Fish Bites: All-Star Edition

Here are some Fish-links just hours before the Midsummer Classic. I won’t be watching, at least not for long, but I would like to see Hanley and JJ get their due.

– Ted Berg of SNY.tv had a hilarious piece on the bro-tastic Marlins. I’d hate to think my favorite squad is the group of “bros” that Berg so eloquently fit into every fifth word (it was very well done), but c’est la vie, I’m a nerd myself and I love ’em.

– Cameron Smith of the Washington Post’s Baseball Insider writes that Miami-Dade better get it’s money’s worth out of the Marlins new stadium. The staggering total: $2.4 billion dollars by the time the bonds are paid off some 40 years later. And it’s not just the Post that demands the Marlins draw some fans. The Herald can’t believe the price and doesn’t like the outlook for the taxpayers. I can’t say I disagree. As badly as I wanted a stadium for the Marlins, something to make the excuse for them to stay, I could not have condoned such a deal.

– More of the sabermetric backlash at the two worst trades on the planet. Devil_fingers gave Dayton Moore his just due here and here for acquiring Yuniesky Betancourt. Moore continued to elicit the saber-hammer by saying this little nugget on a Kansas City radio station regarding defensive metrics:

"“The defensive statistics – I still really don’t understand how some of those statistics are evaluated, I really don’t. When you watch baseball games every single day, its very apparent who can play defensively and who can’t.”"

Appropriate response from R.J. Anderson here. The Royals Review readers did not like it either. Surprisingly, FanSided’s own Wally Fish had a more level-headed view over at Kings of Kauffman. I’m on the “vehemently caustic” side arguing against the deal, but then again maybe I haven’t seen Tony Pena Jr. play shortstop. I can guarantee you Yuniesky Betancourt isn’t much better.