. I agree with Das that Harrick should've been fired rather than allowed to retire, but it probably avoid some litigation this way. What Price did, in and of itself, shouldn't cost most people their job. If I got caught doing what he did, I could keep my job because it wouldn't effect my ability to program computers. But if I was a salesman for my company, and my name was plastered all over the newspapers, it would adversly impact my ability to sell and you better believe I'd be out of a job. A college coach is part salesman; he's a recruiter. Because of the publicity in the job; he's held to a different level of accountability than normal people. The publicity part of the job is why it pays $1 million; he has to deal with the responsibilities of being in the public. He didn't so he lost the job. I think it was deserved. There was a good chance that this incident would've hurt his ability to recruit; Alabama couldn't take the chance and see how it went for a couple of years. I look at Eustacy's situation as the same as Price. Neuheisal's situation is different. (BTW - Das, I think he was fired; I think he's still trying to sue to regain his job). I think the Washington AD got rid of Neuheisal because Neuheisal interviewed for the 49ers job and lied about it. Neuheisal had supposedly received clearance on the NCAA pools from the person in Washington's athletic department who was responsible for NCAA compliance issues. Other people in the department were only reprimanded (their pools weren't as lucrative). Neuheisal deserved to be fired because he lost his credibilty but I think using the NCAA Basketball Pool to do it was a reach.

In the end, he is going to have to accept the 2 @ $15MM we are offering. Maybe we throw in a 3rd year... We supposedly haven't offered it yet. That's exactly where I want to get - offer him the 2 years at $15 million and go to 3 and $21 million if we have to. If that's not good enough, then bye-bye Pudge. But we gotta to something to get some actual negotiations going. We can't let the December 7th deadline pass without making an offer - the press will eat us alive. Both sides are probably just waiting until the last minute to get serious. I hate the negotiating game.

I didn't realize that if a team didn't re-sign a free agent, they are prevented from signing him again until after the season starts.? I thought they were still able to bid with the other teams. I don't get the rules either. It has something to do with the fact that the contract that Pudge signed with the Marlins last year stipulates that the Marlins can't offer him arbitration before the December 7th deadline. Evidently, you have to offer your free agents arbitration by December 7th or you can't sign them until May 1st. I think that's what happened to Chuck Finley last year. I'd love to see us keep Pudge, at around 3-years for a total of $21 million. I'd just like us to make him an offer before December 7th. Even if it's just the 2-year $15 million offer we're hearing. If Boras turns it down thinking he can get more elsewhere, he may end up regretting it. But if we can get an offer on the table, then we'll have something to negotiate from. Right now, all we have is the 5-year, $50 million fantasy we hear in the press. I'm hoping this is just typical negotiation BS and they'll try to hammer something out at the last minute. I'd hate for the December 7th deadline to pass and Boras to say we never even made an offer to keep Pudge. Berardino at the Sun-Sentinel and the idiots at the Herald will crucify us for that.

I'd be sad to see Lee go. I've been in his corner for a long time. Wrong Lee. I thought the same thing when I saw this thread in the Marlins forum but I'm sure Wild Card will have some reason only he understands to justify it. But let someone else besides Wild Card do this and he'd be all over them. The Ignore feature can't come soon enough.

Admin is a smart man, unlike some ignorant fools on this board. Castillo is more of a priority than Pudge, and rightfuly so. Plain and simple. Put me in the ignorant fool category then, Wild Card. I agree that I'd rather have Castillo than Pudge because the odds of Castro being a capable replacement are better than us finding a replacement at 2B. But we don't have a December 7th deadline with Castillo. We have that deadline with Pudge. Because of baseball's free agency rules, if we don't sign him by the 7th, he's gone. And what is this priority stuff? Beinfest can't multitask? Or is he essentially saying that we have the money for Castillo OR Pudge but not both.

I suspect the Dec 7th will arrive without Luis or Pudge being signed. I suspect you're right that we won't sign Pudge or Luis by December 7th. I will guarantee you that Pudge will not be signed before the deadline.? He will test the market.? The Marlins front office has been playing this exactly like they have to. The problem is that if we don't sign Pudge by that date, we'll lose him. We won't be able to sign him until May 1st and he will find another team. He's not going to sit out spring training and a month of the season waiting for us. So I don't think the front office is playing this right at all, unless they've already decided they don't want him back. Teams can wait until after Dec 7th when the Marlins are out of the picture to go after Pudge. I don't think people in general realize how good a player Castro is.? He will be fine. I don't think people realize how much a risk Castro really is. Look at Castro's numbers against right-handed pitching. He's far from a sure thing. If he clears his legal problems he will be the starting catcher, unless there is no market for Pudge, and he is still available after he tests the market. Pudge won't be available if we let him test the market past Dec 7th.

Not everybody in South Florida loved him. His routine was cute at first but it got very old. He also thought he was much funnier than he actually was (at least in my opinion). I don't like to see anybody lose their job but I was glad to see him move on from the Marlins and don't miss him one little bit.

GiantsIn04 - is there anything the Giants don't do better than everybody else?

83Gator, you are crazy to think we should pay a little more than market value for Pudge.? He signed with us last year because no one else wanted him.? HE DIDNT DO IT AS A FAVOR TO US.? What happened, we won a World Series.? You see, we have an advantage most teams dont - not only are we the Kings of baseball now, but we stand to make it back for many years to come due to our excellent pitching.? FA's will sign with us for LESS money, especially those FA"s that have already made their share of money and just want a ring.? Pudge SHOULD be in that category. Here's what I'm saying. Suppose the market for Pudge is insultingly low. Suppose the most he can get out there is $10 milion over 2 years ($5 million a year). If we try to get him for that insultingly low offer, we're going to insult him. He'll take the same money elsewhere. We'll have gone from a situation where he would've taken a home town discount on a high contract to where he'd leave for the same dollars elsewhere just because of principle. Figure out what we can afford to pay, and if it's more than market value then work a fair deal. But if we disrespect him, he'll leave no matter what and we'd have lost the opportunity to sign a great player at a great price. We need to at least negotiate with him. Do you think our excellent pitching would've won the World Series without Pudge? I don't. I don't even think our pitching is that excellent. It's talented but I'd rather have the Cubs staff. I have doubts about every one of the guys past Beckett. Penny is fat and undisciplined. Redman may be traded. Willis may not stay in the rotation. Pavano had a good year but he's not any better than a #3. If you think Free Agents now all want to play here because we won the World Championship and our pitching will make us a dynasty, then you're crazy. We know we were the best team in baseball at the end of the year; everybody else thinks we were a fluke. This is not where players are going to want to sign for a ring. They're going to still sign with the big money teams that can buy their way into the playoffs and then take their chances once there. You keep saying we should take the money earmarked for Pudge and sign Vlad? How do you get that? It looks like we're figuring about $7 million a year for Pudge for 2 or 3 years. Vlad can make $5 million more than that a year and $40 million more over the term of a contract. And I don't even want Vlad at $12 million a year, not with the back problems he had. We can't make a $12 million a year mistake. But that's another thread.

If no one else has interest, where else would he be better off? Marlins are going to end up calling shots in this deal - they dont need Pudge as much as he needs them. We could end up hurting ourselves if we don't handle this right. First of all, I agree with what Hotcorner posted in another thread. I don't get the confidence everybody has in Ramon Castro. I hope he can do the job. I think he can do the job. But 50 ABs heavily skewed vs. left-handed pitching is not much to hang your hat on. Pudge has done the job. Of the two, Pudge is less of a risk, in spite of his age. I'm just looking at production, not salary. If Castro can't do the job it doesn't matter how little you pay him. Our front office has to make Pudge feel wanted. Everybody has an ego. If we don't make him feel wanted, he might pass up a deal for more money here to go someplace where he thinks they want him more. Maybe we could get him at 2 years for $15 million or 3 years at $21 million. But if we downplay his importance as part of the negotiation process, it may come back to bite us. Pudge deserves a little more than market value from us. He helped bring us a World Championship. There are a lot of guys that we could say we wouldn't have won it all in 2003 without - Pudge is towards the head of that list. I'm not saying we should pay him a lot over market value but this is one case where we should pay what we can afford and still keep the core of the team, even if that's a little more than the best Pudge could get elsewhere. Trying to force his price down to the lowest possible amount might drive him away just on principle. This reminds me a little of Ray Knight and the Mets in 1986. Knight had a terrific year and the Mets won the World Championship. It was pretty obvious that it was a fluke year for Knight. The Mets offered him more than market value out of gratitude but he managed to convince himself that he'd been insulted and took a lesser offer from the Orioles.

Minnesota Vikings Dallas Cowboys Indianapolis Colts New York Jets New England Patriots Philadelphia Eagles Cleveland Browns Baltimore Ravens Green Bay Packers Denver Broncos St. Louis Rams Cincinnati Bengals Kansas City Chiefs Tennessee Titans Miami Dolphins Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14-2

Um, maybe I'm stupid but I don't get the point.

the bucs are going to want significant compensation for Johnson in a trade I don't think so. I think the Bucs would take Ramp in a trade if the Dolphins offered him. They've essentially fired Keyshawn from his job and will probably release him after the season when the cap hit is lower. The Bucs just made this Jets fan one happy camper.

I'm not. He has tremendous power but he's a long way from ever being a useful major league player. He's already 26 years old and he's now with his fourth organization. I'd be shocked if he ever amounts to anything on the major league level.

Lowell finished 11th in the voting. Castillo, Pudge, Cabrera, Lee, and Willis also received votes. Cabrera and Lee each got a single 8th place vote and Willis got a 10th place vote.

I think the IBB is way overused but it does have some strategic advantage. If there are 2 outs, and your choice is pitching to the guy that hits a HR once every 11 PA or the guy that hits a HR once every 30 PA, your odds are probably better with the second guy. Overall, I hate the IBB, especially walking the #8 batter to get to the pitcher. In a lot of cases the #8 hitter is batting 8th for a reason - he sucks. I'd much rather go after the #8 batter and get the pitcher leading off the next inning. Bill James did some research a couple of years ago on what the effect would be if OF #25 was walked every time up. James ran a bunch of simulations and he found that it would create many more runs by walking Bonds than it would by pitching to him.

It looks like you've got the same starting pitcher going for a team in each round. By that logic, the 1972 Phillies might be able to win this tournament. And what simulation would have Jeff Conine and Allen Levrault playing in the same game for the 2003 Marlins, with Derrek Lee on the bench? Mike Lowell batting 3rd? Ivan Rodriguez batting 6th? With that lineup, maybe the Giants would've been able to beat the Marlins.

First of all the number is wrong. Everyone seems to forget the $2 million we're getting from Colorado as part of the Wilson/Johnson/Hampton/Pierre thing, so the number Gammons used is really $51 million not $49 million. There is another chunk due Hampton plus the deferred Pudge money, this $60 million becomes $51 mil, which is more than we had last year. In fact, the Marlins are one of a few teams that are INCREASING their payroll this year. FA, free agency has nothing to do with it, it's all the Hampton and Pudge thing. I don't get your math. I think you're saying that the Marlins 2004 payroll is $60 million, including Hampton and the 2003 Pudge deferral. Hampton will make $12 million in 2004. We pay $10 million of that but we get $2 million from Colorado so we actually pay $8 million to Hampton in 2004. We owe Pudge $3 million in 2004. So that's $11 million in 2004 for Pudge and Hampton. With a payroll number of $60 million, I think Gammons' number of $49 million for players is correct. The $49 million is an increase over last year's payroll for players (i.e. minus Hampton). I wish Gammons had been clear about that. Edit: Sorry, alkazoid - I was typing this at the same time you were.

Philadelphia- Now, with Millwood likely gone, and the bullpen empty other than Wagner, I wouldn't expect the Phillies to do BETTER. I would. Who's gone from the bullpen besides Mesa and Williams? The Phillies improved the team just by dumping those two and the rest of their bullpen was pretty effective. Adding Wagner was a bonus, even though he's paid too much. I think the only thing holding them back will be Bowa. Chicago- With Esteban Loaiza and the young starters of the ChiSox, this team should win the AL Central, with both the Royals and Twins losing players, and the Tigers non-existent. The tremendous hitting of the Sox will give them a major edge. I don't know about that either. I wouldn't bet on Loaiza winning 20 games again. And as much as we'd like Ozzie Guillen to do well, nobody has a clue whether he actually will. He's never managed. He may run into problems especially if he tries to implement smallball on a team with Frank Thomas.