NC_Marlin

If the Red Sox pay part of the contract I can guarantee you they're getting more than Oliver and Valdez back. They aren't running a charity. I'm all about moving Pavano for a quality middle of the order bat, so if we can get Kim *and* Trot Nixon for Pavano and scraps, that would be awesome. Any idea what Nixon's contract looks like?

we arent getting soriano for castro and nunez. get that through yoru thick skulls now. Amen. As I said earlier, I'm not convinced that Nunez is thought of as an everyday player around the league. Its questionable whether the front office is willing to give up on Gonzo or Castro, so at best 6 of our regular 8 aren't going anywhere. Obviously, the bullpen is out because most of it sucks and what doesn't suck we can't afford to move. That leaves the starting rotation. Beckett, Penny, AJ, are our top 3 and (hopefully) our nucleus. I'd be willing to move Willis at this point but from a PR standpoint thats not going to happen. Pavano is a free agent at years end, in line for a nice raise which we most likely won't be able to take on. The only way we're going to make a big splash in the trade market is by moving Pavano. He's the only marketable piece we have unless we're going to further rape our farm system. We could only pray that the Red Sox were/are serious about dealing Nomar for pitching. Given our situation I think we're in a tough position as far as getting a bat. Its not worth giving up on Castro/Gonzo for some one year middling upgrade, and there don't appear to be many premier SS/C/middle of the lineup types on the market. Best case scenerio may be us adding a decent arm to the pen (althought we may need 2 given the murkiness of Fox's situation) and hoping our lineup turns around. The only way I'd move any of our top prospects is if a middle of the order bat became available like Nomar.

what we need is clear... Mike Redmond must be flew to Yankee Stadium to take batting pratice in the nude!

we can not in any way afford to lose pitching at this point its all we have If you don't score, you can't win. Pavano can only pitch every 5th day. Whoever we move him for will hit everyday. If there was any validity to the Red Sox-Nomar deal mentioned here a while back that would work out great. Bringing in a legitimate 3 like Nomar would do wonders for this whole lineup. Win or lose this year I don't see Pavano coming back. We have the luxary of having too many top of the rotation starters, we should go ahead and deal him now for a bat, perferably one that will be around for next year too. Its going to be interesting to see what the front office can pull off. We're in a challenging situation in that we're basically committed to 6 of our 8 regulars and our minor league system is a little understocked. I maintain that the only thing we have to offer is starting pitching.

I'm skeptical about whether or not Nunez is the commodity around baseball that he is on this board. The only way we're going to make a major trade splash is by trading a regular (pavano makes the most sense) or further depleting our farm system. If all goes well with AJ, I say move Pavano for a good bat, turn around whoever that bat replaces in the lineup (SS or C are about the only options I see) and scraps from the bullpen and minors for a reliever. There will be teams looking for starting pitching which is really the only thing we have to too much of. I think trading one of our starters (pavano makes the most sense) is going to be the key to getting better.

Getting Kim would be a good pickup, but its going to hard for us to deal with another contender. The Red Soxs aren't looking for prospects. They want to win now just like us. Only shot at making it happen without giving up a piece of our own would be a 3-way. We'll probably have to get pretty close to July with what we've got. Then we can get a bullpen arm and maybe a bat. Its going to be tougher for the front office to make a deal this year because as others have noted, the farm has been fished pretty heavily over the last couple of years. We could end up having to deal Pavano for a bat if the offense doesn't pick up. We can probably scrap together Nunez and B prospects for a quality reliever.

I don't think theres much doubt that AJ has the best stuff on our staff when he's going good. No offense to Beckett, but everything AJ throws is just naturally electric. Its rare that you hear someone talked about as having too much movement on their fastball. AJ's stuff is good enough that he can get away with (or atleast could in the past) not locating sharply. As we've seen this year, if Beckett isn't locating, its going to be a tough night.

awesome news. Lest we forget that the year before the injury alot of scouts had came to the general concensus that AJ had the best stuff in baseball based on the number of swings and misses he got in the strikezone. If he's really learned to pitch from the old man, we could be in for a treat in the years to come.

Just remember that Jack will pick the reserves and its a tradition to reward your guys what they did for you to get there. I think Lowell, Cabrera, JP, and Mando are locks. I also think that atleast one, maybe two, out of Penny, Pavano, and Beckett will go. Castillo could also be in the mix. So I think we'll have between 5-7 guys on the team.

I think that deal would have left the Reds with Contreres, us with Riedling, and the Yankees with whatever else was involved.

Red and Willis are a package deal

He'd already warmed up twice so it would have been a wasted day not to pitch him. I think he should have been in a batter early after they made it a 3-run game. If its a save situation and your closer is warmed up and available then get him in. Especially if he's been as dominating as Mando thus far.

As alluded to the thread I started yesterday, I agree, this team looks overcoached at the plate. Theres something to be said for patience, but our guys are taking it too far. We're getting into way too many pitchers counts and seem to be getting more strikeouts as a result than last year.

You're not going to be sucessful when you watch the firs two strikes as we've been doing this series (I can't speak for the rest of the season because I haven't been able to see the games). We've been consistently looking at 0-2, 1-2, and at best 2-2 counts. Not a whole lot of hitters counts at all. Atleast thats the way I remember seeing it the past two days.

just to flesh out the thought, last year i think we were alot more aggressive, came to the plate swinging. This year it looks like we've taken patience too far.

I understand that commonly you take the first pitch, but what I'm talking about goes further than that. I think JP has watched his way to 0-2 atleast twice this series as has Nunez. It seems like we're doing alot of watching strikes 1 and 2.

Watching the past couple of days it seems like we're being very tentative at the plate, taking alot of strikes early. Seems like we were alot more aggressive last year, especially JP. Anybody notice the same thing or am I off base?

I doubt he sent him. Its more likely that everybody knows that the Marlins will run less this year so they're even less concerned with somebody as slow as Mike than usual. As a result Mike's been basically ignored and has took advantage of it.

anybody else having trouble with game day audio or is it just me? This is my first day with access so i'm hoping its a problem on their end as opposed to mine.

If our pitching stays this good we're damn near untouchable, but we still need another arm in the bullpen. Fox and Mando can't go out there 6 days a week and it looks like this is a team built to play loads of tight games. It's going to be interesting to see how our arms hold up over the course of the season. Another reason we need another dependable arm in the bullpen to take some of the burden off the starters having to go deep in every game.

Hopefully it won't take a complete meltdown like the one we had up in Canada a few years ago to get the front office's attention. I think after today's performance that saw our most reliable relievers prove shaky, we should see some help soon. What ever happened to Botilico?

Beggers can't be choosers. He's a known quanity at the very least, you can't say that about 4/6 of our bullpen.

Bradley to the Dodgers almost has to kill the interest in Nunez, theres nowhere to put him unless they're going to take him over Enc in Left which seems unlikely. If we could get Botilco I think that would be the ideal situation. Then we could keep Nunez atleast for now and have all kinds of lineup options if somebody gets hurt and/or struggles. If nothing else we'd have him around at mid-season as trade bait when it comes time to go get the missing piece.

I'm pretty certain that rule 5 players have to be on the 25 man roster, hence the gamble in taking kids in it.

Don't forget that Lopez has said he doesnt want to catch everyday anymore.