rmc523

Yeah.....winning consistently (and ownership proving they'll do what it takes) will cause people to show up....look at the Panthers. Attendance increases are a positive sign for sure, but they have to keep the on-field momentum to continue that.

All good questions! I'm not sure where a few of the regulars went. It was definitely more active this season vs. last season on here....I think we made it to the last few series before switching to a catchall game thread, but there was definitely a few regulars missing. Not sure if they're gone for good or not. Yeah, like I said above, I don't believe a word they say until they actually do something.....actually several things.

This is pretty hilarious....... https://www.espn.co.uk/mlb/story/_/id/50069105/mlb-attendance-4th-straight-year-boosted-rays The article talks about how overall MLB attendance went up, and went through various large increase and drops. TB having a 628k increase (going back to the Trop), others went up a lot, several went down a lot, and several down 100-200k. Then literally the last line is there just to take a shot at the Marlins. Here's a snippet showing it: That's where the article ends....nothing after that....no context. While it's true, the Marlins did slide below the Rays to go from 28th to 29th.......they also had a 74k increase, not a decrease as it implies. But they don't mention that, just mention the placement drop just to make a dig.

Meanwhile, Barry Jackson is saying "moderately active"..... Jackson says the club plans to be moderately active in free agency, whether or not there’s a salary floor in the next collective bargaining agreement. “Moderate” is a subjective term, so it’s hard to say what that could mean. That could mean anything and sounds like a typical scrape the barrel FA signing and hope someone decent falls to us. On a "positive" note payroll wise, Avisail Garcia's $5M and Woo Suck Go's (which is what he did....Woo he's here, sucks and went) $500k will come off the books, so we'll only have Stanton's $10M left for 2027 and 2028. Otherwise we have nobody on the books for next year.

More details.... Marlins Notes: McCullough, Nardi, Marsee, Zuber - MLB Trade Rumors For instance, the terms of McCullough’s initial deal weren’t known until today, when Jackson reported that 2027 will be the final season of what was apparently a three-year contract. Bendix confirmed today that Nardi will miss most or all of next season in recovery. The fact that Bendix left the door slightly open for a return might hint that Nardi had an internal brace procedure (which has a 12-14 month timeframe) rather than a full Tommy John surgery, which usually requires a minimum of 13 months on the shelf. Nardi already missed all of 2025 due to back problems, and he posted a 5.16 ERA over 22 2/3 innings this season while dealing with a stress reaction in his ribcage and then the elbow problem that ended his season. Nardi is arbitration-eligible for the second time this winter and is due only a minor raise on his $800K salary for 2026, but he looks like a clear non-tender candidate for the Marlins. As for other pitchers undergoing UCL surgeries, Bendix said that William Kempner (who had his own elbow surgery in August) will also miss all or most of next season. Adam Mazur is expected back to game action in April or May after an internal brace procedure last March, and Robby Snelling’s brace procedure last May puts him on pace for a return in May or June of 2027. Turning to other players on Miami’s IL, Bendix said Max Meyer, Owen Caissie, Ronny Henriquez, and Anthony Bender should all be ready for the start of Spring Training. The news isn’t as promising for right-hander Tyler Zuber or a though-to-be healthy player in Jakob Marsee, as both will visit Dr. Keith Meister due to some elbow soreness. Report: Marlins Don't Plan To Trade Sandy Alcantara In Offseason - MLB Trade Rumors The Marlins have no plans to trade right-hander Sandy Alcantara this offseason, per reporting from Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. 2026 was the final guaranteed year of Alcantara’s deal but he can be retained for 2027 via a $21MM club option or sent to free agency via a $2MM buyout. It appears the most likely outcome is he will be back with Miami next year.

Bendix announced hitting coach Pedro Guerrero will not return next year. The rest of the coaching staff is expected to return as of now.

I hate to be cynical, but we've heard this report that they'll be adding "significant" FA moves the last few years (certainly last year) and then they didn't really do anything. I'll firmly remain in the 'believe it when I see it' camp.

Go through a rolodex of guys that were good 5+ years ago, but still barely hanging on before they implode, pick a few, and that's who we'll sign for our "significant" FA push....

Oh that's a great call, didn't think of that.....I'll have to boot that up. I hope they never go to the way MLS did it when Apple took over full broadcasting - there are no more local announcers, just a crew of national "floaters" that go cover every game, so you don't always have the same broadcast team. It just makes the games feel less personal with less hometown feel.....that was always my biggest issue with Paul - he sounded like a national guy covering the local team. At least Kyle Sielaff has a "homer" sound to him. With MLB trying to line up all their media contracts to expire after 2028 (or maybe it's for 2028?), the chances of non-local floating broadcasting teams is not 0, depending on who may win MLB broadcasting rights. One idea I could see them proposing is city-based broadcasting....i.e.....there's a Miami crew, and you hear them regardless of which team you watch. For example, there's a Braves @ Marlins game. Braves and Marlins fans tune in to the same Miami broadcast team. But when the Marlins go to Atlanta, we all hear the Atlanta based crew. In the streaming cost-cutting while raising prices approach, they'd eliminate travel for broadcast teams that way.

We'll have to get the report on the pre-season prediction threads....

Ok, so final season attendance tallies are in...... Good year attendance wise vs the last few years......overall was 1,231,018. They had another 74,384 jump in attendance over last year, 6.43% increase, or 918 increase per game. They've added 143k increase over the last 2 seasons. It's the strongest attendance in the last 5 years that I started keeping track. I looked up attendance of years prior, and it's the strongest attendance since 2017. The last few years of Loria were in the 1.5-1.7M/year range, BUT we know they were reporting inflated numbers. So this is the highest attendance during the Sherman era. We'll see if the trend continues. All that said across MLB overall, we only outdrew the Athletics, who played in a minor league park. The Rays were about 200k ahead of us. Note: ESPN's figure is exactly 10k off (low) for us.

Details On Lockout's Potential Impact On Broadcast Deals - MLB Trade Rumors The piece highlights that a key cutoff point will be if the lockout extends long enough to cancel at least 60 games of the 2027 season. If that comes to pass, the league would still be paid for 2027 as part of their national media deals. However, most of those deals would tack on another year for the broadcasters. The deals currently expire after 2028 but would push to 2029 if at least 60 games are missed in 2027. If the entire 2027 season is missed, the broadcasters would pay no fees at all for 2029. If a partial season is played, the networks would pay some fees. The specifics of a partial season fee aren’t mentioned but it is referred to as a “bargain rate” in the piece. The fees would presumably be relative to how much of the 2027 season is played.

I wish I had seen it all. I'll miss Tommy in the booth, and definitely miss the Rich/Tommy combo. I heard a brief clip of when Rich was in the booth yesterday, and it was one of those "chills" moment of feeling "home" if that makes sense...... I was thinking about it and realized I've listed to some combo of Rich and Tommy for 20+ years....... I just hope they find a decent replacement for Tommy.....their current analyst crop is lacking.

Hahahaha......yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. They say the same thing every year and trade away and receive back garbage, or someone that'll help 35 years from now.....if they make it.

Nice that they actually let him go for it and get it.