Out of the Past

The absolute worst is Arizona. Mark Grace is, far and away, the most annoying commentator in baseball. Grace is terrible and can't stand Darren Sutton either. These idiots say "young man" about 100 times a game.

If people hate on you, you're doing something right. For the record...I don't know how anybody at all could be worse than the Rays duo. Just horrific... Pirates, Mariners, Tigers, Orioles, Nationals and Braves are worse but he worst are the White Sox and Diamondbacks. I think that after the Hawk (Chicago Sox), the Nationals guys are the worst. Rob Dibble prides himself on not doing any prep-work, argues balls and strikes more than Tommy ever did, and is a massive homer. Bob Carpenter is also a huge homer, talks too slowly, and has a terrible voice. The incredible thing about Dibble and Carpenter is that they whine about balls and strikes even after foxtrac (or whatever they call it) agrees with the ump.

If people hate on you, you're doing something right. For the record...I don't know how anybody at all could be worse than the Rays duo. Just horrific... Pirates, Mariners, Tigers, Orioles, Nationals and Braves are worse but he worst are the White Sox and Diamondbacks.

If he becomes John Olerud (Hatteburg with more power) I would be very happy.

The team doesn't need much more to be an actual contender, if you think about it. $60 million (which is another 12-13 M than what the current team is) should be enough to fill the holes this team has. The year that new stadium opens should be very exciting. In 2012 JJ and Hanley will be making $29 million leaving $31 million for the rest of the team. This year Hanley and JJ are making $9 million and the rest of the team is making $38 million. In 2012 we would have less payroll for the rest of the team than what we currently have. That's bad news.

Well these payroll figures for 2011 and 2012 are terrible news.

For players with at least 194 PAs he leads the NL in hitting (.371) and is 2nd in OPS (.986). He's good.

Brian Wilson says hi.

Forget the wild card. We have to leapfrog too many teams. The only reasonable chance to make the playoffs is to win the division The pure odds of overtaking SF (43 losses) in the WC are obviously better than overtaking ATL (40 losses) in the division. The permutations involved in also overtaking the other 2 teams in the division versus also overtaking the other 5 in the WC introduces uncertainty that probably can't be quantified without a large hunk of multi-variate software, so absent that no well-founded, reasonable conclusion can be formed at this point, or ever. In any case, baseball isn't just a game of inches, it's a game of runs and collapses (not to mention purchases and/or sales,) so probabilities, reasonable or otherwise can wind up being meaningless. The bottom line is that they need to win two of every three games from here on out to win 90 and have any chance at either the division or the WC. Not likely, but not impossible particularly if they do some buying, which is somewhat likely considering that they have the '12 stadium opening in the background of the equation. coolstandings.com has the % chance of winning the division at 3% and the wild card at 2%. http://www.coolstandings.com/baseball_team.asp?id=FLA&sn=2010

Uggla and Hanley had decent years in '06 as rookies so with hard work the potential was there but then Fredi came in and cut down the time spent on defensive drills... Was Uggla projected to be a good defender? His total zone for 2B in 2005 (minor league) was absolutely terrible. There does seem to be some inconsistency with defensive numbers. For example, Uggla was -13 in 2007, +2 in 2008, -8 in 2009, and -8 in 2010. I'm not sure of the inconsistency is a problem with the stats themselves or if players can really turn it on that much themsleves. Nevertheless, the big picture for Uggla's defense has never been pretty. I don't think so but I've never put much stock in minor league defensive assessments just because I think they're mostly eyeball based. On Uggla at $12 million per year, if he OPSes .815 and costs you 10 runs with his defense that's the equivalent of a .775 OPS guy with neutral defense. I don't see a .775 OPS 2B as a $12 million player.

I have written off Maybin as a potential contributor. That ship has sailed. Send him to the Orioles or Pirates. Just pretend he's never played in the majors, had the same minors numbers, was the same age, and only played in A+. In evaluating him you shouldn't pretend he never played in the majors. What he did in the majors is part of his history. I think you missed the joke. Bingo. So what's the joke?

Uggla and Hanley had decent years in '06 as rookies so with hard work the potential was there but then Fredi came in and cut down the time spent on defensive drills...

I have written off Maybin as a potential contributor. That ship has sailed. Send him to the Orioles or Pirates. Just pretend he's never played in the majors, had the same minors numbers, was the same age, and only played in A+. In evaluating him you shouldn't pretend he never played in the majors. What he did in the majors is part of his history.

I don't think he's worth more than $10 million with his horrible defense, hot/cold streaks, and age. If he wants more than that, I say trade him in the offseason or let him walk after 2011. I really wish the Marlins could have someone who is at least a plus defender at second base. Considering Hanley is probably the worst defensive SS in baseball, I'd like one of the two middle infielders to be at least decent with the glove. I don't know if Coghlan will end up being decent there or not. Hanley is definitely having a poor defensive year but it's just 90 games. If he keeps it up and then has a similarly poor year next year then I would agree. But 90 poor games is not enough to make that judgment.

braves fan perspective: why are we trading for ross? i mean, to be honest, he does little to help the braves. and i'm hearing the marlins want melden. convince me, the braves fan that we need ross, because i don't see anything unique with ross expect he's a braves killer. Cody is having a bad year (OPS - .736). If I was the Braves I wouldn't give up Medlen for him. I would put Melky is CF and if they want another bat I would go for Willingham who is one of the most underrated hitters in the game.

Florida Marlins talking points: Donnie Murphy gives an assist to Wes Helms by Tom D'Angelo When Donnie Murphy was called up by the Marlins on July 3, the first thing he did was seek out Wes Helms. “I wanted to get an idea of what he does throughout the game,� said Murphy, who was used to playing every day in New Orleans. What he learned was, “the more you prepare yourself it’s a lot easier.� That preparation paid off big time Monday. Murphy, who had just three at bats since joining the Marlins, connected on a 1-0 Huston Street fastball to give the Marlins a 9-8 victory. The home run, which came with Dan Uggla aboard, was his first since 2008. http://blogs.palmbea...t-to-wes-helms/ I don't believe that Donnie Murphy had no idea that preparation makes things easier and that if it wasn't for Wes Helms he still would be clueless about it.

I'll go with saves/blown saves as the most overrated statistic in baseball. People just like to look at the statistic as if all saves are created equal. I don't think blown saves are overrated. It tracks leads a reliever surrendered and to me that's useful information. I would just call it something else and wouldn't limit it to any number of runs so if a guy gives up a 5 run lead he gets "credit" for it.

Helms rarely walks and Ks a lot.. not the type of dicisplined type hitter I want teaching my young prospects. That's a shame because Helms is the only player on the team paid to hit. To be fair, that's not true at all. What is not true? Look at his BB/K and their percentages the last few seasons.

I wonder what is meant by professional hitter... most guys labeled professional hitters can't hit.

A high percentage of top 20 prospects fail to make it big so it's not unusual for both Maybin and Miller to crap out. Both had holes in their games when the trade was made so no one should be surprised at what's happened. There's still hope for Maybin.

CERA is seletively used when a particular catcher is hated and the use of CERA is convenient. Give it time. Some great hitters are better than other great hitters at driving in their base runners and they deserve praise for it.

Helms rarely walks and Ks a lot.. not the type of dicisplined type hitter I want teaching my young prospects.

What about RBI as another overrated stat? It's contingent upon the batters in front of you getting on base and there is no possible way a batter could control that. I don't think it's as overrated as W-L but it should definitely be in the discussion. It's overrated by some but underrated by others. Many people think RBIs are solely dependent on the number of base runners a guy has on base and that's obviously wrong. It also depends on the guy's propensity to drive those base runners in and the home runs he hits. Some guys such as Miguel Cabrera excel at driving in the base runners he has on. His career average is 19% while the league average is only 15%. So Cabrera is a beast at driving in his base runners and he should be applauded for it.

Helms is a bad bat and now a lousy fielder Make him the third base coach. If he's into taking retarded chances such as getting thrown out a 2B in an 8-0 game then I don't want him as a 3B coach.

CERA is worse than W / L record. ERA for middle relievers is probably worse too. The inherited runners stat for relievers is pretty weak too. A guy comes in with a runner on first, faces two hitters and allows both to get on moving the inherited runenr 3rd without getting anyone out and is then removed... incredibly he gets credit for stranding a runner.