Now that Fish Bites are coming more often than ever, we are covering all sorts of Marlins-related links from all around. This makes Fish Stripes your first stop for everything Marlins, as we will be linking, well, everything Marlins five days a week. Here are your Bites for this Wednesday.
- New Marlins shortstop Jose Reyes is excited to play with incumbent shortstop and hopefully future Marlins third baseman Hanley Ramirez. Of course, the first line of this piece was the funniest.
"I can't wait to play for, er, with Hanley," Reyes said.
Reyes would be playing second base if he were playing for Ramirez. Then again, something tells me Ramirez is not one of those guys who will take over a team as a manager once he retires. Anyway, here's hoping Reyes has already gotten on the phone with Ramirez and begun talking to his fellow Dominican, because the success of the Marlins in 2012 and beyond hinges on Ramirez playing at third base, hopefully to his potental.
- In case you missed it, we recently linked to two well-respected prospect resources discussing the Marlins' top prospects. Here was John Sickels of SB Nation's own Minor League Ball, and here are Jeff Reese and Al Skroupa of Bullpen Banter. Of course, expect our own prospects expert Eric Weston to add his own words on the official Fish Stripes Top 20 Prospects List as well later today.
- Speaking of prospects past or present, C. Trent Rosencrans put up the Marlins' All-Time Homegrown Team, full of players who were originally drafted or signed internationally by the Fish. It cannot be a good sign that his option for center field was Logan Morrison; does he even watch Marlins baseball (I'm guessing no)? Juan C. Rodriguez of the Sun-Sentinel took a stab at it himself, and I may yet do the same. What do you Fish Stripers think?- The Marlins apparently were among the worst in "manufactured runs" (a stat concocted by Bill James to represent "runs accounted for by something other than station-to-station baseball), but Juan C. Rodrigurez thinks that pairing Jose Reyes and Emilio Bonifacio will add a lot to that category and may bring back the golden age of the 2003 World Series. Manufactured or not, runs are runs are runs, and Reyes's projected 20 or so runs better than average is likely a lot better than what we saw from the third base position in 2011 (21 runs below average not counting Emilio Bonifacio in 2011).
- Danny Knobler of CBSSports says that the next big bidding war following the Yu Darvish Posting Derby will be for Yoennis Cespedes, and that some teams think that the Marlins are the favorites. In fact, both Jeffrey Loria and Ozzie Guillen showed up in the latest Cespedes hype video.
- Over at Marlin Maniac, Ehsan Kassim is getting Florida fans to vote for their favorites between the 1997 and 2003 versions of Florida Marlins at each position. This week, he is looking for you to vote between the two teams' second basemen. For the last vote, he only got eight (!) votes in the ballot, so help a fellow blogger out and vote!
Around the League
- Remember how, way back in 2005 and 2006, Marlins fans were so happy to have Larry Beinfest on their side? Remember how they don't particularly find him as awesome anymore? Leave aside any notions of how Beinfest may not be with the times in terms of statistical analysis; Ben Lindbergh of Baseball Prospectus thinks that your smart GM may have been obsoleted by the rise of other GM's just as smart as he is.
- Can you believe the Cincinnati Reds threw all of their excess prospect depth at the San Diego Padres for Mat Latos? It was an excellent trade for both sides, as San Diego got young prospects to develop and hopefully fill out their hole-filled roster while the Reds got a player who could put them a good deal closer (though not close enough) to contention.
At Fish Stripes
- First off, if you did not catch it already, all of SB Nation now has the support of an Android app! This means that you can enjoy the awesomeness of Fish Stripes from your Android device all mobile-like. Sweet.
- Yesterday, I discussed what the Marlins' possible trade options were for acquiring a starting pitcher. The market is thin given the Fish's lack of assets. However, Edwin Jackson is available, and it is curious why the Marlins would not consider him despite him being right up their alley.