bollostar

I'm just going to quote a little something I said before... So far I've heard nothing but good things about our new skipper, but then again, that's always the case when someone is hired for his first managerial job. It's only after a guy actually starts working that people start talking about his faults. And one thing that worries me is that nobody (to my knowledge, anyway) has talked about his disciplinary habits. We all know that Joe was a big disciplinarian. To my belief, that was a big reason why he was so successful with a young club. Actually, I think discipline works with clubs of all ages, but its importance is enhanced when you have to manage kids. I'm having my doubts about Gonzalez. He seems to be too much of a nice guy. It doesn't help that he's from the John Boles school. Think back to the Scott Olsen incident (when Girardi grabbed him and Scotty was lights out afterwards). Does Gonzalez have the balls to take an absent minded player and get him on track? I'm not saying that Gonzalez has to be as rough as Joey Pitbull was, but does he have the balls to be the man in charge? They say Gonzalez is a pretty smart guy. Maybe he'll manage games better than Girardi (that was my only complaint with him, and a big one it was, though he did get better as the season went along). But Girardi's success was more closely tied with the attitude he instilled on the team. Hopefully Gonzalez has some of that as well.

By Steven Wine, AP Sports Writer Few witnessed the Rockies' five-hitter. The announced crowd was 11,534, but actual attendance was likely less than 3,000. Looks like the Men's Health article was spot on.

Can someone confirm the velocity bit?

p.s. I'll be the first one to cheer for him tomorrow, so I'm not Scotty hatin'. I'm just a little frustrated with his laissez faire attitude when it comes to preparing for your job--a frustration that stems from my thinking very highly of his talent.

I don't mind his temper. What I don't like is his attitude to training and preparing for games. He seems to be the kind of person that expects things to just "fall in place" because of his talent, and doesn't understand that you need to work hard to harness your talent. If he can fix that, nobody will care about his temper.

That's the attitude a lot of bosses take when someone starts bashing their employees-- don't argue with the client, but don't bash your guy behind his back.

From the official site: Because he was throwing his 'pen a day closer to his Friday start against the Reds, Olsen shortened his session. "I just didn't throw as much, didn't throw as many pitches," he said. "We still got everything out of it that we would have gotten out of it, it was just a lighter load." First off: Yes, I agree that it was proper to shorten his bullpen session because he's doing it a day closer to his scheduled start. But for me--especially after reading that article about his nature posted here a couple of weeks ago, where all he talks about is how he's so much better when he doesn't work hard or study hard-- that boldened statement just throws red flags all over. Scotty needs to learn that working less DOES NOT equal getting "everything out of it that we would have gotten out of it." Again, I'm not criticizing that he threw a lighter load, just the comment he made that gave us yet another glimpse to his lazy mentality.

Marlins Hanley Uggla Cab Jake Hammer Hermida Olivo Amezaga Dodgers Furcal Pierre Martin Kent L. Gonzalez Garciaparra Loney Ethier

Sounds lazy, and his play has reflected that so far.

I'd be satisfied with teaching them how to throw strikes...

To keep starting Amezaga, a born infielder, in center field game after game no matter how adequate he is while players like Dukes are available is ridiculous. What is this great love affair with Dukes? Is it his .190 BA? His 2 out of 6 SBs? His 44 Ks to 33 walks? His .318 OBP? Or do people just like baseball players with police records? For a batter to have 44Ks to 33BBs at his age (or any age for that matter) is outstanding.

I have the entire Game 7 telecast, which I taped for posterity. I'll ask my son if he can figure out some way to share it with any who may be interested. do you have express written consent from Major League Baseball and The Florida Marlins L.P.? He can show me a letter written in crayon and say it's from MLB and I'll still take his word for it.

My bad. No excuse for me.

My only concern is that Henry came in with the game tied. Does that mean he lost his closer job just for giving up two unearned runs the other day? I just hope this doesn't mean... Julio... I can't even say it.

I love that someone finally gives Hanley the due he deserves. But, the one thing that stood out big time to me was that Utley was so low...so the list isn't immune to criticism. Do you really think Hanley is the 6th best player? Cabrera deserves his spot but Hanley as No. 6 is ridiculous. Well, the rankings were made based on production for the next 6 years, so Hanley's age (given that he's already a beast and should have his best years ahead of him) became a big factor. From that point of view, it isn't a reach at all to have Hanley at #6.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/base...irst/index.html Here are the Marlins' players that made it onto their list. Note: The number in parenthesis is where the player ranked in last year's Top 50 No. 6. Hanley Ramirez, SS, Marlins, Age 23 (NR) As much as I like Reyes, however, I like Ramirez a little bit better. The two shortstops had nearly identical numbers last year and they have nearly identical numbers this year, but Ramirez has two small advantages. First, he's six months younger. Second, he's at least three inches taller, which means that his bat has more projectibility from a power perspective. Reyes and Ramirez are extremely close in value -- you can call them No. 6 and No. 6a if you want. But if Ramirez were in New York and Reyes in Florida, the presumption would be that Hanley is the better player. No. 4. Miguel Cabrera, 3B, Marlins, Age 24 (4) Cabrera invariably gets profiled as Manny Ramirez v2.0, and in terms of his ability to drive in runs, that's pretty fair. PECOTA anticipates that Cabrera will have 932 career RBIs by the time he completes his age-28 season; only 10 players in baseball history are ahead of that pace. But while Manny was always an oaf in the field, Cabrera not only plays third base, but he plays it pretty darn well. He's less exciting than the Sizemores and the Reyeses, but in terms of pure production, Cabrera's the man. Honorable Mention: Dontrelle Willis, P, Marlins, Age 25 (42) There's nothing to worry about. D-Train's ERA is high but his peripheral statistics are right in line with his career averages. He's simply been lapped by a lot of the other young talent coming into the league.

Is that Julio wearing Owens' jersey?

one down

Henry is in! Stupid Strike Zone channel only showed me Julio warming up.

Boy do we need some insurance runs now.

WTF is Julio doing warming up? :banghead

My bad. Didn't know the game wasn't going to be made up tomorrow.

So we'll have a doubleheader tomorrow, and then we'll be playing for another 10 days straight. Tomorrow we'll have Olsen and Anibal going. So that leaves our starters for next week like this: Monday: Vanden Hurk Tuesday: Mitre Wednesday: Willis Thursday: ??? The options for Thursday are: 1.) Gregg 2.) A callup 3.) Olsen or Anibal on 3 days' rest (hopefully it doesn't come to this) I'm thinking Wood is going to get sent down. It won't be an easy decision, though, because our active position players aren't in the best health (De Aza, Han-Ram).

This is getting annoying :deadhorse Apparently we only differ in our definition of "important." You said Hanley was our "most important" offensive player--unquestionably, at that. I merely questioned the unquestionable :wink p.s. my definition of our "most important offensive player" is along the lines of which player means more runs for the team at the end of the year.

He's unquestionably our most "important" player offensively I don't see why that statement is unquestionable. I'd say Miggy is more important. Miggy was still predictably great during the Brewers series and we struggled. It's no surprise that Hanley's been in the lineup for our serious offensive explosions. Miggy's better, Miggy's the HOF caliber player, but Hanley's the key to the offense...and not in a lame fast leadoff hitter "he disrupts the pitcher" kind of way, in the 5 tool spark plug at the top that is probably going to be standing on third for Miggy, Hammer or Jake. 5 tool spark club? I guess that throwing arm and glovework really come in handy sparking the offense. The truth is that Cabrera trumps Han-Ram in 2 of the 3 offensively applicable "tools." Miggy bats for higher average, gets on base more, slugs more, and basically does everything better than Hanley on offense except run. That makes him more important. Remember that Miguel also automatically makes whoever hits in front of him better (see Uggla, Dan) by making pitchers not want to walk that player and offering him pitches to hit. And please don't use a single series (Brewers) as your sample for saying Hanley is more important for the team as a whole. Do some honest introspection and ask yourself which tragedy would be more costly for us in the end of year total runs scored column: Losing Hanley for a year, or losing Cabrera for a year?