bmg42

...and then they got shutout again last night...

The most times a Major League Baseball team has ever been shut out in a season was 33, the 1908 St. Louis Cardinals. The Marlins have been shut out 8 times in 40 games, That's a pace of 32.4. The '08 Cardinals finished 49-105, which was 6 games better than their Pythagorean projection of 43-111. The Cardinals scored 372 runs, and allowed 626. Through 40 games, the Marlins have scored 105 and have given up 200, which is a pace of 425 for, 810 against. The Pythagorean projection has them at 9-31, The Wikipedia page on the Cardinals of that era says "With limited financial resources, the club could ill-afford to sign the amount of the caliber of players required to field a competitive team." Ha ha ha...

When you're "rebuilding", "tanking", going through "the process", or whatever you want to call it, the only thing that means anything is to find out who can play and who can't. Sometimes the guys who can play are those you don't expect - there wasn't much of a reason to expect Realmuto to become one of the best catchers in baseball, and Dontrelle Willis was sent to us when the Cubs wouldn't agree to send the guy we wanted in one of the numerous salary-dumps of the John Henry era. Sometimes the guys you think are going to be great just aren't (I'm looking at you, Jeremy Hermida). If Alcantara doesn't work out, so what - there's a number of other guys waiting for their shot. And if none of those guys work out, either, then there's the draft and future trades. At some point this Summer, Starlin Castro will be dealt to a contender with a need in the IF - maybe Tampa - to make room for Isan Diaz. This team is NOT in a hurry, so they have time to assemble a group of 15-20 guys who can play.

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.”