YearOneMarlinFan

I don't want Porter because I never saw or heard anything remarkable about him as a coach. But like Iowa it's not clear to me exactly what Porter did to make some many folks feel so strongly. Anyone want to add a little more detail?

I'm not sure why anyone would be excited about his current delivery. Just look at the laughable #'s in AA, and it's obvious it's not working. The only thing that's semi-exciting is that maybe he gets an opportunity to face some lefties late in games, does well, gains confidence, and develops a new role. Aside from that, you can't possibly expect much from him. To be completely honest, the odds of him succeeding against left-handed hitters might be slim, as well. His #'s against lefties in AA this year are about as laughable as his overall #'s. http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?pl=453192 Even if he surprises most of us and succeeds as a lefty specialist, I can't imagine that the FO would think that's worth paying him $1.55M next year. I expect they would just be hoping some other team gets interested in him before the season ends.

I hope all the optimists are right that 2012 will herald a new era. But based on past fickleness of fans about actually going to the stadium, we'd better hope the 2012 team is very competitive. I don't think a new stadium will draw more fans for more than a couple of years unless there is more consistent success on the field, and for Marlins fans that seems to mean something more than a team that hangs around .500. It's a shame, because several other cities would be very supportive of a .500 team, but that's just how things seem to be in South Florida.

I've lived in Miami since 1958 & always followed baseball, even back to the days of "Diz & Pewee". In the 60s, we used to get ChiSox on WKAT, called by Milo Hamilton & Bob Elson. And the Orioles trained here - I used to go to workouts for free at old Miami Stadium (aka Bobby Maduro), Before that, I went to the Cardinals camp when it was down in Homestead. So, I'm a baseball lifer & was very happy when the Marlins came to town. I grew up on Long Island, NY, where every kid rooted for a basball team - the NY Yankees, the NY Giants, or the Brooklyn Dodgers. I was a Dodger fan, and even remember my uncle taking me to a game in Ebbetts Field. I never forgave the Dodgers for leaving Brooklyn and became a Mets fan during their early years. Then I spent lots of years where following a team wasn't practical, until I moved to Minnesota where I was a Twins fan for ten years. During that time they won two World Series. I moved to South Florida in 1993, just in time for the Marlins first season, and I've been a diehard fan ever since. Got to go to three of the '97 World Series games, when tickets were reasonable, but only could afford the last NLCS game against the Giants in '03. Nice to know there's someone here who remembers PeeWee Reese. My hero was Duke Snider.

I hope they are able to keep him, I'd love to see a 2nd generation Marlin! This. I think most long time Fish fans really would enjoy this happening even if it was a short term thing and didnt pan out longterm. Itd just be a nice touch. This is a serious long shot but can you imagine Kris Harvey having some significant role in the 2012 season? Imagine Kris Harvey getting the first save in the new ballpark? Id poop myself in joy. If Harvey was our Opening Day closer, I'd poop myself in horror of not having a good bullpen by 2012. I know I know... I agree... I'm just hypothetically thinking of a situation where Kris Harvey could have a feel-good moment for us long time Marlin fans... and thats the first that came to mind. If you want we can make up a more convoluted scenario? Maybe World Series in 2019? Wes Helms managing, Amezaga as first base coach, Bonifacio at third after a triple in the 9th inning of game 7 after he just hit for the cycle... and our bullpen blew another lead as the Indians made a comeback off Rob Nen Jr. in the top of the 9th? Our bench has been used in its entirety after our backup catcher Jason "Yeah I'm STILL catching" Kendall has come in to replace our injured starter Kyle Skipworth. And then Wes calls upon reliever Kris Harvey to come in and lay down a gorgeous squeeze bunt to score Bonifacio? We win the game and a specially hired stunt double named "C.Coghlan" comes out to pie Harvey in the face... safely. How bout it? That was great!

One of the ways of looking at whether Hanley is "part of the problem" is, what is he being paid to do? If he's not doing it, I think he's part of the problem. There are a lot of other parts, of course, but he's one.

Wecome aboard. Do you ever get a chance to listen to or watch any games?

I have been a Marlins fan from season 1, I didn't go to the first game in Joe Robbie Staduim but I did go to the 2nd...I can sincerely say I never saw a worse bullpen in a Marlins uniform ever, We have had some bad teams but our bullpens were always fairly strong. We always had young arms that were able to get batters out, even if it were the Yorkis Perez of the world. In our history we could generally count on having young strong arms. This season has been an abomination it's actually gotten worse than last year. The good news last night is that the bullpen didn't have another BS, they just flat out lost the Game! This team is at .500 in spite of its BP We could have 60 wins by now easily . If I were Beinfest i would blow up the BP and start new Have Helmsley as the close or something like that. We are going nowhere with this Bullpen and it is getting worse I think you're right about the BP being perhaps the worst, or at least close to it. But it looks like the problem is that if you blew it up and started over, there isn't really a good chance of finding better. Lots of teams are looking for good relievers. By the way, anyone have any thoughts on why they didn't keep Robertson as a lefty specialist? Seems to me that his first inning or two were usually pretty good.

Regardless, Cantu made 3 mistakes on that play. 1) Dropped the ball in the first place. 2) Didn't notice that the runner between 1st and 2nd held in case he caught it on the fly, so he still had the play at 2nd. That was actually the easier play. 3) Rushed a throw to 1B and threw it into the dirt. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I was a Cantu-keeper until this game. Now I'm sure we can't afford his defense any longer. I was just defending Gaby for not making the pick.

I half agree with BroncoBob. While I don't think it was an easy pick, it was one that should have been made (and one that Gaby makes). If I remember right, it was an in between hope. Gaby thought it was going low and it bounced high. It could have been caught I suppose but it looked like a tough play to me. (The cat stepped on the keyboard.)

I'm one who's not ready to throw in the towel, and I've been a Cantu fan for some time, but I'm ready to trade Cantu and try someone else at third. Thing is, I'd go with Helms to start with. His defense is probably as good as any of the other choices, maybe better. I've heard that his average as a starter this year is pretty good and he has been taking walks lately. If that doesn't hold up, then there are still all those other options that have been mentioned.

Helms rarely walks and Ks a lot.. not the type of dicisplined type hitter I want teaching my young prospects. That's a shame because Helms is the only player on the team paid to hit. To be fair, that's not true at all. What is not true? Look at his BB/K and their percentages the last few seasons. No, what's not true is that Helms is the only player paid to hit. But he is paid particularly to pinch-hit and it's true that that's not going so well.

I would trade Helms to any team that would give you a prospect with the potential to be a decent major leaguer some day. That pretty much says you're giving up on this year. Helms isn't great but he's already a "decent major leaguer." And I agree with those who have said that Helms isn't the problem, it's most of the rest of the bench. Helms at least has a respectable major league record.

I like the fact that Edwin is ready to go out to talk to an ump. But I can't say that I've ever seem him get very excited when he's out there. It does seem more like he's more asking for a clarification. Does anyone remember differently?

Yeah there's really no reason to lose faith so early. We could easily pull a White Soxs in 05 or Rockies in 07 and have the greatest August and September ever after struggling the majority of the season and making the playoffs. Well maybe not easily...... Well you it won't be easy but I meant big turnarounds do happen often. Yeah, but big turnarounds are a lot less likely when you're competing against so much talent in your own division. And they're less likely if you've sold off some of your best players in July. But even then it has been done and I'm ready to keep the faith as long as they don't keep sliding downhill.

@CanesCop: Right now, Gaby is producing near what Logan's ceiling may be. It's pretty unlikely that Logan can OPS 900+ even as he matures. Unless a team is willing to give up a top-25 spec (which they aren't going to be willing to) then there is absolutely no reason to trade the best hitter on your team not named Hanley, especially when he's making $400k. No more crazy talk. I'm going to assume that was actually directed at me, since I'm the only one who made such a notion. My thing with Gaby is this, he's preforming well above even the highest ceilings given to him and for a rookie with three months under his belt (Minus short stints here or there) that's a scary thought when evaluating him as a player. It's not exactly uncommon for players to have these stellar numbers as rookies and regress to various degrees throughout their careers. Is this the real Gaby here or is this Gaby briefly and greatly out preforming his expectations. Personally I think this is simply a great run that is well above the standards he'll have throughout his career, it happens. And with another first basemen in the minors who is much younger and on paper is likely to have more success over his career it does in my eyes make Gaby a tad more expendable. I'm not saying actively shop him, but if some team calls up with interest in him and offers a good haul I think you take it. He's a 27 year old rookie three months into the season vastly out preforming any and all expectations, if someone is willing to offer us a couple of pieces we desperately need personally I'd take it. I'll leave it to one of you stats hounds to check this out, but it seems that Coghlan could fall in the same category, but everyone wants to keep him. And didn't a lot of folks actually think Gaby would in fact be a big success? I remember lots of people in the two past off-seasons crying for Gaby to be brought up, moreso than for Coghlan. Just food for thought.

How did Uggla do today? Lately he's been hopeless against off-speed, outside pitches.

I liked Fredi and hated to see him fired, but I did always wonder whether he corrected the mental mistakes the players made. I'm glad to see that, according to Coghlan, Edwin does.

Then we are in agreement :thumbup

Or at least it means Loria wasn't willing to promise to a Valentine-quality candidate that he wouldn't starting selling off. And we know that was the sticking point how? We've heard every reason as to why not: philosophical, money, staff. Selling off is just another on a list of maybes Because if Loria was determined to salvage the season he'd still be looking for a big name manager. Sure there may also have been other reasons that Valentine in particular didn't work out, but letting Rodriguez finish almost certainly means Loria couldn't promise any of the big name possibilities that he would stay the course past the trading deadline. As far as we heard, Bobby V was the only big name we considered, let alone interviewed. So we can't say what Loria may or may not have promised. So ever reason is possible. It was pretty much Bobby V or no one, so all those reasons are as valid as the rest. And you know what? For both sides they are not that scandalous: it makes sense that the front office wouldn't promise that the core would stay in tact if that core proved they could not win and Bobby V probably doesn't want to come in midseason and be worried about how to fill in the lineup card No side is the villain here, at least until we get concrete reason as to why Bobby V fell through I think that's pretty much what I said. (I did hear a couple of other names mentioned, by the way, though they escape me now.) In any case, I'm not looking for villains, just interested in what this all may mean.

Or at least it means Loria wasn't willing to promise to a Valentine-quality candidate that he wouldn't starting selling off. And we know that was the sticking point how? We've heard every reason as to why not: philosophical, money, staff. Selling off is just another on a list of maybes Because if Loria was determined to salvage the season he'd still be looking for a big name manager. Sure there may also have been other reasons that Valentine in particular didn't work out, but letting Rodriguez finish almost certainly means Loria couldn't promise any of the big name possibilities that he would stay the course past the trading deadline.

Or at least it means Loria wasn't willing to promise to a Valentine-quality candidate that he wouldn't starting selling off.

It's seems all too likely why Valentine withdrew. He clearly has wanted the job for awhile but now Loria isn't willing to assure him that the team won't be broken up during Valentine's first month at the helm. This was the test of Loria's intentions all along. If Valentine got the job, it would have meant Loria was clearly committed to carrying on the run for the playoffs. If Valentine turned it down, it meant Loria wouldn't commit. Looks to me like now it won't matter who the manager will be because the die is cast for selling off.

The pinch hitting need has to be the answer to why another catcher. Fredi apparently has wanted to pinch hit with Paulino or Baker more often than with an extra fielder. But why Hayes? I'm not so clear on that.

No sorry, I meant to say that he had a nice outing and hopefully it had something to do with him not tpping his pitches and that it would continue. I definetely am not jumping to conclusions but am hopeful that this will be helpful for Nunez. You said it just fine the first time. No need to apologize to the petty sniping that shows up too often on these threads. I hope Nunez can put it together too, but like others on here, I'm still skeptical.