1. McGehee really cannot sustain this. He is walking at a rate much higher than his career norm and he has a ridiculously high BABIP.

2. No one said Saltalamacchia doesnt have power, he just doesnt have the kind of power you think he does. He benefited from playing at Fenway for three years. He still doesnt work counts or get on base so at the end of the day he is still a poor hitter.

3. No one ever said Alvarez isnt good, so much as debating where he best fit into the rotation.

 

My gosh you cannot possibly be this dumb.

 

Again, I agree McGehee cannot sustain this. But he is clearly a different player today than he has been most of his career. Completely changed.

 

Now Salty doesn't get on base? Are you blind? His OBP is almost .100 points higher than his BA at .329 and while he does K quiite a bit, he walks plenty. It's one of his best assets as a hitter, actually.

 

PLENTY of people have stated the past two years that Henderson Alvarez is not very good. PLENTY.

First let me point out that McGehee can't sustain what he's currently doing. BUT lets point out that his line drive rates are still pretty damn strong, meaning he's getting damn good contact of the ball and isn't getting all that many "fluke" hits. While his average and clutch hitting stats are likely unsustainable for an entire season, he'll sacrifice some of that and gain some power along the way. He's not a one home run guy, given his 29 homers in Japan and his career prior. He's likely a 10 to 15 home run a season guy now, so some of that contact ability should eventually die out to make way for some doubles (which he has plenty of already) and homers.

 

Saltalamacchia is having a damn good year. He's not a superstar, and he's playing up to the contract we've given him. He provides the power we didn't have with Mathis/Brantly that we were trotting out last season, and while we downgraded defensively from Mathis to Salty we did gain an actual threat in the everyday lineup. People want to trash Salty and say that we have to ignore the great April he had, but at the same time can't we just say his bad month of June is just as fluky as his great month of April? Long term he's somewhere in the middle of those two numbers. If Salty ends the season with a .750 OPS like he's currently doing, its a huge huge huge huge win. I wish he'd improve defensively, but on the offensive side of the ball he's giving us exactly what I expected and what I hoped.

 

As for Alvarez, Wild Card has a point in that I specifically remember some people arguing ME in particular about Alvarez not being a long term option for this team. Many of the board wanted to trade him when there was discussion of trading some of our starting pitching depth to gain some offense. The consensus on the board back in April was Eovaldi was the long term 2 and Alvarez was the long term trade bait. I made the point of saying Alvarez's outstanding control and ground ball ability made him a great number 3 and potential 2 in the way that Anibal was for us not to long ago if everything went right for him. I didn't expect his stuff getting THIS good and nobody really anticipated Alvarez being low 2 ERA good, but I was one of the few on the board who truly believed in Alvarez. I'm always willing to admit to the mistakes I've made when trying to project players on this board, but there are others on this board who will play revisionist and try to change the fact that they didn't believe Alvarez was a long term player for this team. WC might say dumb things sometimes (sorry WC), but with regard to Alvarez it really took until Fernandez went down for people to really start buying into him.

 

Besides the whole I say dumb things sentence, fantastic post. Couldn't agree more.

PLENTY of people have stated the past two years that Henderson Alvarez is not very good. PLENTY.

 

Well, no one thought he'd be this good -- not even you. Not everyone thought he sucked though.

Well, no one thought he'd be this good -- not even you. Not everyone thought he sucked though.

 

I agree with that, and I also agree not everyone thought he was trash. Just, you know, the majority.

Well, no one thought he'd be this good -- not even you. Not everyone thought he sucked though.

 

I was probably one of the ones who wanted to use him as trade bait to upgrade the infield, but I never imagined he would be pitching this well. Only problem is that HA is arbitration eligible next year and that worries me about how the front office will handle him.

Again, I agree McGehee cannot sustain this. But he is clearly a different player today than he has been most of his career. Completely changed.

 

Now Salty doesn't get on base? Are you blind? His OBP is almost .100 points higher than his BA at .329 and while he does K quiite a bit, he walks plenty. It's one of his best assets as a hitter, actually.

 

PLENTY of people have stated the past two years that Henderson Alvarez is not very good. PLENTY.

 

Saltalamacchia has rarely finished a year with an OBP above.300. It was under .300 two of his three years at Boston. It has been going down steadily after his hot start(and a .329 OBP is pretty terrible in and of itself).

So glad YELICH is back at the top of the order scoring runs.

It is nice to have Yelich back.

I have to admit Alvarez has surprised me. From what I can see, he does give up his share of hits, but not a whole lot of extra base hits, which is a key difference.

Welcome! If you have a love for the Marlins, are willing to keep an open mind and contribute whatever you can to the board, then you should fit right in here.

 

Just a note of warning, new posters take abuse early on when they back up their thoughts without facts, stats, etc... When I first joined in '08 I was attacked for baseless opinions as much as everybody who joins now and it helped me change the way I post and become a more knowledgeable fan. The posters you see on the board today are the ones who can take the back and forth that comes with being a part of this board and roll with it. Some guys on here will resort to name calling and all that s***, but you just gotta say f*** it. There's a lot of good info that comes from this board that you aren't going to find anywhere else on the web. Hope you stick around and most importantly have some fun! This team and this forum is a hell of a lot more fun than last year.

 

Thanks! I definitely plan to stick around and already see what you mean haha. I'll make sure to have info to back up any of my statements.

Over/under 100 RBI for McGeehee?

I have to admit Alvarez has surprised me. From what I can see, he does give up his share of hits, but not a whole lot of extra base hits, which is a key difference.

 

Gotta love those ground ball pitchers. Not exactly unhittable stuff but always limiting the damage by not allowing XBH's. Also nice to note that guys who pitch like Alvarez tend to have nice, consistently good careers. Don't deal with too many injury issues because they don't put too much stress on their pitches and like we've seen with Alvarez already they keep the pitch count relatively low.

Saltalamacchia has rarely finished a year with an OBP above.300. It was under .300 two of his three years at Boston. It has been going down steadily after his hot start(and a .329 OBP is pretty terrible in and of itself).

 

His walk totals have also increased from 2012, to 2013, and soon to be 2014. Back to my theory that players can improve, especially as they enter their prime.

Over/under 100 RBI for McGeehee?

 

I'll say 88.

His walk totals have also increased from 2012, to 2013, and soon to be 2014. Back to my theory that players can improve, especially as they enter their prime.

 

But you can't ignore his power #s (slg and iso) are the lowest they've been since the Rangers.

 

Obiovusly, Salty has been a huge upgrade over last year and he's performing about how I expected if not slightly better than I expected, but the way you talk about him you'd think he's the second coming of Pudge which is what causes the godzilla to come out.

But his power #s (slg and iso) are the lowest they've been since the Rangers.

 

And you are correct. Honestly, the other night I was on my phone and did not look at the numbers. Didn't realize how few doubles he had this year, which has really kept the slugging down. I do think that will rebound before the end of the year, though.

And you are correct. Honestly, the other night I was on my phone and did not look at the numbers. Didn't realize how few doubles he had this year, which has really kept the slugging down. I do think that will rebound before the end of the year, though.

 

As long as Salty finishes the year as a 2 WAR or higher player I'll be thrilled.

As long as Salty finishes the year as a 2 WAR or higher player I'll be thrilled.

 

Unfortunately his defense this season could keep that from happening. He's capable, certainly, but he would probably have to step it up again offensively for that to happen.

 

The one big positive I see is that he's performed very well offensively since Red dropped him down to the 7 spot. Hopefully that continues, because his bat is a big pick-me-up at the bottom of the order.

His walk totals have also increased from 2012, to 2013, and soon to be 2014. Back to my theory that players can improve, especially as they enter their prime

 

His walk rate in 2012 and 2013 was essentially identical, he just got more plate appearances. His walk rate this year is kind of a mirage and goes back to his hot month of April, where he was drawing a BB every 6 PAs. Since then his BB rate has normalized to his career norms.

His walk rate in 2012 and 2013 was essentially identical, he just got more plate appearances. His walk rate this year is kind of a mirage and goes back to his hot month of April, where he was drawing a BB every 6 PAs. Since then his BB rate has normalized to his career norms.

 

If only April didn't happen... your slogan for every Salty argument, eh???

April did happen, but you continue to be a moron who doesnt understand sample sizes and/or hot streaks.

 

I was actually being generous giving him the entire month of April. 12 of his 29 BBs this year came in the first 18 games. So really his BB rate went back to normal on around 4/20 and he was back to his regular old self.

April did happen, but you continue to be a moron who doesnt understand sample sizes and/or hot streaks.

 

It could be argued that you're just as much of a moron who doesn't understand slumps, because he sure as hell isn't a >.600 OPS player. Chances are Salty is more or less the player in the middle, just about what his numbers are right this minute.

It could be argued that you're just as much of a moron who doesn't understand slumps, because he sure as hell isn't a >.600 OPS player. Chances are Salty is more or less the player in the middle, just about what his numbers are right this minute

 

You did the >.600 OPS wrong. No one ever said he was a

 

You did the >.600 OPS wrong. No one ever said he was a

You made a point the other day of saying without his April his OPS is below .600. That would absolutely be considered a "slump" based on his career numbers. That would be the very definition of a slump based on his career.