Beinfest disappointed..."Future remains bright"

[Eddie Altamonte]

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/articl...sp&c_id=fla

 

Beinfest disappointed, but not unhappy

09/24/2008 6:59 PM ET

By Joe Frisaro / MLB.com

 

WASHINGTON -- When the Marlins reached the ballpark on Wednesday, it marked the first time all season the team wasn't in playoff contention.

Even though the goal of being a postseason team was eliminated after Tuesday's loss to the Nationals, the Marlins exceeded expectations. With an 81-76 record with five games remaining, they are likely to finish with the fifth winning record in franchise history.

 

How does the team assess all that it accomplished?

 

"[i'm] disappointed, but not unhappy at all," president of baseball operations Admin Beinfest said before Wednesday's game. "They've been great -- their effort, their enthusiasm, their never-give-up attitude has been tremendous. These guys have played hard all year.

 

"When you look back, it's not because they didn't try. They did a great job."

 

With 17 players eligible for arbitration after the season, the organization has some difficult decisions to make on who stays or goes. Because of its low revenue stream, financial limitations are part of life for the franchise.

 

So there will be changes, but the future certainly appears bright. A priority for the squad is to get back to the pitching-and-defense model that was the backbone of the 2003 World Series championship team.

 

Despite spotty defense -- and erratic starting pitching in the first half -- Florida remained in the race behind a power-hitting lineup, which set a franchise record for homers in a season. After going deep twice on Tuesday, the squad had 203 dingers.

 

For many on the team, 2008 represented their first taste of playing meaningful games into late September. That should be big for rookies like Chris Volstad and John Baker.

 

Volstad, one of the Marlins' five first-round picks in the 2005 First-Year Player Draft, turned 22 on Tuesday. He represents the promise of the future.

 

"When we took the kids in the ['05] Draft and then we did the redo [seven major trades after the 2005 season], a lot of things happened the way we wanted," Beinfest said. "Some of the kids in the '05 Draft are here or about to be here. Some of the guys we've gotten in those trades are either bona fide Major Leaguers or are close. A lot of things you see now are part of that vision when we made those trades in '05."

 

Although changes in personnel are likely next season, the goals remain the same.

 

"Our expectations every year are to play in the postseason," Beinfest said. "It may sound canned and insincere, but it's true. I'm not a big expectations or prognosticator guy anyway. In terms of wins and losses, I wasn't sure how the pitching starting out would translate into wins and losses. But this team just found the way.

 

"We're not big on the word 'rebuild,' and five-year plans to get back to .500. We try to win."

 

The Marlins also can play the role of spoiler this weekend when they face the Mets in the final three regular-season games at Shea Stadium.

 

"I think any time you're playing big games, even if we're not in it, those are big games for these guys," Beinfest said. "It's good. Some of the experience these kids have had will be important down the road. We're going to have a winning record, but we're not going to the playoffs."

 

I agree there has to be a bit of a disappointment considering what easily could have been, I am glad to hear the word "defense" being mentioned as area of need for improvement I also believe the 2005 draftees will be a huge part of the team next season. Possibly Raynor, Cousins, Tucker and Thompson?

[dom2613]

Yeah the future looks good, but theres no time like the present. Ahh i wish we could have made the PO or still be in it. Im excited to see to see Maybin along with Baker for a whole year. Also a real starting rotation with the 3 studs. It will be interesting to see the prgress Miller makes, hopefully he matures.

[LordMagnus]

I'm glad he's disappointed. He should expect greatness from himself, the people around him, and the team he assembles. Without that kind of attitude, there's no way they can win. He's not happy with simply being over .500 and he's not going to use payroll as an excuse. I love it.

[Eddie Altamonte]

More from the Sun Sentinel

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/other/s...0,2873641.story

 

Pitching, defense top priorities for Marlins in 2009

Expect changes with payroll unlikely to rise significantly

By Juan C. Rodriguez | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

September 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - Whatever the Marlins Get your Marlins Tickets now! do this offseason, it won't be a rebuild, at least not from the front office's standpoint.

 

Speaking before Wednesday's 9-4 win over the Nationals, President of Baseball Operations Admin Beinfest said he doesn't subscribe to the concept.

 

"We're not rebuilding for 'X' number of years to try to get to this place," he said. "We're going to try to win every year."

 

In his estimation, the way to go about that in 2009 is to keep the pitching, shore up the defense and reduce the strikeouts. Considering the Marlins have 17 players eligible for arbitration and likely won't have a dramatically higher payroll in 2009, achieving those goals means personnel changes.

 

The front office last week met in Miami and began discussing ideas for 2009. Benifest has yet to make any additional multi-year contract recommendations to owner Jeffrey Loria. The Marlins prefer to not negotiate during the season. What made Hanley Ramirez's case different was that discussions started in spring training.

 

"When you talk about if you're ready to win or not, when you looked at this team in black and white, it didn't look like it they should be where they were," Beinfest said. "The ERA was high, the errors were high. The strikeouts were extremely high. They found a way.

 

"The expectation was to play [in the postseason] next week. We're not going to do it, but the development of this team, the health of this team, especially in the starting pitching, all those things are very positive."

 

Beinfest no doubt was referring to Josh Johnson among others. Johnson made his 14th and final start Wednesday since returning from Tommy John surgery. He ended the season winning three straight starts and going 7-1.

 

Johnson, who allowed two runs on six hits in six innings Wednesday, went at least five in every start and allowed more than three runs twice. The Marlins went 11-3 in Johnson's starts.

 

Beinfest was also expressing discontent about the high amount strikeouts by the offense. Maybe new batting coach?

[Sirspud]

With the sad state of our pitching staff coming into this year, it's hard to be disappointed. Luckily the future is starting to turn into now with a very big wave of prospects reaching the top levels and we've gotten pointed in the right direction again. If nothing else, we've earned the respect of a lot of the league and that could translate into some effective, if cheap, FA signings.

[The_Punisher]

Based on what we are reading they are going to revolve this team around pitching and defense? So does this mean Dan Uggla is gone? Maybe even Cantu, cause if defense is one of our priorities, than I see us using our bats to get us pitching for the coming future. Uggla just had a big year can he be a trade chip this offseason? Will Coughlan be ready for the BIGS? Any takes?

[dom2613]

Based on what we are reading they are going to revolve this team around pitching and defense? So does this mean Dan Uggla is gone? Maybe even Cantu, cause if defense is one of our priorities, than I see us using our bats to get us pitching for the coming future. Uggla just had a big year can he be a trade chip this offseason? Will Coughlan be ready for the BIGS? Any takes?

 

Ugglas good at d something while coghlan's not but dan k's alot somethin coghlan doesnt do.