Grade Our Off-season

[Bobbob1313]

Have we done anything to improve from 2009?

Jorge jimenez is an improvement on bonifacio, probably. Hell, it looks like we've got 3 guys legitimately competing to have the opportunity to play over boner (jimenez, gaby, Logan).

Knowing for sure bonifacio won't play would be a huge upgrade.

[Ramp]

Jorge jimenez is an improvement on bonifacio, probably. Hell, it looks like we've got 3 guys legitimately competing to have the opportunity to play over boner (jimenez, gaby, Logan).

Knowing for sure bonifacio won't play would be a huge upgrade.

It would certainly help

[Bobbob1313]

I still think he won't be starting as long as amezaga is gone. Did he sign anywhere?

[FishFanInPA]

I'm sorry. Name me another team/fanbase that would give an A to an offseason where the team added no names and signed a player that they were supposed to. It's like congratulating a child for not touching the stove when it was hot. He has common sense and knows it wouldnt be good to touch it.

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

This isn't any of the other teams, Fip. This is the Marlins. We don't normally sign anyone to long term deals let alone star pitchers and hold on to players that are going to make more than $5 million in arbitration. This is a very good offseason for the Marlins. Besides, we finished the season in second place in the division with a franchise high in wins for the year with essentially the same team that we have now. It's not like we only won 60 games and the team needs to be completely overhauled. We have a bunch of young players that are going to have growing pains. I think last year was great for the development of our players and I expect them to be better next year.

[FishFanInPA]

very good offseason? lol. Yeah, I can name a few teams that had a "very good" offseason and none of them are the Marlins.

[Madman81]

Fip does not understand the concept of relativity.

[Fish and Chips]

Im very excited for the upcoming season!


I give it an A, because they are accomplished couple of the offseason goals i want to see:
They signed JJ to a long term deal
(most likely) use Boner as a bench player, and not a starter
And Keep two of Uggla, cantu, and ross.

So far they have surpassed my expections for the offseason, because at the begginging of the offseason, there was a serious chance that carroll, boner, and sanchez would be starting. Now it looks like it will be Coghlan, Cantu, and Uggla, a huge upgrade in my opinion

I really like this roster, it should be competitive. But it is not a finished product yet, I would still like to see another option or two for the bullpen, maybe even jose valverde. I dont think another veteran starter is neccessary, but it would be the shit, and allow volstad and west to polish up their stuff.

[Omar]

I will grade our off season at the conclusion of our off season.

This is the winner

Though if we have to come up with a midterm grade, it's definitely no more than a C. Great, they get the retard curve for finally locking up a no brain pitcher. I'm not in the yay Uggla camp because I still don't like him as a player, but I approve of keeping him rather than dumping him for no reason. We dumped Hermida, which is worth 25% of the grade on its own. We also were able to pass off Lindstrom on some moronic team.

However! I, like Ramp/Wanks/Swift, see no improvement in this team from one year to the next. We have major questions in the pen, major questions on our bench, a hit or miss lineup that has maybe two consistent bats in it to this day, two catchers who can't throw anyone out, no answer to who is starting at the corners, and a pitching staff that is still plagued with the same issues it had last year. Specifically what hole has the team addressed so far this offseason? All we've done is purge some names and keep a couple of players.

Call me when they start plugging holes and then I'll be impressed.

[wanks1212]

Yeah, exactly. I understand the Marlins-curve concept, but "they didn't get worse!" is not a reason to reward them with a "good offseason, sirs."

[lou]

I can't get into some of this. I'm into the longterm, not trying to eek out a veteran to make us feel better about pitching Anibal or RP of the week. I think we need to give time to the semi-legit kids (Gaby, Carroll, Jimenez, the 3-5 SP staff, Vanden Hurk in the pen, etc) to work shit out. I don't think any of them make/break the season (well maybe the SP, but if JJ/Ricky work out and one other guy eats innings thats a huge improvement as is) so I say give the kids a shot and if they can become players on this team. These guys don't need AAA. It's now or never, unlike Morrison, Petersen, Stanton, etc, where it's beneficial to keep them down. Because if they stink, you have potential replacements already with said Morrison, Petersen, Tucker, Ceda, and a deep farm to acquire pieces in trade (like Nick Johnson). We're in great shape short term if we go into the year as is, let alone if they do something else.

I'm going to do it just to spite you guys now: A ++++++++++

That's how much signing Josh Johnson means to this franchise. They could have busted a Gload and extended Wes Helms another year, and I'd only eliminate one of the +'s above. JJ was priority 1-10 this offseason, and they freaking did it. Even if kicking and screaming was involved.

[BigGameFish]

Ok I agree that our FO usually find gold in the scrap heap when it come to the bullpen but unless I'm mistaken it was only 2-3 years ago that our BP was putrid so I'm not giving that a pass just yet. I know we dont really NEED a vet starter but I was partial to many of the veteran free agent starters on the market this offseason. Like Sub Zero said, I'm not a huge fan of Uggla either but I DEFINATELY wont complain about us keeping him because his replacement could be 2 to 3 times worse...

Also, I forgot about us losing Gload. We need to find someone to replace that dude. He was the best bench player the Marlins have had for as long as I can remember.

I'm not really complaining eventhough it certainly may seem like it. In fact I'm very excitied for a line-up of

1. CC
2. Maybin
3. Hanley
4. Cantu
5. Ross
6. Uggla
7. Sanchez/Morrison
8. Baker/Paulino

That excites me a lot, especially if we get decent production from first base. I'm not so sure what my top 5 rotation would be yet but I would like to see RVH given a chance to make it there. Ok I'm rambling now...

If we resign Uggla and Cantu I give us an B+ which is awesome.

[SFiercex4]

On improving the bullpen:

There's no one out there to get to be assured to improve the pen at this point. Valverde was the only guy remaining that was worth a signing, and that would involve relinquishing a draft pick that the organization definitely needs (plus he's in Detroit now). Given the unreliability of bullpen pitchers outside the very best of them, the fact that we didn't make a significant bullpen signing is probably fine. If it means we're not making mistakes like Brandon Lyons' deal with Houston, I'll live with banking on scrap heap guys like the last few years.

The Bench: I don't think anyone should be worried about improving the bench when it's the least of our concerns. It's 200+ PA to replace AT MOST (really, it should have been less, but our manager isn't very smart). This is far less important than the bullpen, which is already low on the priorities chart.

Corner IF: Legitimate. I don't want to see Bonifacio playing.

Truth be told, there are so many first basemen on the market that one could be tabbed for a bench/platoon role on the cheap. If you really wanted someone for the bench, get some Triple-A guy (conveniently, we got one already to sit on the roster!) and you'll get similar production without wasting money on a Gload-type. Same thing for replacing guys for the 7th inning. You can't determine how good they are given how little they play.

The Marlins did what they had to do. The concern at third base is legitimate. Talk to me when they make sure Bonifacio isn't playing. Otherwise, it's as good an offseason as it was going to be.

[m26555]

I think the problem is that a lot of you are putting the Marlins on the same level of the rest of the teams in Major League Baseball when it comes to grading the off-season. If the Yankees or Red Sox had an off-season like this, it would probably be grounds for a D. But, we're not the Yankees or Red Sox. We're not even the Mariners or Brewers when it comes to the free agent market.

When was the last time we had as good of an off-season as this one? Probably 2004-05 when we signed Delgado. Since then, we had a fire-sale in 05-06, did absolutely nothing in 06-07, traded Cabrera in 07-08, and traded for Bonifacio in 08-09. Compare that to this off-season, where we locked up our horse and are probably holding on to Uggla.

I don't understand what some of you expect from this organization at this point.

[Swifty]

I don't understand what some of you expect from this organization at this point.

So long as you play major league baseball, you're held to a major league standard.

I'm as excited as the next person that we signed JJ, but doing what 28 other teams would have done doesn't make it great, just what is expected. I'm glad we did something right, but don't act like we reinvented the wheel over here. We gave the second highest guaranteed amount to a second year arbitration pitcher (behind Johan's $50 mil), so woo hoo wonderful for us, huzzah and all that. Beyond that, standing pat (which is what we did) is nice but also frustrating given how close we are. At some point, 80 wins and playing for two years from now gets pretty worn out. I'd like a playoff appearance, and I'd like to think I'm not alone in still thinking that's the true measuring stick of success.