Marlins Have Plenty of Questions but Few Answers

 

Pitchers and catchers officially reported to spring training this week, heralding the return of baseball. All over Florida and Arizona, teams began the process of preparing for the season to come. For the Florida Marlins, that process is just a little more daunting than it is for most. Take a look at the condition of the NL East and you notice one thing in particular?a dark void. No, it?s not a black hole, it?s just the future prospects of the Florida Marlins, a team, to put it mildly, in a state of chaos.

 

It?s not a new feeling for the Marlins organization. After winning a World Championship in 1997, then owner Wayne Huizenga promptly sold off most of his active roster, to the consternation of fans and baseball executives alike. The Marlins eventually regrouped and found themselves back in the post-season again, winning their second title in 2003, but for some reason this team just can?t seem to maintain a grip on that success.

 

Not only are they faced with yet another almost total rebuild of the roster, this time the Marlins aren?t even sure where their home will be after 2007. That?s when their current agreement to play at Dolphins Stadium expires. There has been some dissent among the government and residents of Miami-Dade county over funding for a new, domed, stadium and this off-season, Marlins ownership began expanding its horizons and considering possible sites for relocation, including San Antonio, TX; Portland, OR; Norfolk, VA; and most recently, Oklahoma City.

 

In the meantime, the Marlins are set to take the field ? at Dolphins Stadium ? in just a few weeks to kick off the 2006 season. Rookie manager Joe Girardi takes the helm of a very tenuous ship. Having off-loaded such notable names as Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett during the off-season, the Marlins have only the veteran leadership of pitcher Brian Moehler, catcher Matt Treanor (a ?vet? on this roster at the advanced age of 29) and shortstop Pokey Reese to lean on. Everyone else is either brand new to a major league roster or relatively inexperienced. Not the easiest of tasks for even the most seasoned manager, it?s open to debate what Girardi will be able to achieve with this group.

 

Reese, coming off an entire year spent on the DL with a shoulder injury in 2005, is himself a pretty significant question mark, but the Marlins are betting on him regaining his pre-injury form. There are some bright lights around him, including the phenomenal young outfielder Miguel Cabrera, who is coming off of a year in which he chalked up a .323 BA, 33 HR?s and 116 RBI?s. The Marlins will look to Cabrera to fill in the offensive gap created by the departure of super slugger Carlos Delgado in a trade with the NY Mets. That trade brought the Marlins their new first baseman, former Mets prospect Mike Jacobs, who impressed in his brief ML debut, slugging 11 HR?s and 23 RBI?s on the way to a .310 BA in just 30 games. If Jacobs can build on those numbers, he just might ease the pain of Delgado?s loss.

 

The pitching staff benefits from the presence of the D-Train, Dontrelle Willis, who was just shy of picking up his first Cy Young Award with an outstanding 22-10, 2.63 ERA season in 2005. However, with the loss of both Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett, the Marlins pitching drops off sharply after Willis. Aside from Moehler who, coming off a less than inspiring 6-12, 4.55 ERA season, doesn?t provide much to write home about, the entire Marlins staff is both very young and very inexperienced. Another prospect picked up from the Mets, Yusmeiro Petit, is the youngest of the bunch at 21 but his minor league numbers were good enough for the Marlins to take a chance on him.

 

Taking chances is going to be the main theme of this season for the Marlins. With so much up in the air, it?s going to take a mighty effort by Girardi and his coaching staff, and some phenomenal performances by a very green club, just to keep up the pace in the NL East. Of course, stranger things have happened, and Girardi and Marlins ownership are saying all the right things about being competitive and feeling good about the year to come. The fans better hope that is more than wishful thinking, or what could be the Marlins last season in Florida might be a very long one indeed.

 

http://www.all-baseball.com/archives/021833.html

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting pretty tired of reading all these recaps of how the team has been dismantled...twice.

 

I'm ready for Spring Training to start so we can start to see reports on whose doing well, who isn't making it, who looks to have the best chances of winning starting positions, etc.

 

It's time to look forward and quit looking backwards. :thumbup

I feel like not reading any further as soon as an article says "outfielder Miguel Cabrera" and doesn't mention that he's taking over at 3B.

And people wonder why I take the media to task so often?

 

Going into their fourth season of major league baseball I guess Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera aren't considered veterans yet. The Miggy thing speaks poorly not only of the author but her editor as well.

The more I think about it, maybe it would have been good to keep Pierre just so the Marlins would have a "veteran" to show the younger guys what having a good work ethic is all about.

 

Oh well...let's start the season already.

The more I think about it, maybe it would have been good to keep Pierre just so the Marlins would have a "veteran" to show the younger guys what having a good work ethic is all about.

 

Oh well...let's start the season already.

 

Lenny Harris? Pokey Reese? Joe Borowski? Matt Herges? Brian Moehler? D-Train is a pro.

WE SHOULD HAVE KEPT PIERRE!

WE SHOULD HAVE KEPT PIERRE, CONINE, AND CASTILLO!

Once the decision was made, we did exactly the right thing in rebuilding from the bottom up.

 

No one misses Juan Pierre more than I do.

I feel like not reading any further as soon as an article says "outfielder Miguel Cabrera" and doesn't mention that he's taking over at 3B.

 

 

I feel like not reading any further as soon as an article says Matt Treanor is a vet and not Willis and Cabrera.

 

Oh, and Lenny Harris' prime purpose on this team is to be a vet.

Technically Treanor is a baseball veteran just by the virtue of spending half of Cabrera and Willis' lives in professional baseball. Treanor is far from an MLB vet though. After 4 seasons in the SHOW I think a player can be labeled a veteran, but most people are inclined to think of players like Lenny or Mordy when they think of those veteran guys.

Treanor's probably spent tons of time in major league spring training though as part of the 40-man roster and invitees.