BafflingBeerman

If JJ goes on the DL our season is officially over. Was there any mention of this on the telecast? Juan Rodriguez, on Twitter, says JJ did NOT leave due to injury.

Who's this imposter that claims to be Ricky Nolasco? Was just as bad to start 2008. Its actually scary how similar the start to this year has been to the start of 08. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/...p&year=2008 From looking at that it looks like we'll have to wait till June for him to really pick it up. Unfortunately, it is disappointing that Ricky may be a career slow starter. Would mean he is more in line with a 3rd spot than a 1 or 2, in my opinion.

Ricky, oh, Ricky. Not good. We shall see what happens when Miller comes back, but we essentially have one great pitcher (JJ), one good pitcher (Volstad), one enigma (Ricky), one who is a question mark (Miller), and our 5th starter, whoever that will be this week.

He thinks he's the next Nigel Wilson. I don't think it's a joke. At least not wholly. It was a joke but it's also how I feel... And yes I compared him to Nigel Wilson. You still stuck on this? lol seriously get over it... He "MAYBIN" is the next Nigel Wilson. HE IS DONE! You're not at all worried by the fact that your idea is a joke? I am just confused about how it can be both a joke and something one believes. "It is how I feel, but it is a joke, but it is how I feel!" So, we are supposed to do what with that? Because everyone knows how I feel already, and I just posted it on that reply being sarcastic... I guess you kids have never heard of Sarcastic humor. Anyway I'm not going away... Ok troll? You are free to have an opinion. However, constantly bringing it up, being sarcastic about it, will not convince anyone that it is valid. If that is what you are trying to do.

Let's hope they turn it around. They have been inconsistent. 6-15 is not inconsistent, it's just plain bad. Face it, we've played lousy baseball since the streak, with maybe one or two games as an exception. I think what he means is they they have been inconsistent, considering the 11-1 start counts just as much as the last 21 games. Exactly. Plus, there has been a few games where it looks like the 11-1 team was going to show up again, only for us to lose a few in ugly fashion.

He thinks he's the next Nigel Wilson. I don't think it's a joke. At least not wholly. It was a joke but it's also how I feel... And yes I compared him to Nigel Wilson. You still stuck on this? lol seriously get over it... He "MAYBIN" is the next Nigel Wilson. HE IS DONE! You're not at all worried by the fact that your idea is a joke? I am just confused about how it can be both a joke and something one believes. "It is how I feel, but it is a joke, but it is how I feel!" So, we are supposed to do what with that?

Let's hope they turn it around. They have been inconsistent.

WE started off well, but went to sleep after. Koronka, well, that was expected. Wish we were surprised.

and if we had an owner that would've been willing to spend a few million dollars, we would have a rotation of Beckett, Burnett, Dempster, Johnson, and Nolasco. Either way if our owner wasn't as cheap we could be better, period. And if we still had Beckett, we would not have Hanley.... there's always going to be two sides to every story. But as it has been said before, pitching and defense wins championships, and I would trade Hanley for a rotation of Beckett, Burnett, Johnson, Dempster and Nolasco. How many rotations of 5 above average, let alone "ace," pitchers been kept together for more than a few years, outside of New York and Boston. Nowadays I mean, not back in the 90s, where salaries weren't as big. Add to that, keeping those guys and then players like Pudge and Cabrera. Baseball economics suck. Especially for us.

Ignoring the fact that Loria DID keep most of the 03 team intact for 04 and 05, and they underperformed/choked, how many teams keep a core group of players for 6 years without making the playoffs once? Also, it isn't like once those players were gone, we became the 1998 version of ourselves. We've been in the thick of the playoff race into August/September. If anything, we traded good players for good players. we finished under .500 in 2006. Not saying that wasn't a good accomplishment considering how young the team was, but still its wrong the say we traded good players for good players alltogether. Our problem is the marlins have yet to find a happy medium. They tried to go balls to the walls in 04 and 05 trying to make the playoffs, but all they did was get bad team players and didn't really add to key areas we needed. When that didn't work, we made a "market correction" and went to an all rookie team. Just doesn't seem like Loria knows how to spend just enough money to give us a winning team, when there are free agents out there that we know can make our team better for just around $3 million (chump change for most teams), we ignore them because our owner cannot spend the money. We let key pieces go such as Arthur Rhodes because we cannot spend 4 million dollars for 2 years on a guy. We cannot constantly be in rebuilding mode, and I doubt with Loria as owner we will ever see our real key players getting long term deals (Hanley is the franchise, definite exception in that case). I meant, in the end, after 2006, we are still accomplishing around what we did in 04 and 05. 03 may have been an aberration, and again, most of that team was kept in tact for 04 and 05. They swapped some players in for others, and some of them didn't work out, but that's baseball. I don't think keeping that team together would have us winning the division last year or anything like that. But I do somewhat agree that after 05, we may have traded too much too quickly, but I don't blame Loria for that. He may have just gone to Beinfest and said "we lost X amount of money, we still haven't made the playoffs, do something." If he indeed was losing money and the results weren't worth it, what else is there to do? In the end, we have just had one "cycle" under Loria's ownership where we went into complete rebuilding mode. And it wasn't totally without merit. Let's see what happens once the stadium opens up.

that is a completely dumb statement, considering our 2003 team had some of the best pitching and defense in the league at the time. With Pudge behind the plate and one of the most balanced pitching staffs ever at that point (Beckett and Burnett now with mega contracts on high profile teams, as is Ryan Dempster), to say that those players have been replaced by better players is just so dumb. You will never get that team back, and with our constant rebuilding of youth and never really keeping a stockpile of players we deem the future (other than Hanley), we cannot possibly be taken seriously by the rest of baseball./ Let's see what happens now that we have a stadium. It has hard to plan for the future when the future (financially) of the organiation is uncertain.

Ignoring the fact that Loria DID keep most of the 03 team intact for 04 and 05, and they underperformed/choked, how many teams keep a core group of players for 6 years without making the playoffs once? Also, it isn't like once those players were gone, we became the 1998 version of ourselves. We've been in the thick of the playoff race into August/September. If anything, we traded good players for good players.

Loria should get very little(if any) credit for the stadium because his contribution is minuscule. If I remember my math, his portion comes down to about $1 or 2 million a year that will be covered completely by gate money. Regardless, it is under Loria's ownership that the team finally has their own stadium. You can also argue that because of this, Loria has kept the team in Florida. This makes him far from the 4th worst MLB owner. Kinda funny that John Henry is listed as one of the best owners, for when he owned the Marlins, and it was clear that the state wouldn't pay for a stadium and he was just a bit fibbing with the whole "I will pay for it myself" he was able to "trade up" and get the Red Sox. I don't think anything Henry's done as a Red Sox owner makes him a great owner, he just now has the resources (suddenly) to sign and retain big name players. He basically fell into a good situation in Boston than trying to make his own here in Florida. I would say though Theo Epstein is the key man in that organization though. Considering the viability of keeping the Marlins in Florida has been hanging over the organization for 10 plus years, the fact that under Loria's ownership we have a new stadium and future that is much more certain, that's huge. Also, the fact that Loria has been able to retain Beinfest and company, who in turn allows us to be a "cheap" team (whether that is good or not is another matter) and still compete is good too. Loria at least is a fan of the game, unlike Mr. Huzienga.

Shame. Let's see what we do now.

Yes, the second coming of Wayne. Except he got us a stadium. And kept the championship team pretty much intact for 2 additional seasons. And signed Hanley to a multiyear contract. He is exactly like Wayne!

For me, the Maybin situaton is dicey. You want him to see MLB pitching and see if he improves, but we also want to compete this year (I think) and with the offense struggling, you can't afford to have someone unproven struggling as much as he was, let alone when Boni is doing the same thing. Sending him down to AAA isn't going to hurt him, in my opinion. Now, on a related note, I think Boni will eventually slide into Maybin's slot, that is, bat lower down in the order, then eventually be benched if he doesn't improve. It is happening slower than Maybin, because Maybin has much more raw talent and we think he can still develop. In a burning building, we are "rescuing" Maybin first. With Boni, it is like a used car, we are going to ride him until it becomes more than apparent he can't go any further. All that being said, I hope both Boni and Maybin improve in their respective positions.

Yeah, he was a pitch hitter, as far as I remember. The Amezaga of his time, if you will.

I loved Willingham as well. Was sad to see him go, but I kept on hearing about his back and how it was nagging, etc. And his best response to that problem was to just rest it doing the off-season. Every off-season. But it didn't go away, but he refused to even think about surgery. On the other hand, back injuries are hard to shake off, no matter the method.

I thought the pool in Arizona was slowly being phased out as it was impractical/not popular anymore? Anyways, I like it for us, just because it is not a feature found in many ballparks.

what will they call it next time, whale stadium, catfish park, or catch and release stadium. landshark name is very embarrassing, ''where you going next week?'' ''landshark stadium!'' Frankly, I'd rather it be LandShark and memorable, than some more well known or "normal" business sounding name and be instantly forgetable.

Hopefully, Miller comes back and pitches "average." I don't expect him to wow or to be lights out, but I want him to be consistent and to pitch well into the game.

I wonder if Jon Stewart will ask Dykstra on his show now to chew him out.

Though I have followed the Marlins since 1993, I really was only focused on them and my extended baseball knowledge wasn't that great. However, in the past 10 years or so, I have taken a more general interest in baseball. So I am still somewhat surprised about how many members of the Indians of '97 are now more "known" to me than back then. On a related note, when I went to the Nats/Marlins game this year, on the way back on the Metro, someone approached me to complain about the Indians losing the '97 series. I said don't blame me, blame Jose Mesa. He said he does that too!

You have to remember that most of the (early, at least) strikeouts came from Boni and Maybin. With Maybin being sent down, perhaps we won't be leadinf the league. But the FO did get rid of Jacobs and Willingham, who were strikeout guys. With players like Uggla, you take the SOs because he will get a lot of XBHs. As far as defense, we have been fine so far this year. Yeah, Boni cost us a run today, but again, we got rid of some bad defensive guys. You aren't going to see our players suddenly become Gold Gloves overnight (overseason?), but we are steadily improving. Pitching has been somewhat of a disappointment, with only JJ and to a lesser extent, Volstand, performing consistently. But, despite all the talk of us having one the best rotations in the league during spring training, you gotta remember, we still have a young, and yes, a bit unproven, rotation. Unproven in that none of our guys have had a long enough to career to accurately say they will be an XYZ type of pitcher. But our bullpen has been good...not great, but not erratic either. But, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some sort of offseason coaching change, but not a big shakeup.

Surprising 2 1/2 games of pitching duels. Sad to lose this one, but 2 out of 3 in Coors ain't half bad.