Archive for December, 2010

At the end of the 2010 season, I released my thoughts on what the Marlins should do this offseason to improve the team. The list seemed very conservative, which is pretty typical given what the Fish usually do during the offseason. However, this year the Marlins have been quite active in the free agent and trade markets, dealing Dan Uggla and signing John Buck and Javier Vazquez to deals. Given that much of what was listed in the previous checklist has already been completed (and then some), the team has few holes to fill heading into the annual Winter Meetings. [...]

Late to the show, and I apologize to all parties involved, but it is important that I make mention of this with the holiday season coming up. Site5, our blog network’s hosting site, has teamed up with FanSided to get a holiday drive going this holiday season! We’ll be taking donations for the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is an excellent cause for a variety of great reasons. If you would like to make a donation, please do so here. Again, proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Club of America. This is a great way to get [...]

Over the weekend, San Diego Padres fans had to witness the inevitable in the trading of superstar first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox for a trio of prospects and a player to be named later. Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk wondered whether this trade will work out well for the Padres and said this line in particular that caught my eye: Obviously, in structure, this is the McGriff trade, inasmuch as the Padres are giving up the superstar. And, as most people who follow such things will tell you, if you’re giving up the best player in [...]

Even though many fans of the Florida Marlins have made it known that Chris Coghlan should not be the first choice for center field for the Fish, it seems VP of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest disagrees. “We like Chris Coghlan. We like him in this lineup,” Beinfest said. “The way he adapted to left field — he developed into a pretty good left fielder in a short period of time. We feel he can do that in center field. As long as the knee is healthy, and there is no reason to believe it is not going to be, he [...]

Yesterday evening was the deadline for teams to state their intent to tender an arbitration offer for players who are arbitration-eligible and still under team control. The Marlins themselves chose to non-tender two players from the 2010 team, reliever Jose Veras and catcher Ronny Paulino. Neither name was surprising for the Fish to let go, as their roles were more or less replaced by the latest offseason acquisitions. No, in terms of the Marlins, the non-tender deadline was not important with regards to whom they let go. Rather, the importance to the Fish lies in the new names that found [...]

Earlier this week, Twitter follower floridamarlis1 asked if there were any intriguing names out there in the market for center fielders. In response, the name I came up with after scrounging through the bargain bins for potential buy-low candidates was just this one: Scott Hairston of the San Diego Padres. This was not met with great fervor. Well, upon the news that Hairston, along with Tony Gwynn, Jr, would be among the outfielders that San Diego will non-tender this offseason, I started digging deeper into what Hairston could provide. Now that the Marlins would not have to trade anything to [...]

Recently FanGraphs authors BRyan Smith and Marc Hulet released their prospect and farm system rankings for the Florida Marlins minor league system. Though I am not at my strongest commenting on prospects, I would like to discuss a few things that were written in these pieces regarding our system and how those tidbits can affect the major league organization in the future. What follows will be quotes from the articles B. Smith and Hulet, followed by my thoughts. And, while they are no longer prospects, the Marlins have a foundation of youthful stars. After developing the 2009 Rookie of the [...]

This is something that needs to spread, so I am charging Marlin Maniac readers to carry the torch. From Baseball Prospectus’ Ken Funck, on his Marlins “GM for a Day” article (emphasis was my own): The loud arrivals of Patience (Logan Morrison) and Power (Mike Stanton) in the outfield corners last year were watershed events. Stanton spent the season growing into a fire-breathing monster, posting a .271/.346/.538 second-half line, and his on-base percentage is certain to rise in his age-21 season as National League pitchers learn to fear his power. Morrison was an on-base machine in half a season, and [...]