MIAMI GARDENS — The Marlins made three moves to restructure their baseball operations staff Tuesday, less than two months after owner Jeffrey Loria complained about the minor league system.

Assistant General Manager Jim Fleming was re-assigned as Special Assistant to the President of Baseball Operations, while Scouting Director Stan Meek was promoted to Vice President of Scouting.

Marty Scott, whom Loria worked with 20 years ago in the Texas Rangers' organization, joins the Marlins as Vice President of Player Development.

Scott will oversee the minor league teams and staff while Meek will oversee scouting and the amateur draft. Fleming, whose duties included the draft, will work with baseball operations president Admin Beinfest on trades and personnel evaluations.

"Hopefully it'll be productive for us,' Beinfest said. "It has been a long time since we made a change around here. We wanted to see if we can do things even better than we have.'

But this season has been such a challenge that Loria in July publicly complained about a lack of major league-ready players at the minor league level, starting pitching in particular.

"We are realistic in kind of the way our system looks right now. I don't think it's necessarily as 'empty' as everybody portrays it,' Beinfest said.

"But we did have a hiccup in the system which we thought partly was natural because of the graduations of the Coghlans, the Sanchezes, the Morrisons, the Stantons. We talked about that from the upper levels. We need a constant flow. The one area we want to do a better job with the pitching.'

Scott spent the past three seasons as manager of the Lincoln Saltdogs of the Independent American Association, guiding the Saltdogs to the American Association championship in 2009.

He has worked 34 seasons in professional baseball, including 10 as the Director of Player Development for the Texas Rangers, from 1985-1994. Loria owned the Rangers' Class AAA Oklahoma City 89ers from 1989-93.

 

 

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/marlins/marlins-notebook-team-restructures-front-office-to-draft-1824256.html?cxtype=rss_sports_1300

I knew about the changes, but was too lazy to start a thread about them. I'm certain I'm not the only one.

I don't see how one can continuously move out starters and expect the minor leagues to be some kind of endless supply.

I don't see how one can continuously move out starters and expect the minor leagues to be some kind of endless supply.

 

Well when you draft so many pitching busts, this kind of thing happens.

I don't see how one can continuously move out starters and expect the minor leagues to be some kind of endless supply.

 

Well when you draft so many pitching busts, this kind of thing happens.

Were they really busts, or was the minor leagues not training them well enough?

 

I'm with Trader Jack on this. I think the minors need to get these guys more and better work. Get them so they can go longer in games. More innings. Not right off the bat, but work them into it. It's a process. It's a shame that pitchers get called up and think they only have to go 6 because the pen will come in after that. And it's not just the training/education of pitchers. Scott comes with quite an inpressive resume, so it looks good on paper.

 

I also like the idea of having a guy specifically here to monitor potentials and run the draft. It won't all be on his shoulders because it will still be a concerted effort by the entire FO, but at least there is now someone there whose sole job is that.

 

This was forseen. Loria complaining about the minor league system. Jack complaining about it. etc... The rumblings have been there for quite some time.

Hutton and Waltz were chiming in on this topic last night (Tuesday)

The problem is certainly not the hitters, but anyone who things we've done a great job with pitchers is kidding themselves. We really haven't graduated any pitchers since 2006 besides Volstad, and it's not for lack of effort or desire. In fact, with as much effort as we showed towards drafting quality starters, its downright depressing.

 

I know we've seen Hand & West up here, in addition to some others I'm sure, but these guys haven't been good enough to be up here pretty much for good, and it was simply a matter of need & not having anyone else.

While our record of developing not is admittedly disappointing, we are judging guys like Hand, West, and Sanabia, who are only in their early 20s; conversely, many teams do not graduate pitchers until they are 25+ years old.

While our record of developing not is admittedly disappointing, we are judging guys like Hand, West, and Sanabia, who are only in their early 20s; conversely, many teams do not graduate pitchers until they are 25+ years old.

 

 

I'm not judging Hand yet. He's a highly rated prospect who no one in their right mind would have thought would be pitching in the majors. If he ends up sucking, I can't help but think that once again the Marlins may have disrupted a prospect's development by bringing them up to the majors way too early.

 

It's about time West was written off though, and this team seems to not care about Sanabia, seeing as even though he pitched well last year he was never ever in consideration for a job this year.

He's been injured...and is a prospect. So you complain about rushing prospects, and then want sanabia to pitch injured as a prospect.

 

 

Where did I saw I wanted that? It's just pretty much an established fact that if this organization thinks a talented young pitcher is gonna be worthwhile, they pitch up here. With an organization that rushes prospects, you can pretty much infer what they think about a player that isn't really considered or mentioned for a spot on the team.

 

You also mention him being injured, which is another reason why the team and myself in this thread are hesitant to consider him a pitching prospect win. Like it or not, any time you have a smaller pitcher like Sanabia, they are going to be treated with a little more skepticism because teams believe you need to be big and strong to be a major league pitcher. Sanabia is tiny for a pitcher, and him having issues at his age is probably enough for many scouts to severely lower his value.

 

I'd love to see Sanabia experience success, but he's gonna have to earn his opportunities the hard way.

and this team seems to not care about Sanabia, seeing as even though he pitched well last year he was never ever in consideration for a job this year.

 

 

He was injured at the very end of last season and only threw 2.2 innings in Spring Training. I don't see how he could have been in consideration for a job this year.

lol Sanabia has been injured all year.

 

/facepalm

and this team seems to not care about Sanabia, seeing as even though he pitched well last year he was never ever in consideration for a job this year.

 

 

He was injured at the very end of last season and only threw 2.2 innings in Spring Training. I don't see how he could have been in consideration for a job this year.

 

We've always known what players the Marlins are basing their hopes on months before Spring Training because the Marlins propaganda machine starts hyping the likes of Matt Dominguez, Emilio Bonifacio, etc. If they don't publicly announce it, rotoworld and other sites are always reporting which guys are in the team's plans well before roster decisions are made.

 

That's how you can tell what players the organization cares about and which ones they don't. And if you think the organization has really thought of Sanabia being a piece of the future, please show me where the organization has clearly indicated he will be a likely candidate in a future rotation.

 

All of this has little to do with my opinion of Sanabia, like I said before team's don't take smaller pitchers seriously, especially after they've had arm problems. Tommy Lasorda wouldn't start Pedro Martinez, then he got traded to the Expos and become a HOF caliber pitcher, all because he was small.

I'm starting to think you are just a Cubs fan trolling here.

 

You try to spin every move Beinfest makes in a negative light and yet you proceed to defend Hendry's Soriano contract.

I'm starting to think you are just a Cubs fan trolling here.

 

You try to spin every move Beinfest makes in a negative light and yet you proceed to defend Hendry's Soriano contract.

 

 

I didn't try and defend the Soriano contract as much as I thought it was worse how poorly Hendry managed the team's roster and finances after that deal. None of it was good, but if I were truly a Cubs fan I'd probably latch onto Soriano fans because there is nothing Chicago loves more than scapegoats. I've explained before, but my father is from Illinois so as a toddler I pretended I was Ryne Sandberg, back before there were Marlins. But as a boy I pretended to be Jeff Conine and Gary Sheffield, and as an adult I pretend I am Tommy Hutton and Craig Minivervini. I'm 100 percent Marlin fan, and I'm not always as negative as people interpret my posts, guys on here just don't get my sarcastic sense of humor.

Not sure where the humor is in it.

 

Anyway, the Soriano signing was flat out a bad baseball decision. In fact, one of the worst in recent memory. Railing on Bartman as a scapegoat is petty, but a Cubs fan should have every right to be pissed off about that signing.

and this team seems to not care about Sanabia, seeing as even though he pitched well last year he was never ever in consideration for a job this year.

 

 

He was injured at the very end of last season and only threw 2.2 innings in Spring Training. I don't see how he could have been in consideration for a job this year.

 

We've always known what players the Marlins are basing their hopes on months before Spring Training because the Marlins propaganda machine starts hyping the likes of Matt Dominguez, Emilio Bonifacio, etc. If they don't publicly announce it, rotoworld and other sites are always reporting which guys are in the team's plans well before roster decisions are made.

 

That's how you can tell what players the organization cares about and which ones they don't. And if you think the organization has really thought of Sanabia being a piece of the future, please show me where the organization has clearly indicated he will be a likely candidate in a future rotation.

 

All of this has little to do with my opinion of Sanabia, like I said before team's don't take smaller pitchers seriously, especially after they've had arm problems. Tommy Lasorda wouldn't start Pedro Martinez, then he got traded to the Expos and become a HOF caliber pitcher, all because he was small.

 

So because there was no hype for him as a rotation candidate when he was hurt, the Marlins hate him.

 

I don't get the joke. I guess.

All of this has little to do with my opinion of Sanabia, like I said before team's don't take smaller pitchers seriously, especially after they've had arm problems. Tommy Lasorda wouldn't start Pedro Martinez, then he got traded to the Expos and become a HOF caliber pitcher, all because he was small.

 

 

So, you don't take smaller pitchers seriously. And Pedro was a smaller pitcher. Does this support your argument somehow, or is it that sarcastic humor thing?

#falsedichotomy

All of this has little to do with my opinion of Sanabia, like I said before team's don't take smaller pitchers seriously, especially after they've had arm problems. Tommy Lasorda wouldn't start Pedro Martinez, then he got traded to the Expos and become a HOF caliber pitcher, all because he was small.

 

 

So, you don't take smaller pitchers seriously. And Pedro was a smaller pitcher. Does this support your argument somehow, or is it that sarcastic humor thing?

#falsedichotomy

 

I'm talking a general baseball opinion. Not my personal opinion at all.

You also mention him being injured, which is another reason why the team and myself in this thread are hesitant to consider him a pitching prospect win. Like it or not, any time you have a smaller pitcher like Sanabia, they are going to be treated with a little more skepticism because teams believe you need to be big and strong to be a major league pitcher. Sanabia is tiny for a pitcher, and him having issues at his age is probably enough for many scouts to severely lower his value.

 

?

You also mention him being injured, which is another reason why the team and myself in this thread are hesitant to consider him a pitching prospect win. Like it or not, any time you have a smaller pitcher like Sanabia, they are going to be treated with a little more skepticism because teams believe you need to be big and strong to be a major league pitcher. Sanabia is tiny for a pitcher, and him having issues at his age is probably enough for many scouts to severely lower his value.

 

?

 

I said he wasn't a pitching prospect win yet, which meant I was just trying to say in short form that you could not consider him a success yet as a prospect. And what I mean by that is a success would be a guy who has made it to the majors pretty much to stay. If Sanabia breaks into the major league rotation for an extended period, he'd be a successful prospect (not necessarily an excellent major league player). Same even if he only became a reliever but stayed in the rotation.

 

Right now though, he is just a prospect (and I do consider him such), and one that comes with no assurances and perhaps a little bit more concern that he won't be able to maintain the rigors of pitching.