Next year? Fernandez, Eovaldi, Alvarez, Heaney, whoever (and whoever will be pretty good)? With Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna? Maybe resign McGehee while waiting for Moran, Dietrich will be back up, Jones at 1B, maybe Hech improves a little? That's a pretty good team.

 

Here's the beauty of the part that I bolded, underlined, and resized. Casey McGehee is not a free agent in 2015. He is third year arbitration eligible. We technically don't have to re-sign him, just negotiate a fair contract.

The biggest non-surprise? Furcal. Notice how nobody even mentions him? He wins the non-surprise prize. 3.5 mill wasted, or at least 1.75 at this point.

 

Furcal will be playing 2B and leading off withing 7-10 days, me thinks.

We technically don't have to re-sign him, just negotiate a fair contract.

 

Hmm. According to Cot's he was "signed by Miami as a free agent 12/18/13." 1.1 mill. How, exactly, he became a FA is a bit of a mystery since he's been around MLB since very late 2008 and spent 2013 in Japan. He was an arb guy in 2012. '09-'10-'11 minimum MLB salary, '12-'13-'14 normally arb years. Signed with MIL in '12, avoiding arb, but then he took off for Japan in '13. So, '14 should have been an arb year, but for some unknown reason he was a FA. Did not signing with any MLB team in '13 blow up his arb status and turn him into a FA?

 

If he has a 3rd year of arb available (the 6th year of 6 years (1st 5 being '09-'10-'11-'12-'14) of MLB service,) that would definitely be '15. But, he apparently wasn't an arb guy in '14, his upcoming 5th year of MLB service. How does a guy with 4 years of service before signing as a FA in '14 become not-a-FA with 5 years of service for '15?

 

Or, put another way, if he wasn't an arb guy for '14, how does he become an arb guy for '15? Maybe by playing a 5th year of MLB?

 

'Tis a puzzlement.

 

Anyway, if he is an arb guy for '15, I'm sure that they'll be happy to work something out with him.

 

Trivia -- PIT traded McGehee to the NYY straight-up for Chad Qualls in '12.

Well, if a team DFA's you and you are granted outright release, you become a FA. But I guess once you're signed somewhere and playing in MLB, you resume your same service time and arbitration status as if the gap never happened. That's my assumption and understanding of it.

"as if the gap never happened."

 

Makes sense.

"as if the gap never happened."

 

Makes sense.

Well, during that gap in time, he can't be accumulating service time while he's not in MLB...

The best surprise is taking marmol and Rodriguez out when we did. If had kept them, we would be battling the mets for fourth guarantee you.

Here's another surprise -- or mystery, such as they are.

 

Carl Pavano was hired on 4/15/14 by Fox Sports for Marlins games. I saw him once or twice on the pre/post-game shows, once with Tommy and Rich during a game.

 

He's since disappeared. Poof! Whatever happened to Carl?

And another strange surprise -- after 65 games Tampa has the worst record in all of MLB. They're on pace to lose 2 more games than the Marlins lost last year. Go figure.

And one more -- Rich and/or Tommy are surprised when a catcher (ours or theirs, doesn't matter) tries to "frame" a pitch to get a strike called and, lo and behold, it doesn't work.

 

IT NEVER WORKS.

 

Are these guys ever going to learn? Umps call pitches at the front edge of the plate -- as Rich never tires of telling everyone -- they don't give a crap when the catcher tries to fake them out by moving his glove an inch or two. It happened right in front of them, they're not fooled.

 

Why do they bother yakking about total BS, that is, "framing"? Do they really think umps are that stupid? Granted, some of them aren't very good, but they're not stupid.

 

Just. Stop. It.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/48360/polancos-call-up-and-great-young-outfields

 

Schoenfield mentiones the Pirates and Marlins "a toss up" for the two best young outfields in baseball...

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/48360/polancos-call-up-and-great-young-outfields

 

Schoenfield mentiones the Pirates and Marlins "a toss up" for the two best young outfields in baseball...

 

And once Furcal joins the team, we'll be in the running for the worst old infield in baseball!

And once Furcal joins the team, we'll be in the running for the worst old infield in baseball!

That's not really fair. The only player not doing very well is Hech.

And one more -- Rich and/or Tommy are surprised when a catcher (ours or theirs, doesn't matter) tries to "frame" a pitch to get a strike called and, lo and behold, it doesn't work.

 

IT NEVER WORKS.

 

Are these guys ever going to learn? Umps call pitches at the front edge of the plate -- as Rich never tires of telling everyone -- they don't give a crap when the catcher tries to fake them out by moving his glove an inch or two. It happened right in front of them, they're not fooled.

 

Why do they bother yakking about total BS, that is, "framing"? Do they really think umps are that stupid? Granted, some of them aren't very good, but they're not stupid.

 

Just. Stop. It.

 

Agreed. Framing a pitch fools the viewer from the pitcher's perspective (from where we see it).

 

From the ump's perspective they're not even looking at that. There's no way it makes a difference.

Agreed. Framing a pitch fools the viewer from the pitcher's perspective (from where we see it).

 

From the ump's perspective they're not even looking at that. There's no way it makes a difference.

Catchers are trying to sway public opinion

Catcher: (After moving glove toward plate after catch) Did you see that, Mr. Ump?

 

Ump: Yeah, I saw it. That was out. Front of the plate.

 

Catcher: I know, I've never fooled anyone except this one guy who was drunk in Little League, but I bet I made every commentator blabber on about framing for at least 15 seconds. They love it, it's good filler after a ball.

 

Ump: You're trying to sway public opinion against the competency of umps. We have enough problems without that sh!t, so knock it off.

Biggest surprise so far...*