OT; Marlin's plight - offseason baseball
They got their stadium and once again they're saying suck it to Marlins fans. It's pretty amazing what they did.
Insert pic of snake oil here.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/marlins-blue-jays-nea…
November 13th, 2012 at 11:22 PM ^
November 13th, 2012 at 11:25 PM ^
November 14th, 2012 at 12:18 AM ^
He'd be a perfect fit, he's the ideal 2 hole hitter and immediately upgrades our defense, I don't expect him to sustain the .389 BABIP he had last year but if his average stays around .280 it's just what the Tigers need.
November 14th, 2012 at 8:58 AM ^
Eh, I don't really see him as a #2 hitter, preferrably you'd like to see a player with some speed there to avoid double plays. Now if they could somehow get Bourne, and slide Jackson to the #2 hole, that would be awesome.
November 14th, 2012 at 12:34 PM ^
Disagree. Torii is a perfect fit for the Tigers at the 2-hole. He will be a cat-bird just like Anaheim, between Jackson, Cabrera, and Fielder. Even considering a .280 BA is more plausible, he clobbers left-handed pitching, and the Tigers need that. When you consider the financial side that seals it. Bourn, Pagan, Swisher and others all are going to want long contracts, which the Tigers should avoid right now. He’ll come with a 2 yr contract & maybe an option, just long enough to cover and not be saddled with another prolonged aging contract. He is great defensively, and can tutor Jackson as he did Trout. Has some pop, and enough speed. Plus is a strong, vocal, veteran leader in the clubhouse. An asset the Tigers needed desperately after losing Vmart. (My only concern is I hope they don’t clash, but doubt they will) As soon as I heard the Angels didn’t offer Hunter, I was knew he was the perfect get at the right cost.
November 14th, 2012 at 9:15 AM ^
I'd be happy with Hunter in Detroit. That all depends on the contract length he wants. It would certainly give Leyland a good outfield with plenty of pieces to mix and match. I assume Garcia makes the big club: Jackson, Hunter, Dirks/Garcia.
November 14th, 2012 at 12:15 PM ^
Now he’d REALLY be a good get, if he likes Detroit so much he wants Torii Jr. to switch and be a Wolverine WR. /s
November 13th, 2012 at 11:24 PM ^
November 13th, 2012 at 11:56 PM ^
No way they go after Hamilton. They would have to spend money to do that. Unless, they backload the contract and then trade him right when they need to pay him what he is worth... oh, that is what they just did with Reyes. Yeah... you may have a point.
November 14th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
Actually the best prospect in the deal is probably Marisnick. This deal really sucks for Miami baseball, especially after they finally gave Loria his domed stadium. I do, however, note that three years from now, people might look back on this deal as a piece of genius: Buerhle is getting up there in age; Johnson and Bonifacio have injury issues; Reyes was not a $20 million player in 2012; and Buck is, well, Buck. If a couple of the prospects pan out, the Marlins might be sitting pretty in 2015 with guys like Jose Fernandez and Christian Yelich in the pipeline.
November 14th, 2012 at 11:42 AM ^
No way! Miami wouldn’t get Hamilton. Not unless they guarantee him all GROSS stadium receipts of the next few years. Would have to be front-loaded, not back, because Loria would never be trusted again to not have another fire sale. (I hear Giancarlo is livid about the trade.)
Miami has shot themselves in the foot. The only way they EVER get significant free agents is with Tony Montana included on their negotiating team. Otherwise, they will always have to include a massive premium to induce a signing or there has to be something significant detriment to the player signing elsewhere. (maybe a Melky situation)
Jays fans have to be dancin’ in the streets as this addresses most of their needs with quality not just band-aids. Including swapping out Escobar. Makes them a huge player in AL East.
November 13th, 2012 at 11:32 PM ^
The tigers should get melky cabrera, he would be a steal. His PED test is going to kill his value and he will be on a mission to prove hes an All-Star without the drugs. He's a five tool player that you can probally sign for 2 years at 7 or 8 per.
November 13th, 2012 at 11:50 PM ^
November 14th, 2012 at 12:01 AM ^
Braves fan here. Simply put, you don't want that POS.
November 14th, 2012 at 2:33 AM ^
November 14th, 2012 at 9:00 AM ^
More pressing question: Do you want Jason Bourne?
But seriously, I have no idea how Loria conned Miami into paying for that place. Guy always has been and always will be a cheapskate perfectly content to field uncompetitive teams as long as he's making his money.
November 14th, 2012 at 9:54 AM ^
Well uhh you can have Michael Bourne and we'll keep Micahel Bourn. Sound Fair?
November 14th, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^
Neither of these dudes are the one you want.
November 13th, 2012 at 11:44 PM ^
So I wonder what the asking price is for Giancarlo Stanton then, might as well see if they'll take Castellanos and Garcia. The Marlins got boned in the returns on this deal.
November 13th, 2012 at 11:55 PM ^
Why would they trade Stanton right now? He is a cheap player (for his ability).
November 14th, 2012 at 5:25 AM ^
November 14th, 2012 at 8:28 AM ^
I don't know,....I think you are reading in between the lines here..../S
November 13th, 2012 at 11:53 PM ^
I'm actually semi pissed off that the Tigers wern't the ones making this trade, I mean the Marlins are basically the Tigers farm team.
November 14th, 2012 at 12:37 AM ^
I agree with this. Johnson and Reyes would have been boss in Detroit.
November 14th, 2012 at 12:46 AM ^
They would, but at the same time the Tigers probably wouldn't increase the payroll to acquire yet another $20 million player in Reyes. As much as Iliitch is putting into this team I don't think he would have increased payroll to that sort of level with acquiring Reyes, Buerhle, and Johnson.
November 14th, 2012 at 1:09 AM ^
I agree 100 percent. In addition, with the Tiger's working on re-signing Sanchez, we clearly wouldn't have room for both Buerhle and Johnson. If we can get Sanchez to stick around, I'm totally fine without cherry-picking the marlins here. We currently have awesome depth at SP.
November 14th, 2012 at 1:30 AM ^
Realistically at the end of the season I thought we had a good chance at keeping Anibal but after reading this http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/winter-meetings-anibal-sanchez-free-agent-contract-110812 I'm not so sure he'll be back.
Regardless the Tigers have a little bit of money to play with still, so hopefully they get another bullpen arm and maybe some catching depth with Laird likely to seek more playing time from another team (this is assuming we sign Torii Hunter as well, which looks more and more likely everyday.)
November 14th, 2012 at 1:45 AM ^
15 million a year for 6 years. Guh. Maybe not at that price.
I hope we don't sign a closer since you pretty much have to overpay. Sign a bunch of low risk, low money guys and hope one or two work out for bullpen depth. Sit Coke, Benoit, Dotel and Bruce Rondon down together and say "who wants to close?"
November 14th, 2012 at 8:29 AM ^
I will be pissed if they bring him back for that....THAT IS ROBBERY. He is at best a number 2 starter and at worst, a number 4. No way do you pay him ace money
November 14th, 2012 at 11:16 AM ^
15 million a year is number 2 money. JV is making around 20 million a year.
November 14th, 2012 at 1:50 PM ^
JV is the Aces' ace.
November 13th, 2012 at 11:55 PM ^
Not sure I'd call the Marlins' situation a "plight" as it implies it's not their fault. Jeff Loria is the best in the world at running a franchise into the ground while siphoning off every last cent.
November 14th, 2012 at 1:15 AM ^
they have been doing it for every few years. Not exactly running them into the ground. They always find ways to field teams playing above .500 ball.
November 14th, 2012 at 1:24 AM ^
Marlins are 569-564 under Loria. While you are correct, they are only 5 games over .500.
November 14th, 2012 at 2:25 AM ^
Firesale --> slowly rebuild --> playoff team --> WS --> Profit --> Repeat process
Not saying it's wrong, but they keep coming back with young players and then trade them away at their peak value or close to it. Their biggest mistake, trading away Miggy to Tigers and got literally nothing other than trading away Willis contract.
Yes, if I was the Marlins fan, I'd be tired of it.
November 14th, 2012 at 7:16 AM ^
Two World Series Championships in the last 15 years? I would take that over the Tigers' last 15 years in a second.
November 14th, 2012 at 8:31 AM ^
not at that cost. Any jersey you buy will be no good in 2 years....
November 14th, 2012 at 1:19 AM ^
may face serious pressure in their division, as if they didn't this year. But the Orioles and Blue Jays are coming.
November 14th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
...have really looked oold the past few years. I don't know how they've managed to hang on but it wouldn't shock me in the least if they finally crashed in 2013 and finished 3rd or worse in the East.
November 14th, 2012 at 11:25 AM ^
They could fall to third, but anything lower than that I think would be unlikely. I expect to see Baltimore regress next year. They are not going to win that many 1 run and extra inning games again. The Yankees are going to spend a bit less then then they usually do to get under the luxury tax threshold in I believe it is 2014 to avoid the most punitive tax. I'd expect them to go on a spending spree after that, especially with Soriano and Swisher off the books this year and possibly Granderson the year after.
November 14th, 2012 at 3:56 AM ^
would love to see MLB get rid of a couple teams. Miami would be a great place to start.
Just play the all-star game in the nice stadium but get rid of their team. Hell nobody wants to even watch Tampa and they are pretty good.
November 14th, 2012 at 8:37 AM ^
November 14th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^
...they been around for a few years now but I still find it baffling that Florida has a baseball team. Guess I'm just old fashioned.
November 14th, 2012 at 8:22 PM ^
November 14th, 2012 at 7:35 AM ^
The Marlins find a way to build the team up for 2 or so years then replenish. They've won 2 world series since their inception.
Also, their fans just don't show up, for starters. Maybe it's because they sucked this year, or maybe because fans in Miami just have better things to do in the summer.
That said, I don't get how hot/cold they can be. Last season was the exact opposite approach to managing a team... with long-term deals.
/random thoughts.
EDIT: more random notes... the Marlins are the only thing that stood in the way from the Yankees winning the WS for 1996 - 2000. If you factor in another expansion team (D-Backs in 2001) they both helped prevent the most dominant streak in modern US Sports (potentially ever)
November 14th, 2012 at 9:09 AM ^
The 1997 Indians beg to differ
/stillnotoverit
November 14th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
What ChopBlock said. Not only did the Yankees not play in the World Series, but they lost in the ALDS. Would have had to go through Baltimore if they had beat the Indians.
November 14th, 2012 at 7:06 AM ^
I've been saying for over a decade that baseball needed to contract two teams at least. Especiallynow that the Astros have moved to the American league meaning there's an odd number of teams in each league and every day will feature an interleague matchup.
There are some teams that simply don't have the fan support regardless of their talent. Some of the places with crappy attendance actually have decent franchises, but no one comes to see them. Oakland was a crazy environment in the playoffs and down the stretch, but for years they've drawn fewer than 20,000 per game, while a half dozen teams are doubling that.
Even Tampa Bay has been a competitive team but struggles to draw over 24,000.
I personally think MLB has 24 markets that can sustain major league baseball.
My recommendation would be to contract to 24 teams, increase rosters to 27 or 28 players, and put an end to guys like Ryan Raburn ever starting baseball games at the major league level. More teams would be competing because theorhetically the talent gap would be smaller (I'm guessing more players would rather start on some team than ride the bench on a loaded team).
Most of the lower attendance teams are in warm weather cities. Marlins, Rays, Diamondbacks, Astros, Athletics, and Mariners. Perhaps MLB should start the season a week or two earlier but instead of having games in Japan, have these fairer weather cities host games the first 2-3 weeks (with some other teams like the Braves, Rangers, Giants, Padres, Dodgers, Angels, etc. hosting home openers) Even it out so no team got an unfair number of home games and divide the revenue between the 24 teams while investing some into the stadiums that host the games - perhaps letting the reform impact the minor league system and having stronger minor league teams at the top level playing in some of the fringe major-league markets.
Roll out a draft to distribute the players in these systems through the rest and allow all their coaches and scouts to be free agents. I promise you would see better baseball and scarcity would drive demand.
November 14th, 2012 at 8:09 AM ^
Agreed. And in my estimation expanding the playoffs was a horrible idea.