I loved that article from Sky Kalkman. I often refer to it to get the values for draft picks and top prospects. Thank the research from Victor Wang for that.

Two players did accept arb last year, and one of them at the very least fit the mold of a Kiko Calero (Darren Oliver), but Calero holds the lesser risk of the two Marlins up for arb. Still, with the Marlins being able to get rid of players if they accept arbitration, I still don’t see why they wouldn’t offer (and indeed didn’t).

Thanks for the compliment. If I didn’t already have a plan in mind for my next year (trying to get into medical school), I definitely would have applied to the recent Baseball Operations internship the Marlins had available. I could have worked with the Gulf Coast Marlins Florida League affiliate, which would have been pretty cool.

This great piece at BTB certainly helps the argument that we should be trading Josh Johnson now, at the top of his market value. Prospects are worth more than compensatory picks in most cases.

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/7/20/950254/which-is-better-compensation

First off, congratulations for being the 400th comment on my blog! Not the greatest achievement, but I’m happy to see a number like that.

I think you’re absolutely right. The team in part has to be thinking about saving face with regards to the stadium and new expectations about payroll. But the Marlins holding on to Johnson without an extension does nothing about 2012, only 2010 and 2011. I don’t really know how it would help that the team is only committed to keeping its best pitcher for two more seasons. They should consider what’s best for the long-term, not any PR standpoint.

Agreed, and almost certainly the Fish would get those high ceiling arms. I doubt it would be from Tampa though, as in a year they’d be facing a similar situation. No, the team that would acquire would almost have to be a club that could lock him up long term, which means we’d be talking about the big-salary guns, unfortunately.

And on the issue of Cantu v. JJ, it’s all in the years. In one season, Cantu will make $5M and go away, and the Marlins will say that they tried to keep as many of their parts as they could. With JJ, it’s an issue of years for pitchers, which may be a relevant argument but really comes off poorly for them in the face of years of organizational skimping.

The fact that they now say that they won’t trade him period reflects a feeling that the Marlins could win, even though they’ll be giving away parts this offseason. It’s unlikely at best and deluded at worst.