Out of the Past

The OPS gap is now .241. Olivo - .829 Treanor - .588 The quickest way to improved the team hitting is to play Olivo more and Treanor less.

2nd Place is incredible... and 7 back of the WC... its time for Loria to start selling some paintings for a center fielder... Go Fish! Money really has nothing to do with it. Well, sort of. Yes, taking on contract dollars if you go with experience will be a factor but there are other considerations as well. The question really becomes, who are you willing to trade, either among the players populating our current roster or our herd of prospects (whose value has increased by the success of the parent club, the thinking being "...hey, if this is a display of how good the front offiice is at sizing up and cherry-picking talent in putting this team together, their prospects must be pretty good too") to further the Marlins chances in 2006 without hurting our chances in subsequent years? Watching Jeffrey Loria scoreboard watching and cheering on his team last night only says to me if they just make some progress in the standings the next couple of weeks (and all of a sudden the four games with the Mets before the all-star break becomes almost a watershed series for the team), in my mind, there can be no question they will make a run not only at the wildcard but at first place by pulling off a blockbuster trade. The great thing is for these kids is the total lack of pressure. Unlike the Mets who have to win (and all of a sudden having Lastings Milledge play himself out of star prospect status and back to the minors now want to palm him off on the Marlins for Dontrelle Willis after declaring him untouchable for so long) or Philadelphia who looks to be the next imploding Atlanta, no matter how remote the chance, it's there for the Marlins to wind up atop the NL East. And again, the pressure is squarely on the shoulders of the other guys. As long as we play respectable baseball the rest of the way this season is a huge success for the Fish. The Mets, Houston with their signing of Clemens, LA, these team HAVE to win or else. For the Marlins, they are simply Fish learning to swim upstream. Looking at the lineup I think every game it's 6 or 7 deep depending on who plays between Olivo and Treanor and looking at the rotation I think it's 4 deep with the way Johnson, Nolasco and Olsen have developed. I think most games we'll a better starting pitcher than the other team. If we add a 3rd OF, hopefully a power hitting OF, then I think we'll have a really good shot at the WC. With the $15 million payroll I guess this year Loria has a lot of the so-called special money in reserves and I hope he uses some of it. The Cards are free falling and look like a team with a lot of holes and that makes winning the WC that much more realistic.

Am I the only one who thinks that even if we make it to .500 by the break we probably shouldn't break our backs to bring in a CFer? There doesn't seem to be many options out there that fit our needs, either offensively or finacially. And sure they're playing great right now, but there's a lot of season in front of them, as much as I'd love to see them keep it up I'm not expecting it. This team is stacked for the next few years and trading away parts of that now for an improbable run just doesn't make sense. I rather them just let this season play itself out and go after next year hardcore. Just my $.02. If you get to .500 you'll be 2 or 3 games out of the WC. On a typical year this team wouldn't have a shot at the WC but this year the NL is terrible... 85 wins may get you the WC. Ross, Borchard and Almezaga have done good things but they belong on the bench. The other guy doesn't belong in a MLB discussion so I wont mention him. We need another OF.

I like Moehler and I hope he stays... Guys like him, Herges, and Borowski are more valuable in the clubhouse than on the field. Borowski has been great on the field as well, but you need a mix of veterans with so many young guys. Plus, he started off horrible this season, but he's been great lately. His last start was not his fault. He was let down by his defense. I don't think Moehler is much of a pitcher and would rather see Anibal get the start. I agree Moehler has improved over his past few starts after his horrific start to the season but I don't agree he has been great lately. Since he turned his season around (May 14th) he has allowed 26 ER, 60 hits and 15 BBs in 39 1/3 innings for a 5.95 ERA and a 1.91 WHIP. One really bad start skew the numbers a bit but all things considered he has been no better than "adequate" during his turnaround and Anibal could be bettar than that if given the chance... so give it to him.

A lot of people have different reasons for not going but I think the major reason people don't go is the fire sales. Both fire sales chopped off attendance by about half and it takes years to recover form that. I doubt we'll average 23k ('05 average) in the next 3 years.. 23k is not good but at least the attendance was in an upward trend. I also think Samson as the business side face of the franchise hurts. That guy is detested by fans. Fire him and make Beinfest also the President. What a difference between those two.

Crap is crap. Why give the slightly less smelly pair of drawers more starts? I disagree Olivo is crap. Coming into the season I saw him as a backup but he has been a very pleasant surprise and has played very well. He's actually doing better than what Lo Duca did for us in '04 or '05.

I don't know how rferry evaluates hitters but Olivo's on base plus slugging is almost .200 higher than Treanor's and that's a huge difference. Regarding the handling of the pitchers mentioned by ultimopain, if Treanor gets credit for handling the lefties when they do well why doesn't Olivo get credit when he handles the righties and they do well? I haven't seen anything that would make me think that Treanor handles the pitchers better than Olivo. Olivo is the better player and is having the better year and playing your better players optimizes your chances to win. If Olivo can handle catching 4 out of 5 games I would let him do it. We wont know if he can handle the added work unless we try it.

The pitching is carrying the team. We're around 12th in runs scored per game. The main hitting holes are Reggie and Treanor. Olivo is having a very good season at the plate and Treanor is hitting like Treanor. The past few weeks Girardi has split the catching duties 3:2 between Olivo and Treanor. I know that now that Lo Duca is no longer a Marlin that Treanor has replaced him as the league leader in all the intangible blah blah blah stuff. So with all that said the question is should Olivo get more of the playing time... maybe 4 out of 5 games instead of the current 3 out of 5? This would obviously give a boost to the run scoring. I would do it.

If there was truly a demand for Marlin talk, like there is for Heat and Dolphin talk they'll be nudged by thier sponsorship to accomodate that demand. I disagree with that. I think each host's knowledge drives what people call about. I mean, why would a baseball fan or a hockey fan call a Jim Mandich or a Joe Rose with a baseball or hockey question? These guys know less baseball or hockey than the average fan so why bother? Kaplan and Boog are the only local hosts who are knowledgeable baseball fans. Baseball fans are out there. Look at the '03 WS ratings compared to the Heat finals ratings. The WS rating was about 50% higher. There's no baseball talk on the radio because the local host don't know baseball.

Before the season I figured low to mid 60s in wins and have been skeptical but I'm glad they continue to prove me wrong. The pitching and Uggla have been been incredible. The NL is so weak I think about 85 wins will be enough to win the WC. If they make a run for the WC I hope they go out and get a CF.

At first I didn't care for Waltz because I thought he made way too many mistakes but I have grown to like him. He's far and away the most honest among all of the So Fla team employee announcers and I appreciate that. The only thing I find annoying is how he calls everyone a kid, even guys in their 30s.

So Kurkjian said the Marlins were a bad team. Why is that such a horrible thing? The Marlins are, after all, 11 games under .500. I would say the Marlins are playing great ball right now but I'm not ready to say they are a good team. If they continue playing well for 2 or 3 weeks I may change my mind. This is the typical "we never get any credit" complain. Tommy Hutton has been whining endlessly about Uggla not getting any credit at the same time Uggla came in 2nd in the Rookie of the Month award which is an award voted on by the media so if he came in 2nd that means lots of media people voted for him and if lots of media people voted for him it means he was getting plenty of credit and it should be noted he came in 2nd to Josh Johnson.

Small market teams with a limited payrolls trade their stars in the last year of their contracts for bright young and cheap talent. By doing this with 1 or 2 players, teams save 15-20 million dollars and have 3 or 4 top notch minor league players to develop. This has been the traditional way baseball does business close to the trading deadline. But trading 5 or 6 star players ( a la Marlins) saves a ton of cash (40-50 million) and gets you a whole team of top prospects with the chance to be competitive again in 2 to 3 years without spending the money you don't have. I don't specially like it. I think that fans deserve to have their favorite player stick around for more than 3 seasons. But again, if the marlins are successful soon, I believe that this will become the routine in baseball for a good number of teams. I kind of see it the way you do. The fire sale strategy may lead to a cheap and competitive team in a relatively short period of time and that's a good thing but I don't think fire sales are the way to build, maintain or grow a fan base. The primary reason the Marlins have had poor attendance over the years is because too many South Floridians are not baseball fans or are baseball fans who root for other teams and I don't think the Marlins will convert these people to become Marlin fans through fire sales.

Hanley, Uggla, Jacobs, Cabrera, Willingham and Hermida all strike out more than the average hitter and I think the rest of their careers they will continue to strike out more than average but I have no problems with their hitting. I like the way all of them hit. Olivo strikes out more than the average hitter but as long as he continues to hit the way he's hitting so far this season I'll have no problem with his hitting. Reggie strikes out more than the average hitter and he belongs in AA. I guess when evaluating a player I would place a lot of emphasis on how many hits and walks and what type of hits a player gets and less emphasis on what types of outs a player makes when he makes an out.

We're still the team most likely to have the NL ROY (since we have 4-5 candidates). The Dodgers have several very impressive rookies in Martin, Kemp, Ethier and Aybar.

I agree Treanor is having a fine defensive year but I have no opinion on who does a better job handling the pitchers between Treanor and Olivo.

While their on field statistics are very similar, Lo Duca brings to the table all the intangibles which Olivo can't even be comprehend. But Paulie had the "intangibles" haha, beat me to it. I'm thinking roundingthird was being sarcastic about "intangibles". They don't mean a damn thing and give examples of why Lo Duca has more intangibles than Olivo ? I agree. Most of the time when announcers use the "intangible" card they use it on players they are friends with. Perfect example is Treanor and Olivo. Olsen has a good game and they shower Treanor with compliments about his game calling and pitcher handling but Johnson has a good game and they don't say squat about Olivo's game calling and pitcher handling. Most of the time when someone uses the intangible card that person is talking nonsense. With all that said, although Lo Duca is overrated I would much rather have him than Olivo if $$$ is not a factor. Olivo is a backup having a good year at the plate.

I don't like Moehler but if he can average 6 innings per start with an ERA around 4.50 (this is not too much to ask) I would keep him in the rotation so he can eat innings. He's done that over his past 6 starts (6 1/3 innings with a 4.46 ERA) and if he keeps doing it I say keep him in the rotation. If he goes back and starts pitching like a bum like he did from mid '05 up until his recent "good" stretch then dump him and give his spot to Pinto or Petit or someone else. I also don't think a guy caught with sandpaper (or something like that) in his glove is the best of role models for the young pitchers.