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SixYearItch

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Everything posted by SixYearItch

  1. Great thread I grew up in New Jersey in the 60's, a Tiger fan and a Mets Fan. My Dad had gone to high school in NYC with Hank Greenberg and passed on his rooting interest in the Tigers to me. I remember like yesterday the thrill of watching together the Tigers win the WS in 68, with Lolich, McLain, Cash, Kaline, Freehan, Northrup, etc . I hated the Yankees and enjoyed the thrill of being different in the team I rooted for. I was a Mets fan, though, too and remember my grandfather taking me to games at Shea. Moved to So Fla in 69, the year the amazin Mets won it all, boy that was tough. Until the Marlins came to be in 93, I kept my interest in the Tigers and the Mets, but by the end of the 80's my rooting interest was fading. I loved it when the Tigers won in 84 and the Mets in 86, both were teams that played with a passion, but in time with more player movement and both teams descending into blandness they both become less interesting to me. The rooting ties were no longer as strong as they once were, I was in living in South Florida and my dad has passed away. And then the Marlins came in existence, uprooting forever whatever remaining interest I had left in my childhood teams. From the beginning in 93 I've been a big fan. The experience of rooting for the Marlins from birth and watching your team win the world series in a short 5 yrs was like no other. Conine, Barbarie, Carr, Great times. I moved to Jacksonville in 96, but until the move I attended about 5 to10 games a season. I've been following them from Jacksonville, and with my mother and sister in South Florida, still come down to visit and when I can, take the family to a game. I drive down to Viera during the spring training season to see a Marlins game when they're scheduled, and love it that their Double AA team is now in Jacksonville. O3 was a great year obviously. Completely ignored by everyone, ESPN, Fox, until we rubbed their noses in it, took over their playoff scheduling, broke the hearts of Cubdom right in front of their eyes in games 6&7, and shutout the Yankees at the Stadium to win the WS. I'll never forget, though, being in attendance at the two Giant playoff games, the two most exciting baseball games I've been to in my life. The scene of Pudge holding the ball and pointing to the sky after being slammed to the turf at home plate by Snow, and the pandemonium in the crowd...the loudest noise I've heard in my life, is frozen in time. The walk off extra inning thriller the game before, where we had lost the lead and miraculously came back to tie it in the 9th, wasn't for the faint of heart either . A few years ago, here in Jax, I turned away from Comcast for DirectTV to ensure access to all televised Marlins games. My rooting interest in the Marlins is grounded in a multitude of positive feelings. I love the way our team competes, even when they break our hearts as they do quite often when one among a multitude of weaknesses bites us in the butt again. But lo and behold, just when you]re counting them out and swearing them off next day they come back. Even with the disadvantages this team deals with, and playing in a sterile baseball environment at home is one of them, they're still in there fighting for a playoff spot in September each year. The chemistry of the team always seems to be positive.. And I have to admit, sure the financial straight jacket that this team operates under would bother any fan, but the purist in me loves it that we harvest our own stars (even if we can't always keep them, which obviously needs to change), We don't poach them from the less fortunate teams in the league, as virtually every team that appears on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball does. Leaches we're not. One day we'll be noticed again, and with Stanton. Morrison, Hanley, Uggla, CC, JJ, Nolasco, Anibal we will be. That's a pretty strong nucleus. It's only a matter of time before once again, I'm having the feeling it will occur when they open the new stadium, we'll again take the MLB world by storm.
  2. Unfortunately, the blown game Saturday was huge. I wouldn't count on the Braves folding in September,,,their starting and relief pitching is too good and they excel at timely hitting. To erase 8 games is just too unrealistic This Giant series is the series that will tell the tale, for as is usually the case our hopes will rest with the wildcard. It's a tall task, but not an impssible one, to take 3 of 4. Then it gets interesting. I also think that if we don't take 3 of 4, it then becomes realistic for us to become sellers since the issue will be framed as have the Marlins made up some meaningful ground divisionally or in the wild card to justify staying the course and I think the answer will be a resounding NO.
  3. A little bummed that JJ and Nolasco will miss the braves series... but if memory serves me correctly, we own Lowe so hopefully that continues. Some big series coming up... will be very interesting. Note that we miss Hudson and Hanson, so not a big hurt.
  4. Umm, i hope Im not speaking too soon but does anyone else feel "better" about this bullpen now? If Veras is for real, Hensley is healthy, Leo is more dominant, Hopper is back to his 2009 self, Meyer has "fixed" himself... and then you get regular decency from Tank and Sanches... plus an innings-eating strike thrower in Sanabia... then suddenly our bullpen is at least middle of the road and capable of holding more games down. Tommy Hutton says the bullpen has to sort itself out at the beginning of the season... its a damn shame that its taken HALF of the season but the past few days I've felt that things are at least somewhat starting to fall into place. Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying their lights out... I'm just saying they're seemingly less likely to bring impending doom. Anyone else? The pen is looking better Lets hope its the last time we see Tim Wood called up BUT ITS TOO LATE
  5. We're definitely sellers. the season's gone..put the for sale sign up on Uggla and Cantu, keep Ross. DFA Barden and Lamb, call up Luna and Morrison. DFA Wood please, call up West . Close games by committee. Call up Dominguez, I know he's challenged at the plate but he's a vacuum cleaner at 3rd and I just want to again after such a long time experience the joy of seeing a Marlin infielder field like a gold glover (amazing that in 2003 our whole infield was gold glove like, my how the times have changed). Just may be he can hit 250 with a little power. Stanton needs to be able to hit a fastball for petes sake, his struggles there have really surprised me. I can go either way on sending him down to NOLA. If he does go down, obviously bring Maybin back up. I like the movement on Sanabia's pitches, typical that his relief appearances so far have been completely sabotaged by shoddy infield fielding and runners that others have allowed to score. That, and our putrid situational hitting have pretty much been the tale of our season. Sad in that this team has some outstanding pieces and the starting pitching by and large has held up. I was obvoiusly hallucinating at the beginning of the seaon to believe this team could win 90 games . Too bad. I'll have hope for next year if our kids show promise the remainder of this season and we hire a no-nonsense McKeon type to manage next year. BV would still be alright in my book if Loria/Samson would stop the a-hole act. Unfortunately there's not too much of a chance of that happening.
  6. There is simply no way I would ever allow Tank to pitch to a right hand hitter with runners in scoring position. But for Fredo, it's simply an impossible situation...who's he going to go to? Buente ? What a mess this bullpen is. Looks like we're headed for last in the division. It's a shame because this team has more than enough front line talent to compere at least for a wild card, but Loria's refusal to spend on a couple of quality bullpen arms has killed our season. I'd say the only thing we can do at this point is trade Uggla for the bullpen arms we lack, move CC to 2nd and call up Morrison to play LF. Other than that, the seasons gone. I love Stanton, so may be that's some solace..but I really expected us to be strong contender this year. Dagnabbit!
  7. There's one stat we must lead the league in, and that's number of innings in which a middle reliever has walked the lead off man. Surefire Maalox relief which hardly ever works. I have zero faith that any of our middle relief can get through an inning, after walking the leadoff man, without giving up at least one hit thereafter, so usually these innings just mushroom and destroy leads. Our starters need to go 7 or we're basically dead. I love Stanton, here in Jax and have seen him at work, have several of his promotional Stanton 41 Jacksonville Sun jerseys. Really looking forward to seeing a Stanton, Ross, Coghlan outfield. But Mike doesn't do middle relief, and sad to say our lack of it, as I feared, is well into destroying our season. Shocked at how quickly the Hopper soured, I have zero faith that Loria will spend the $$$ to fix the pen. Still haunted they let Rhodes walk a few years ago over 2M. Oh well. we'll see what can Beinfast can do with playdough.
  8. I like our every day lineup, and I see our starting pitching as more or less holding up though no doubt there will be some shaky moments. But our bullpen is going to absolutely kill our season...Loria and that little toad Samson better give Beinfest the financial latitude to fix this problem. Signing Kiko Calero and giving Veras the heave ho would be a good start. I would only bring Pinto in to start an inning, never with runners on base. His ERA is the most misleading stat I've ever seen, he'll let virtually every inherited base runner score. Nunez ? God this bullpen is a nightmare.
  9. I'm in Jax and have DirectTV. Get all televised Marlins and Rays games, no problem. Biggest single reason why I dumped Comcast.
  10. Whoa....I get another year of wear out of my Uggla Marlins shirt before it goes retro. Wasn't counting on it, but glad to see it happen.
  11. Bought my 3 tickets already, Section 111.....second row behind the Marlins dugout. I suspect the game will be sold out. Its a terrific ball park and great family setting. My daughter will be trying to get her Marlins cap signed by Hanley. The game comes as no surprise. The surprise is that the tix are already on sale. I'm interested in making this trip. Wife's bro and his entire family live in Jax. Could be a fun time. Did ya get the tix on line? Can ya give any info on the ball park? You can order tickets online at www.jaxsuns.com or call the Suns ticket office at (904) 358-2846 which is what I did. They'll hold the tickets for you for pickup on game day. Great ball park, about 4 years old..............all chairbacks except outfield bleachers. Major league ball park dimensions. Capacity a bit under 12,000, not a bad seat anywhere. Very family friendly..concourse extends from first to third into the outfields. Good concessions. The Suns web site will tell you more. The ballpark is situated in downtown Jax between the Coliseum and the football stadium. I've taken the family to a few Suns games and have always had a good time.
  12. Bought my 3 tickets already, Section 111.....second row behind the Marlins dugout. I suspect the game will be sold out. Its a terrific ball park and great family setting. My daughter will be trying to get her Marlins cap signed by Hanley.
  13. The Giants are going to find out that Sanchez and Garko won't be nearly enough to get them into the playoffs, even with their two aces. Look at Zito starving for runs, shutting everyone down and he cant sniff a win without pitching a shutout. Sanchez came up as a utility inflielder, playing 2nd, SS and 3rd, SS less than the other positions given the presense of Jack Wilson. But he can play SS, and the Giants can slide him over there and Uggla will play his natural 2nd base position. Uggla's HR's are rarely cheap and he can hit em out at Pac Park. He'll be a 30hr/90 rbi guy for them which the Giants desperately need. Hermida will give the Giants more power and RBI's than what they have in RF presently. I agree that Bumgarner will require more than Uggla and Hermida from us, but we've got to deal. Bumgarner will slide right in as a potentially terrific #2. I understand Cantu would be a tough fit for the Giants position wise, given Kung Fu Panda and Garko, though Cantu is a better RBI guy than Garko. So if they don't want Cantu, I'd include Cody in the deal but ask for Nate Schierholtz back. thus the deal....Uggla, Hermida and Ross for Bumgarner and Schierholtz. The Giants get the infusion of HR/RBI talent they desperately need in their lineup. We get the projectible frontline young lefty starter we need, throwing 95+ with 3 out pitches Our lineup next year 1st-NJ (after we sign him to a 2yr10-12 mil deal), 2nd-CC, SS-Hanley, 3rd-Cantu. A teriffic hitting infield. Outfield will be a little young but talented LF-Morrison ready to go, CF-Maybin hopefully ready to go, RF-Schierholtz/Gload/trade (some combination) C-Baker (and of course Stanton waiting in the wings late 2010 or more likely 2011). Love to see this happen. And if Uggla, Hermida and Ross aren't enough (though they should be) I'd throw in Tucker or RVH...Bumgarner is JJ from the right side and we've got to get him. I think the rose buds have come off our so called young 1st round pitching studs. Volstad and West are mid to high 4 ERA guys. #4 or #5 guys at best. Ricky Nolasko a #3. Our minor league system is presently SP barren. We all know what we need and we have the tradeable bats to make it happen. Come off season we need to do what we can to make it happen
  14. Good to see the debate. Of course this is not an in-season trade. It'll be a off season deal if it does take place as both teams will have to come to terms with why they didn't make the playoffs. For the Giants, the analysis will be simple. With two of the top 5 pitchers in MLB on their staff, they'll have no business missing the playoffs but yet they will. They can't score runs, Sandoval is the only dangerous bat they have that pitchers need to work around (except our staff and Molina). Garko and Sanchez may hit for average, but they neither produce nor drive in runs to any significant degree. Although I hope I'm wrong I fully expect our starting pitching to keep us out of the playoffs. We also need a lefty to balance our right handers, and who can throw 95+. Neither West or Miller can, Miller is a basket case who may never find the right release point in his delivery, and West a Volsted from the left side at best, who needs to perfect his off speed pitches and locate them...he's a #5 starter at best. If we're willing to re-sign NJ, I'd do Uggla. Hermida and Cantu in a heartbeat for Bumgarner and whatever other prospect at whatever level we can get from SF, doesn't matter. Cantu and Uggla give them exactly what they need, and Hermida is better than what they have in RF right now. We get a premium young lefty starter who may be ready to go from day one next year, and club controlled till 2017, and dump over 17ml in salary we can use in a 2 yr 10-12 ml deal for NJ. I'd be content with a NJ, Boni, Hanley, CC infield, w/ Ross, Maybin and Morrison in the outfield, Baker at catcher. We''ll score enough runs, and our starting pitching will be better. And by the way, I'd give them Andrew Miller or Ryan Tucker, their choice, and keep Hermida if the Giants wanted a package of other than 3 bats. I'm teliing you this deal is doable, and will improve us. And if the Giants think they're getting a heist, than good for them. Let them think that way if that's what it takes to get this deal done. By the way, the Rockies will win the Wild Card. I think we're better. But I took a look at their schedule, all the games at Coors they'll be playing and whats left on their schedule and laughed. Tough break for us, but the Rockies remaining schedule is a yellow brick road that will lead them right into the post-season.
  15. Uggla and Hermida, plus a B grade single A prospect to the Giants for Madison Bumgarner. They deperately need power hitters and we desperately need a projectable lefty starter who is more than a soft tosser. Sure hope its possible to get something like this done, We got to figure out what we could package with Uggla to get this guy. I'd even toss in Cantu, provide we re-sign NJ.
  16. NJ will NEVER lead off on this team. Ever. Not that I really know why you would put NJ ahead of Coghlan. Don't know whetter you were responding to me? My list was by position, not a batting order.
  17. 1st NJ 2nd Couglan SS Ramirez 3rd Cantu RF Ross CF Maybin LF Morrison C Baker Subs: Paulino, Helms, Bonafacio, Gload, BC Uggla and Hermida traded, hopefully we can get back a decent projected back of the rotation starter and maybe a decent IF/OF utility guy for them Would like to see the club try to keep NJ, just the kind of high OBP/contact hitter this teams needs a massive infusion of. A lefty who hits all pitching. Also good defensively. Maybe 3-4 mil will do (2yrs, 7.5 mil ?). No doubt in my mind we'll be force feeding Morrison and Maybin into the starting lineup beginning of next year, no matter what. We'll need a professional hitter like NJ to help Hanley and Cantu in countering the trials and tribulations the club will be dealing with in relying on 3 inexperienced bats in the lineup (I'm including CC). I don't think Loria would have to open up his wallet all that much more to field this lineup. Of course if Cantu proves impossible to play at 3rd base (his play last night was terrifying), keeping NJ becomes very problematical. I would like to keep both....and for god sake get JJ signed long term so we lock up the arbitration yrs and at least 1 free agent yr-4yrs 38 ml should do, back loaded of course.
  18. It appears the only thing standing in the way of us getting swept in this series is JJ throwing a shutout
  19. Starting Pitching: B- Bullpen: B+ Hitting: C+ Bench: B Fielding C- Overall Rating: B- Most Pleasant Surprise: Calero and Meyer, terrific work in the pen. All around play of Cody Most Disappointing: Situational hitting again a major problem. Fielding of infield and Hermida continues to suck. Eyesore Award: 50% of Uggla's at bats. His outs are the ugliest in baseball...the lunging K's, hopeless swings at breaking balls in the dirt or a foot outside, cueshot grounders. Ouch Easy on the Eyes: JJ in control. Hanley and Cody depositing hanging sliders in the upper deck. 11-1....8-24....27-19 So who are we? My predictions: We go 85-77, second in the East. Phils win division. Giants win wild card. We need a consistent second half pitching stud to go with JJ and to counter our inconsistent bats
  20. It's true.Jeffrey Loria needs to stop waiting on players like Hermida because Hermida is cheap, and spend some money on better talent. Three seasons have been wasted on Hermida.Let's put it that way.We could have easily gotten much better production for three years from another outfielder.The storm may not be over yet....... Loria has nothing to do with player development. It's also not a cheap issue because Hermida could easily turn into an above average bat over night. You don't give up on 24 year old players. How many times do we have to go over this. He's going to be fine. How about smart people, like Bill James. He predicts Hermida to be the second best hitter on the team in 2009 - .275/.363/.459 (.822). Sounds about right to me. And for giggles, he predicts Maybin to be the third best hitter - .276/.362/.445 (.806). His analysis includes Uggla, who he has a higher OPS score for .261/.344/.488 (.833), but lower Runs Created scores (5.86 - 5.79 - 5.69) which is the all important goal of the offense. And we could have rivaled Hermida's production, .267/.342/.436 (.779), over the last 3 years by stop gapping with nominal FA vets. Sure. But that would have cost free agent dollars, and we would have had a 0% chance of replicating the .870 OPS from 2007 or finding someone with the same longterm potential he displays. This Hermida complaining is really ridiculous. Yea, 2008 was really disappointing. REALLY disappointing. It's not the end of the world, he's still a kid, he's still developing. I can't wait until he starts hitting, just like in the summer of 2007, and all of you look like retards for wanting to get rid of him at the first sign of trouble. Amen. Enough of the Hermida bashing. I really want this kid to succeed, and with us, and I'm confident he will. The Summer of 2007 proves he can. His performance wasn't an aberration.
  21. assuming Bonafacio plays 3B (which is a big time assumption) and the fish keep Uggla (another assumption) I dont see there being an open competition at 1B....The way Cantu played last year there is almost no way that Sanchez or Dallas would be him out even if he has a poor Spring.............Which makes me think (under the great aforementioned assumptions) that the team isnt in love with Gaby at the moment What do you guys think Beinfest is more in love with the speed and defense principle. He sees Bonafacio as having it (whether we agree about that or not), and Gaby and Dallas don't, not that either of them should be faulted for it. I'm guessing his thinking is that if he's going to introduce a newcomer, with no to relatively little MLB experience, to our infield, he wants a speed and defense guy. Makes sense as with Cantu, Uggla and Ramirez the power and extra base hits are already there. Cantu moves to first as that's where he's servicable defensively, and of course Bonafacio's absense of power at 3rd, a major negative, is couterbalanced by Uggla's huge power numbers at 2nd. All decent if Bonfacio hits at least 270, with at least an 360 OBP. Of course, I doubt he does that. I certainly don't think he should be taking major AB's from McPherson against righties. We'll need a lefty power bat. Not looking at 2010, where much of this may change. I don't see Cantu or Uggla being traded before or during the 2009 season, unless our 2009 season goes in the toilet early. Gaby I'm afraid will be starving for AB's, and will have to get them in NOLA. The only thing that can change this dynamic is for him to have an off the charts spring training performance.
  22. Potential holes in this line of reasoning? 2, as I see it. 1) The market for Olsen-type and Willingham-type players was already saturated, lowering both demand and price (I doubt this; 200 IP young lefties and good-to-high-OBP 1B/OF under team control for 3 more years aren't extremely common) 2) The value of our commodities could fluctuate in the short-run, AKA after the free-agency period begins, and we should have held and sold later. There may have been potential buyers who didn't know they'd be buyers until after they lost out on the FA's they wanted. And here are my two potential holes to your reasoning on potential holes :shifty - 1. Scott Olsen has a history of getting into trouble in the off season, what if he did something else, say a DUI or got into a fight? Small chance, but possible and then his value is virtually nil. 2. In my theory, Beinfest/our scouts/FO whoever... really, really like one of the two younger prospects we got back and sought them out. So maybe in their minds this is a great return already. I could see it too, especially with Dean as he fits the profile of what our FO seems to like in pitchers - young, tall, lanky, projectable, could add a couple ticks to his fastball, good control at a young age, etc etc. If next year he puts up good numbers in Greensboro while throwing 93-94...we will see this trade differently and maybe we'll understand where Beinfest was coming from... Nah! I think we need to come to terms with what's obvious. Beinfest/our scouts/FO whatever have placed a very high (and excessive) valuation on Bonifacio. Beinfest has been harping on speed and defense for months on end, and sees those qualities in abundance in EB. My belief is that he does see EB as a potential Castillo, notwithstanding present low BA, OBP, high strike out peripherals and believes EB can evolve into a player far better than what, off limited MLB totals, he presently is. It doen't appear that he's got many BB talent evaluators feeling that way, ergo the reviews we've all had the pleasure of reading so far. He's willing to bet the loss of Olsen and Willingham on the chance he may be right (not a significant price to pay). EB is truly Beinfest's baby, and he will overindulge him. Expect to see him starting at 2nd in 2110. Pisses me off because Coughlin is clearly the superior up and comer. The two Single A dudes really don't matter all that much.
  23. Can't wait to watch him in Jax. :hat Morrison and West will be the players to watch, and to see how well Thompson does as an RP if that where he'll get his chance. With Rhodes gone, Pinto likely to be overworked again, and Tank extremely hittable, we're going to be hurting for lefty RP's. It'd be great if we see Stanton later in the year. Rhodes is 39 & replaceable. Pinto won't be overworked again b/c unlike this past year...come Opening Day '09, it looks like we'll have an MLB caliber rotation (Nolasco, JJ, Volstad >>> Hendrickson, inexperienced Vanden Hurk, & Badenhop...and others). Tank isn't extremely hittable...he had one bad year. He's a LOOGY at the age of 25, capable of pitching in the bigs...not too many teams have that. Relievers rise and fall every year; Tank fell this year. He's the type of guy, however, who can easily "rise" next year. And there's always free agency, where the team can always pick up a guy like Will Ohman, if it doesn't trust Tank in '09. The problem with Tank is when he's used other than as a LOOGY. If you recall he was also sent down for ineffectiveness in 2007 as well, though to give him credit he pitched well the second half of the season when brought back. But then he stunk it up in 2008. Ohman would be okay to look at. Still interested to see how Aaron Thompson does in Jax.
  24. Can't wait to watch him in Jax. :hat Morrison and West will be the players to watch, and to see how well Thompson does as an RP if that where he'll get his chance. With Rhodes gone, Pinto likely to be overworked again, and Tank extremely hittable, we're going to be hurting for lefty RP's. It'd be great if we see Stanton later in the year.
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