Out of the Past

Hermida's goy one of the sweetest swings I've ever seen, but come on he has been very disappointing for a top prospect who came up last year and hit the grandslam and the homer in the last game of the season.Lets wait and see next season. We need him to pan out or outfield is bad enough. DISAPPOINTING!?! You people say the stupidest stuff. Hermida isn't disappointing. All of us had high expectations for him to step in and be Miguel Cabrera (By your standards, Cabrera sucked his rookie year). Hermida was also injured for a month and spare change. This, only after 20 ABs this year. He took a lot of time to get back in sync and before his latest slump, he was producing rather nicely. To suggest that just because someone thinks Hermida is having a disappointing rookie season means that that person thinks Cabrera sucked as a rookie is ridiculous. Cabrera was a run-producing machine as a rookie.

Scott Olsen, minus those two terrible starts (15 ER in 8.1 IP): 9-2, 2.76 ERA Ricky Nolasco, as a starter, minus those two terrible starts (16 ER, 5.1 P): 7-3, 2.15 ERA I like doing stuff like that but if I took out their two worst starts I probably would have taken out the two best ones as well just to remove the skewing going both ways.

In a normal year his offensive numbers would look okay for a rookie but this year there are so many impressive rookies that his numbers pale in comparison to them and that makes them look worse than they really are. The bigger disappointment to me has been his below average defense. I wasn't sure what to expect there. I had read some scouts say he had never spent much time on his D and it looks like those scouts were correct.

Kaplan is very good. He loves and knows the game and backs up many of his opinions with facts and does quite a bit of his own research. His bunting work is fantastic. He's a big Marlins fan but is not a homer and that's great. A member of the media should not be a homer. To me homers and shills are useless as they provide as much objective insight as an infomercial. Boog is also very knowledgeable but I would prefer if he talked more baseball and I don't like those questions he comes up with to generate discussions but after Kaplan he's the best thing we have. I don't care he's a Phillies fan. I haven't listened to Sid by himself so maybe he's good, I don't know. From what I've listened to his show it's dreadful but that's when OJ was on and OJ is by far the worst of all the non-qualified ex-Dolphins on local radio and TV and that's saying something. I don't care he's a Mets fan.

that change didnt work....i say we put amezaga at CF and thats about the only change we should make for now. btw i met Amezaga after yesterdays game i went with him to a friends party. Amezaga is a defensive liability in the outfield. He may be able to handle the infield positions decently, but he looks like a little leaguer going after flyballs. I agree Amezaga is so limited in CF balls drop in front of him that any normal CF catch up to, our pitchers suffer when he is in the OF As opposed to Abercrombie who plays shallow and those that get by him turn into doubles and triples. lol... anyway, Amezaga is an awful outfielder Alfredo plays CF like an IF trying to play CF. Our best CF is Ross.

Sid on 790 was discussing the rumors on what went on. Some of those rumors said Loria snapped at the bad call that went against Tank and Joe told him to calm down then Loria stormed into the clubhouse after the game and they got into it. Sid said some rumors had Joe actually quitting before the situation calmed down. Sid is going to keep talking about it so turn on 790 if you can. Wow.. I hope not. I really hope they settle things very soon. Mike Berardino was on with Hank Goldberg and speculated Girardi may have quit and then was rehired or changed his mind about quiting. At the same time Tommy Hutton was on with Joe Rose and Tommy said he didn't know anything about the meeting.

I agree, that's a good link. I doubt they take momentum and other qualitative factors into account but it's good to information.

Marlins Were After Taveras 6th August, 2006 - 4:42 pm Chicago Tribune - The Florida Marlins went from sellers to potential buyers, as they tried to land Houston's Willy Taveras and a few other young center fielders. If this is true, I'm suprised we couldn't acquire him. We definitely have the pitching prospects to get him. I wouldn't offer anything more than an Adam Bostick type or maybe Jason Vargas for him though. If getting Taveras meant giving up a Jason Vargas then I would keep Cody / Alfredo in CF. I don't think Taveras is much is a player and I wouldn't give up on Vargas after one disappointing season. He pitched well last season and in the future may once again find his command and pitch well. I imagine right now his trade value is pretty low.

Sorry to keep posting and posting but I love how Miggy stepped up today in the clubhouse. He is becoming a great leader.. King Fish Miggy. I wonder who the other players were. Several players, including slugger Miguel Cabrera, also offered their thoughts during the session I doubt other players view Miguel as a leader. I think he's too lazy to be a leader. Is he the best player on the team? Yes. Is he a player the others look up to? I doubt it. Who are you to judge is he is lazy? He may appear to be. But of course, we can determine how lazy he is just like we can tell how smug Derek Jeter is by looking at him! And I fully doubt your assertion that the players don't look up to him. He's arguably the best young hitter at his age, that the game has seen in years. And if a player doesn't look up to that, they are stupid. Other players should admire his talent but I don't think they should admire his attitude. In the previous post I said "I think he's too lazy" because that's my opinion based on my observations. I didn't say "he's too lazy" because I don't know for a fact if he's lazy or not.

He's having a disappointing season at the plate and also with the glove but I wouldn't call him a bust.. he's only 22. I think he'll be a good player.

As I said in another thread, it was becoming apparent tis wek, and especially last night that something has come over Cabrera and he is really developing into a team leader. We've been seeing it on the field, it's good to see it's carrying over into the clubhouse as well. I don't see that. Just earlier this week he had a "lazy" error. He had plenty of time to make throw but threw it off-balance and made a bad throw.

Sorry to keep posting and posting but I love how Miggy stepped up today in the clubhouse. He is becoming a great leader.. King Fish Miggy. I wonder who the other players were. Several players, including slugger Miguel Cabrera, also offered their thoughts during the session I doubt other players view Miguel as a leader. I think he's too lazy to be a leader. Is he the best player on the team? Yes. Is he a player the others look up to? I doubt it.

6 back, I am predicting a 7-2 road trip so let's win Sunday to get things moving. It's going to take something along those lines especially if we lose tomorrow. When you're on the fringe of the WC race a 3-6 stretch like the one we're currently on can be a killer. If the bad baseball goes on for a few more days the WC hopes, as small as they may be, will become a pipe dream as some have suggested

I don't care about anything Hutton has to say about the umps. When calls don't go our way he whines relentlessly but says nothing when they do so. Rich is an honest broadcaster.. if we get a break he has no qualms saying so. I respect and thank him for that. When we get a break Tommy will occasionally say "oh it was very, very close" but that's about it and then rips the other manager for arguing by yelling "HE'S NOT GOING TO CHANGE THE CALL." In my opinion Hutton as no credibility. Hutton tells it the way it is. When on FSN Florida or Sun Sports broadcasts, he's a little slanted towards the Marlins, but he goes straight down the middle if tapped by big Fox for a national broadcast. When an ump blows a call, Hutton will say something about it. When the Marlins catch a break, he will say so. I don't know how often you watch games, but it can't be very often, because T-Hut will tell it how it is no matter which team is in question. I also question your knowledge of the word credibility. To suggest that Rich Waltz is more honest and credible than Tommy Hutton is insane. Great stuff about Loria, he's a good fan. I was only a few seats away from him tonight, and he walked in front of me on his way in and out :shifty To say he's only "a little slanted" is insane and makes me question your knowledge of the words "little" and "slanted" and to suggest he's more credible and honest than Waltz on umpiring calls (the matter at hand on here) makes me question your understanding of the words "honest" and "credible" and of the rules of the game. Have a good night.

I don't care about anything Hutton has to say about the umps. When calls don't go our way he whines relentlessly but says nothing when they do so. Rich is an honest broadcaster.. if we get a break he has no qualms saying so. I respect and thank him for that. When we get a break Tommy will occasionally say "oh it was very, very close" but that's about it and then rips the other manager for arguing by yelling "HE'S NOT GOING TO CHANGE THE CALL." In my opinion Hutton as no credibility.

The Red Sox never taught him how to bunt and it's obvious the Marlins haven't spent the needed time with him on bunting so it shouldn't come as a surprise to Girardi or anyone else that Hanley can't bunt. This article makes the move even more of a head scratcher. Why would Girardi expect Hanley to be able to sacrifice bunt when it's obvious he can't do it? Send Reggie down, spend the valuable one-on-one time with Hanley on how to bunt, and then you can expect him to lay down a sacrifice bunt.

Okay, we all know Olivo has a hard time catching Dontrelle. I don't know that Olivo has a hard time catching Dontrelle.

Giving up on our team? Are you for real dude? I actually loved our chances pre-Philly. In my eyes if we added a CF and took at least 3 against the Phillies, we were gonna be on track. We obviously have a small shot at making a HUGE run and grabbing the WC but Im not gonna be a stooge and say we have a good chance of doing it. I know our team dug themselves into a deeper hole losing 3 out of 5 against the Phillies, but the fact is that the season is not over and I don't expect the Reds to win it. Looking at the standing now compared to where we were just prior to the Philly series things don't look any worse. The positive numbers are the games we've lost in the standings vs each team and negative numbers are games we've made up in the standings vs each team. Prior to the Phillies series the teams ahead of the WC pack were the Reds, DBacks and Giants and we've made up ground on two of them, making up a combined 3 games on them. Arizona 0.5 Atlanta (1.0) Cincinnati (1.0) Colorado 0.5 Houston - LA Dodgers 2.0 Milwaukee 0.5 Philadelphia 1.0 San Francisco (2.5)

But somehow we are still in the basement of the NL for fewest runs scored. A lot of those hr's are solo shots; i rather have less dingers and get more run production out of our hitters. Nonetheless, it's nice that they are showing signs of having some pop because they will hit one out when they need to, like it was the case yesterday. Like Girardi said, we tend to getting greeding when bases are loading and goes for the 1 pitch home run but end up striking out. Cost us some games there with bad clutch hitting but atliest last night game Fish aggressive strategy work well. We're 7th in OPS and 8th in runs scored. Regarding clutch hitting, with RISP we're 8th in OPS and with runners on we're 3rd in OPS. The clutch hitting is not a problem.

When was Ethier called up? So I assume he was called up in May...I think if he plays the rest of the season and keeps up this pace, he'd get it. But two more months is a lot for a rookie to sustain those numbers! If JJ and Ethier both keep it up either one could win it. One would have a 2.52 ERA in about 185 innings and the other a .345 AVG in about 480 PAs. They would both deserve it.

Give or take an inning or so in his next start Sanchez will be bumping up against the number of innings he threw all of last season and part of the thinking may be he becomes the first of the young starters to take a rest for a few turns. Clearly Girardi is all about protecting these kids' arms, even at the expense of a win or two. Not saying I'm right or it's the right decision, not saying that's the reason Moehler may be considered, just an observation. I've been meaning to look at the # of innings each of the rookies threw last year and project when they would reach their '06 limit but I've been too lazy to look it up until now with Sanchez. Last year he threw 137 innings and has thrown 126 this season. What would be a reasonable innings progression? Maybe up to 160 this season? That would give him about 5 more starts and would keep him in the rotation until early September. I wouldn't mind at all if each of the 5 starters got some extra rest from time to time by starting a 6th guy but the 6th guy would be either Mitre, Petit, Sanchez or even Pinto but not Moehler.

If all the rookies continue doing what they've done so far (a big if) the winner will be either JJ or Andre Ethier.

Girardi said he would speak with pitching coach Rick Kranitz on Monday night's flight home about whether Moehler or Anibal Sanchez would start Friday's game against the Dodgers. I couldn't believe it when I read that. There's no valid reason to start Moehler over Sanchez. Source: Sun-Sentinel

Kensing has struggled with the 8th and Tankersley has been tough on both righties and lefties. Why not make Tankersley the 8th inning guy? He's earned it.

The team has exceeded everyone's expectations and right now is in the WC race and I don't think Beinfest would reward them by raising the white flag by trading Borowski but the situation in the standings could change very quickly the next 4 days.