mystikol87

"A high-ranking team source" told the New York Post that the Mets have had zero discussions about signing Ivan Rodriguez. Rodriguez has said several times recently that New York is interested in signing him, but the newspaper notes that the Mets "suspect he is simply using their name to try to drum up interest."Source: New York Post This is looking really good for the Marlins. That only leaves the Astros from the supposed teams interested, and I believe they have several catchers and I haven't read any reports showing them to be too interested. I really think they will sign him for about $1 million plus incentives, unless a surprise team comes in.

This surprised me, considering we seem to have too many RP arms for not enough spots as it is. And, we have supposedly even less money to spend. Still, all other things being equal, I would like to see Ohman in this bullpen. He is solid overall and destroys lefties. 1. Lindstrom 2. Proctor 3. Nunez 4. Ohman 5. Pinto 6. Kensing 7. DLC Looks good to me. Anyway, here's the blurb: By Jerry Crasnick ESPN.com Archive Will Ohman, one of the top relievers left on baseball's free agent market, has major league offers in hand from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins and San Diego Padres, but plans to continue discussions with three contending teams before making a decision on his destination for 2009, his agent said Monday. The Phillies, Mets and Dodgers have all stayed in touch with Ohman, but their interest has yet to progress beyond the talking stage. "When Will gets an offer he's comfortable with, he's going to sign,'' agent Page Odle said. "Right now we continue to have dialogue with several teams on a pretty regular basis. There's no timetable.'' Ohman, 31, figured to be one of the most hotly-pursued lefties on the market this winter based on his performance in 2008. He posted a 4-1 record with a 3.68 ERA for Atlanta, and struck out 53 batters in 58 1/3 innings. The market began promisingly, when Damaso Marte signed a three-year, $12 million deal to remain with the Yankees and Jeremy Affeldt agreed to a two-year, $8 million contract with San Francisco. The Braves were also discussing a possible two-year deal to keep Ohman in Atlanta. But then the bottom gradually fell out. While Arthur Rhodes, Darren Oliver, Alan Embree, Trever Miller, Brian Shouse and Eddie Guardado all found homes, Ohman and fellow lefties Joe Beimel and Dennys Reyes remain unsigned. It's believed that the Pirates, Marlins and Padres -- all of whom rank among the game's lowest payroll clubs -- would be hesitant to give a lefty setup man more than a one-year deal for anything beyond $1 million, if that. The Mets and Phillies, both citing spiraling payrolls, have also given indications that they're limited in what they're willing to spend. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3911730 The other thing that bothered me was the way Crasnick made it seem like the Marlins, Pirates, and Padres are non-contending teams who made him offers, while he's waiting for offers from 3 teams who are "actually contenders". So stupid. Maybe I'm just paranoid from being a Marlins fan, but he sounds like an ignoramus, albeit a subtle one.

You guys didn't see the disclaimer? It said Peter Gammons was drunk at the time he made the prediction. Mad because Hanley is twice the player Jose Reyes is? yep, I clearly remember marlins fans singing the same tune about how much better cabrera was then wright and look how that turned out. Hanley won't even be a SS for that long so I don't gotta worry about comparisons between a SS and a corner player. You must not be paying much attention, but even in his down year Cabrera did about the same as Wright (and in a new league, I might add). Numbers (2008): Cabrera: .292 37HR 127 RBI Wright: .302 33HR 124RBI You are a moron. In fairness, Cabrera OPS+'d 130, while Wright OPS+'d 141 (and that figure is park-adjusted). And he had an OBP of .349 while Wright was at .390, with nearly identical SLG. So Wright's 2008 was quite a bit better in terms of numbers, let alone that Cabrera is in the better hitters' league.

Hanley Ramirez was already better than Jose Reyes his rookie season. No need to recap Hanley's beastly sophomore season. And Jose Reyes wishes he could score as many runs as Hanley. Maybe that is why he steals so much. Btw he is not even the best base-stealer on the Mets. If you look at the SB-to-caught stealing, Beltran is better than Reyes. Every time Reyes is on base he steals second and sometimes third and still cant get in to score the runs that Hanley does. Hanley is by far the best SS in the NL, and competes with A-Rod for best in the league. I think Hanley can also give Pujols a run for his money now that he will hit in the 3 spot. As for Miggie and D-Wright, it is hard to say who is better. They are almost identical offensively. Defensively, it's a no brainer, Wright is better. And as for the Mets as a whole, WHY THE F*** DID THEY RESIGN OLI PEREZ AND NOT GO AFTER A FA --> Minaya = stupid. Beltran is gunna continue having "neck pains," "flu-like systems," and "vaginal sand" as injuries this season. Carlos Delgado is getting old but I still think he has some juice in the tank for this season. Putz and K-Rod are scary!!!! D-Wright will be nasty as usual. Jose Reyes' numbers will drop off a little from last year, except for in stolen bases because he steals bases like it's going out of style. Johan = nasty. The rest of their starting pitchers are questionable. I have never liked Pelfrey as a pitcher and John Maine has a lot of potential but never seems to buckle down. Runs scored is not a good barometer of a player's value. Hanley > Reyes, though, obviously.

Free agent Ivan Rodriguez said he is looking at the Marlins, Astros and Mets as possibilities. This comes just a day after the Astros indicated that they haven't talked to him in weeks. The Mets might have interest, but they'd have to find a taker for Ramon Castro, something that seems unlikely to happen. Florida has looked like the best fit for months now, though Rodriguez would probably have to sign for $1 million or so.Source: The Associated Press Rotoworld Sounds like good stuff. I don't see anyone taking on Castro's salary, and Beinfest may just pull the rabbit out of the hat here. It's odd that Pudge would show his hand like that though, no?

Pinto had a solid, solid first half year in 2008. Mark Wiley used him way too much, therefore in my opinion gave him a case of dead arm. Although the defense should improve I still don't think that the offense is going to be that good. Hanley, Uggla, and Cantu IMO will be good, their track records say so. However the younger, inexperienced hitters have yet to establish themselves and there are quite a few of them in the proposed lineup. Hermida can slump and it's usually hard for him to come out of it (i.e 2008), Baker shows promise and has shown incredible potential, Maybin has no track record of hitting big league pitching except for the month he was up last year (I hope the way he hit during that time is how he will hit this year). Gaby and McPherson have little track records of hitting big league pitching. If everyone hits to their potential then we will be good and yes it will be exciting. I just believe pitching is going to keep us in the hunt, both from the starters and bullpen. Cantu does not have a proven track record. A couple of good seasons, a couple of poor seasons, and a couple of injury-plagued seasons. I stand corrected. I've only followed Cantu since he has been with the Marlins and from what I saw he was good. I only see him improving year to year, so, I am guessing that's what his track record will say-that better? Just clearing things up. I certainly hope he continues to improve, and he's approaching of the age of the typical player's prime. FWIW, I appreciate that you can do a bit of research and admit something (however insignificant) where you were mistaken.........all too uncommon on these boards, and in life for that matter.

Pinto had a solid, solid first half year in 2008. Mark Wiley used him way too much, therefore in my opinion gave him a case of dead arm. Although the defense should improve I still don't think that the offense is going to be that good. Hanley, Uggla, and Cantu IMO will be good, their track records say so. However the younger, inexperienced hitters have yet to establish themselves and there are quite a few of them in the proposed lineup. Hermida can slump and it's usually hard for him to come out of it (i.e 2008), Baker shows promise and has shown incredible potential, Maybin has no track record of hitting big league pitching except for the month he was up last year (I hope the way he hit during that time is how he will hit this year). Gaby and McPherson have little track records of hitting big league pitching. If everyone hits to their potential then we will be good and yes it will be exciting. I just believe pitching is going to keep us in the hunt, both from the starters and bullpen. Cantu does not have a proven track record. A couple of good seasons, a couple of poor seasons, and a couple of injury-plagued seasons.

could marlins trade him now that he cost them more money??? Not now probably, but at midseason if we struggle, and definitely in the offseason either way. Here's to hoping he mashes especially hard this year so as to not only help out the team, but to raise his trade value as well. BABIP = .380? :cool

Marlins get a 50,000+ crowd for a game that doesn't feature the mets or yankees :mis2 outrageous. Does the stadium even hold 50k during the regular season (AKA extra seats aren't opened up)?

None of this surprises at all, to be honest, but it was fun. 1. Secular Humanism (100%) 2. Unitarian Universalism (89%) 3. Nontheist (88%) 4. Theravada Buddhism (80%) 5. Liberal Quakers (71%) 6. Neo-Pagan (66%) 7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (59%) 8. New Age (47%) 9. Taoism (47%) 10. Reform Judaism (44%) 11. Mahayana Buddhism (41%) 12. New Thought (35%) 13. Scientology (35%) 14. Orthodox Quaker (32%) 15. Sikhism (28%) 16. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (26%) 17. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (24%) 18. Seventh Day Adventist (21%) 19. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (19%) 20. Hinduism (19%) 21. Jainism (17%) 22. Baha'i Faith (16%) 23. Eastern Orthodox (14%) 24. Islam (14%) 25. Orthodox Judaism (14%) 26. Roman Catholic (14%) 27. Jehovah's Witness (11%)

Maybe he means out of the current staff, and maybe only referring to this upcoming season? If not, though, yeah KB's season was ridiculous.

great pics man. I always find Cody's smile funny, and Hermida looks like he just finished smokin some dope. Sounds like you had a lot of fun. Ditto. My thoughts when I saw the Cody picture was "Cody Ross's Cross". That rhymes.

Many of you are are missing the main point. These are ratings are compiled much like the way insurance companies rate applicants for a policy. MLB teams are no different - they also take out disability insurance on their players. They want to be sure that either their "property" produces, or if not, they are not stuck paying the full salary burden to their non-functioning property, or "capital", if you like that term better. He's not trying to predict actual player injuries. Instead, he's making a probability guess. There's likely a figure something like this for each group: Yellow - [Coefficient for likelihood of multiple injuries] (% chance of injury) X (average games missed in case of injury) = Average Risk Per Player rated Yellow. Let's say the figures for the yellow group is that the average person in this groups misses 20 games (I know games are not a perfect measure for P's vs position players). All he's trying to say is that over a large sample size, the yellow's will approach this actuarially-predicted result. And you can bet your ass they will - insurance companies are extremely good at what they do, and they certainly aren't in business to lose money and have wild volatility swings (at least over the medium to long term). They group players in such a way so that insurance companies can appropriately price the risk of insuring different players salary. Obviously, the red players would have the highest disability insurance premiums, and then yellow players on down. They may even break it down into further categories, but this is the main idea.

Well, I suppose that what I meant was that he was helped a lot by a significant amount of luck. It was good, but lucky, and unsustainable. Sure, it was a good stretch with above-average luck. But he was only 22 - so to say it's something he couldn't replicate just because he had a lucky 2006 isn't fair. It may be difficult to replicate now, obviously, if he can't recover completely from the surgery. But he's still very young, and can certainly improve.

I know who Andy Bernard is, but I don't get why he was reference here. Also, fun fact: Ed Helms who plays Bernard is actually the cousin of our very own Wes Helms. That's very cool about Ed Helms. Maybe because Andy has anger management issues, and so did those Cubs fans? FTR I want to see Andy + Oscar as a couple - that'd be hilarious and perfect.

His OPS was not decent. It was sh*tty. And as far as hitting for average, we both know it's worth nothing when you've had one of the worst OBP at your position in the last few years. Again... declining vet in two pitcher's parks. Like I told you, .714 is far from great but all things considered, being roughly 20 points off the average catcher's OPS isn't eye poppingly horrendous. Declining vet has nothing to do with anything. I don't care where he played in 2003 or how great of a career he's had. I only care about his recent history and that goes for every potential signing. With that said, OPS+ adjusts for park factors and that was well below average. FTW. That's all.

Certainly one of the greatest games in our history. Andrew Barnard = character on The Office

Maybe I don't get Brit humor because Izzard is NOT funny, granted I've only seen one of his stand-ups. You're incorrect madam. :confused I saw the stand-up when he was talking about bees. I think it was called Glorious. I just didn't find him funny. My father was a bee keeper and his father was a bee keeper before him. I want to follow in their footsteps... And their footsteps were like this... "Aaaaaaaaaaaah. Aaaaaaaaaah. I'm covered in beeeeees. I'm covered in beeeees." Heh. That was awesome. I LOLOLOLOL'ed. Nice.

I believe Jesus Delgado is out of options. What do you think the probability of him being designated for assignment are, and then being claimed off waivers? Also, is anyone else out of options for the Marlins? -- Will P., Raleigh, N.C. Jesus Delgado pitched well this winter in Venezuela, and he will head into Spring Training with a shot either as a starter or reliever. You are correct that he is out of options, which means the team will have to decide what to do if he doesn't make the Opening Day roster. Actually, there are several Marlins out of options to keep a close eye on in Spring Training. Falling into that category are Robert Andino, Leo Nunez, Cody Ross, Frankie De La Cruz, Logan Kensing, Dan Meyer, Alfredo Amezaga, Wes Helms, Dallas McPherson and Reynel Pinto. Ross, Helms and Amezaga are locks to make the team. The bullpen will be counting on Nunez, Kensing and Pinto. There will great competition in camp for a few roster spots -- namely in the bullpen and backup infielder and outfielder positions. --- I'm sure Fisaro talked to somebody in the FO to get those names. Meaning that it is infact less than 5 years to get 4 options, 83Gator was spot on, and a nice big f*** for DLC being out of options. I just saw that, as well. I would certainly hope Frisaro spoke to the FO about this. And as for Delgado being out of options........fergenbleugen!!!!

Boohoo. That pretty much ended the thread. Lou explained it all, in one post. Post of the year? :thumbup The only thing is he's done this a few times now, and they've all been awesome. I'm not sure why this one in particular stick out (although it did effectively end an entire discussion), but certainly any one of these posts can be up there.

1) If I traded Uggla for Cain or JSanchez, I would feel fine putting Cantu at second base. Defense would continue to be less than stellar there, but offense would actually improve. 2) Still, I don't sell Annibal Sanchez short. If he has regained his arm strength, which seems to be the case, I expect him to have a better year than Cain. I believe that and am sticking to it right through opening day. I would not trade Uggla for Sanchez. And Lou makes some good points as to maybe why not for Matt Cain. From what I've heard, there is no way Cantu goes back to 2nd base. I don't see them trading Bumgarner for Uggla. I think it's pretty clear at this point that we would have to add at least one other significant chip to that deal. Maybe Uggla+Cantu for Bumgarner after this season or something? Not sure exactly what'd be acceptable value.

On paper, Uggla for Cain is a no brainer, but how do we replace Dan's production? You don't "replace" Dan Uggla... you play whoever's most ready of Coghlan/Bonerface and take the OBP gain from Chris or defensive gain from Bonerface and laugh at how good your pitching is Mwahahahahahaha. Man, my pitching be real real good. Mystikol has it down pat already :thumbup I been ballin' since post #1 That's how we do at the U :notworthy

On paper, Uggla for Cain is a no brainer, but how do we replace Dan's production? You don't "replace" Dan Uggla... you play whoever's most ready of Coghlan/Bonerface and take the OBP gain from Chris or defensive gain from Bonerface and laugh at how good your pitching is Mwahahahahahaha. Man, my pitching be real real good.

:lol this guy is one of my favorite posters. I really don't think it matters which of those games you go to, personally but I'd like to be there and buy a beer for possibly the only British Florida Marlin fan in the world. You are like a one of a kind gem. EXCUSE ME!!!! :blink: ha! Two of you! You gotta start using phrases like "our family vacation from jolly old England to your glorious and completely lovely United States of America and the wonderful state of Florida" Are you in Scotland right now? I would so buy you a beer too, if you come to a Marlin's game. I second that. A long trip over the pond deserves a beer. The problem is, while I can get absolutely hammered here, legally I cant drink in America lol, not that thats stopped me before However rules/laws are there to be broken....... :whistle Haha, well in either case, I'd throw in a delicious Kosher Potato Knish.

Why don't they just offer him a three or four year deal already, but for less money per year? The Dodgers need him, and it would be a huge loss if he ends up signing with someone else. Why don't they just offer him a three or four year deal already, but for less money per year? The Dodgers need him, and it would be a huge loss if he ends up signing with someone else. Why don't they just offer him a three or four year deal already, but for less money per year? Too Risky For a guy who had an OPS of 1.232 last season with the Dodgers? Yes, he's 36 years old, but he still dominates in the batter's box just like he did at any other point in his career. I think Manny will just accept the most amount of money on the table at this point, so if the Dodgers could get him at around a 4 year/$60-65 million deal, then it's definitely worth the risk. Someone on the radio earlier made a good point - the Giants are still favorites in that division without Manny, assuming they'd get Abreu/Dunn instead (and for a LOT less money). So that may be why they don't have to overpay him. 4 year/$60-65 million is just way too low to think that he'd reasonably accept it. If he turned down 25 for 1 year, then he's probably looking for AT LEAST $45 million over two years, and there's no way he'd play another 2 years for only $10-15 million total. I have to think that he's looking for 3 years/$70 million+, or 4 years/$90 million+. I can't imagine him taking anything less, unless truly no one will offer him a deal similar to that before the season starts.