Worst to First - The Sequel

[illeracula]

Congrats on the win with the DBacks, I was expecting it to take a long longer than it did.

Originally Posted by NYY #23

.. with our second first round pick we selected SP Chien-Ming Wang...

Where is Wang? He on the active roster?

Originally Posted by NYY #23

With four Type A free agents and one Type B free agent I decide to offer arbitration to all five players (...1B Mo Vaughn...).

What happened with Mo Vaughn?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

Congrats on the win with the DBacks, I was expecting it to take a long longer than it did.

Thanks, I was expecting it to take longer than it did myself. I won't deny that we got a little bit lucky our final year.

Originally Posted by illeracula

Where is Wang? He on the active roster?

I started Wang in the minors, but he did just get called up when Cain went down. I'm encouraged so far, he's gone 2-2 with a 2.96 ERA in a handful of starts. If he can pitch like that he's got a spot in the rotation.

Originally Posted by illeracula

What happened with Mo Vaughn?

Mo looks to be about done. He signed a one year deal with the Dodgers, but he's struggling in limited playing time hitting .245 with 1 homer, although his OBP of .420 is pretty decent. He's still fallen pretty far pretty fast though, which I suppose is similar to real life. In 2000 he hit .300 with a .472 OBP with 30 homers and 113 RBI. He's fallen from a 5.3 WAR to 5.0 in 2001, to 2.3 last year with his batting average dropping along with his home runs.

[NYY #23]

Another winning month for the Marlins as we went 14-13, and we're 1/2 game back in the NL East behind the Phillies and Braves. We've just got a slim 1 game lead over the Nationals as well. Things are tight in the NL East.

Of course our Pythagorean record is 36-42, so things could come crashing down at any time.

[NYY #23]

Things are still real tight in both the NL East, and the Wild Card race. All five teams in the NL East are within 4 games of each other, with the top four teams within 2 games. The Wild Card race has 10 teams within 5 games of the lead. I guess this is what parity looks like.

The Marlins had no All-Star representatives this year.

[NYY #23]

August was a rough month for the Marlins. We went 11-18 on the field, fell under .500 for the year, and lost Jon Lieber for the rest of the year, and since he'll be a free agent he's made his last start for the Marlins.

Based on his performance this year we agreed to an extension with Freddy Garcia. He was signed to a reasonable 2 year $1,050,000 extension, hoping he'll be a valuable fifth starter.

Looking ahead to September we'll make some call-ups and hopefully take a closer look at what we've got in our minor league system.

[NYY #23]

Year 2 in South Florida is complete, and the Marlins finished with a 79-83 record in second place. I'm happy with the small, but steady improvements that we've been able to make.

I actually think we were better off with our September slump and missing the playoffs, at least long term.

Florida Marlins 72-90 (.444) 20 GB
2004 - Florida Marlins 75-87 (.463) 19 GB (Season Score - 30)
2005 - Florida Marlins 79-83 (.488) 6 GB (Season Score - 66)

[NYY #23]

The Marlins had $7 million to work with in the amateur draft, with two first round picks. Our first pick was 13th, and with that pick we selected RF Matt Kemp. With the 25th pick we selected SP Matt Garza. In the supplemental round we selected SP Brian Bannister and SP Kyle Davies. Relievers Rafael Perez and Ramon Ramirez were selected in the second round, with MR Taylor Buchholz, MR Zach Miner, MR Fernando Nieve, and catcher Hector Gimenez rounding out the draft.

We non-tendered MR Jin Ho Cho, MR Justin Duchscherer, LF Chad Allen, and catcher Jorge Posada.

[NYY #23]

The Marlins are going to look a little bit different this season with the addition of Matt Kemp we had a surplus outfielder, so Jay Gibbons had to go, at least with the price we were paying him.

We traded Jay Gibbons to the Phillies and got back 27 year old 2B Marcus Giles.

Next we signed SP Brad Penny to a minor league deal. He's just 27 years old and I'm hopeful he can provide us with some insurance for our rotation, and maybe be this year's version of Freddy Garcia.

We also filled out our roster with veterans on one year deals -

3B Tony Batista

C Charles Johnson

SP Larry Luebbers

SS Christian Guzman

1B Warren Morris

We still have about $13 million available to make a deal, but we don't have a good match with the top free agents, so it's better to hold on to that extra money - for now.

[NYY #23]

With a 7-17 record it was a terrible start to the season for the Marlins. While we did play most of the month without Matt Kemp, Alex Rios, and Marcus Giles, I did expect a little bit more than what we've got.

It's early though, so I'll try and reserve judgement for a little bit.

[NYY #23]

The Marlins had a winning month going 16-13 and squeaking into fourth place. Hopefully we'll continue to play well in June and get back in the race.

[NYY #23]

A 16-9 month got the Marlins back to .500 for the year. We have been having quite a few injury problems though. Hopefully we'll be able to stay above water until everyone gets healthy.

Dan Reichter pitched a no hitter in June in a 1-0 victory over Toronto.

[NYY #23]

We started out the month making a trade, and taking on some salary. Ivan Rodriguez was on the Cleveland trade block, and they were willing to accept Charles Johnson to complete the deal, in addition to them saving almost $5 million on his salary this year. It was a pretty easy deal to make with budget room available since Rodriguez will be a free agent at the end of the year, and is still very solid defensively.

That of course was at the beginning of the month. After we fell 5 games under .500 on the 30th I began to rethink my strategy. The Marlins would become sellers.

We only could swing one deal though, sending 2B Marcus Giles, C Ivan Rodriguez, SS Cristian Guzman, and SP Joe Saunders to the Toronto Blue Jays while getting back 1B Prince Fielder and RF Nelson Cruz. Toronto is trying to win now and had weaknesses at second, short, and catcher. All players we dealt except Saunders would be free agents after the season, so we brought back two young players.

We won both games since the trade, but it opened up some holes this year.

Our only All-Star was Ivan Rodriguez, although he was just passing through.

[NYY #23]

Another losing month for the Marlins as we lost 15 games against 13 wins, lost Prince Fielder to injury, and Matt Cain as well.

We still are just 6 1/2 games out of first place though. We should be getting back Prince Fielder soon, and Matt Garza is almost ready to return. We have a relatively easy schedule for September, so maybe we can make things interesting.

[NYY #23]

Year 3 for the Marlins and we come up short. Which is disappointing not because I thought we could contend for the World Series, but because we were so close to winning the division before Washington went on a streak in September.

But we added another piece to the puzzle with the addition of Cecil Fielder, and perhaps another with Nelson Cruz aboard as well. Of course I'd really love to add another starting pitcher to the mix, or should I say quality starting pitcher.

Florida Marlins 72-90 (.444) 20 GB
2004 - Florida Marlins 75-87 (.463) 19 GB (Season Score - 30)
2005 - Florida Marlins 79-83 (.488) 6 GB (Season Score - 66)
2006 - Florida Marlins 79-83 (.488) 8 GB (Season Score - 52)

[NYY #23]

The Marlins selected 13th in the amateur draft and with our first round pick we selected SP Yovani Gallardo. In the second round we selected SP Franklin Morales, followed by C Clint Sammons, MR Clay Rapada, MR Kelvin Jimenez, and MR Anderson Garcia.

[NYY #23]

This was one of those offseason that I'm pretty excited about, because things worked out pretty well on paper at least. It's not every offseason you can gain 21.1 WAR. So I guess you can say we went for it all, and hopefully the results will match our expectations.

We started off the offseason targeting an upgrade at 2B, SS, C, and possibly the rotation. The problem started with the lack of 2B talent, but there was quite a bit of talent at 3B available.

So move number one was a trade with Kansas City, sending 3B Dallas McPherson, RF Alex Rios, and SP Freddy Garcia and getting back 2B Robinson Cano. Then we set our sights on a few targets -

SP Tim Hudson, who signed a 4 year $72 million contract. SS Christian Guzman, who re-upped for 1 year $1.3 million after we shipped him off at the deadline. Catcher Yorvit Torrealba, who took a 1 year $493,400 deal in an attempt to bounce back from injury.

We had $8 million to sign a third baseman, so I thought what the heck, and offered Albert Pujuls a 3 year $53 million contract. $8 mil for year one, $20 mil for year two, and $25 mil for year three. He was looking for an 8 year contract, so I didn't think he'd take it, but he said he'd think about it and got back to me the very next day. So that was an unexpected bonus, but I'll take it.

Then finally we signed Andruw Jones for a 1 year $500,000 contract to serve as our fourth outfielder.

In two years Prince Fielder, Robinson Cano, and Matt Cain will hit arbitration together for the first time. The Marlins can't afford them all, maybe any of them, but we've got two years to win it all.

[NYY #23]

There is definitely a difference of opinion. I expect the Marlins to win it all, while my owner expects us to stay close to even. Hopefully our 20-6 April is close enough to even for his liking.

The season started in great fashion when Matt Cain pitched a no-hitter on the second day of the season:



The next day Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 25 games, and it ended after a total of 37 games with an 0-3 night.

[illeracula]

Cano, Kemp, Pujols, Fielder, Cruz, and Granderson? All in the same lineup? And you are 5th in the league in runs scored? How can that be?

Pretty awesome lineup the Marlins are rocking... and then that staff... And when arbitration hits in a couple of years you will do what the Marlins seems to do and blow the team up... hopefully you'll have your title by then.

[MacIsaacM]

That is a beast of a team. Although I share illeracula's concerns re: a few years from now.

[mirrf]

Originally Posted by illeracula

Cano, Kemp, Pujols, Fielder, Cruz, and Granderson? All in the same lineup? And you are 5th in the league in runs scored? How can that be?

Pretty awesome lineup the Marlins are rocking... and then that staff... And when arbitration hits in a couple of years you will do what the Marlins seems to do and blow the team up... hopefully you'll have your title by then.

Originally Posted by MacIsaacM

That is a beast of a team. Although I share illeracula's concerns re: a few years from now.

This is the Florida Marlins. They are legally required to auction off their players to the highest bidder as soon as they win the world series.