Fish Bites

Ah yes, the glorious return of Fish Bites! Link time!

– Joe Capozzi thinks the addition of Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia Phillies makes the Marlins’ life a lot harder. I mentioned yesterday that the difference between Hallday and Cliff Lee was maybe 0.14 wins over the course of five starts against the Marlins. Not much to get concerned about.

– I can’t believe I forgot to mention this. The Marlins completed a deal with Ronny Paulino, avoiding arbitration with a one-year, $1.1M deal. Great move by the Fish. I’ll be happy to see the Caveman and Baker behind the plate next season.

– Speaking of forgetting things, the Marlins apparently correctly forgot to deal with Ross Gload, as the pinch-hitting specialist from 2009 signed a two-year deal with the Phillies. The deal is actually going to pay Gload $1M this upcoming year and $1.6M the next year. I don’t think they’re going to be happy about that.

– Juan C. Rodriguez has some free-agent interest links. First off, he talks about the Marlins’ interest in Aroldis Chapman. I think the short end of that is a big “too much money, not interested.” Also, JCR wonders if Gload’s replacement as pinch-hitting extraordinaire will come from the non-tendered list.

– Speaking of non-tendered players, the Marlins have some interest in former Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Matt Capps. Capps is coming off his worst season in Pittsburgh, but he’s a guy who doesn’t walk many (career UIBB% of 2.8%!) and strikes out a decent amount (career K% 18.5%). The key problem with him is that he is similar to Leo Nunez with his fly ball tendencies. This year, they caught up to him, as Capps gave up 10 homers in 54 1/3 innings. This was abnormal, as he usually gives up far lower rates, but the fact that he is a fly ball pitcher is cause for concern.

– Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald discusses who will be Dan Uggla’s successor at second base. The article focuses entirely on (sigh) the potential of Emilio Bonifacio taking over at second and leaving Chris Coghlan in left field. I had numerous problems with the piece, because it clearly did not give due diligence to the Coghlan move, which every Marlins fan wants. Having looked at both players’ numbers at second from the minors, I see Bonifacio as a slight improvement over Coghlan, on the order of maybe two runs per 150 games. Significant, but not such a major difference.

The funniest part of this article was that Spencer quoted former Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden in the piece. Bowden is, well, not a very good GM. Here’s the money quote on Bonifacio:

"“If they trade Uggla and [Bonifacio] becomes the second baseman, his range advantage will be significant,” [Jim Bowden] said. “The question is, is he going to hit? Is he going to hit enough to be an everyday player? I think that if you give him 500 at-bats for two or three years, you’re going to get a guy who all of a sudden figures it out.”"

Bowden apparently likened Bonifacio to Michael Bourn of the Houston Astros. Of course, Bourn had a career tendency to take a walk, while Bonifacio has never shown such a tendency in the minors. But hey, they both have speed, so they must be comparable players, right? Thanks for the useless information, Bowden!

– Justin Inaz at Beyond the Box Score has the graphical look at this year’s Hall of Fame candidates.

– Speaking of BtB, I’ve got some articles up as well Check out my Reward Retrospective on the 2007 NL MVP. Also, I did a piece on a former Marlins friend of ours, one Juan Pierre, and his trade to the Chicago White Sox.

– Finally, for some of the FanSided MLB content. First off, Wally Fish of Kings of Kauffman gives an awesome rundown of the position players and pitchers who were non-tendered over the weekend. Undoubtedly, there are a couple of guys in there of interest to the Marlins. In fact, I’ve got a name for later today that I’ll discuss.

– Adam Garnett of Rising Apple thinks there’s something to the thought that the Jason Bay deal the New York Mets have offered is just to change the topic. Tricky, tricky Mets.

– Dustin Staggers of Rayhawk Review is very happy with the Tampa Bay Rays’ acquisition of a real closer in Rafael Soriano. Soriano’s a solid closer, close to a 2 WAR player, and the Rays could use any additional WAR possible, even at the market rate that Soriano is approximately earning.

– Tom over Rum Bunter has an article on, among other things, the potential impact the work of Neal Huntington may one day have. But it’s not for Pirates fans to read.

– Finally, our friend Fetch over at Twinkie Talk is extremely happy with Carl Pavano accepting arbitration. A great move for the Minnesota Twins, as this helps maintain a stable rotation. Pavano will be solid.