bmg42

I take it Castro is the backup SS for now

That guy wearing #42 pitching for Baltimore pitched pretty good today - he looked kinda familiar

Consider the interest / principal payment on $400 million in debt. Remember that Sherman et al didn't pay $1.2 billion for the Marlins out of pocket - they paid $800 million and assumed $400 million in debt.

This video was very weird. No mention of the fact that we almost lost baseball when Loria bought the team and Henry got his upgrade to Boston . There was also virtually no mention of how the team was put back together by Beinfest other than Miggy and Beckett, or how Henry also gave up on Florida like Huizenga did when he also was denied his stadium. To be honest, even though Loria is rightly reviled here, it must be said that we still have Major League baseball (well, a bunch of kids who may be good some day) because Loria chose to save us rather than stay in Montreal. When Henry was getting the upgrade, Loria was given a choice - you can keep the team in Montreal and we'll move the Marlins to Washington, or you can have the Marlins and we'll move the Expos to Washington. So, thanks, Jeff!

Maybe he can hire a hypnotist - “Losing is a disease - as contagious as syphilis”

Actually, it isn't just Jeter who doesn't care about winning. It's about half the league. And some teams want to win, just not that much. A guy who won the Cy Young Award a few years ago and is only 31 can't get a decent contract. At least a half-dozen teams are actively trying to lose, so that a) they can get better draft picks, b) they can stockpile kids who may some day become the nucleus of a competitive team, and c) save a lot of money. A lot of people think that the Marlins are doing the right thing because this is the system we have. I say the whole system sucks. But yeah, Jeter doesn't give a crap about whether we win this year, probably next year, and maybe even 2021.

Maybe so, but I can tell you that at least for the first half of the season people were definitely showing up

Actually the team averaged over 27K in 2012, with a 94-loss team. I should know - I had a 1/4 season ticket in the upper deck. One fire-sale later, and they were under 20K for 2013...

Right now our best prospect is a 20-year old kid who had some elbow issues this past year. Our best OF prospect struck out over 200 times in AA. Our best IF prospect hit .245 in AA at 22 - not exactly the stuff of HOF careers. The other 4 clubs in the division have better minor league systems than we do right now, so it's more likely that they will be able to improve from within in the next 2-3 years. There are only 3 ways that the Marlins can get anywhere near contention in the next 3 years: 1) kids like Alcantara, Diaz, Brinson and Harrison figure it out and VVM turns into Mike Trout (BTW Brinson almost doesn't qualify as a kid anymore - he turns 25 in May); 2) there are a couple of Bryce Harpers running around HS campuses right now for the Marlins to draft in the next 3 years as we stink; or 3) Jeter decides to spend money to bring power into the lineup and a couple of top-line starters into the rotation. Lets look at the Braves, since they'd be a team we'd be competing against in '21. Do we have anybody in our system who will be better than Albies or Acuna? How about Swanson? And then there's Freddie Freeman, who will still be only 31 in '21. Kyle Wright and Mike Soroka seem to be a year or two ahead of all our minor league guys except Alcantara, and Sandy hasn't shown consistency yet. The situation is really bad, and if you think it's going to be better sooner rather than later, you really haven't been paying attention to what Jeter has been saying.

No disrespect from me, either, but I’d love to know what makes you think they’re going to be even a little better, let alone a lot better. Remember that “the process” usually requires 3-4 years of sucking (the Astros had four years as bad or worse than what the Marlins just had)

It's on the writer then. In any case. My question to Hill would be simple - considering that the other 4 teams in the division already have much better ML rosters AND better minor league systems, how long is it going to take? 2 years? 4 years? 7 years? Because, seriously, if there's a season within the next 3-4 that we lose fewer than 95 I'll be pretty surprised.

Actually, he was talking at least partly about 2019. “[Hill] doesn’t think the 2019 season is a total write off.”

Sure, Mike. The over/under looks like it’s right around 64. I’ll be taking the under again - if anything the Marlins should be worse this year unless a)Brinson suddenly figures out how to hit or b)VVM turns into Mike Trout. A couple of reasons for this. They had 3 guys on the whole team last year who hit over 12 HR in a league where everybody has power, and all 3 of them are gone now (JT, Bour and Dietrich). The Mets probably aren’t going to stink this year. The rotation looks basically like last year’s except they’re going to have to give Alcantara 30+ starts to see if he has a role to play in the future. The bullpen has not been improved, either. They lost 98 last year, and that was 5 games better than their Pythagorean W/L, so they were lucky not to lose 100 last year. Things are going to get worse before they get better.

The problem with this thread is whole "the other side of this argument is dumb and anyone who argues it is an idiot" vibe. Part of the reason those of us who are not going to games anymore feel this way is that one of the first things Jeter did was to basically call anyone who disagreed with him an idiot. The Mesa brothers may be great one day - heck, the only thing keeping from me from wanting VVM to start Opening Day in CF is not wanting to start the clock - but virtually everybody the Marlins brought over in last years' fire sale stunk up the joint in a big way in '18. Last year they intentionally fielded a losing team and raised ticket prices. That's a very good way to lose business - and they did. They did make money, because you can sometimes make more money with a flop than with a hit. This year they did lower ticket prices, but until we have a team that tries to win, there's no way I'm going out of my way to bust my ass to get from north Broward to get down to the park by 7:15 at the earliest on a weekday like I did when I had my half-season package. My sister-in-law wants to go Opening Day, so I'll probably do that - or at least she did until they fired her friend's husband (who had a fairly high-profile job) via text, so maybe not. Everybody has their reasons for believing what they believe. Whether the Marlins should have been kept together for 2018 has no definitive answer, and I see the other side of this argument. But I'm not an idiot for thinking that Jeter has a long way to go to prove that he knows what he's doing, and I guarantee you I'll be betting the under on the Marlins again this year.

In the past on other boards I’ve gotten crap for not capitalizing the word when referring to the Christmas/New Year’s season. Can’t please everyone I guess