dim

Can't remember the account atm. I'll post here when I remember it.

Enabled Adam Conley to come off the DL. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-marlins/fl-marlins-news-0925-20160924-story.html

There's picture on the boat owner's Instagram of them all hanging out on the boat. He posted a lot of pics of them together on it.

Bump (and I laugh reading my reaction and everybody's to Fernandez getting drafted).

Bump.

I was just re-reading this thread and saw this post. This is the one that got me.

I honestly can't believe this is the last post game thread we'll ever have after a Jose Fernandez start. Following his career from when he was drafted by the Marlins in the first round to now...I don't know when it will ever feel real.

I hope it does. I'm sure they'll try. This isn't something you recover from though. It's franchise changing. It changes the entire dynamic of the team and hurts 2017 more than can ever be imagined. It actually has to make the team consider whether they even have the pieces now to compete at all. The pitching staff will be led by Adam Conley and Wei Yin Chen. I keep saying this is a discussion for later, and it should be, but we all care so much about the team and the impact Jose had that it's hard not to even think about the meteor sized hole that is being left with the team's pitching. Pitching went from a free agent priority to something that is so far in need that is virtually impossible to replace.

That's impossible now. Jose was the heart of the city. Stanton isn't that, but he's the closest thing to that left now. Regardless of anything I've said in the past, Stanton cannot be traded anytime soon. The team needs a central person to rely on, and he's that guy alone now.

It's not an exaggeration to say Jose was the heart and soul of the team. It's not an exaggeration to say the Miami Marlins lost the heart of the team today. The team has to move forward...I'm not sure how you do though.

This is true. A future Jose Fernandez trade was what the front office was hoping would fix their broken farm system. As I said before, we'll discuss in length at some point the giant effects this has on the franchise, and they are huge. And I don't expect people not to talk about it now, because as fans the future of the team is always on our minds. But for me at least, this is about somebody who is just a year older than myself dying. I don't feel I've had a chance to experience the world even a tiny bit as much as I expect to me in my lifetime. If I were to die today, I'd be disappointed not being able to know what will happen for the next fifty, sixty years. It's an injustice for somebody to go at 24 years old. It's senseless, and there were a lot of memories and great moments that we and everyone in the world will not be able to experience because of this.

No it isn't weird. And yes, that sounds like an excellent idea.

And the All Star Game is in Miami next year. Jose doesn't get to pitch the All Star Game in front of the Miami crowd.

I didn't hear that. I appreciate the extra info. It's just bizarre how every small decision in life can ultimately be the deciding one. He might not have been out there if he was pitching.

Today was supposed to be Jose Day. It was supposed to be the last Jose day of the season. He was starting today's game. I know Jose would've just pummeled that Braves lineup today.

It will without a doubt be the hardest week in the history of the Miami Marlins franchise.

It all really doesn't feel real. This is a darkest timeline kind of world right now that I'm seeing on Sportscenter. I don't even know if it'll feel real until Opening Day 2017, when we take the mound and Jose isn't there. I can't imagine how rough that game is going to be for all of us.

This is just an awful day. We lost the face of our franchise, a 24-year-old bright light. I'm seriously at a loss of words. I've never experienced this with a player on one of my teams. Last night I went to the UCF football game and was talking with a friend who is a Yankees fan about Jose Fernandez's future as a player. We were talking about how he was bound to become one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, whether that be with the Marlins, Yankees, Dodgers, wherever...He was poised to have an incredible career... And now it's gone. He's gone. It completely changes the landscape of our franchise, but more importantly a 24 year old kid just lost his life far too early. Again, I'm far more distraught than I ever imagine I could be. RIP.

That pick was used on Joe Connor, who is in A+ ball with the Pirates and a .743 OPS. Fun fact: Three picks earlier the Marlins selected Blake Anderson, who has yet to make it out of Batavia yet (the place draft picks immediately play). He took 4 AB's this year so I don't know what happened to him. The player I wanted desperately, Jacob Gatewood, fell to 41 and sucks as a player as well. Basically Bryan Morris was 100x more valuable than that pick was and is one of the most positive trades the Marlins have made the last four years. EDIT: Derek Fisher was the player to get in that CBA, who went 1 pick after the Marlins the Marlins picked Anderson. He's in AAA and will be a major league player next season.

On a side note I take back saying Erick Aybar sucks. This year that's true, but career wise he's one of the best defensive players out there. Just wanted to explain that.

Lets say a team goes after him to play SS and not the outfield like the Rangers. I'll analyze his value based on that. The shortstop market in 2016 is led by Erick Aybar. Aybar is terrible, and he's the best of the bunch. The shortstop market is absolutely awful, with not even a guy who is good enough to be a backup shortstop available. The centerfield market isn't all that much better, with Austin Jackson, Jon Jay, and Rajai Davis not expected to command big money. In terms of comparable players, the best I could really find was Jhonny Peralta signing with the Cardinals in 2013. At that time, Peralta was the same age as Ian Desmond is now. Slugging % basically the same (.358 to .357), OBP different of .018, Desmond strikes out far more but makes up for it with double Peralta's home run total. Similar career paths between the two players and both hit free agency with a similar situation (clearly the top SS available with no competition in the slightest). Peralta signed for 4 years, $53 million. Now lets adjust this for three years of inflation and the baseball market now offering far higher AAV for contracts. I think you're pretty spot on with the 4 years, $60 million guesstimate. Based on what I've seen in the markets when looking into them, that is Desmond's value when hitting free agency. He'd be making yearly what Troy Tulowitzki is currently getting, which puts him among the two highest paid shortstops in baseball. Now would I want to give a 31 year old with a history of inconsistency that kind of contract? I don't know, but I think somebody will.

Here's a fun small list of all the playoff teams this season and where they end up among MLB leaders in OBP. Boston Red Sox (#1) Chicago Cubs (#2) Cleveland Indians (#5) San Francisco Giants (#6)/St. Louis Cardinals (#13) Toronto Blue Jays (#8) Washington Nationals (#10) Texas Rangers (#12) Los Angeles Dodgers (#21) NY Mets (#26) Worth noting that the Mets and Dodgers have the third and fourth lowest ERA's in the MLB. It's pretty obvious the keys to winning in baseball is good pitching and a team that can get on base (which shows a disciplined team that is fundamentally sound). Marlins failed this season because they took a risk on Wei-Yin Chen, assuming that a transition from facing the toughest lineups in the AL East to easier NL East lineups would lead to improved numbers which turned out wrong. The rest of the rotation was filled with the likes of Adam Conley, Tom Koehler, Jose Urena, Justin Nicolino, etc... Koehler and Conley are fine #4 and 5 pitchers for a contending team. But without an established #2 or 3, we have the pitching season that we did this season. No, there isn't an Anthony Desclafani, Andrew Heaney, Carlos Rodon, Trevor Williams, etc... to soften the blow. I forgot one more trade that people haven't discussed that the Marlins screwed up horribly. Remember Brian Flynn? Yeah, the guy we traded away to get Aaron Crow. Flynn's got a 2.34 ERA in relief with the Kansas City Royals this year. A real shutdown reliever. I don't know what happened to Crow. Anyway, it has been a three year journey to where the team is today. I look around the league and see stories of success. Teams that started building around the same time we started make big trades (that many didn't think then and still don't think now were big trades) in an attempt to move the Marlins into contention. It was all on the premise of misguided ideas. Poor planning, poor execution, the wrong way to build a successful franchise. And here we are. The Cubs built a team sabermetrics people pleasure themselves to at night. The Mets went pitching heavy and are seeing success because of it. The Nationals made similar risk related moves that the Marlins tried in 2015, but the difference is the Nationals maintained their farm while trading for and signing big name guys (while also make shrewd signings on the side). The Dodgers had the money and the intelligent leadership to build an excellent squad despite the worst luck in baseball history. I can keep going, but the fact remains that the templates for team success are all around the league, and the Marlins seem stubborn enough to ignore them and keep doing what they are doing.

I think the Marlins team hitting stats just shows how important a well balanced lineup and plate discipline are to a team's success. Lets take the Chicago Cubs for example. They're 19th in the MLB in total hits. The Marlins are 4th. However, the Cubs are one of the best offenses in baseball and current have the 3rd most runs in baseball. First thing you might think is that they're a power machine. Well, they're 13th in home runs, making them around league average. They're top 10 in baseball in doubles, but that isn't a reason that they have one of the most potent offenses in baseball. And then you see it. 2nd best on-best percentage in baseball with .341. A team batting average of .255 with an OBP close to .100 points higher. How do they do this, you ask? They lead the league in walks...by a lot. A good 30 walks higher than the next best team. Oddly enough, they also lead the league in hit by pitches with 90, a good 12 more than the second best team. You look at the top 4 hitters in the Cubs lineup and you see an average OBP of .384. You look at the top 4 hitters in the Marlins lineup and you get an average OBP of .353 (this is among players who haven't missed significant time). 12 years later and the Marlins haven't learned basic Moneyball practices. The objective of baseball is to get on base. Singles are fine, but when you're a league average team in getting on-base you need to have power to make up for it. The Marlins are statistically a bottom 5 power hitting team in baseball this year. On a completely unrelated note, somebody should take note of what the Red Sox are doing this year offensively. As a collective team they are hitting like a well above average player, which is insane.

I'll chip in $2. We know Loria would give him about $1 million to $2 million. So the rest of us need to chip in the other $97,999,998 we'll need in order to sign Ian Desmond. I think we can do this guys.