Anonymous

I think there is talent there, while he may never walk, I think eventually he will figure out how to hit some and put together around a .700 OPS. What are you basing this on?Complete opinion. I don't think it will happen tomorrow or anything, but I think he has the ability to put it together, somewhat, eventually. I also think if "baseball people" didn't feel this way he wouldn't have a job. Some people rely wayyyyy too much on numbers alone much too often, use your eyes and form an opinion. He's had minor league time plus time in the major leagues to prove he's not a very good hitter. Some players improve with poor minor league numbers like Molina, but that's rare. You can't just give ABs hoping he'll improve.

For some reason I don't see that as an average offense. 3B, SS, and CF would still be huge liabilities. That's on top of counting on Dietrich and Morrison to improve. Well, of course my scenario has its share of assumptions. It's assuming Coghlan and Lucas can handle third in a platoon capacity, which not only looks great on paper but would hopefully help keep Chris healthy. Of course SS is going to be an offensive liability, no question. Center field is a little less likely to be a problem, I am sure between Marisnick/Ozuna/Ruggiano somebody will step up. Morrison doesn't have to improve, simply maintain, but it is of my opinion he will improve. Dietrich would need minor improvement to be a serviceable starting second baseman, he left in a horrible skid that dropped his OPS to .679, and as long as he can keep it above .700 (seems likely with his power) then that's a major improvement over Solano. And again, it's actually my opinion he can post an OPS closer to .750, but I am being conservative. Add McCann to this equation and you could definitely have an average major league lineup. All of the scenarios above are really not far fetched or reaching too far, but for any team to succeed things have to go right. I don't see it that way. I think a platoon of Coghlan/Lucas would be terrible. I don't want to see Marisnick or Ozuna up here at all next season, and I think the production in CF will be terrible. Likewise with SS. I don't expect Morrison to be anything more than average. That's not a lineup Stanton, McCann, Yelich and Dietrich can carry. That's assuming Dietrich will even hit well.

Yea, a catcher of his caliber will have his share of suitors if he's available. Don't see how we can acquire him. Plus, I'm sure the Marlins are more than happy to have Mathis as a starter next season.

For some reason I don't see that as an average offense. 3B, SS, and CF would still be huge liabilities. That's on top of counting on Dietrich and Morrison to improve.

He's kicking ass this season.

I thought he was only going 6 innings.

I know. But that was a damn interesting stat.

Peyton was great. Threw 7 touchdown passes in one game against Baltimore. Last year, they didn't give up 7 touchdowns through the air until week 10.

I just looked up Napoli's splits for the first time and he's definitely not a platoon candidate. If the Marlins wanted him it would be to replace Morrison full time at first base. His career numbers are better than I expected. Much better than Morrison's. I only took a look at his 2013 splits. I don't think he'll be an option for us, though.

We could probably get good production without paying nearly as much money as Napoli is going to get. Not that it matters since the Marlins front office doesn't believe in platoons. The last time they had one that worked was Baker/Paulino. This is a good point. They'll either keep Morrison to bat full time or just get rid of him. The only viable option seems to be Abreau but I don't think they're too high on him.

Rookie of the Year.

Coghlan allows almost every other hitter in the order to bat in their natural position. Yelich can hit third, Stanton clean up, etc. That's pretty meaningless, especially for this season. On top of that, I'm not quite sure you are correct in assigning those "natural positions." I'm not even sure such a thing exists to be quite honest. In mostly all baseball situations, having Coghlan hit lead-off is completely idiotic but I like Carlos Rodon so I'm cool with it. Having Chris Coghlan lead off is our best option at this moment. I mean, considering pretty much every person that has led off this year, with the exception of Yelich, can't post an OBP over .300. At least Coghlan can get on base around .320-.350 and has proven it. And you don't think hitters have a natural spot in the batting order? For instance, Stanton has historically been a terrible hitter batting third, whereas he has generally had tons of success batting fourth. Yelich is a natural #3 hitter, capable of hitting for average, power, and spraying the ball to all fields. Basically he is capable of hitting in any situation, and you generally want your most well-rounded hitter batting third. Usually hitters like Solano succeed batting second because he doesn't K often, and has the ability to hit the ball the other way. So he won't strand runners often and can move guys over with the hit and run, etc. LoMo is your prototypical #5-6 hitter, a guy that drives in runs and has pop but isn't the best on your team at either. Same goes for Ruggz. Hech and Mathis are your weakest hitters, therefore they fall into the least important spots in the lineup. To say that guys don't generally fall into a natural spot in the order, based on general baseball situations and their particular talents and skills, is really silly. It's pretty clear Stanton ain't a #3 hitter, it's pretty clear LoMo shouldn't be hitting cleanup, and it's damn certain Solano or Lucas or Polanco etc should NOT be hitting anywhere from 3-6 in the order. How the hell is Stanton not a #3 hitter?

Not sure I want Morrison in next years lineup. He might be the best option if we can't sign Abreu but that doesn't say much. I like him in a platoon role, but he should never start against LHP. I wish the Marlins had Gaby Sanchez or someone like him.That would be ideal considering the options available. I think Napoli could platoon well with Morrison if they do want to go that route. Methinks if Napoli came here, he'd play every day, not in a platoon role. The power would be nice. Then again, his injury problems are a concern and he's not exactly demolishing the ball. .797 OPS with half his games at Fenway, and he's been taking advantage of that wall - 33 doubles, already a career high. He'd probably crash and burn with us, even in a platoon role. Well obviously if he doesn't come in for a platoon role than I don't think we should bring him in. So I don't know why you cited his overall production. He might not accept the role but he would be a good player to bring in if he were willing to, IMO.

Not sure I want Morrison in next years lineup. He might be the best option if we can't sign Abreu but that doesn't say much. I like him in a platoon role, but he should never start against LHP. I wish the Marlins had Gaby Sanchez or someone like him.That would be ideal considering the options available. I think Napoli could platoon well with Morrison if they do want to go that route.

Coghlan allows almost every other hitter in the order to bat in their natural position. Yelich can hit third, Stanton clean up, etc. If he keeps playing like this, he won't have a spot to hit in. Because he will be out of the lineup.

Not sure I want Morrison in next years lineup. He might be the best option if we can't sign Abreu but that doesn't say much.

He's a AAAA player.

Fernandez has one more start before rosters expand. They should just let him pitch that game then replace him in the rotation.

I don't wish injury upon him but that's a really shitty thing to do. Maybe he should allow the sample collector to give a free kick to the sack.

I didn't even know he still played baseball. LOL, me either. This is a terrible way to find out.

Isn't he a very inexperienced manager? Maybe he'll improve with more experience and a team of better quality.

And out of all of those signings/extension you mentioned, he never ended up paying out any of them and they were mostly intentionally structured to be backloaded. I don't think its a stretch to question whether Loria will spend on the team at this point. Almost every contract is intentionally back loaded. I don't think trading players away that you signed long term means you're never going to sign players again. Maybe he doesn't but I wouldn't be surprised if he does. There is common backloading that most teams do to take advantage of present value and then there is extreme backloading while never agreeing to no-trade clauses when you have a history of always trading any long contracts away before they end and getting less in trade return by refusing to either pay more of the salary and/or bundling good assets with bad contracts. The Delgado contract is a great example. Loria can say he signed a 52 million dollar deal but in reality he only paid out 4 million and would have gotten more in a the trade if he ate some salary. Its a strawman to suggest that I said we would never sign players again. I am saying profit is the first priority (which is perfectly understandable) and winning is a very distant second. So being skeptical of Loria spending money that he could instead profit from doesn't seem like a ridiculous position to take. I think its more likely than Loria actually spending a significant amount of money (and not just pledging to in the future) It's not a strawman. That's the position Spike is taking and I thought you were in agreement. I agree that winning is a second priority to him. We'll see what he does this off season.

I'm a big believer in Alvarez. Not Eovaldi. I would rather have Alvarez in the rotation that Eovaldi. Care to elaborate on that? The Marlins are reportedly saying their 4 current rotation guys (Fernandez, Turner, Eovaldi, Alvarez) are untouchable in trades with Heaney also off the table. Jose and Heaney are for obvious reasons, but Alvarez is the lesser pitcher of the other three right now. I'm 100% with Bender on this one. He's a very good GB pitcher that has excellent control. The Ks are alarming but at the same time Buehrle has had success with a low K rate. I think right now his LD rate is higher than you want but he's pitched in only 51 innings, and it's been decreasing over the last 3 games which is a good sign. As of now, he's lucky with the HomeRuns, so that will jump up obviously. But it's not like I expected him to maintain such a low ERA all season. For me, I think he's ahead of Eovaldi and possibly Turner right now.

I'm a big believer in Alvarez. Not Eovaldi. I would rather have Alvarez in the rotation that Eovaldi.

Except for all of it. Not really. I asked you for a link before and you didn't provide one. The only time I remember the MLB and MLBPA interfering was when the Marlins hit a snag with JJ in his contract extension. They didn't interfere with Ramirez or Nolasco. They didn't force Loria to sign Delgado. They didn't force the Marlins to sign Reyes, Bell, or Buehrle. So I'm not sure how you think you're correct here. Union, Florida Marlins reach agreement to up payroll. The new stadium deal also came with higher payroll assurances, especially after the Marlins contribution to the project was so light. And no one forced Loria to sign Delgado. He was signed during a big push to get a stadium to one of the most ridiculously backloaded contracts ever(I believe the Marlins only paid him $4 million for his one year of service) and was offloaded a year into the contract when stadium negotiations fell apart. Delgado was a publicity stunt. The Marlins already had Ramirez under contract at the time, and were already in discussions with JJ about a contract. This was also 2 years before the 2012 season and the article gives no specifications that they demanded them to go on a spending spree that they did for the 2012 season. They didn't force them into signing Reyes, Buehrle, and Bell while contemplating signing Pujols, Wilson and Cespedes. The agreement was just to increase payroll.