#1 Trade Priority?
by byoung on Jul 4, 2009 9:47 PM EDT
17 comments
For now, the Marlins are buyers and believe upgrading the Bullpen is the #1 priority before the trade deadline.
This appears to be questionable considering the current bullpen.
Marlins' Bullpen: ~ 4.03 ERA Matt Lindstrom: 6.52 ERA (29 IN / 21 ER)
Marlins' Bullpen Core (Meyer, Nunez, Sanches, Badenhop, Pinto, Calero): ~ 2.72 ERA
Trading or demoting Lindstrom after his DL stint may help the bullpen the most. We've already demoted the Opening Day Starter; why not Lindstrom.
No reason to think Nunez, Meyer, Calero, or even Sanches wouldn't do just as good closing as Lindstrom.
So, getting a reliever while Calero/Lindstrom are on the DL does make sense, should it be the #1 priority? What should our priority be if not the bullpen? This is my take:
Jorge Cantu: hasn't gone deep since June 3rd & has only one HR since May 7th (1 HR last 49 games / 193 AB)
Emilio Bonifacio: .292 OBP; lowest of ALL Marlins hitters except Wes Helms; though bats lead off/2nd
Dan Uggla: .222 BA; probably finishes season at .250, but for now, one can only get so many RBIs batting .222
I believe the Marlins have two trade options to remedy these problems:
1. High OBP leadoff guy - giving Hanley / Cantu more RBI opportunities
2. Big LH bat - protect Hanley, take pressure off Cantu, & help against RHP
OR Leave line up alone & rely on current team / call-ups for offense like they normally have
The front office will presumably keep payroll under a certain number and that will control the Marlins' trade options above all. Almost automatically taking Dunn ($8 mil), Pierre ($10 mil), and Holliday ($12.5 mil) out of the mix.
With salary in mind, these are the bats who I would like to see the Marlins go after: Shin-Soo Choo ($400k), Brad Hawpe ($5.5 mil) or Luke Scott ($2.4 mil)
What do you all think?
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Don’t ever forget defense. Brad Hawpe is one of the worst outfielders in baseball, and having him join the parade of terrible outfielders we already have would be a huge mistake. Luke Scott is a much better option, and might be worth something considering the Orioles already seem to have their outfield of the future set (Markakis, Jones, Reimold).
As much as people like to pile on Lindstrom, he hasn’t been that bad. He’s missed on location sometimes, but the biggest issue for him has been bad luck. He’s getting a lot of ground balls to go through the infield, and that’s really not entirely his fault. The infield defense, particularly at second with Uggla, isn’t helping him either. It just gets magnified when you see it in the ninth.
The pen is the biggest problem because the guys on there haven’t been all that effective. When you have Renyel Pinto pitching high-leverage 8th innings for you, you’ve got a problem. If anyone needs to be sent down, it’s Pinto, as he’s been horrific.
That being said, Lindstrom won’t be back in another month. Calero should be back after the break, but are Calero, Badenhop, Nunez, Meyer, Wood, and Sanches enough? It’s bad enough that three of the Marlins starters don’t usually get to the 7th, and thus force Fredi to use three guys on those nights (because relievers can NEVER go past one inning, right?), but Fredi really relies on a few guys a lot and gives them too many days of consecutive work. It’s no surprise Lindstrom and Calero, along with Gregg and Pinto last year, suffered arm-related injuries under Fredi’s watch.
The biggest issue right now is the trade market is really bare for anyone who has any need, not just us. It’s going to be difficult to find help at a cheap price for anything you think may be a need. Beinfest will try, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we essentially stay put. I see that they’re signing retread relievers, because those ALWAYS work out well over pitching Triple-A guys…
They don’t work, by the way.
i think part of the problem is that cantu's injured.
He’s seriously underperforming since the wrist injury, and you just know it’ll be one of those situations where once the season’s over, he finally admits to how limited he was because of it. He’s hit like 3 homers since the injury, and not many doubles. It’s turned our most or second-most consistent hitter and RBI producer into a a de-clawed singles hitter. Hard to win like that.
Managers Error
If Cantu is really hurt then our wonderfull idiotic leader should have put him on the DL. Gathered his strength thru rehab and would be ready to go by now. But off coure, Fred the fool would not do so. He does however keep on using the same players day in day out, exposing them to injuries, let s see how many pitchers do we have with shoulder problems since last year?? How many ineffective infielders do we have since Perry left??
We have a good club, again playing over their heads and ability. Shame of Little Hitler for ot getting Manny last year, cheap just plain cheap. Forget the suspension, look at the draw in LA, the swagger that team has that did not have before.
Do it this year, get Holiday, young enough, great bat, great person in club house. Your getting the funds from MLB, start using it rather than buying more Art pieces. You got the stadium deal done for almost nothing, WHAT THE HELL MORE DO YOU WANT??
START INVESTING IN THE TEAM, not with old, retreads but with players with a future.
What a lineup, Coglan, Mayblin, Hanley, Holiday, Cantu,Mayblin, Bonifacio, Baker and Peavy.
Trade tripe A players to Oakland for Holiday and Ugla/Herminda/Sanchez to Padres for Holiday.
World Series and 35K+ fans here we come. I promise to return and re purchase my 4 seats that I started out. I continued thru the first sell off and by the time the second sell off was done so was i. Go FISH.
By the way Loria, if you dont want to spend the money, then maybe we can get someone to buy you off. Hell you only paid $85 Million for this team.
er... a couple things here.
first, we can do without the “little hitler.” I’m all for satire and ridicule, but that’s a step too far. Not to mention, we all bash Fredi from time to time, but he’s a pretty good manager. I just saw that John Heyman ranks him 2nd as the NL manager of the year so far. Who knows if he’d be the right guy for a veteran team, but he’s pretty adept at working with these young Fish.
Having said that, i would love to have holliday, But he’s not going to cost just some random AAA players. Holliday is the type of player who costs you at last one of your top 2 or 3 prospects. Say goodbye to a Stanton, Dominguez or Morrison. And if the issue is that Oakland can’t afford to re-sign Holliday, why would they want Uggla? He’ll also be a 2010 free agent whom they can’t afford. Teams that dump stars at the deadline do it for young, cheap prospects to build around. If cheap-o Oakland actually wanted to spend a fortune to re-sign a free agent, they would just keep Holliday.
I give you credit for thinking big, but that’s a deal that doesn’t seem feasible.
I really think Soo-Choo would cost us a lot as he has been very good this year. We’re just not going to get Holliday, which is okay with me. I don’t want to give up Stanton ever, unless it is much later in his career. He is a special kid.
Scott would be nice and he’d be exactly what our lineup needs. I bet we’re practically silent at the deadline. There’s really not much out there.
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#1 Marlin fan from Illinois![/b]
[size=3][color="teal"]I[/size] [color="black"]LiVE[/color] [color="teal"]FOR[/color] [color="black"]THiS[/color][/color]
So I just thought of a 9 player trade that's probably way too convoluted yet still makes sense (to me)
The teams are the Giants & Marlins
The Marlins Give up
Dan Uggla-2B-Helps the Giants Middle of the Order
Isaac Galloway-OF-Because I don’t think the Giants would give up Romo for just Uggla
Wes Helms-3B/1B-To platoon with Ishikawa
Hayden Penn-RHP-For the Giants to have a real long relief guy
Taylor Tankersley-LHP-To take Romo’s spot in the bullpen
The Giants give up
Sergio Romo-Could be Marlins Closer
Rich Aurilia-To replace Helms
Fred Lewis-For the Marlins to hope he taps into his athleticism and becomes a solid ML OF
Justin Miller-To help booster the Marlins bullpen
Like I said this is probably too convoluted but I think it does make sense so what do you guys think?
Grab Some Pine Meat!
interesting.
The Giants may be a good fit, as they apparently have a lot of young arms in their system. And Romo would be a great pick-up.
I guess a deal with the Giants is possible, but I don’t think this particular mammoth deal is. There’d be too much flotsam and jetsam being exchanged that I doubt either side wants. Penn and Tankersley have no worth at all, and Aurilia is on his last legs. I keep hearing that Lewismay become a good hitter someday, but he’s never shown it. I doubt the Fish would give up Uggla for just one quality prospect and some filler.
I don’t even know if the Fish will deal Uggla at all. With the team in contention, perhaps they’ll decide to plugging on with him, even if it’s a walk year.
I doubt they wouldn’t offer arbitration to him, so while it’s a walk year in the sense that they could release him, it really isn’t because he is under team control for as long as they’ll have them, and he has value staying on the team, if only to be traded.
I was incorrect on Uggla's contract.
I see now that the club has 2 more years of arbitration with him, and that he’s not actually a free-agent until 2012.
That’s definitely a good thing; there’s less likelihood of a desperation trade this year to avoid losing him for nothing more than a compensatory draft pick.
Scout In Portland Oregon
I went to a Portland Beavers (Padres) and Colorado Sky Sox (Rockies) AAA game yesterday afternoon. In the stands, behind the plate was a Marlins scout who was paying a lot of attention to the Portland starter Will Inman. Did a lot of timing of his delivery to the plate from the stretch.
Perhaps a Marlins and Padres deal is in the works?
Could the Marlins be in the hunt for Roy Halladay?
Of course not, but it’s fun to speculate. According to SI’s John Heyman, this is what Toronto wants:
The Jays will want one MLB-ready position player, one top pitching prospect who’ll be ready by next year and at least a third top-of-the-line prospect, one competing executive said he heard. Whatever the requirements, the package will have to be huge in terms of talent, everyone agrees.
Hmm. One MLB-ready position player = Uggla?
One top pitching prospect who’ll be ready by next year = West? Tucker?
A third top-of-the-line prospect = Dominguez or someone else other than Stanton?
That would be an interesting trade. I don’t know how well the offense would play without another crucial bat, but Halladay is a consistent 6+ win player and a legitimate staff ace. A rotation of Halladay, JJ, and Ricky would be fearsome to say the least.
That being said, Uggla would have no position on Toronto (and DH will soon be filled by Travis Snider/Adam Lind), and our pitching prospects just aren’t as good as they used to be. West is the best arm in the minors and we’ve seen he’s at least a season or two away from being major-league ready. Tucker is very raw and likely a bullpen pitcher in the making.
Fun to think about though, you’re right. I can’t shake the image of Halladay coming to the weak league and feasting on NL East hitters after years of beating back the Red Sox and Yankees.
unfortunately, you might get that image in action
Philly is certainly going to be in on him, and they’ve had a number of already well-regarded prospects raise their profiles this year.
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