DownRodeo

the latest article from sun-sentinel really sheds a negative light on marlins front office: basically, beinfest and ownership create an environment where managers have a tough time succeeding. edwin rodriguez in particular had some interesting things to say.

addition by subtraction. and they saved $13 million. solid move by beinfest. long contracts to past-their-prime players are poison. you're seeing the impact all around the league. marlins made some poor moves last off-season, but at least they're realizing their mistake now and trying to rectify the situation. now if they can dump john buck on someone...

From Capozzi's Blog: "Manager Ozzie Guillen and some members of his coaching staff might have worked their last game for the Miami Marlins. Owner Jeffrey Loria is getting pressure from his top baseball executives to fire Guillen because they believe he has brought an unprofessional culture to the Marlins, according to two people who have spoken with the front office. what a joke. they knew all about ozzie before they hired him. ozzie didn't choose our logo to be a ridiculous rainbow M too big for its cap. ozzie didn't have a giant laughingstock of a sculpture put in center field. ozzie didn't ink the deal for showtime to follow the team around with cameras. ozzie didn't sign heath bell for $27 million. ozzie didn't go on the radio every week to discuss his favorite movies while the team was tanking. there's an unprofessional culture alright, and it starts at the top.

Was lookin' for the game thread to post this in, but doesn't look like anyone started one. At any rate, I am curious if today's starting lineup is the worst starting lineup (based on OPS) fielded by any team at any point this season. The players and their OPS are below: Peterson - .555 Hernandez - .557 Reyes - .786 Lee - .713 Dobbs - .715 Solano - .672 Buck - .663 Velazquez - .333 Buerhle - .108 I'm too lazy to come up with the volume-weighted OPS for the entire lineup, but I can't imagine any team putting out a worse offense than that.

the turner/brantly trade is looking like it could be a big win. eovaldi, on the other hand...

I think Beinfest's track record has been average as far as trades go. What's really glaring is the utter lack of success from the draft. Stanton looks like a stud, but who else have they drafted in their entire tenure that has gone on to become a steady major league starter?

Hard for me to be upset with these moves. Marlins brass tried to make a big splash with some high-priced free agents to go along with the new stadium, but Reyes has been meh and there are no words to describe Bell. Simultaneously, JJ and Ramirez never returned to top form, and Morrison, Nolasco, and both Sanchezes (Gaby and Anibal) never took that next step forward. They put a lot of stock in these players and to a man every single one of them has stunk it up. Granted, part of that is on them--the signings of Bell and Buck were questionable even when they were made--but nobody predicted that pretty much every player would stagnate or get worse. As the GM, what are you supposed to do? Continue with a top tier payroll for a sub-.500 team? This experiment was a failure. Time to drop the deadweight and try something else.

As others have pointed out, a .750 OPSing third baseman who can't field his position and costs $15 mil a year doesn't have a lot of trade value. That we managed to dump his entire salary and get a young live arm is pretty amazing in and of itself. The '07-'09 Hanley could've been traded for future stars. The '12 Hanley, not so much.

nice pic i was there drinkin a bud and then when i saw the shot i throw my hands up in the air and the beer went flyin on top of the people behind me great time :wee :wee :wee wow. if this really happened, you're a douchebag.

I may get beat saying this but..... I think Bell being able to get out of the 9th was a feat in itself and should be taken as a positive. I'm not saying he should be back out in the 9th but its a positive none the less. he was extremely lucky to get out of the 9th. denorfia lined a shot down right field that was foul by a few feet that would've ended the game, and the final out of the inning by headley was stung as well.

webb or mujica would hopefully both close before bell.

the one thing i don't get is that bell's stuff looked dominant in spring training. then once the season started he went to crap.

the amazing part was that bell got ridiculously lucky twice. once on the denorfia ball that was just foul, and once on the final out that was tagged.

lol. line shot and infante picks it.

he looks sooooooo bad.

every fastball is up. every breaking ball is near the dirt.

How well-hit were these balls? both solid hits the other way.

so heath bell is done closing games now, right? right?

his breaking ball is nowhere near the strike zone. he might pull this one out but i disagree with tommy that he looks any better.

nobody will remember this by next week. non-issue.

i literally have never gotten out of a stadium/arena more easily than i did for tonight's game. i couldn't believe it. slid right out of the parking lot (which was a block away from the ballpark) and didn't hit any traffic. the trick is to avoid the dolphin expressway and head straight to 95. What route did you take to get to 95? Sounds like there was traffic on the 836, so this might be a better route to take. i went north on NW 17th ave all the way to NW 36th street (about 2 miles). right onto NW 36th street, then a left onto NW 10th avenue, and you'll hit the onramp for I-95.

got back from the game a couple hours ago. after hearing the horror stories with regard to parking and traffic, i thought it was going to be a nightmare getting out of the stadium. i literally have never gotten out of a stadium/arena more easily than i did for tonight's game. i couldn't believe it. slid right out of the parking lot (which was a block away from the ballpark) and didn't hit any traffic. the trick is to avoid the dolphin expressway and head straight to 95. the thing with joe robbie was that everybody was essentially funneled through one exit. with the new ballpark, if you research the side streets ahead of time, there are so many ways to sneak out. at any rate, that was my experience. i'm curious what others went through tonight.

i think they really need to do something to break up all that green padding in center and right-center. other than that, though, it looks stunning.

that's not a racketball racket. it's a squash racket. n00bs.

count me in as liking the new unis. i was worried that the design would be loud and obnoxious like those atrocious '03 world series rings, but the uniforms actually have a minimalist vibe to it. it's growing on me. i do agree that the M on the cap should be smaller. Admin, great work on the new site logo!