Loading ...Florida’s Anibal Sanchez tossed a no-hitter tonight. He’s a rookie, which is difficult to believe, I know, since he plays for the Marlins.
I’m starting to wonder if the Marlins aren’t destined to win this Wild Card race. Joe Girardi is poised to become a managing legend (I can see him replacing Joe Torre in New York someday).
Even if they don’t make the playoffs, they’ve got some great young talent in that organization.
His next stop will probably be the Cubs. He’s a Chicago area native.
No one does a fire sale like the Marlins. Sanchez and Ramirez, a ROY candidate SS, came from Boston in the Becket-Lowell trade. They wouldn’ve have been able to afford Beckett for much longer, and Lowell’s contract was an albatross.
I know what you mean … the Marlins are the first team in MLB history to be 20 games under .500 to go over .500 in the same season.
Leave it to the Marlins, they certainly get the most bang for their buck, and we all know they’re not spending a lot of bucks on anything.
On an added not, there were only about 6,000 at the game. I wonder how many people will say that they were they at the game?
And on an every funnier note, since their existence, the Marlins (est. 1993) now have 4 no-hitters. The Mets (est. 1962) and Padres (est. 1969) have NONE.
I think you guys might like this – I put together a Reds news feed page that pulls news from the top Reds blog and Cincinatti news souces:
http://www.dcdeal.com/reds/
Great… A Marlins pitcher threw a no-hitter and their team has beat the odds in passing the .500 mark and no one is there to see any of it. Would they just move somewhere where people give a damn about baseball. Playing for a Miami team would depress me. That is awesome though, congrats to Anibal :lol:.
The roadside is littered with ‘competitive’ teams that have no realistic chance of winning it all. Let’s not settle for that just because we haven’t tasted a winning season for so long. There’s a right way and a wrong way to build a strong team. The Reds are fundamentally flawed. Even in a simulated league, you don’t construct a team around two high priced outfielders, and you sure as hell don’t do it if you’re a small market club. You do it with a solid farm system, pitching, and a key free agent here and there. Think about how many home grown position players we had on the ‘90 team. All I hear is Adam Dunn this, top 5 OPS that, walks a million times, blah blah blah. Fact is, he’s a luxury–like chrome wheels on an ‘85 Accord. Let’s move him and Griff for some elite pitching prospects to go with Bailey, Arroyo, Harang, Phillips, Bruce, EdE, Votto, Bray, etc. Let’s bring them along together and build a core that can vie for a World Series in the near future and sprinkle in the free agents at that time. This team right now is constructed on a foundation of sand. I like Dunn and Griff, think they’re both good guys and teammates, but in order to get where we need to go, you have to use whatever assets you have to get the most bang for your buck. If we had the same record but were buried in 4th like last year, I think the catcalls for change would be louder, but all I’m reading is that we just need to add a piece here or there. I don’t get it.
Sultan, you make some very valid points … look at what the Marlins have done with really only one high-priced player in Miguel Cabera. Look at what the Twins are doing. The Twins are winning because of pitching and their top hitting talent is homegrown (Maurer and Morneau). Neither go overboard on spending on salaries, and yet somehow they seem to win. Ditto for the A’s as well.
a team needs offense (see the astros), and last i checked adam dunn is a homegrown player. if you’re saying that dunn has priced himself out of our range now, then your shooting your own argument in the foot, because the problem with the all prospects approach is that it’s really hard to get a whole team to develop together without some guys moving on because of price by the time others are ready.
look at the old expos. they had so many good players come through there, and they were always decent, but in the end they were just a major league farm team for the big market clubs because they never held onto a player once he was established and the teams willing to spend snapped them up.
Grif is overpaid for his performance, and the contract hurts the reds for sure. But giving up on guys like Dunn, who do come from the system, is just resigning yourself to being decent but never great.
I agree, giving up on Dunn is not the thing to do. Sure, I wish he’d trade some of those strikeouts for singles, but I’ll take him on my team any time.
As far as Junior, I love the guy. He’s one of my all-time faves. But his contract does hurt the Reds, especially since he’s not come close to the numbers he put up in Seattle. If the Reds got that kind of production out of him, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I think the areas the Reds front office (aka Krivsky) must address are these – 1. the entire pitching staff – need a No. 1 and No. 2 starter and a solid bullpen instead of this patchwork job that we fans have had to endure this season and 2. shore up the middle infield – the Reds have got to be better defensively up the middle plus need some good offensive contribution from these positions especially at SS and 3. fix the situation at catcher – my suggestion, dump LaRue and hang on to Ross and Valetin.
Dave Drombrosky, now GM of the Tigers, set the tone for the Marlins when they started in 1993 by emphasizing young pitching, and it continues now with their late surge. Where have the Reds been all this time? Too much money spent on Junior who should have gone to the White Sox last year,which he apparently agree to. The long-ball does not get you to the playoffs.
I like Junior finishing his career here. It’s only going to be another few years and he won;t really hurt the team too badly if he would just move to a corner spot.
whitesox hit the most HRs in the AL last year. Sure they had great starting pitchers, but people are pretty quick to toss around statements like “the long ball doesn’t get you to the playoffs.” You have to score runs to win, the yankees and redsox of the last few seasons have been great examples of doing that.
Very good point. The media latched on to “little ball” with the Sox, which was simply not even remotely true. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
I don’t want to give up on Dunn, I respect what he does (except for his butchery in LF). But the fact is, he is a luxury on a small market team. His value ($10 mil) will enable you to trade for a less expensive replacement (say in the $4 mil range–still a good player), receive a top flight pitching prospect, and free up a few million to spend on some real pitching. In essence, you’re flipping one player into three. It’s what the ChiSox did when they traded Carlos Lee, not a popular move at the time. By keeping Dunn, you’re essentially saying that you value offense over pitching and defense…….and that’s OK, but just don’t expect to get to the world series unless you’re willing to spend big bucks on free agents to shore up your glaring weaknesses.
Al, I see what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t use the Expos (or the Royals) as my comparative tool, since neither organization had the guts to pony up and sign their homegrown players after developing them. I’d use the Indians of the early ’90s as a better comparison. I just have to respectfully disagree when you guys say we’d be decent but not great without Dunn. Dunn is about as good as he’s gonna get offensively, and we still haven’t climbed over .500. It’s simply not about him, but how his value can be leveraged to improve this team in the areas that really matter. Not to harp on Dunn, but he’s the only guy with marquee value who will yield the kind of talent that is worthy of trading him for. I wish I could still say that about Griffey.
I wonder how much playing on artificial turf all those years in Seattle contributed to Griffey’s injury problems since joining the Reds.
hey, i’m not saying Dunn is untouchable by any means. if a team like NYY would give up hughes and melky, that’d be tough to walk away from, especially with hughes and bailey advancing at approximately the same rate.
now that’s not going to happen, and i don’t know if you could find a deal for dunn like you’re describing. i don’t think the reds have anyone at the major league level that i would consider untouchable at this point, if someone offered a top pitching prospect etc.
what i am saying is that i disagree with the claim that having a big hitting outfielder as a core of your team is a problem. you have to score runs somehow, as much as you might want to believe that pitching is all that matters.
but it sounds like we’re in agreement on locking up your talent though. my point was exactly what you just said: if the reds don’t have the guts to pony up for their homegrown talent, they’d be like the expos.
1. Let’s not worry about Castellini’s money. He’ll pay Dunn AND other good players, if necessary.
2. This team’s offense is no longer a strength. Not even remotely. A guy who creates 7 Runs per 27 outs is not a luxury anymore.
3. What’s the use of pitching prospects? Krivsky hasn’t called up a single one this year. He prefers “proven stiffs.”
And Melky Cabrera? Really? Ryan Freel without the speed (aka Todd Walker) – that’s who you want to trade Dunn for?
you think you’re going to get more than a player like melky along with a top 5 pitching prospect? that seems pretty optomistic to me.