Link: florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080214&content_id=2373059&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id

 

He definitely has the right attitude, but it remains to be seen if he's ready to hit big league pitching again after a year of inactivity. He might need a month or two down in the minors to get his timing back which might not be the worst thing in the world.

 

Now that he is in fact healthy, his upside is obvious. Cantu and Castillo are temporary plugholes where as I can envision Dallas as a long-term guy provided he can stay healthy and produce up to expectations. The best option seems to be to put Castillo at third until he's ready. In a perfect world, he's in our lineup opening day after a solid spring. That's looking unlikely because he's going to need at-bats one way or another and ST might not give a big enough sample size.

 

But hey, if he lights it up come spring then I'm all for it. More than anything I think they'll look for consistency in him, which coupled with some power will determine if he's in the opening day lineup or not.

First, I believe he has a major league contract so I'd expect him on the 25 man roster and not in the minors. I don't believe he has options left, which is the whole reason he was let go.

 

Second, it's going to be tough for Dallas to be a longterm guy for us, as he hits arbitration next year. Granted, he will be cheap unless he goes Carlos Pena/Josh Hamilton on us (and that would be a welcome problem), but a best case scenario for us is he is adequate (or better) at 3B for the next 2-3 seasons relatively cheap, where we don't have to worry about the position in the immediacy like we did with CF for the entire 06 and 07 seasons. Then when he prices himself off the team with 3rd arby year/FA, we'll hopefully have a young 3B in place, or a legit stopgap to bridge to Dominguez who will hopefully be awesome and penciled into 3B after we see how he handles A ball the next two years.

 

Again, this is crazy longterm way to think about NOW, but that is the best case scenario how I see it. When people say longterm, I think LONGterm. Not just a few seasons. He fits the plan right now, but he doesn't fit the "masterplan" of having a relatively completely cost controlled pitching staff 3 years down the road, with Hanley/Hermida/Maybin earning silly arbitration money, and everything else having to be real cheap in order to field an effective team under $30 million.

 

Of course, if they would raise salary to higher payrolls we could maybe think longterm of keeping complimentary players around, but I'm not willing to go that far just that. I'd rather think about the worst (i.e. low payrolls for the next 4 seasons minimum), and if the situation were to improve then recalculate who we could realistically keep.

 

And before 03 comes down like Thor, yes, this is all dependent of McPherson dropping .800 OPS right away.

First, I believe he has a major league contract so I'd expect him on the 25 man roster and not in the minors. I don't believe he has options left, which is the whole reason he was let go.

 

As 2003 corrected me in another thread, he does have options left and has a split contract, so yes he can be sent to the minors.

 

My guess to why he was released is because he would have been arbitration eligible and the Angels didn't want to pay a guy in AAA who might not even be able to play at a ML level again arbitration money. Doubt he would have commanded that much though, so it's still kinda a head scratcher haha.

Actually the article even says it towards the bottom that McPherson does have options left but I wouldn't bet on him going to the minors if healthy he will make our 25 man roster. At worse he will be a platoon player, he will hopefully win the job and Castillo/Cantu will just be insurance

Lou, I loved the Thor reference :thumbup or that I would have but Nny stole my thunder.

 

Anyways I thought we cleared up the options issue a while ago and I really have no argument with anything said above, except as one reads the body of quotes accumulating since McPherson signed, even he understands that while his back is surgically repaired and he's been doing all his work to get back in shape, he may not be major league ready shape come Opening Day.

 

It would be surprising to me (and from what I've read it would surprise him as well) if he gets his batting eye back that quickly, or that the Marlins, if they see a future for him push him all that hard in spring training when they simply exercise their split contract and send him to Albuquerque to play everyday or four days a week or whatever level he's at and work at a pace that eventually leads to him being their starting third baseman.

 

The other problem of course is the 25 man roster but I have to run.