Hes gonna have to earn the starting job over conine i read on espn so why not sign a left fielder or right fielder like jose guillen or reggie sanders keep conine at first and use choi off the bench unless he proves himself..i feel more secure with conine at first and proven hitters like sanders or guillen..

Choi is going to be a beast down the road. Just you watch.

to much hype for him in the past..i dont assume things unless they have proven themselves i myself beleive he will be a bust and lose his job to conine

I think it should be choi's job to lose at the beginning of the season. Maybe pick up a cheap veteran 1b in case Choi struggles. Maybe Eric Karros. Or sign a cheap LF, but I think it should be Choi's job at the beginning of the season.

Guillen might not thrive in a pitchers park, and Choi knows how to get on base. I think his bat will come around and he'll do very well for you.

I'd rather move Cabrera to LF, keep Encarnacion and put Conine at first, if we're putting Choi on the bench. Why take a chance on Guillen, he's supposedly a young Raul Mondesi, exactly what we don't need in this clubhouse...

to much hype for him in the past..i dont assume things unless they have proven themselves i myself beleive he will be a bust and lose his job to conine

Sounds like an ASSUMPTION to me. I thought you didn't do that?

to much hype for him in the past..i dont assume things unless they have proven themselves i myself beleive he will be a bust and lose his job to conine

Aren't you also assuming that D Lee will hit 40 or 50 HR in the Cubs uni?

 

Let's see the kid play in ST at least.

yea i know im giving him a chance in ST if he hasnt proven it by then i say put conine at 1st

I'd rather move Cabrera to LF, keep Encarnacion and put Conine at first, if we're putting Choi on the bench. Why take a chance on Guillen, he's supposedly a young Raul Mondesi, exactly what we don't need in this clubhouse...

 

Why in the name of God would you want to p*ss away away $6-7 million on Enc (which the team doesn't have in the first place) in an ugly arbitration battle? Choi the guy at first until its shown he's not.

Why in the name of God would you want to p*ss away away $6-7 million on Enc (which the team doesn't have in the first place) in an ugly arbitration battle? Choi the guy at first until its shown he's not.

I'd rather keep Encarnacion instead of bring in Sanders or Guillen. I'm all for giving Choi a chance, although I think we're going to end up using him as a trading chip at the winter meetings...

I think a young talented player like Choi will flourish in our system. Trader Jack is known to get out the best of his young players. This is the ideal place for him to be.

to much hype for him in the past..i dont assume things unless they have proven themselves i myself beleive he will be a bust and lose his job to conine

Aren't you also assuming that D Lee will hit 40 or 50 HR in the Cubs uni?

 

Let's see the kid play in ST at least. lol st is overated... in 98 ryan jackson hit like 400 in st and won teh job over lee...

 

 

i say start choi like they did to holly last yr.. he needs PT in order to get good and with the young guys u gotta go through theyre ups and downs for them to learn. so even if he struggles u gotta keep him in.. if not he wont pan out

Why in the name of God would you want to p*ss away away $6-7 million on Enc (which the team doesn't have in the first place) in an ugly arbitration battle? Choi the guy at first until its shown he's not.

I'd rather keep Encarnacion instead of bring in Sanders or Guillen. I'm all for giving Choi a chance, although I think we're going to end up using him as a trading chip at the winter meetings... Sanders or Guillen give you as much production for half the price. I'd want to keep Enc too if he wasn't arbitration eligible.

Why in the name of God would you want to p*ss away away $6-7 million on Enc (which the team doesn't have in the first place) in an ugly arbitration battle? Choi the guy at first until its shown he's not.

I'd rather keep Encarnacion instead of bring in Sanders or Guillen. I'm all for giving Choi a chance, although I think we're going to end up using him as a trading chip at the winter meetings... Sanders or Guillen give you as much production for half the price. I'd want to keep Enc too if he wasn't arbitration eligible. Bigg Hugg has got it right. You have to let Enc go because he will win his arbitration case, and you will be out 5-6M. Why do that when you can non-tender him and get him back at half the price? Guillen had a statistically superior year and is only expecting to get $3M more or less. I would sign him before Enc at this point, but if you let Enc be non-tendered and can get him back at about Guillen's price - or even a little less - that is great. But if you lose him, well, you saved money.

 

This all becomes a safe move BECAUSE Lee was dealt for Choi. Now we have a 1B which allows Conine to play LF. Should Choi struggle, then we go and get a vet like Sanders to be a stop gap measure. But Pubes has it right - you play Choi and allow him to work it out on the field. This guy was one of the best hitting prospects in all of baseball - an untouchable at one point. He has 252 career ABs - hardly a bust by any means. The Marlins like this guy and think he is going to be BETTER offensively than Lee was. He is a better hitter, uses the whole field. Ironically, he has a tendency to chase high and in, and is similar in size to Lee - so big strike zone to play with. He has to learn to be more patient, and I think playing with Cabrera, Lowell, Conine and working with Bill Robinson (who helped cut our strikeout totals down in Enc and Lee last season) will be a huge lift for Choi. Patience, and he does need more than just ST to prove himself. He IS our starter.

How's Choi's english?

 

I worry about communication / comprehension.

This all comes from the person who flat out quit on this team in the playoffs.

Why in the name of God would you want to p*ss away away $6-7 million on Enc (which the team doesn't have in the first place) in an ugly arbitration battle? Choi the guy at first until its shown he's not.

I'd rather keep Encarnacion instead of bring in Sanders or Guillen. I'm all for giving Choi a chance, although I think we're going to end up using him as a trading chip at the winter meetings...

I'm not trying to be difficult here but you simply can't keep Enc at anywhere in the $5-6-7 million range. There's no room in a $60 million payroll to keep the guy. By dumping Enc and DLee (and I don't care what anyone says, the Cubs signing Lee long term is not a lock, they probably have only a 50-50 chance of doing so) the Marlins are getting their financial house in order.

 

The Fish have to non-tender Enc or dispose of him in some way so they can move ahead. There isn't even room for Enc to be signed for $2-3 million, the team just doesn't have the money to do that.

 

As for using Choi as tradebait, only time will tell, but in order to stay within the $60 million cap, you'd have to trade him for an outfielder in the same payroll range, $400,000 roughly, and who do you think you'll get for that?

I understand the whole thing about having to non-tender Encarnacion, I'm just expressing my belief that he's going to be a great player some where, and replacing him with Miggy is a big step down defensively. Right field is a hard position to play, and Miggy's arm isn't as strong as Juan's. His plate production was a little above average but nothing special, so I understand the rational of his likely departure.

As for using Choi as tradebait, only time will tell, but in order to stay within the $60 million cap, you'd have to trade him for an outfielder in the same payroll range, $400,000 roughly, and who do you think you'll get for that?

Well, let's just assume Pudge stays, which right now looks about 60-40 it's going to happen. In this situation we'd be set as far as payroll goes, and position players, and we'd have to move Redman and Redmond for certain. However, let's say Pudge walks, that leaves us some money we previously had budgeted and we still have players we were planning on trading, and we have a glaring need for a catcher because of the mess with Castro, and I don't think Beinfest would be willing to just hope for the best there and maybe be stuck with Castro missing significant time when his trial comes up in June. With all that in mind, a thought that comes to my mind is a package of Choi/Redman (or some other pitcher) to the Pirates for Kendall (with the Pirates paying a significant chunk of his salary). We get an athletic catcher locked up at not too great a cost, and we'd still be under salary, and most importantly to me Conine could play first, which allows him to stay healthier because there's less running involved at first. :mischief2

I understand the whole thing about having to non-tender Encarnacion, I'm just expressing my belief that he's going to be a great player some where, and replacing him with Miggy is a big step down defensively. Right field is a hard position to play, and Miggy's arm isn't as strong as Juan's. His plate production was a little above average but nothing special, so I understand the rational of his likely departure.

I disagree with you on Miggy being a big step down defensively and not having the arm. Miggy is more than adequate and will get better

We cant come to conclusions right now

 

First we need to see how Choi Does at First base in Spring training. If he does bad then we can make adjusments. I would love to get Reggie Sanders at LF and Conine at 1st though.

I think in the time Encarnacion will become like Sanders...a late bloomer...enc is just too talented - they guy with a little more seasoning will hit at least 30 HR's a season.

I disagree with you on Miggy being a big step down defensively and not having the arm. Miggy is more than adequate and will get better

Miggy is a wonderful athlete, don't get me wrong, but Encarnacion did not make a single error this whole year, and I watched Miggy take bad routes to fly balls especially in the World Series. Miggy's my favorite player on the team so I'm not going to attack him, but how much can we expect of him, he was drafted as a short-stop, moved to third, and then he played outfield in the minors for 2 weeks until he was called up. It's a lot to ask of him to play defense at the caliber of an error free campaign, and Encarnacion has a better arm, no question. But RF is Miggy's position now, and he can't possibly be worse defensively than the guy we had there before Juan: Kevin Millar

As for using Choi as tradebait, only time will tell, but in order to stay within the $60 million cap, you'd have to trade him for an outfielder in the same payroll range, $400,000 roughly, and who do you think you'll get for that?

Well, let's just assume Pudge stays, which right now looks about 60-40 it's going to happen. In this situation we'd be set as far as payroll goes, and position players, and we'd have to move Redman and Redmond for certain. However, let's say Pudge walks, that leaves us some money we previously had budgeted and we still have players we were planning on trading, and we have a glaring need for a catcher because of the mess with Castro, and I don't think Beinfest would be willing to just hope for the best there and maybe be stuck with Castro missing significant time when his trial comes up in June. With all that in mind, a thought that comes to my mind is a package of Choi/Redman (or some other pitcher) to the Pirates for Kendall (with the Pirates paying a significant chunk of his salary). We get an athletic catcher locked up at not too great a cost, and we'd still be under salary, and most importantly to me Conine could play first, which allows him to stay healthier because there's less running involved at first. :mischief2 On packaging Choi with Redman...

"...or some other pitcher"? Who did you have in mind Burnett? Penny? Pavano? Willis? Beckett? Nate Bump sure isn't going to cut it. Think before you post this stuff.

 

You of course realize that Jason Kendall made $8.50 million last year and will be (in 2004) in the third year of a six year $60 million contract. That probably means he'll get $10-12 million this year for a guy with 6, count'em six homeruns and a whopping 58 rbis. Ugh.

 

The Pirates are broke, they aren't going to pick up penny one of his contract, and even if they did pick up say $2-3 million a year for four years you could sign Pudge or Javy Lopez (who the Marlins will make a big push for if Pudge leaves) for what it would still cost the Marlins to pay Kendall in a heartbeat.

 

The last thing this team needs is Jason Kendall.

 

You can't go into 2004 counting on Castro. He's not exactly setting the world on fire in PR, he's never going to be more than a .240-.250 hitter in the bigs.

 

The Fish gave up (oh Sham you're going to love this coming from me) run production when they traded Lee hoping that a full seaon of Cabs and Choi can at least partially offset the loss. If Pudge doesn't re-sign the FO is going to be looking at run production first (Javy) and banjo-hitting $10-12 million guys last.

 

I cannot imagine a scenario in which Jason Kendall wouldn't bust the Marlins budget wide open.