Chum Bucket

by craig on Oct 15, 2009 4:08 AM EDT

While if the insomniac Fish Fans want to comment till the wee hours of the morning, this is the place to do it. However, mostly, this is just a preemptive thread since Playoff Ichthyomancy starts up again tomorrow/today and it is a handy place for those of you who want to make your picks early. You know, before the open thread gets posted.

As you all know by now, Chum Buckets are a completely open thread so if want to discuss how come the lawn in front of my place is being invaded every night by skunks, have at it. Has anyone else ever had a skunk problem? Sure they are cute and all but when it comes to the freedom of movement, they have the upper hand, even if they don't know it.

Perhaps you are having your own unique wildlife experience, if so, please share away. Or perhaps you want to talk about something else, have at it.

I should get something up to this site in a few hours.

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Dodgers
Kershaw
Kershaw: 7+ IP, W

Go Nevada Wolf Pack!

by BacksThePack on Oct 15, 2009 11:37 AM EDT reply actions

My Marlins offseason predictions:

1- Jeremy Hermida will be non-tendered.

No brainer. He sucks.

2 – Dan Uggla will be traded.

My trade senario would be Dan Uggla to the Angels for 2B Howie Kendrick, 3B Brandon Wood, and RHP Jose Arredondo. We get a replacement for Uggla in HK47 without moving Chris Coghlan (Whose doing a tremendous in left field) and not having to start Emilio Bonerface. Kendrick is a great defender, hits for a good average, and has some speed. We also get a starting 3B with major pop which allows Jorge Cantu to move back to 1B where he’s a better defender. Wood has tons of power and is a solid defensive 3B. He could end the year as the clean up hitter. A 30+ homer, 100+ RBI guy. Jose Arredondo is a guy who could replace Kiko Calero (Free Agent this offseason and likely won’t return) and maybe even complete for the closer’s job. As much as I’d like to say that we can get more for Uggla, I just don’t believe teams will over pay for him. A trade like this sounds reasonable for both sides.

3- Ross Gload and Alfredo Amezaga are re-signed.

We have the best bench in the league with Gload, Amezaga, Ronny Paulino, Wes Helms, and Brett Carroll. Emilio Bonerface will start the season in the minors.

4- Andrew Miller will be converted into the Closer.

You have to get some value out of this guy. Moving him to the bullpen may save his career, and I think he would be a dominant Closer. He has great stuff, maybe the best stuff on the team, and his control would get better if he only has to pitch one inning. But you have to get some value out of that Miguel Cabrera trade cause right now, as much as I love Cameron Maybin and think he’s going to be a great player, it looks like the Tigers got the better end of that deal.

5- The opening day roster will be:
Catchers- John Baker, Ronnie Paulino

Corner Infielders- Cantu, Wood, Helms, Gload

Middle Infielders- Hanley Ramirez, Kendrick, Amezaga

Outfield- Coghlan, Cameron Maybin, Cody Ross, Carroll

Starting Rotation- John Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, Chris Volstad, Sean West

Bullpen- Miller, Leo Nuñez, Matt Lindstrom, Dan Meyer, Arredondo, Brian Sanches, Burke Badenhop/Renyel Pinto

That’s a great team. I expect our starting rotation to get better as Volstad and West will get better with expirience. Johnson and Nolasco are as good 1-2 punch as there is. Look for Anibal Sanchez to settle into the 3 spot nicely. Our bullpen will have another strong year. Especially, if we have a Closer who can finish games. We’d have a top 5 offense in the National League. Coghlan Is going to be a star. Our Defense would drastically improve with Wood at 3rd, Kendrick at 2nd, and Maybin and Coghlan in the outfield for an entire season.

What do you guys think? Playoff team? I think so.

by JP 23 on Oct 15, 2009 3:05 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

yeah i like our rotation next year

the only question marks i think are andrew miller (who i doubt will be the closer because of major control issues, plus the team already announced nunez as next year’s closer) and volstad who had a horrible finish to an already sub par year.

sanchez and west constantly showed signs of greatness towards the end of the year, but then would go out and have a horrible outing soon after. too inconsistent. if they could get anywhere near being consistent we’d have a very solid 1-4 rotation.

as for JJ and ricky i’m not worried at all. ricky was just horribly unlucky this year, showed by his enormously high BABIP, and by a wide margin having the worst stranded runners percentage in the entire mlb (61%). his FIP is still excellent though, ranking 15th in the majors among starters, even ahead of guys like beckett and sabathia. i’m really excited to see what he does next year with a little a bit of better luck and maybe some better defense with coghlan playing 2B possibly and a new 3B.

by tdp992 on Oct 15, 2009 4:23 PM EDT up reply actions

i forgot about vandenhurk

he’ll probly be in the rotation to start off the year due to being our most consistent starter. either west/sanchez/miller will be in the bullpen or minors to start off the year i bet.

honestly though i think vandy’s our most underrated starter. with our offense, anyone who can out and pitch six quality innings and just keep us in the game is awesome with the way our bats were last year.

by tdp992 on Oct 15, 2009 4:28 PM EDT up reply actions

I think Leo Nuńez as our closer would be a mistake. He's a 7th or 8th inning guy.

Miller has control problems, but I think if you move him to the bullpen where he would only have to pitch one inning, his control will improve because he won’t have to repeat his mechanics for a long period of time which has been his biggest problem is repeating his mechanics for an entire night. And if he does go to the bullpen, Closer would be the best place to put him considering he has the best stuff on the team. Former starters tend to thrive in the closer role (Eric Gagne, John Smoltz, Dennis Eckersley, Ryan Dempster, etc…). Andrew Miller is no exception.

by JP 23 on Oct 15, 2009 4:46 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

early

But I’m guessing they keep Coughlan in the outfield and try again with Bonifacio or some cheap cast off at 2nd.

I think Gload will be too expensive. The history isn’t there for keeping the old guys around very long.

What are the contracts for Cantu, Paulino, Cody, Carrol, Badenhop, Pinto, Nolasco, Amezega like? I’m betting at least half of them will be gone by next year.

I’d love to see Vandenherk get a chance at the starting rotation.

For a marlins team they’ve been relatively stable recently, but turnover is there MO.

We have our core and the best we can hope for is that all these guys are back.

Hanley, JJ, Coughlan, Volstad, Baker (?), Maybin Everyone else is expendable.

by brickell on Oct 15, 2009 3:57 PM EDT reply actions

"Everyone else is expendable"? I don't know about that.

Cantu? Nolasco? Ross? They are expendable? I don’t think you can just let these guys go. Especially if you’re gonna add Baker to the list of non-expendable. I don’t even think Uggla is expendable. We just don’t really have a choice with him unless the front office decides to raise the payroll.

As for the contracts of Paulino, Cantu, Nolasco, Pinto, Badenhop, Carroll, and Amezaga? With the exeption of Alfredo Amezaga, the rest of them are under team control through this season and all should be back. I’d love for Amezaga to return, he has been tremendous for the Fish. But, it looks like the team is set on Bonerface as the utility guy.

Ross Gload ain’t going no where. Atleast, I hope he doesn’t.

Vandenhurk is a nice pitcher, but I don’t think he has a spot in the rotation unless someone gets hurt.

by JP 23 on Oct 15, 2009 4:33 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions