60% baseball, 40% tweets: Florida Marlins 2011, The Fall of Sun Life Stadium

let the omar infante era begin~~

Talk to baseball people, and they will tell you how much the Marlins’ bullpen has improved from the group that went 17-25 and blew 25 saves – second most behind Baltimore – in 2010. “We have one of the best bullpens in the league” now, manager Edwin Rodriguez said, eyeing Friday’s start of spring training.

But ask Marlins executive Larry Beinfest if this is the team’s best group of relievers in years, and he’s cautious. “You’re asking the wrong guy,” he said. “Bullpens are so unpredictable. We had a very good bullpen in 2009 and we brought back most of them in 2010 and it struggled. But we have more weapons.”

The overhaul began with the trade of Cameron Maybin to San Diego for right-handers Edward Mujica (2-1, 3.62 ERA) – who held batters to a .226 average, with 72 strikeouts and six walks in 692/3 innings – and Ryan Webb (3-1, 2.90).

Hard-throwing lefty Mike Dunn (2-0, 1.89), acquired with infielder Omar Infante from Atlanta in the Dan Uggla trade, allowed just a .211 average, was effective against right- and left-handed hitters, and struck out 27 in 19 innings. And lefty pickup Randy Choate (4-3, 4.23) allowed left-handers to hit .202 against him with Tampa in 2010.

With those four, Leo Nuñez, Clay Hensley (2.16 ERA) and Brian Sanches (2.26) – and Burke Badenhop still around – there’s no blatant weak link, though Nuñez (30 for 38 on saves) must prove he’s closer-worthy.

“Webb and Mujica have closer-type stuff,” Beinfest said. “So does Dunn. When we made the trade with San Diego, we had an eye on Webb being a closer candidate. But we think Leo can do the job.”

Rodriguez said Nuñez will begin the season as the closer. But he hasn’t done enough to earn the multiyear deal that his agent inquired about. “Leo doesn’t command the ball well enough to be consistent,” one Marlins official (not Beinfest or Rodriguez) said. “When he airs out his fastball, he tries to overthrow and gets out of control.”

Rodriguez said Monday that Nuñez “needs to study hitters better, watch video, and have a plan before the game.” Nuñez “got the message” when Hensley replaced him as the closer in September, Rodriguez said, adding he used his change-up too much at times and knows “he needs to make some changes.’’

Scouts rave about Dunn: “His stuff is electric,” one scout said. Although he walked 17 in 19 innings, control wasn’t a big problem in the minors and he’s not another Andrew Miller, the scout said. “Dunn is a power arm and we haven’t had that power lefty in the pen for some time,” Beinfest said.

There are questions, beyond Nuñez’s consistency. Mujica allowed too many homers last year (one every five innings), and 14 each of the past two years. Rodriguez cannot use Choate much against right-handers, who hit .410 against him (16 for 39). And it will be interesting to see how Webb and Mujica fare away from San Diego’s spacious Petco Park, where they pitched much better. Webb, for example, allowed a .232 average at home, .319 outside Petco.

Chatter

• Any chance of a Marlins trade for Texas third baseman Michael Young hinges on the Rangers agreeing to pay well over half of the $48 million left on his contract (through 2013). The teams have talked, but the Marlins didn’t appear optimistic Tuesday. …

i think i will be watching this team a bit this year, they are ~intriguing~

yeah... i think they have a chance to be competitive if pretty much nobody on the team gets hurt, and even if they're like 5 games under .500 again it should still be fun watching jj/hanley/stanton/morrisson

at least that's what i'm telling myself

is omar infante out for six weeks or was that a weird dream that i had?

oh he WAS out for six weeks

anyway i hope they give dominguez the starting 3B job even if he hits like .220 -- klaw said he's already as good a defnder as zimmerman, and as much as i love the comedic stylings of emilio bonifcaio, the defense could really use it

haha...emilio funnyface.

http://i.imgur.com/O4d8i.jpg

park looks cool, i drive by it every so often

design kinda reminds me of safeco

the arch is reminiscent of minute maid

yeah, that too

yeah first think i thought of was minute maid, but if it's got minute maid's LF porch stanton's gonna hit 50 HR every year

HanleyRamirez Hanley Ramirez
Hi everybody, I'm excited to join Twitter! Let's have fun!

HanleyRamirez Hanley Ramirez
I'm coming hot this year

it only took 35 minutes

HanleyRamirez Hanley Ramirez
Sure all dayRT @l2inaldi: are you gonna hustle this year @HanleyRamirez ?

it's not even a contract year!

LoMoMarlins Logan Morrison
Now I have a legit reason to Tweet during the game. Shallow fly ball to Left, I can Tweet "Ball" or "Pelota" to @HanleyRamirez #NoCollisions

: D

not hating but upon first read i though Morrison's account was LOLMarlins. that would kind of rule.

hah

nice

Manny_Navarro Manny Navarro
#Marlins 3B Matt Dominguez now 6 for 15 (.400), 2 HRs, 10 RBI, 2 Ks, 2 BB in seven spring games

I'ma gonna start SBing anyone who posts ST stats before the last day of ST

i'd be okay w/ that if you were keith law

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Charles/ren-stimpy-red-button.jpeg

HA!

just trading for the utility All-Star makes me wanna see Fla crash and burn this year

fish threw at nyjer today

they sent dominguez down

also stanton's first game back from his injury and he has two three run homers of buchholz

7 rbi today

dope

i know its not likely so soon but i really want to see stanton just destroy the league this year

Yeah

Watched Stanton launch one last year and I don't think Rich Waltz made a proper call on it -- he just laughed.

this is my favorite one from last year http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10233655

i mean how does that even happen

stanton first homer today was an utter bomb http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13270475

:D

LoMoMarlins Logan Morrison
Just hanging out at the house, tidying up. I hate it when i misplace my hand grenades & Civil War musket...

:D

this guy

brett wallace might counsel LoMo to keep a team name out of his twitter id

i think he's safe until he hits arb in 3 years

stanton's the first add to my mlb.tv player tracker

Old Man LOL in the booth

If I had to turn a double play with Stanton approaching second, I would seriously consider running as far away as possible.

RIP stanton -- he almost took David Wright's head off earlier

Marlins 3b stud matt dominguez got hbp in a game today and broke something :(

fractured elbow

chris coghlan, you guys

http://i53.tinypic.com/ff0f1v.jpg

LOL playoff team

catch us next time when we aren't forced to have emilio bonifacio & scott cousins in the line up in consecutive games

but, i'll say this -- javy looked just awful today, john buck stuck out in a huge spot w/ the bases loaded, and the new bullpen guys pitched pretty badly this weekend -- so not encouraging, no

i can't watch chris volstad

why what's his prob

and take team photos out in front of the carnivale meets vegas meets gay pride parade moving statue out in center field

http://p.twimg.com/AdWb2gTCEAAkywt.jpg

need to put out an arrest warrant for loria and whoever else was responsible for this assault on my eyes

those are confirmed fakes

i don't feel like digging up the link but basically what happened was some poster on a sports uniform/logo message board did a mock up of the marlins unis and posted those images asking for feedback. i guess then a marlins blogger (this exists) ran across them but either didn't see or didn't comprehend that it was just some uniform nerd looking for some feedback on his designs.

in any event the real unis will prob be worse.

I hope the jersey is dominated by an image of Jack McKeon reeling in a marlin.

teal & orange.xls

contract the marlins

http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n556/BigZ37/securedownload.jpg

oh ffs

hahah those are great

like, really, we're finally leaving a wretched stadium that looks like this

http://mlblogssnaggingbaseballs.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/empty_seats_ninth_inning1.jpg

so why exactly do you want to make our players look like this

http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n556/BigZ37/securedownload.jpg

The orange is fine with me, but that type! Ugh.

I have no problem with the orange jerseys.

The massive M on the hat is another matter.

i think i've been scarred by watching every game... i just see sun life seats with body parts

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/001/335/980/marlins-logo-new_original_display_image_display_image.jpg?1316720719

fucking hideous.

makes me think i'm not charging enough.

is that M ... flipping me the bird?

flipping you the fish!

ken rosenthal tweeted today that the marlins have made "substantial offers" to reyes and pujols, whatever that means

the home run thing is very, very real

http://twitpic.com/7d9c7c

they must change the new logo.

must.

the logo is not even going to be in the top 5 worst things

ha! c'mon. manager's funny. team could sign some good free agents. they aren't the dolphins. what's not to love?

well, except that eyesore of a logo.

loria is such a horrible, horrible person

the white and grey ones are cool, orange and black... not so much

whole design (incl. color-scheme) is bad.

the color scheme is bad because there's just too many colors, and PASTEL MIAMI is so old. the problem is that they are sorta boxed in by the other teams in the city having normal, sensible color schemes, and it would be weird for a miami team not to have some brightness to their colors, and i guess that's how they ended up with yellow and orange and blue and whatever else. the uniforms weren't as bad as they could've been tho.

PASTEL MIAMI is so old.

yes.

can't say that i hate this, altho yes, the logo is absurdly large

http://twitpic.com/7da00a

i kind of really dig the white ones tho

http://twitpic.com/7da03x

davehydesports Dave Hyde -- Jeffrey Loria confirmed the Marlins have made offers to Pujols and Reyes. David Samson then stepped inn and said they hadn't....

hm.

Dying

"We've made offers to Bob Gibson, JR Richard, and Ozzie Smith."

GOOD JOB, JEFF

"lounge act masquerading as a baseball team"

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/1/21/2723211/miami-marlins-worst-thing-lebron-james-jeffrey-loria-ozzie-guillen

as opposed to the mets, who are a charity slow pitch softball team masquerading as a baseball team

the Mets are p much the opp of a charity, but I look fwd to seeing a Marlims game w/ you :)

o hai

http://i.imgur.com/LAX80.jpg

so fucking magical

Really rooting for this team, they've got all my favorite former Chicago people and they seem ridiculous.

can't wait for the flameout

https://p.twimg.com/AkahHfrCAAAZ3si.jpg:large

flamingos

yesssssssssss

state-of-the-art NL East trailer park

this looks ok-ish

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/508591246.jpg?Expires=1328201872&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=WrThdAXXRWTcEMt835El53Uw0YFYNmBjLqBNXgWovlODkjL9-XnbZ~MVPXJK6ylXCMHTLjC~vUrtonjTIYrlx~QM8LwHnxnJFy1Qlj7yxR0HQ381ienXQ2FOmK4rhgR2EuBIc7kW6ph0T6TYe0mUKSw6mxOStDQsSa8DXfcKB8g_

AccessDeniedAccess denied

the fish tanks

https://twitter.com/#!/JCRMarlinsbeat/status/165094554830258176

i'll be visiting the thunderdome early next month, will give you guys a full report