Before the Marlins traded Juan Pierre to the Cubs at the winter meetings, they had potential deals on the table with Texas (for a package headed by Hank Blalock, whom they couldn't afford) and Seattle (for a group that included Jeremy Reed).

 

The Marlins still don't have a center fielder to replace Juan Pierre. And Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright has been the first name on their grocery list for weeks. But Florida has been telling teams it doesn't want to start dealing all its excess pitching prospects until its people have actually seen them throw a few pitches with a teal cap on their head. So if that Gathright deal happens, it apparently can't happen until early to mid-March.

 

 

Which prospect traded this winter will turn out to be the best player? We surveyed a group of baseball executives and wound up with a split vote between Andy Marte (from Atlanta to Boston in the Edgar Renteria deal) and Hanley Ramirez (from Boston to Florida in the Josh Beckett trade).

 

Marte won't be A-Rod, but he was compared, in offensive upside, to players like David Wright and Chase Utley. Good names.

 

Ramirez, on the other hand, could be a monster talent. But everyone we polled used words like "makeup" and "maturity" as issues they could use to hedge their bets. So we'll get back to you on this one in five years.

 

 

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/col...yson&id=2299414

Jayson Stark, from my perspective, has always been the most even-handed national sports reporter around when it came to our Marlins.

 

That said, I'm always frustrated by reporting that's one-sided. Saying the Marlins had a "potential" deal on the table that included Reed without offering up the other other side of the trade, is in my mind unfair and adds little value to hotstove debates.

 

Not unlike the Wayne Huizenga fiction of giving land and $$$ to help out the Fish, but with no reporting of what he wanted in return, suggesting the Marlins didn't pull the trigger on a Reed trade without knowing what they would be giving in return is more rumor-mongering than reporting.

It's quite possible Stark does not know the full story. Having no access to the proper contact or his estimation the story being just as to the taste of many of his readers if he were not to include it.

What is interesting about the Gathright trades is it does not talk about guys that have been marlins. We know the DRays have wanted Olsen (I do not think we should deal him for gathrigth) and Johnson could make some sense in a deal for him.

Did anybody notice he said teal caps on their head? ha

Just thinking about one of the proposed deals.

 

That Beckett trade with Texas was being talked about expanding to include Juan Pierre, perhaps that's what he's referring to given that I seriously doubt Pierre would bring Blalock back since he (Blalock) was pretty much the centerpiece of Texas' efforts to get Beckett.

 

As for the other one, if Pierre could have been traded for Reed (even one for one) I have to wonder what Beinfest either doesn't see in Reed or sees in Pinto/Nolasco.

Just thinking about one of the proposed deals.

 

That Beckett trade with Texas was being talked about expanding to include Juan Pierre, perhaps that's what he's referring to given that I seriously doubt Pierre would bring Blalock back since he (Blalock) was pretty much the centerpiece of Texas' efforts to get Beckett.

 

As for the other one, if Pierre could have been traded for Reed (even one for one) I have to wonder what Beinfest either doesn't see in Reed or sees in Pinto/Nolasco.

 

 

 

I concur, I think he either sees the ability in the two pitchers from the cubs to be number 1s. Or he doesnt see Reed every coming alive with the bat in the majors and not adjusting anymore. Because his defense cant be faulted.