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I got my 3rd e-mail on the show for this year, which rocks. Anyone else listen to the show?

To answer your question "what could be better?" I'd answer it like this: A future.

Anyone else think Penny should be traded for an inexpensive bat? Anyone? Pavano is just too cool to put in the pen. Oh wait, you'd rather traded great prospects for $4,000,000 has-beens. Just don't let JP Ricciardi, Theo Epstein, or Billy Beane get to the Marlins, they'd rape them. Let's see... they'd probably take undervalued Brian Banks, Ramon Castro, and Derrek Lee from you all, as well as the rest of your minor league system. In return? You get Terrance Long, Ramon Hernandez, and Mike Bordick. Cheers.

I'm a realistic, unbiased Braves fan who happened to have gotten obsessed with the Marlins' minor league system living 40 minutes from the Portland Sea Dogs, thus liking the Marlins and their former Sea Dogs. But you people are all in dinial if you all think this is a good deal.

Denny Bautista.

im not too worried about the future.... You're worried about losing in the playoffs or not even making it?

"It's just too bad this deal won't mean anything in the end aside from the Orioles dominating baseball by 2007."

SO you just stand pat and let this current team ride it out on the supposition that a 20 year old prospect might become something one day down the road? Yes, that's exactly what I do. The Marlins had a number of places to go, and one of them was bound to work. You don't go out and trade a great prospect for someone who only has a .339 OBP when even Brian Banks' is higher.

and the royals didn't lose their all-star third baseman a day before the waiver deadline either. The Royals gave up hardly anything for Rondell White. That is a good price to pay for a player who won't be that much of an impact player on a team who doesn't have a great chance on making the playoffs. However, the Marlins don't have a great chance at making the playoffs, yet have given up Jesus and the Holy Spirit for players like Ugueth Urbina and Jeff Conine, when if they couldn't get them for less, they weren't worth getting.

That's a dumb example, unless you can tell me that the Royal's MVP suffered a season-ending injury before the trade was executed. That isn't a dumb example at all. The bottom line is, you shouldn't have had to give anyone nearly as good as what you gave up to get Conine.

To add some perspective...to land Rondell White, the Royals gave up a 25-year-old AA pitcher with less Ks than IP, and a single-A pitcher who's 5-11 with a 4.38 ERA. That is a great example. THe Marlins shouldn't have even had to give up what they did to get what they got.

The bottom line, people, is that the Marlins aren't serious World Series contenders, and don't even have much of a chance of getting into the playoffs this season now that their all-star 3B is hurt. Jeff Conine won't help so much that he will single handedly put the Marlins in the playoffs, where Lowell will return and lead them to a title. The Marlins had a ton of other options that would still help almost as much or maybe more than Conine would and still preserve their future with a great young pitcher.

Oh, no!! Don't trade the best pitching prospect. That would be like trading Ryan Dempster before he came up (mediocre, on DL b/c arm fell off), or Burnett (was good, on DL b/c arm fell off), or Beckett (.500 pitcher with a 3rd of his career so far on DL). Name one of the Fish's "top pitching prospects" in the last 4 years who actually lived up to half of the hype that the franchise forced down our throats. The Fish Farm system chews up top pitching prospects and spits out mediocre and injury prone rotation-fillers. Keep in mind that Torborg isn't around to kill them all. And Burnett isn't a dud, and Beckett is only 23 and still has a chance at having a long successful career, seeing as he's awesome when healthy.

Wait did't that trade for Smoltz actually work? I mean did't they win the Championship that year? I could be wrong You, are the Twins won it all that year.

We've seen it before, just not as easy to detect. Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for mid-tier reliever Heathcliff Slocumb John Smoltz for aging all-star Doyle Alexander Jeff Bagwell for Admin Anderson Will Smith, Adrian Gonzalez, and Ryan Snare for half-season star Ugueth Urbina And finally, Denny Bautista and Don Levinski for plug-in Jeff Conine Hold up. If you are going to include the 2 deals this season then you'll have to include all the prospect for vet deals that did not work out for the new owners of the prospects. Otherwise your argument is null and void. Yeah but the "new owners of the prospects" weren't losing much. Most of the time they just deal some older guy to a team, when they aren't really competing anyway. Teams that do deals like this don't lose much no matter what.

I don't understand how anyone can think this is a decent move.

We've seen it before, just not as easy to detect. Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for mid-tier reliever Heathcliff Slocumb John Smoltz for aging all-star Doyle Alexander Jeff Bagwell for Admin Anderson Will Smith, Adrian Gonzalez, and Ryan Snare for half-season star Ugueth Urbina And finally, Denny Bautista and Don Levinski for plug-in Jeff Conine These deals are some of the worst trades in recent baseball history. They happen all the time. The truth is: the Marlins just completely screwed themselves in this deal. Jeff Conine, a 37 year old who's only gotten on base 33.8% of the time this season, and has a history of poor on-base percentages, is returning the the Marlins in return for one of the greatest pitching prospects in baseball and a decent one to boot. So why Conine? Perhaps the Marlins put way too much in getting former players to replace the bat of Mike Lowell. Let's use Clay Davenport's EqA to show us what some of the options could have been. The Marlins chose Conine over players like Reggie Sanders (who was claimed by Los Angeles,) Matt Stairs, and Abe Nu?ez among others. Let's take a look at their EqAs, shall we? Mike Lowell- .300 Reggie Sanders- .299 Jeff Conine- .285 Matt Stairs- .314 Abe Nu?ez- .318 (translates to .265 in the majors) Gerald Williams- .289 (.241) Rob Stratton- .263 (.219) Chris Donnels- .306 (.254) Matt Erickson- .310 (.258) As you can see, Conine wasn't even nearly the best option for the Marlins to trade for, but the Marlins had plenty of options in the minor leagues, and one was bound to work. What the Marlins have essentially done, is trade a great prospect, perhaps on par with the ones listed above, for an aging substitute who will most likely have an affect on them for only a month. Just one month. The Marlins should have just let it be, not trade a great future for one month of a player who still won't be able to fill in like the guy they lost. I mean, I can't understand this. The Marlins are trying to win the wild card here, they aren't a big force who happens to have another big force in their division, they are just fighting for a wild card. This deal is so foolish. To be trading a way a great future for the chance to make the playoffs. THe thing is, even if they do, they are still a long shot at the world series! This is just completely insane!

The Orioles are going to be a huge force soon, and Bautista is going to be a big part of it.

Its all about this year. Next year or 2005 are a million years away. Bautista is a terrific prospect, but that's what he is - a prospect. The Marlins did absolutely the right thing considering the hand (no pun intended) they were dealt by the baseball gods, and even with a gun at their head, Beinfest wasn't afraid to make the deal. I say congrats! And I say: why don't you die? AT LEAST one of the two stupid deal the Marlins did this year is going to be parallel to the Varitek, Smoltz, and Bagwell trades.

Probaly 1 or 2 years. Wow bad trade. Admin had such a great year as the GM then he blows it by giving up 2 of our top prospects for an old guy. I was thinking Like Blaine Neal and someone. Boy was I wrong :banghead I didn't think it was possible to be any more idiotic when he traded Snare and Gonzalez and Smith for Urbina, but congrats, it's possible.

I'm confirming the report: Go to rotoworld.com, it says it there. Holy crap. I am in total shock. I can't believe how stupid Florida is.

Oh my God, I really think the Marlins have to be the dumbest organization in baseball to be giving up 1 of the best pitching prosects in baseball along with a very decent one for an old second-rate ballplayer who will play for them for how long??

Look deeper... Matt Stairs- 7.65 RC/27 Mike Lowell- 6.37 Jeff Conine- 5.52 Matt Stairs- .956 OPS Mike Lowell- .882 Jeff Conine- .799

Well, Sanders or Stairs probably would've been better acquisitions, but Conine is definitely an upgrade. I'm curious to see what prospects were traded. Hopefully no one like Stokes, Bautista, Hutchinson, Willingham, etc. That'd be insane, especially if it were Hutchinson, who I'm obsessed with.

Hello Mr. Marlin! It's like the Braves getting Glavine back for a title run..... sort of I'd rather get a better player than get Glavine back, even though I'd be thrilled to get Glavine. The thing is, Stairs has a better bat than Lowell to begin with.