Marlins Continue to Play Unwatchable Baseball, Fall 12-5 to Blue Jays

[Swifty]

Remember when this team was supposed to be interesting?

[Mainge]

What the fuck.

[Swifty]

Indeed. At the very least, we need Anibal to start pitching better. He's basically all we've got to start making the upper levels look good (I still think we're going to keep Z).

[Anonymous]

Are you suggesting we trade Anibal Sanchez?

[Swifty]

We'll almost have to. Lots wrong with the team and not much in the high levels of the minors. Anibal's an exceptional pitcher and I think a "smarter" front office will see his value and give us a nice package for him. Outside of Greinke and Hamels, he'd be the best rent-a-pitcher at the deadline, and, unlike Greinke and Hamels, won't command a massive free agent commitment.

[Anonymous]

I would rather keep him. We have holes on the team but I don't think trading Sanchez for prospects who may or may not pan out is a good idea.

[Flum]

With the returns that this FO gets on trades, we might as well keep all our current players until they're 90.

[Swifty]

Ash, that's silly. Anibal's probably going to be able to, no problem get 3 years on the FA market, maybe even 4. That's a tough commitment to make to a guy with his injury history and with a home ballpark that looks like you need to be a complete vegetable to have a bad line as a pitcher (and, funny story, it seems we've found some).

There's just no way to get better if you continue to clutch to the few tradable assets you have.
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With the returns that this FO gets on trades, we might as well keep all our current players until they're 90.

Remember when Ricky was still in the + column and not the - column for trade evals.

[Mainge]

I would rather keep him. We have holes on the team but I don't think trading Sanchez for prospects who may or may not pan out is a good idea.

He'll be a free agent at the end of the year and it sounds like there's not an extension coming before seasons end. If he reaches the open market, it's hard to imagine us retaining him.

I wouldn't be opposed depending on the return. But obviously I'd rather keep him.

[Swifty]

I mean, look, worst case scenario we trade Anibal and find a warm body to give us 60 starts from 2013/14, and a 500 AB corner OF for 2013. Gaby's gotta go, we (likely) can't afford to keep Anibal and Z and we don't have anyone in house to fill either of those impending vacancies (and don't say Yelich and Fernandez, they're at least a year away).

Ideally, we find a way to get out from under Ricky's contract, we move Zambrano and extend Anibal, but Z likely will be the cheaper of the two, and, in that same mindset, Anibal likely brings back a greater return.

[Flum]

Remember when Ricky was still in the + column and not the - column for trade evals.

Imagine if we would have traded him. Whomever we got back would be playing with Ricky Henderson in the independent leagues right now.

[Anonymous]

Ash, that's silly. Anibal's probably going to be able to, no problem get 3 years on the FA market, maybe even 4. That's a tough commitment to make to a guy with his injury history and with a home ballpark that looks like you need to be a complete vegetable to have a bad line as a pitcher (and, funny story, it seems we've found some).

There's just no way to get better if you continue to clutch to the few tradable assets you have.

He's been pretty healthy since 09.

I can understand not wanting to make a commitment to a pitcher but the FO has shown then will when they gave JJ a 3 year contract. I think if Sanchez will accept a 3-4 year deal, we should do it. I would rather keep a player of Sanchez's caliber than trade him.
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He'll be a free agent at the end of the year and it sounds like there's not an extension coming before seasons end. If he reaches the open market, it's hard to imagine us retaining him.

I wouldn't be opposed depending on the return. But obviously I'd rather keep him.

Well, if that's the case, then yea you obviously trade him. I hope they do if they try not to extend him.

I just feel the best course of action is to extend him, though.

[Swifty]

Ash, don't know how long you've been a Marlins fan, but we've given JJ, Nolasco, Anibal a pretty fair shake at being an elite NL rotation and they've failed to get it done. I don't like the idea of locking into a core that's shown a propensity for mediocrity. I like the idea even less when there's a lot wrong with the team and one of the players is imminently tradable. I like JJ, I think he's still the kind of guy you can build around, but Nolasco is remarkably overpaid and Anibal clearly isn't the "missing piece" because he's been here for 7 years and we've never come close to playing meaningful baseball games in October. It's time to try something different, this is what we have to do.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that's a logical way of looking at it, though. They haven't been in the playoffs but the game isn't played with 3 pitchers and no one else.

Anibal Sanchez has been a damn good pitcher. I don't see the need to trade him away if the FO can extend him.

[Swifty]

Why should we extend him? So we can continue playing the slap fight brand of baseball? A "damn good pitcher" is useless if the pieces around him aren't performing. A team with a lot of holes (which pretty much describes the Marlins) needs to take drastic steps towards improvement rather than maintaining the status quo. The Marlins have found that the JJ/Nolasco/Sanchez core is incapable of carrying the team on its own, which was the hope when they were assembled/extended. They need help, and it would seem, lots of it. There's not much in free agency that we'll be players on (unless the cocaine treasure at the OB has an extra $200 mil for Hamilton) and, as it is, I really doubt we have the budget necessary to keep Anibal and Zambrano around. Hence, I think we keep the cheaper of the two (Z) trade the better one (Anibal) and begin the rapid rebuilding process. If Anibal brings us a high level arm and a high level bat (which he absolutely should) 2013 looks pretty good.