The Continual Blueballs of a Perpetual One Year Contract: 2010 Florida Marlins

on the same day that they were named the most efficient team of the decade by tom verducci, they signed "28-year-old" jorge cantu to a one year, 6 million dollar deal. he slugged .443 batting clean-up last year.

alternate title for this thread

Notable Free Agent Signings: None -- 2010 Florida Marlins

• Marlins executive vice president Larry Beinfest envisions a ``nice battle between Logan Morrison and Gaby Sanchez at first base.'' Morrison (.277, eight homers, 47 RBI in 79 games at Double A in 2009) ``looks like he's ready. He recognizes the breaking ball and he carries himself like a big-leaguer.'' Sanchez struggled last spring but hit .289, 16, 56 in 85 Triple A games before his promotion: ``He pressed last spring, but you don't hit .320 at Double A unless you're the real thing,'' Beinfest said. ``He can hit, no question.''

oh, but there's more!:
Later he went on to discuss their newest pitching prospect Niel "Noogums" Carter. He is their youngest prospect looking at big league time to date, at the age of 6. "I don't think we're rushing him", Beinfest said of the young fireballer. "You can't throw a major league tantrum the way this kid does without being able to throw a major league slider."

Hah quick someone hit the internet and provide me a titanic list of dudes who hit .320 in AA and flamed out something fierce.

T!MO Perez's lifetime minor league batting average: .322 (over 500 games, almost all in AAA).

nolasco has struck out 19 and walked 0 in spring training this year

nolasco otm

is he gonna be playing in durham y/n

n

olasco

oh wait n/m we farm to tampa not florida

yeah wasn't sure if you meant "as a visitor" but he'll be in the majors anyway. dude is real good.

.089 WHIP, .250 BAA, 2.50 ERA

the guy is my favorite pitcher in baseball

i'm hoping for a league leading FIP yet another +5.00 ERA just to fuck with saber dudes minds

ABC Nolasco

2010 NL Cy Young Winner, 6.12 ERA

Whatever happened to Anibal Sanchez? Did his arm explode?

he finished last season healthy and effective, but he's only pitched 167 innings in the last three years

he's gonna come into their season as their #3, and if he's healthy he can be really good -- pretty good command of his pitches and he has a few that are good

Between the no-hitter and last season, he tore his labrum and his infant son died from a mosquito bite.

nolasco finally walked someone today, in the 7th inning -- went 25 w/o a walk

"He came to me last week, and he said, 'Are you doing something for me?' I said, 'Yeah, what's your shirt size?' I put it in a box the size of a shirt. I said, 'You realize there is no shirt in here.' He was very surprised. I like doing nice things for good people, and we have a lot of good people around here."
—Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, on the necklace he gave Hanley Ramirez that reads "Congratulations - Jeffrey Loria." (Joe Frisaro, MLB.com)

Scumbag.

(Loria, obv.)

Congratulations Jeffrey Loria

loria is the worst

I want to see a picture of that necklace so bad.

btw, they're giving out REPLICAS of that thing to fans on opening day, as if the messianic thing wasn't overwhelming enough as it is

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/11/2010/03/500x_screen_shot_2010-03-28_at_5.38.14_pm.jpg

YESSSS

History, meet Cantu:

http://joefrisaro.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/04/cantu_flirting_with_history.html

lol highpockets

lolstat.

thank you for your one good start, nate robertson, now we know why the tigers decided to keep dontrelle over you

bronson arroyo, cantu is here to see you

you had a good run there, highpockets.

CANTU

HIGHPOCKETS MEET CANTU

too bad that record has no effect on the fantasy team whatsoever.

aside from the dinger, obv.

Hope I can hear the Waltz call later. He is a delight when he yells (even more so when he gets surly, obv).

game wasn't on local tv tonight >:(

i've had to listen to thom brenneman say "sahnchez" all night

andy, i'm glad you appreciate rich ^_^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwaSuYZ6svQ

Just came here to post that. holy shit.

THE NIGHTMARE FOR THOSE WHO DETEST THE FREAKISH ARBITRARY STREAKS THAT HELP MAKE BASEBALL FUN CONTINUES

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BVt4vG_l0ek/SwracuwC0GI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/q_aO5FG5RXA/s400/jorge-cantu-300x350.jpg

Can Too!

lol hanley just fouled a pitch off his nuts, was out of the box recovering for two mins, and then got drilled in the bicep by a 95 mph fastball on the following pitch

josh johnson had 12 Ks and 3 rbi tonight

Mike Stanton isn't making it easy on the Marlins.

Stanton, amid weeks of speculation surrounding a potential promotion from Double-A, hit a home run that reportedly traveled an estimated 500 feet on Thursday night, clearing the top of the scoreboard in Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium.

The 20-year-old Stanton, batting with a man on in the sixth inning, hit a 1-1 offering from Biscuits reliever Dane De La Rosa over the scoreboard in center, which sits over 400 feet away from home plate in Montgomery. The two-run shot put Jacksonville up, 8-3.

Stanton, MLB.com's No. 3 top prospect, leads all of professional baseball in home runs with 14, two more than Major League leader Paul Konerko. He has five longballs in his last eight games and is batting .343 this season as the Suns' No. 3 hitter.

MLB.com's Joe Frisaro reported May 2 that the Marlins feel "there is no urgency to promote the 20-year-old slugger right now," both for developmental and financial reasons related to his arbitration eligibility.

The right-handed-hitting Panorama, Calif. native is batting .450 against left-handers and .307 against righties this year. He hit 28 homers last season between Class A Advanced Jupiter and Jacksonville after clubbing 39 in 2008 for Class A Greensboro.

Biscuits

Major League leader Paul Konerko

dont worry Ty Wiggington is only 2 behind

had to check the NPB stat page to verify if that claim ("all of professional baseball") was true... Jose Ortiz has 12 for the Hanshin Tigers of Osaka.

Coghlan with the idiotic head-first slide into first.

lol

"scrappy"

Usain Bolt, take note.

It's a subject nobody in the Marlins' organization really wants to talk about. But maybe it's finally time they do. Does Hanley Ramirez have enough heart to play this game the way it should every day?

As most of us suspected, the Marlins' two-time All-Star shortstop and the National League's reigning batting champion didn't leave Monday's 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks in the second inning because he fouled a pitch off his left ankle in the first. No, he left according to manager Fredi Gonzalez for a lack of hustle.

"We felt whether he was hurt or not hurt, we felt like the effort wasn't there that we wanted," Gonzalez told reporters moments ago after having a closed door meeting with Marlins management including Jeffrey Loria.

"There are 24 guys out there that are busting their butts. Cody Ross got hit with a ball, 95 milers per hour. It wasn't thrown any slower. He stayed in the game making diving plays and battling, got two hits and an RBI. There's some injuries there [with Ramirez]. But we expect an effort from 25 guys on this team and when that doesn't happen we have to do something."

"You guys call him the marquee guy," Gonzalez said. "I got 25 guys that are all wearing the same uniform, wearing all the same Marlins insignia in the front and I think it's disappointing if anybody [doesn't hustle], not just one guy."

When asked if Ramirez could see future disciplinary action, Gonzalez said: "You need more embarrassment than being taken out of a major league game? We'll see [if he plays tomorrow]."

the play in question really was infuriating

Most importantly, how did Waltz handle it? (Saw the replay with the volume down.)

disbelief pretty much -- he was like "hanley kicks it... and he's JOGGING after the ball" -- tommy hutton ripped him prob as bad as you'd see a hometown announcer rip a home team player tho

jesus christ hanley is such a baby -- some selected quotes from this morning

Did you give less than 100 percent effort?
Ramirez: I don't know. It looked like it. The example starts with me. If you don't hustle, hopefully, he does it with everybody. That's OK. He doesn't understand that. He never played in the big leagues. That's OK. That's fine. That's an example and it starts with me and let's see how far it can go.

Did you think you could keep playing?
Ramirez: For him, I don't think so.

Did you want to stay in the game?
Ramirez: Yeah. I could've. But I think I would have been in a little bit of pain. It's his team. He do whatever the he [f---ing] wants. There's nothing I could do about it.

Are you angry?
Ramirez: It's brutal like I said. I'm just going to play the game and he's just going to have to leave me alone.

Did you lose respect for Gonzalez?
Ramirez: A little bit. We got 24 more guys out there, hopefully they can do the same things I do. That are wearing the Marlins uniform. There's nothing I can say.

Are you going to apologize to your team for dogging it?
Ramirez: For what? Do what? We have a lot of people dogging it after ground balls. They never pull guys.

Are you going to talk to Fredi today?
Ramirez: I don't think so and I won't. I don't know when I'm going to be back on the field.

Do you feel you're healthy enough to play?
Ramirez: No [mentally and physically].

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8077975&topic_id=8878534&c_id=fla

this is petulance on a terrell owens scale

i'm nutting on you, baby
ooooh
i'm nutting on you, baby

hahaha WRONG THREAD

daaaaamn, hanle y

that interview was apparently given first thing in the morning, so maybe he's talked to fredi & maybe he caved and apologized to the team, but i know he's not in the line up today, so who knows

Wherein Wes Helms compares Hanley unfavorably to John Rocker:

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/2010/05/18/hanley-ramirez-wont-apologize-to-florida-marlins-teammates-lost-little-bit-of-respect-for-manager/

Loria should ask for his stupid ass .342 chain back

yeah that's probably an issue in the first place

Morrissey Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 11:34 am

Who is Wes Helms?

i'm already pretty impressed that morrissey is following this whole thing, so being ignorant of wes helms isn't a huge strike against him

It seems like there is an undercurrent with the new-ish stars of entitlement. Especially since mlb has shifted towards treating prospects like solid gold. You come up being told your shit doesnt stink then you prove them right and act like a dickhead about stuff like this.

I will say Im not looking forward to all the ink that will be spilled lamenting the loss of gritty old school hustle and grinderism in today's game.

they should have an interleague game where wes helms fights mike sweeney.

The Yankees will take problem child han ram, thanx much.

The two Hall of Famers -- Perez was inducted in 2000, while Dawson will be inducted this summer -- told Ramirez he needs to set an example and earn his teammates' respect, according to the report.

Dawson said he did most of the talking, according to the report. He said he started the lesson this way, with Perez at his side: " 'I'm not going to say a lot, because if you say the wrong the thing to me, then you might wind up on the floor on your rear end.'

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5204020

Fun fact:

Andre Dawson's career OBP: .323
Wes Helms' career OBP: .323

i read that hanley apologized cuz big papi sent him a text

your All-Star mouthpiece-chomper Hanley Ramirez, failing to run out of the box on a possible game-tying infield hit

Andrew Miller's numbers for Jacksonville (AA): 17.1 IP, 19 H, 12 K, 19 BB, 6.75 ERA.

your All-Star mouthpiece-chomper Hanley Ramirez, failing to run out of the box on a possible game-tying infield hit

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Saturday, June 5, 2010 5:31 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah the marlins broadcast didn't show a good replay of this -- not sure it would've mattered tho

miller is a lost cause

stanton will be up on tuesday (marlins are off tomorrow)

he'll see kyle kendrick, halladay & moyer

Mike Stanton is having a pretty good night, too.

he's like adrian peterson out there

stanton finally homers, a grand slam off garza

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/article/2010-06-19/marlins-fans-get-loud-vuvuzela-horns

so they not only allowed them but the team gave them out as a promotion.. wow.
wasn't super loud on tv, tho i only checked in in the 10th/11th.

i was really sad to not have gone

they give out noisemakers every year... the vuvuzelas were interesting cuz obv these promotions are done before the year so i really wanna know whose idea it was -- wonder if they knew it was gonna be a "thing" -- i would imagine so

Gary Cohen just said on the Mets game that the horns were so loud the ump misunderstood a double-switch during the game. Fucking idiots.

yeah idk... really that's the umpire's fault

Don't wanna hear any noisemakers at the ballpark. Obnoxious human voices only!

:-)

josh johnson is hot on ubaldo's heels

Weird

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/South-Florida-Stunner-Fredi-Gonzalez-fired-by-M?

very weird -- i think it was imminent from the first game of the season... but stunning timing

Loria will now punish the team for performing so poorly by reducing payroll from $30M to $25M.

Beatings will continue until morale improves

i'm going to be a very bitter human being if fucking bobby valentine ends up managing this team

i'm sure i'm gonna jinx him now, but the recent starts by wainwright, ubaldo & halladay really puts into perspective how great josh johnson has been this year

Looks like fucking bobby valentine will end up managing this team.

oof, im genuinely sorry 4 u j0rdan

uh, he has a pretty good record of lifting bad teams to respectability.

dr. morbius OTM

i'm okay about it now

just a slimy situation is all

seeing bobby v on TV kind of ruined him for me

he's the smartest guy on BBTN! (sounds like faint praise, but cmon, he's good)

Ken_Rosenthal
Heyman's story confirmed: Bobby V no longer a candidate for #Marlins. Story on FOXSports.com shortly.

very weird, the whole thing

the new manager is garbage fwiw -- i was at the game last night, and we were down one when ronny paulino hit a single to make it first and second with two outs, and he pinch runs for ronny, and mike stanton doesn't get a hit. then predictably the back up catcher, brett hayes, who has a grand total of 6 at bats in the month of june, comes up in the ninth inning against heath bell with a runner on base and strikes out on three fastballs which he was about a second behind

SI_JonHeyman now that theyve turned away from bobby valentine, marlins are strongly considering the much lower profile bo porter

fyi this was our third base coach from last year, who we fired

bah. it's frustrating to root for this team at an organizational level, sympathies JS.

yeah, it's weird because the front office has usually made them so rootable, being able to be consistently over .500 with such a little payroll, but this whole thing has been absurd

make hanley manager

Now that they've re-signed Armando Benitez I think they're going all the way.

so they're keeping the interim on for the rest of the year

thats what happens when you pummel r.a. dickey like that

new guy made a retarded double switch

took out the starter nate robinson, took out gaby sanchez (batting .368 in june), who was the last out of the previous inning, put in wes helms (batting .205 in june), moved cantu to first (batting .213 in june), and put in tim wood to pitch, who he promptly pulled after facing one batter

VORP thru 17 starts:

Josh Johnson 44.7
Ubaldo Jimenez 42.9
Roy Halladay 39.3

and now (18-20 starts):

Johnson 53.0
Wainwright 50.5
Halladay 49.1
Jimenez 46.7

Has Hallady lost a couple of points after last night?

Ubaldo's pitching tonight. I have everything crossed that he's still got it.

too bad that he couldn't have faced johnson tonight

what are the components of pitcher VORP? is it defense-independent?

stanton has 3 hits tonight off ubaldo incl a 3 run hr

During the elation in the aftermath of the Marlins' 5-4 win over the Braves in 11 innings Sunday afternoon at Sun Life Stadium, Chris Coghlan was injured while attempting to smash a shaving-cream pie in the face of Wes Helms, who delivered the walk-off single.

After the Marlins edged the Giants, 4-3, on Monday night at AT&T Park, the club announced Coghlan was going on the disabled list with a torn meniscus to his left knee.

If surgery is required, the team's starting left fielder and leadoff batter will be out six to eight weeks.

Is it ok if I laugh at that

josh johnson vs cain tonight

Wes Helms looks like a Tackleberry-type cop who plays in ultra-competitive softball leagues and happens to be in full uniform for fantasy camp (bought by his long-suffering wife and kids as a father's day gift). He would not hesitate to take out Rob Natal on a play at the plate for the sake of impressing his hero, Jeff Conine.

uggla breaks all time franchise record for homers

Some dude in the stands yelled "YOU'RE NOT IN KANSAS CITY ANYMORE!!!" and it could have applied to Nunez (who was pitching), Gload (who had just singled), or Ibanez (who was coming up to the plate).

Also, Tim Tschida is wearing ruby slippers.

Speaking of Rich Waltz yelling...

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?categoryId=2459789&id=5441752

After watching replays, Davidson insisted he made the correct call.

"I was right on top of it, and it was wide of the bag," he said. "What the ball did when it went past me is irrelevant. ... I understand that's the winning run, but in my opinion it was foul."

IIRC (I was half-awake) they used instant replay on a clearly foul HR ball the next half-inning.

yeah they did

the other one was fair obv

What is the rule there?

It looked like it bounced foul twice before it got to the bag but it's hard to tell with that player.

i didn't realize that mike stanton is only 20 years old, holy shit

seems like despite all the heyward-hype there's a chance stanton turns out as the better player? i'm sure this will be argued endlessly for the next few years but it's still interesting to think about

plus dominic brown

if stanton can actually keep his average around .275/.280 career, it's possible that he will end up as a better player than heyward

funny thing about it is, in the SI article about heyward, verducci reported that the only team that the braves were concerned about drafting heyward before them were the marlins, but the marlins passed on heyward to take matt dominguez because they knew they could get stanton in the second round

i haven't actually gotten to see domonic brown hit yet

i might have to finally shell out for mlb.tv next year to watch all these promising dudes

don't forget about ike davis!

http://i15.tinypic.com/6hgilwy.jpg

does stanton actually have big holes in his swing like mark reynolds or is he just taking a lot of rookie hacks at bad pitches?

he has a good eye from what i can tell, i think he's just taking his rookie lumps

he gets fooled on pitches as much as he resits getting fooled on pitches, is how i would put it

it's hard to think of a current comparison for him... reynolds and dunn have career batting averages that are below what i think he will hit -- i could see him putting up ryan howard sort of numbers, without maybe ever hitting 58 homers and without the awful lefty/righty splits

also he is a really great athlete with a cannon arm, as opposed to lumbering bufoons like howard/dunn/prince etc

If you were wondering how Ronny Paulino managed to hit four home runs and slug over .350 this year, here is your answer:

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Florida Marlins catcher Ronny Paulino has received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

i haven't kept up with the team but this seems like a stinging indictment of management.

i mean, it was always obvious that loria was taking money and doing nothing with it, hence the players union pretty much forcing him into paying higher salaries

http://l.yimg.com/a/p/sp/tools/med/2010/08/mlb/1282696699.jpg

honestly, samson is worse than loria -- i can't even stand to see him talk

40M in profit, and that's before the 43M from mlb's revenue-sharing program.

Manny_Navarro #Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez said reason Leo Nunez still has closers role is "lack of options" http://myloc.me/bfLMS
less than a minute ago via ÜberTwitter

sounds about right

That picture of Samson needs to be Perez'ed.

- B. Sanches relieved W. Ohman
- J. Maxwell safe at first on third baseman C. Tracy's throwing error
- J. Maxwell to third on wild pitch
- J. Maxwell scored on wild pitch

http://plixi.com/p/43542216

i think this team is gonna be the new "dark horse preseason pick" now that the reds have finally popped after a few years of predictions

maybin, morrison, hanley, stanton, g. sanchez, coghlan

johnson, nolasco, a. sanchez

that's a ridiculous core from an upside standpoint even if they don't keep uggla

yes i am very excited about next year

really need to fix the bullpen & you never know with tons of young guys like that, but yeah

plus, we're RICH. should be able to pick up a bunch of impact players.

barely i even care at this point but this is important

Logan Morrison draws first-inning walk. On-base streak now at 38 games in a row. Third-longest in #marlins history.
about 11 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop

.314/.425./.497 in 47 games this year

what's the rumor on where Uggla might land if he doesnt stay?

Man I have no idea

Honestly I think they'll get a deal done

MikeStanton27 Mike Stanton
I'm about to destroy in n out! Topping it off with a neopolotin shake
2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

MikeStanton27
@Alena46210 mickeydees is no bueno! Forever influenced by supersize me.
13 Oct Favorite Retweet Reply

http://thebiglead.fantasysportsven.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/bill-james-the-simpsons.png

Mike Stanton 2011 — 85/38/104/.268/5
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4949&position=OF

lolllllllllllll

he's gonna hit at least 35 homers

CamMaybin Cameron Maybin24
Just chop it up with waka flockA flame lmao..

so jealous of both parties

LoMoMarlins Logan Morrison
Hes busy. Spending your $ on the DL RT @BrettSchneider3: @LoMoMarlins @MikeStanton27 Try 2 get carlos beltran 2 answer me please.

him & stanton on twitter are my winter lifeblood