Free Agent Signings

[Miamarlin21]

Thought I'd make this thread to house all the minor league free agent signings the Marlins do this off season.


According to MLBtraderumros, the Marlins have signed outfielder Josh Kroeger. I don't know too much about him. He was a 4th round pick in 2000 by the Diamondbacks.
--------------------
Additionally, from Baseball America, the Marlins have signed right-handed pitcher Zach Dials, left-handed pitchers Darin Downs, Mark McLemore, and outfielderJose Durate.

[Hugg]

Duarte hit .300/.366/.443 for Greensboro last season, at 25 :lol

Kroeger made his major league debut in 2004 and hasn't been back since. He hit .204/.285/.364 in AAA last season.

[Miamarlin21]

The Marlins re-signed catcher/utility man Vinny Rottino.

Also, the Marlins have re-signed infielder Tim Torress (great guy) and signed right-handed pitcher Frank Mata and left-handed pitcher Victor Garate.

[DropkickAlex]

CHAMPIONSHIP!

[Hugg]

Need to sign Jose Mata

[jOOj]

Can't afford.

[Erick]

The Marlins re-signed catcher/utility man Vinny Rottino.

Also, the Marlins have re-signed infielder Tim Torress (great guy) and signed right-handed pitcher Frank Mata and left-handed pitcher Victor Garate.

Garate's minor league #'s are pretty intriguing.

[Fish and Chips]

#Marlins sign LF Chris Lubanski, who enjoyed a fine year in AAA Las Vegas launching pad: .293/.361/.538 with 17 HR in 355 AB.

http://twitter.com/eddymk

Anyone else have information about him?

[Bucklin12]

http://twitter.com/eddymk

Anyone else have information about him?

Wow. Decent sign.

Royals first round pick in 2003. I think like No. 7 overall?

He blew up in the Cal League one year and was a top prospect in the Royals system for a couple years. I haven't heard much about him in the past couple years, but it appears he definitely has an approved approach although his power potential isn't closed to what it used to be.

[Hugg]

94k in 355ab

.335/.397/.636 in Vegas
.251/.325/.441 on the road

[lou]

.251/.325/.441 on the road

If he can resemble this on the MLB level, that would be awesome. He's a lefty.

[Hugg]

We tried to sign him last year too: http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/01/15/sports/doc4b5001aab893e097882568.txt?viewmode=default

I wonder if he can still play center field, hasn't since 2006 (minus 1 brief appearance in 2008 with 0 balls hit to him)

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins have signed former Royals infielder Ruben Gotay to a minor league contract.

#Marlins sign veteran 3B Ruben Gotay. Hard to believe he's still just 27. Led PCL in walks last year, hit .297/.430/.477 vs. Triple-A RHPs.

[Miamarlin21]

No idea who this guy is but here it is anyway:

Florida Marlins
Signed: 3B Mike Cervenak

[Erick]

No idea who this guy is but here it is anyway:

A career journeyman who got his first hit and RBI in the big leagues against the Marlins, in 2008.

[Miamarlin21]

Ohhh. Was he with the Phillies?

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins have signed right-handed pitcher Sean Watson. He was with the Reds. He's nothing special, Scott Tyler part II.

[Hugg]

Smart. Innings and if he pitches well, they'll just trade him to a contender.

[Miamarlin21]

Hugg, who are you referring to?

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins have signed former National, outfielder Jorge Padilla and former D-Back Alex Romero.
--------------------
They have also re-signed left-handed pitcher Jeff Gogal

[Erick]

Ohhh. Was he with the Phillies?

Yeah.
--------------------
Marlins have signed right-handed pitcher Sean Watson. He was with the Reds. He's nothing special, Scott Tyler part II.

My brother played against Sean Watson in high school. He was actually really good once upon a time, if I remember correctly.

Edit: Guess I did remember correctly. 2nd round pick, five years ago.

[Miamarlin21]

Yeah.
--------------------


My brother played against Sean Watson in high school. He was actually really good once upon a time, if I remember correctly.

Edit: Guess I did remember correctly. 2nd round pick, five years ago.

Yea, he used to be good but went down hill quickly.

[marlins_virus.exe]

We signed Shawn Hill. Not a bad depth signing.

The Marlins have added some big league experienced starting pitching depth to their Spring Training roster.

Right-hander Shawn Hill, who made four starts with the Blue Jays, has signed a Minor League contract with an invitation to Spring Training. If Hill, 29, makes the team, he will earn $600,000.

Hill was 1-2 with a 2.61 ERA for Toronto last year, throwing 20 2/3 innings.

Hill broke in with the Montreal Expos in 2004. The right-hander also has pitched for the Nationals and Padres.

He has made 44 big league starts, and is 9-18 with a 4.74 ERA.

http://joefrisaro.mlblogs.com/archives/2011/01/hill_signs_minor_league_deal.html

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins have signed infielder Gregg Dobbs to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.

[Hugg]

He used to be cool

[nny]

like

problem past two years have mostly been BABIP related. definitely think he could be a solid low-mid 700 OPS guy off the bench like Gload was for us a couple years ago.

[Big Z]

I wonder what this means for Eric Chavez

[marlinsfan24]

I still would prefer Chavez

[Miamarlin21]

We signed Shawn Hill. Not a bad depth signing.



http://joefrisaro.mlblogs.com/archives/2011/01/hill_signs_minor_league_deal.html

Hill has been released.
--------------------
Thought I'd make this thread to house all the minor league free agent signings the Marlins do this off season.


According to MLBtraderumros, the Marlins have signed outfielder Josh Kroeger. I don't know too much about him. He was a 4th round pick in 2000 by the Diamondbacks.
--------------------
Additionally, from Baseball America, the Marlins have signed right-handed pitcher Zach Dials, left-handed pitchers Darin Downs, Mark McLemore, and outfielderJose Durate.

He has also been released.

[dgriot]

Catcher Brian Dice of Lenoir-Rhyne University signed, will play for GCL Marlins

http://www.lrbears.com/article.asp?articleID=1229

[marlins_virus.exe]

We signed 22 year old rhp Brett Zawacki to pitch in Greensboro

http://m.newstrib.com/mobile/articles/default.aspx?title=Zawacki+joins+Florida+Marlins+o rganization&id=28727&sid=55

[Hugg]

Shoulda been Jose Mata

[dgriot]

Purchased Alex Caldera from the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, assigned to Hammerheads

http://www.fmredhawks.com/pressbox/news/index.html?article_id=444
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=calder001ale

Finesse pitcher who was traded from Royals to Nats for cash earlier this year - I assume he's just organizational filler

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins sign right-handed pitcher Robert Ray to a minor league contract

[Chewford]

That guy from San Diego whose name I can't remember and now Robert Fucking Ray. The Marlins are certainly showing that they are for realzies.

[Beef]

I'd like ...J...'s take

[jay576]

he has two first names so he must be good.

Triple a needs to log innings too

[Miamarlin21]

Like Ricky Bobby.

[Miamarlin21]

The Marlins have re-signed catcher Luke Montz. The 28-year-old had 22 bombs this past season for Jacksonville.

[Mainge]

bombs is so 90s.

[Miamarlin21]

#Marlins will be adding Nick Green


Yay?!

[Miamarlin21]

The Miami Marlins have signed right-handed pitcher Chad Gaudin and Rob Delanely to minor league contracts.


@eddymk
Matt Eddy
Marlins sign RHPs Rob Delaney and Chad Gaudin to minors deals, along with utility INF Nick Green.

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins also sign infielder Shawn Bowman. They have re-signed catcher Miguel Fermin, infielder Mike Cervenak, and outfielder Sergio Pedroza.

[Miamarlin21]

The Marlins have signed utility man German Duran according to a release by the independent Grand Praire Air Hogs. The 27-year-old reached the big leagues with the Rangers in 2008, but spent last season with the Air Hogs and in the Mexican League. He hit .268/.338/.429 in just 65 total plate appearances in 2011.

Yup.

[TheMendozaLine]

http://blog.myfdb.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/duranduran2.jpg

Which one of these is German?

[Miamarlin21]

Marlins have signed infielder Chase Lambin to a minor league contract. Lambin was with the Marlins organization previously during the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

[Ramp]

fun story on him over at Grantland

He woke up on Labor Day in Room 228 of a thin-carpet Comfort Inn in Rhode Island. The hot water didn't work. He went out to the parking lot and got on a white bus that took him past an orange sign that said ROAD WORK AHEAD and to a small, concrete ballpark in Pawtucket.

At McCoy Stadium, inside the visitors' clubhouse, his name was written in the lineup on a dry-erase board, playing third, batting sixth. He ate a bagel and two creatine pills, then put on the road-gray uniform of the Rochester Red Wings, the Minnesota Twins' Triple-A team.

"Every year," Chase Lambin said, "I think, 'This is the year. This is the year it's going to happen.'"

He's played in Brooklyn, Port St. Lucie, Binghamton, Norfolk, Zebulon, N.C., Albuquerque, Japan, Syracuse, and now Rochester. He's played in more than 1,000 games. He's been up to bat more than 4,000 times. He's been an All-Star in Class A, in Double-A, in Triple-A. He's never made it to the major leagues. He turned 32 in July.

He walked out of the clubhouse and through the tunnel to the dugout and onto the field to stretch. He jogged to a spot in shallow center and knelt in the grass and said a short prayer. This was how he started the last day of his 10th season in professional baseball.

The way baseball picks its best players is ruthless and authentic. The minors are a long shot in a short window. Nobody makes it to the majors on potential alone. Every player with a spot on a roster is some combination of talent, skill, luck, and timing. The higher draft picks generally have to play their way out. Chase had to play his way in.

He played at Cypress Falls High School in Houston, then Grayson County College in Texas, then the University of Texas, then the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the Mets drafted him in the 34th round of the 2002 draft, the 1,017th pick overall. They sent him to the short-season Class A Cyclones in Brooklyn. His signing bonus was a thousand bucks, his salary was $700 a month, and the manager called him "blond-haired guy."

He played for the full-season Class A St. Lucie Mets in 2003 and helped them win the Florida State League title. He played second and David Wright played third, and they were both All-Stars.

He played for the Double-A Binghamton Mets in 2004. The local paper called him Mr. Clutch. His mother came to visit, and he told her over lunch, I love this. I'll do this for as long as they'll let me. He met the woman who later would become his wife and the mother of his son.

He got called up to Triple-A Norfolk in 2005. He homered three times in the first game of a doubleheader, and then went 2-for-4 in the second. He finished the year with a .309 average and 24 home runs.

When he was in Class A, he let himself think about maybe making it to Double-A; when he was in Double-A, he let himself think about maybe making it to Triple-A; when he was in Triple-A … Keep working, then-Mets manager Willie Randolph told him one day in spring training in 2006, and we'll see you later this year.

He hit under .200 that April.

He hit under .200 that May.

"This game is humbling," he said to a reporter in Norfolk. "You're a fool if you ever think you've got it figured out."

He was sent back to Binghamton that July.

He was released the following spring.

Since then, he's been a Carolina Mudcat, an Albuquerque Isotope, a Chiba Lotte Marine in Japan, a Syracuse Chief, and now a Rochester Red Wing. He's led the Double-A Southern League in extra-base hits. He's been the MVP of the Triple-A All-Star Game. He's made more than $300,000 in a year, in Japan, but here at home the most he's ever made is $12,000 a month, and for five months of the year. Here, though, the majors are a phone call away. He's worked his way back to Rochester to hear the siren song of so damn close.

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend, before the Red Wings' last home game of the season, Chase had sat on a metal chair in the clubhouse with the leaky ceiling, drip, drip, and talked about how he was "right there."

He said: "If I could take care of my family and play until I'm 40, and never play in the big leagues, I'd do it."

He said: "I think I'm grateful for what I have and not bitter about what I don't have."

And he said: "I've never played to make it to the big leagues. I've played to play well."

But still.

"Once you get to Triple-A," he said, "you feel close."

Last year the Washington Nationals called up somebody from Syracuse 19 times; this year the Twins called up somebody from Rochester 35 times.

Chase can play every position in the infield. He can play the outfield. He switch-hits.

Never Chase.

"I don't think he takes for granted how hard it is to make it to the major leagues," said his wife, Sara. And he doesn't. He knows.

After Saturday's game, before the trip to Pawtucket, a pitcher named Kyle Waldrop got called up, and for the first time. He never lost a game in high school, where he had an ERA of 0.20, and he was a first-round pick. It took him seven seasons to make it.

Chase walked over to shake his hand.

Then he walked outside with Sara, just about due to give birth to the boy they're going to call "Champ," and he kissed her goodbye. It was after 11:30 p.m. The Red Wings were nearly 40 games under .500. The sky was black except for the lights in the stadium where the wall in left center said TWINS OF TOMORROW. But not of today. At least not for Chase. So Sara drove home, and Chase got on the team bus, headed to New England, seven hours on the road, 389 miles overnight.

He's been aware of the end since before the beginning.

After the last game of his college career, a loss in the NCAA regionals against Louisiana State in Baton Rouge, Chase stood outside the stadium with tears in his eyes. I don't want to get on the bus, he told his parents. Getting on the bus means it's over. He was drafted four days later, on the last day of the last draft in which he was eligible. When the Mets released him, in '07, he had thoughts about what might be next; when he came back from Japan, in '09, he didn't sign with a team until January, just before spring training, and he thought maybe this was it …

… but this trip to Pawtucket?

Didn't feel like the end.

"I'm optimistic," he said. "You're never 100 percent sure. But I have a good feeling. Some team out there needs a guy like me."

Some team, somewhere, where the right hits or the right plays at the right time will lead to the call, so he'll be able to tell Champ that he made it, because he didn't stop, and because he didn't quit, even though he could have.

At McCoy, his best friend on the Red Wings, Aaron Bates, sounded almost angry: "There is no way he shouldn't have had a chance already."

On the phone, from Oklahoma, his coach at Grayson, Tim Tadlock, sounded cornpone pragmatic: "Part of that is being on the right team."

And on the phone, from Texas, his mother, Wanda Lambin, sounded … like a mother: "I wish they'd give him a chance."

Pawtucket is close to Boston, but it's not that close, and in between innings these Red Sox play on the scoreboard the game being played by those Red Sox. It's entertainment for the fans. It's a reminder for the players. Still here.

In Sunday's game, Chase tripled in the fourth, and in the ninth he came up with a chance to tie the game. The Red Wings were down one. There was one out and a man on first. Batting righty against a lefty pitcher, he sliced a wicked drive down the line, in the direction of the corner in right. Double? Triple? Tie game? The Pawtucket first baseman lunged to spear the ball out of the air and stepped on the base. Double play.

He had hit it hard, really hard, and all of a sudden it was over. The end came quick.

In Monday's game, Chase tapped back to the pitcher in the second, flew out to left in the fourth, and grounded to second in the seventh. His average landed at .274. He was up fourth in the ninth. The Red Wings went 1-2-3.

He was left on deck.

Waiting.

After the game, the last game, season over, "All she wrote, in the books, can't change it," Chase said. He took off his uniform and sat in front of his locker back in the clubhouse wearing white spandex shorts. Guys threw their dirty jerseys and pants in a big bag on the floor in the middle of the room. They ate chicken and lasagna and said not a lot. Chase was alone and read a text message from Sara. She was so proud. Please hurry back.

He took his time to type his response.

I love yall so much. I'll be home soon.

He flipped his phone shut. The engine of the bus was running outside.

[Mainge]

Well damn.

[lou]

I hope that guy gets a Joe Strong moment