Seminole

I don't think people realized how hurt Baker was. He'll probably get healthy and the Marlins won't pay him in arbitration and he'll do well for someone else. No one will take Buck off our hands at this point so either Baker or Hayes have to go when Baker return. Who do you keep to sit and watch Buck earn 6 million for hitting .215? Baker who will make over a million in arbitration or Hayes who will still be at the minimum next year? You got it, Hayes. Why because this is the Marlins we're talking about. Not the Phillies, not the Red Sox, not the Yankees, THE Marlins. You want to live in South Florida, then you have to take the good with the bad, and right now the Marlins are BAD.

And I don't know what the numbers would reveal, but I would bet the number of passed balls and wild pitches are way down from Baker's numbers. Especially those "wild pitches." 20 WP+PB in 583 innings for Buck. One every 29 innings. 64 in 1538 innings for Baker. One every 25 innings. Way down? I guess.

Who do you think Loria fires next? If Mallee got fired because the hitters were sucking, where does that put Randy St. Claire?

i just looked at dobbs' splits... why is this good? he ain't getting on the roster. yes, and who goes off the 40-man if Dobbs goes on? does 6-46 make you want to give up on a younger guy on the 40-man? I think they will have Baker (already on 40-man) fill that role. If, when he's healthy enough to catch, Hayes goes down and another lefty hitter (Cousins) comes up.

Totally agree with Backin2008. Buck hit 20 of his 90 career homers last year in Toronto where everyone hit 20! He's a .243 lifetime hitter and the money could be spent keeping Uggla who is a proven masher. Are the Marlins going to go with Buck and ? Prediction. Baker gets traded and goes crazy hitting when his surgery heals. He was from Spring Training and never really got a chance to be healthy. I take a healthy Baker over a career year Buck and I spend the money on Uggla.

Just wondering if Kyle Skipworth's nickname should be "Passed Ball"? He has 5 passed balls in the Arizona Fall League in 14 games. In at least 3 of those games he has been the DH, so Passed Ball has become an issue for him and must be a concern for the Marlins. He seems to be hitting O.K. at .273 but if he's going to catch big league pitchers his passed ball per game ratio needs to change. I think he had 19 passed balls at Greensboro this year.

and while I posted about the catching situation, how is Skipworth progressing ? Any better news about his bat ? The last I saw, about a year ago I think he was hitting like in the low 200's and that was in Single A. He just got promoted to AA When you're a first round draft pick, you get promoted even if you have 19 passed balls. He didn't even catch all the time, as he often DH'd. He's young but he's a long way from the show.

When West rejoins the 25 man active roster, who will be sent out?

Rich and Tommy are awesome. Watch the Comcast MLB package and get stuck with glass half empty Rob Dibble!! I watch the game with the sound off. He is such a negative guy that it brings the whole broadcast down. Hawk Harrelson has become a parody of himself. Trying to make people think he's unique like Harry Carey was. He's just a blow hard in my opinion. All in all, the Marlins are lucky with their guys.

Another freak to add to the Marlins freak show.

The Marlins really botched this one. It was obvious that he was really hurt. It appeared that he was stopping his swing so as to not hurt himself more. Knowing how he can hit from his first two years, it was hard to watch him favor his arm in his swing. They wasted six months forcing him to gut it up and play. The guys a gamer and our lineup is noticeably unbalanced without his left handed bat. Oh, and for those defense minded guys out there, Baker had actually had a better percentage throwing guys out so far this year than last. This with an elbow problem! I suspect that he will have surgery and return better than ever. If not with the Marlins, there are a lot of teams out there that would snap him up in a minute now that he's an established player. When Hayes plays, we are playing with 7 batters and 2 pitchers!!

Paulino started because it was a day game after a night game. This is consistent with what they have done since the platoon began. If Fredi had lost confidence in Baker he wouldn't have run him up there against Marmol. He hit him because Baker homered off him at Wrigley last year.

also i think the fact that paulino started against a righty yesterday shows that fredi may be losing some confidence in baker who is really struggling right now at the plate.

Not sure why Maybin batted in that situation anyway. You have just pinch run for Paulino so Baker has to come in the game anyway. With the luxury of Brett Carroll sitting in the dugout, how about batting Baker for Maybin? He's a great bunter and if he doesn't get a bunt down, he could pull the ball and get the batter over. After that inning you substitute Carroll for Bonifacio and your left with Baker catching and your best throwing outfielder in the game when you need him. I agree that Cameron looked pathetic trying to bunt. Once he failed twice, I would have let him at least try to hit.

Cameron Maybin owes Ross Gload breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow! I still can't believe how ugly he looked trying to get a sacrifice bunt down, he would have gotten chewed out if Gload didn't do the job. Great game for Nolasco, hopefully this shows better things to come from him to finish off the season. Offense needs to wake up tomorrow before we start getting into dogfights with the Phillies so I'm hoping for a strong pitching outing and a nice 7 or 8 run cushion to take the series.

It is an automatic that Hayes will be brought up. Every team brings up a third catcher. It allows Fredi to pinch hit Paulino or Baker (whichever isn't playing) and not have to worry about a reserve catcher. Maybin, Ayala, Martinez, Hopper, RVH, Wood. I don't think that any of the future stars that aren't on the 40-man will be activated, ie. Morrison, Stanton unless someone is released and I can't see who that would be.

I still don't get why we put a prototypical #2 hitter in Baker bat 7th and put Bonifacio in the 2 spot, I mean I still can't wrap my head around it. I totally agree with you. Baker's OBP was around .400 until they started screwing with the lineup. Now he's been in the 5-6-7 hole and his OBP has fallen down. We won a lot of games with him batting second and now we're not winning any games. Do the math.

Baker was a first baseman before he was a catcher. He played first base at Midland in the Texas League to keep his bat in the lineup on days he didn't catch or DH. No errors listed on the stat sheet at first base. I agree that this allows Fredi to use situational pinch hitters without having to worry about making Wes Helms or someone else strap on the gear in case of injury. Baker would play first before Hayes ever saw the field.

It's just Hanley being Hanley!!

Maybin will be okay, Emili-out sucks, Nolasco will figure things out before we know it. The bullpen has been ass lately, but remember the scoreless stretch they had. If we get rid of Kensing, I think our bullpen won't be too bad. Hanley is becoming lazier and lazier...like another Ramirez?? He played alright today though. You read my mind. He's starting to remind me of Manny...

Finally someone who understands the roster system. Stanton WILL NOT be called up this year. The Marlins are way too shrewd to start the clock on him. To be called up, even for the month of September you have to be on the 40-Man roster. Once there, the clock starts ticking before you become out of options. Maybin will be fine. He's too good of an athlete to continue to struggle at the plate. That's why it is good that the Marlins can let him develop in the eighth spot in the order. His center field play alone is enough to keep him in the lineup.

Seriously you think the Marlins would start the arbitration clock on Stanton this year? Unless something has changed within the FO, I don't think we'll see Stanton until late 2010. As for Maybin's struggles, maybe a look at Raynor or Cousins would be a jolt for him to get going.

I don't hear anyone crying for Pudge Rodriguez anymore (except maybe Houston who overpaid for him)!

Yeah got to give Baker props as well. He's the best catcher we have had in a while.

You don't get beat with your second pitch. If you throw 98 you dominate and take your chances. If he tries to throw a slider and some guy dinks one in, everyone would be wondering why he didn't throw fastballs. If you watched the game, the Nats had no chance on the fastball once Matt got in a rhythm. I say blow fastballs and if they beat you, tip your cap. Don't get beat on your second best pitch.