Posted September 29, 201014 yr ATLANTA -- Calling all southpaws. The Marlins will be looking for a few good left-handers during the offseason to bolster a pitching staff that was noticeably one-sided in terms of performance. ``It is something that we're going to have to address this winter,'' said Admin Beinfest, president of baseball operations for the Marlins. Collectively, the Marlins' left-handed pitchers -- starters and relievers -- rank last in the majors with a 5.98 ERA, more than a half-run higher than the next-worst team, the Pirates and their 5.31 lefty ERA. The Marlins' cast of lefties was filled with disappointment. Nate Robertson and Renyel Pinto were released when they failed to cut it. Dan Meyer and Taylor Tankersley ended the season in the minors. And Andrew Miller, who is out of options after the season, could be making his final appearance in a Marlins uniform when he takes the mound Wednesday in Atlanta. Miller is 1-4 with an ERA of 8.19. Even Will Ohman, whom the Marlins acquired from Baltimore at the trading deadline and was largely successful when he was healthy, has missed a big chunk of September with a sore elbow. As a result, manager Edwin Rodriguez has had not a left-handed reliever at his disposal since Sept. 12. Ohman, a free agent after the season, is all there is. Beinfest said he can live with a five-man rotation that doesn't include a southpaw, just as long as the right-handers can do the job against the juggernaut of lefty wall-busters -- Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn, Brian McCann and Jason Heyward -- who play in the National League East. The Marlins could feature an all right-handed starting staff next season with Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, Chris Volstad and perhaps Alex Sanabia, who has turned heads in the organization. Armed with an effective changeup, Sanabia has been tough on left-handers, who are hitting .204 against him. But Beinfest said the bullpen is another story. ``Obviously, we have some work to do in the pen,'' Beinfest said. DUBIOUS ATTENDANCE STATUS AVOIDED If no fans show up for the Marlins' final home series, they still would avoid a last-place finish in the attendance standings, but not by much. The Oakland A's already have clinched last-place honors. The A's, who closed the turnstile books on their 81-game home slate over the weekend, finished with a total attendance of 1,418,391. The Marlins are at 1,423,614 with four home games remaining against the Pirates. The Marlins will receive a slight attendance bump Sunday when the team reveals the final tally on ticket sales that continued after Phillies ace Roy Halladay's perfect game. More than 10,000 tickets have been sold as souvenirs since Halladay's historic performance in May and will count toward final attendance. -- CLARK SPENCER Well this tells us a few things. One, the bullpen might be the focal point of the winter for the team. Two, Will Ohman may or may not return. Same with Andrew Miller. Three, Sanabia might be getting his shot to start the season in the rotation next year (or Hensley, if you go by those rumors).
September 29, 201014 yr Unless he is traded, there is no earthly reason why Sanabia would not be in the rotation next year.
September 29, 201014 yr An article on left handed pitching. But yet they still manage to talk about our attendances. Some things never change....
September 29, 201014 yr Author An article on left handed pitching. But yet they still manage to talk about our attendances. Some things never change.... To them they go hand..........*puts on sunglasses*........in hand.
September 29, 201014 yr Anyone have a list of available lefties? I still have a man crush on Ted Lilly, fwiw.
September 29, 201014 yr He's gonna be the new Jason Vargas. :no I certainly don't want that to happen
September 29, 201014 yr surprisingly vargas has had a pretty decent year this year for the M's I was gonna say the same thing. I have a friend that lives in Washington state, and I sometimes would call him and we'd watch the M's games together (I love to hear Dave Neihaus call games, he's an old style baseball play-by-play guy) and I have seem Vargas put on several good outings this year, and wondered why we gave up on him so soon. We could have used him this year.
September 29, 201014 yr Author Was it the LoDuca deal he was involved in? Don't quite remember Vargas? We drafted him and traded him to the Mets in 06 for Lindstrom and Owens.
September 29, 201014 yr Ahhh yes. That was a sweet deal. What ever happened to Owens? I know he got busted for juicing but thought maybe we would see him back at some point.
September 29, 201014 yr Author Ahhh yes. That was a sweet deal. What ever happened to Owens? I know he got busted for juicing but thought maybe we would see him back at some point. Funny, I was just wondering the same thing. He had shoulder surgery before he got busted, that's all I remember
September 29, 201014 yr Owens pitched for Jacksonville last year (Marlins organization), and didn't do well. He received a tryout in Spring Training with the Mets, and the Mets signed him again. http://metsfever.blogspot.com/2010/03/henry-owens-is-back.html Either he was quickly released, or he got hurt again this year; he didn't pitch in 2010.
September 29, 201014 yr If this is Andrew's last game, I wonder who would take a chance on him after this season?
September 29, 201014 yr If this is Andrew's last game, I wonder who would take a chance on him after this season? Hopefully a divisional team.
September 29, 201014 yr If this is Andrew's last game, I wonder who would take a chance on him after this season? Hopefully a divisional team. :lol :thumbup
September 29, 201014 yr All I have to say is...talk is cheap and so is our FO..so I'll wait and see what they do. I hope for a better bullpen next year :crossfingers
September 29, 201014 yr Anyone have a list of available lefties? I still have a man crush on Ted Lilly, fwiw. Lilly would be awesome but hes on $12m this year. In other words, too expensive for us even if his value dropped a few mill for whatever reason.
September 29, 201014 yr What's the obsession with left handers? Just find a guy who can frucking pitch.
September 30, 201014 yr Anyone have a list of available lefties? I still have a man crush on Ted Lilly, fwiw. Left-handed starters Erik Bedard (32) - $8MM mutual option Doug Davis (35) - $6.5MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout Jorge De La Rosa (30) Jeff Francis (29) - $7MM club option Cliff Lee (32) Ted Lilly (35) Jamie Moyer (48) Andy Pettite (39) Nate Robertson (33) Dontrelle Willis (29) Left-handed relievers Brian Fuentes (35) Joe Beimel (34) Bruce Chen (34) Randy Choate (35) Scott Downs (35) Pedro Feliciano (34) Mark Hendrickson (37) - $1.2MM club option with a $200K buyout Ron Mahay (40) Will Ohman (32) Darren Oliver (40) - $3.25MM club option with a $500K buyout, vests with 59 appearances Dennys Reyes (34) Arthur Rhodes (41) J.C. Romero (35) - $4.5MM club option with a $250K buyout Bobby Seay (33) Hisanori Takahashi (36) Matt Thornton (34) - $3MM club option with a $250K buyout http://www.mlbtrader...ree-agents.html
September 30, 201014 yr Does Beinfest realize HE has the power to go out and acquire lefties yet? And from that list, I see some people who would be nice to have and possibly within our budget if we give them a backloaded contract. Jorge De La Rosa is probably the person I would want most though as a SP (realistically). As for RPs, I wouldn't mind bringing Will Ohman back.
September 30, 201014 yr Theres a few solid guys on that list we could def go after. The problem is we wont go after them because our FO is cheap. Well end up with Nate Robertson again or something like that. Maybe we could sign Moyer so we dont have to face him. Bedard, Lilly and De La Rosa are all guys to consider but who am I kidding? We arent going after any of those guys. Well just throw a bunch of crap at the wall next season and hope everything breaks our way in the rotation (ie JJ can actually throw well at the end of the year, Anibal wont get hurt and will duplicate this years performance, Sanabia isnt Vargas, and Volstad can keep his ERA away from 5.) One GOOD starting lefty could make this team viable NEXT YEAR, but I dont see us making the move.
September 30, 201014 yr Guess we'll have to wait and see what the FO does before next year. I'd like to see this team looking play-off ready the year before the stadium opens...
September 30, 201014 yr Wow CyggyMarlin, just saw ur sig. Sorry to hear about your loss and I hope you are coping ok. I'm sure I speak for everyone on here.
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