2024 Game Thread

[fish16]

i can circle nxt year, but if i dont do anything to make it happen, its meaningless. The moves they have made at this point have ruined any ability to compete until at least 2026, more likely 2027. They are going to trade Jazz. Tanner Scott needs to go any day now. With Kimbrel struggling the orioles are the perfect fit.

[lou]

i can circle nxt year, but if i dont do anything to make it happen, its meaningless. The moves they have made at this point have ruined any ability to compete until at least 2026, more likely 2027. They are going to trade Jazz. Tanner Scott needs to go any day now. With Kimbrel struggling the orioles are the perfect fit.

You might be right it is 2026 (because the 2024 excuse is Sandy, and now 2025 gets shifted to Eury maybe, endless cycle, etc.), but until two of Jazz/Sandy/Eury/Garrett/Cabrera/Max/Weathers are traded, they'll probably be in pretty OK shape as they have 12+ other. This is a wait and see.

[lou]

It's not like the Marlins have never done what it takes to win. They did it in 1997, 2003 and 2023. I won't count 2004 and 2020 because my memory is hazy but I believe they put some pieces in play to try to win.

They had a terrible off season this year because the owner is a broke dick fuk (in pro ownership speak).

But they absolutely have a year circled. It sure as shit isn't this year after their off season and Eury/Brax's injury.

But 2025, 2026 (most likely) or 2027 is circled and we are going up, up and away (I couldn't resist) after this disaster of a season that hopefully by some miracle produces a #1 or #2 draft pick.

They definitely at minimum half-tried in 96/04/05/12, but overall this is a pretty low record of competency where at best maybe 25% of the organization's seasons have been competitive ones.

So that goes to the question of what needs to happen for Bruce to make the next small window for this team and greenlight say a $130m payroll (18th overall only!!!) for 3 years before a tear down if it doesn't work out? Basically recreate 2003-2005. As discussed ad nauseam, the thing I see for the on the field/payroll purposes is a 5 year window of Sandy(Noble replaces), Eury, Garrett, Cabrera, Max, Weathers, Jazz (extension), wide variety of likely good/good enough controllable pieces (Burger Edwards, DLC, Brujan, Martorella, Faucher, Nardi, Maldonado, etc.), etc. and that starts in 2025 if they so choose. Adames+Jansen+legitimate 1 year types in FA or similar gets that team very close to being very good if they nail the presumed upcoming Luzardo/Scott trade coming up and get 2-3 more bats that way too.

Frankly, that's what should be happening, but the counterpoint of "Bruce is cheap and doesn't give a shit as he just cashes the MLB rev share and views this as a longterm asset he will eventually sell for more money as only so many people can own a MLB franchise" is also valid.

I'm just not sure how they can decide let's tear it all down and try again in 2027 after what's happening now. How much can you bludgeon the community? Bruce and Bendrox are a laughing stock and they are smart enough to realize that, so I'll be really shocked if they give such a little shit and trade everyone in or entering arbitration and circle years from now when practically speaking, they need 5 bats for next year. And yea, 3 of those bats need to be very very good, but you're going to blow up the team and kick the can 2-3 years down the road, when you just need 5 bats and your payroll is roughly $60m bucks? I'll be surprised. But they make bad decisions often, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

[lou]

That’s called a rehab assignment.

Edwards getting 30 PA and thrust back into the majors seems kind of cruel to me, ignoring any service time considerations. 2 months could be way too long depending on what he does when he's back in games and if he didn't miss a beat, but I don't think there is a rush with him at all.

It's what I said earlier, Edwards being an unquestionable 40 man roster keep kind of works against him. If this is a try out year at this point (which it is), I frankly would rather give as many PA as possible to Edwards position competitors - Bride, Otto, Brujan, I guess Rivera - and see if any of them stick. They really need to find some 40 man guys (or some bench options) to start filling out the team.They really need to hammer Pereda, Banfield, Johnston, Bride, Otto, Brujan, Rivera, Gordon, Conine, Sasaki, yes even Garcia, and J. Sanchez (worth arb? catches up to peripherals? traded in small deal?) IMO and see what else they actually have with these guys. Plus hammer the waiver wire as finding the next Cody Ross (or Jon Berti who was a FA signing!) is a thing that really needs to happen.

Basically, I think you give Edwards a lot of time in AAA (maybe 1/2 at SS too as fuck it who cares) and he gets the last 4-6 weeks of the season up. Get the cup of coffee call up to ramp up for next year, but churn baby churn those other guys until then.

[Namaste]

Bruce and Bendorx are a laughing stock and they are smart enough to realize that, so I'll be really shocked if they give such a little shit and trade everyone in or entering arbitration and circle years from now when practically speaking, they need 5 bats for next year. And yea, 3 of those bats need to be very very good, but you're going to blow up the team and kick the can 2-3 years down the road, when you just need 5 bats and your payroll is roughly $60m bucks? I'll be surprised. But they make bad decisions often, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

This sums up nicely the soap opera I'm interested in watching and why I'm not DONE WITH THIS TEAM.

[lou]

This sums up nicely the soap opera I'm interested in watching and why I'm not DONE WITH THIS TEAM.

And that is maybe immediately (very) wrong!

Jon Heyman - “The entire team is up for grabs,” one rival exec says.

https://nypost.com/2024/05/09/sports...adres-shocker/

I don't know what "entire team" means, but at minimum that sure as hell sounds like they are going to move a bunch of guys and there is a pretty low margin of error there if they don't return with call it 7 SP (Sandy, Garrett, Cabrera, Max, Weathers, Eury, and we'll be gracious and say Puk/Hoeing can be considered a 7th) + Jazz. They'd need that base to be able to plug in the 5-7 guys they'd need around the club controlled dudes.

If Fish16/others is right and this is a circle 2026/2027 scenario, and we can assume no internal extensions, I would argue every player listed below needs to be traded by opening day 2025 once they show health and they'd get proper value for them. Many of this can go immediately, if not frankly all of it besides Cabrera, Puk, and Sandy as let them get healthy first.

Bender
Brazoban
Cabrera
Chargois
Garrett
Go (hardly even knew ya)
Hoeing (always be trading relievers having a good year even with control)
Luzardo
Puk
Rogers
B. Smith (seems kind of OK now?)
Bethancourt
Anderson
Bell
Burger
Jazz
DLC
Garcia
Gordon
J. Sanchez
and finally...... Sandy Alcantara. Gotta go.


It would need to be a top to bottom complete tear down of moving all money off 2026/2027 besides first year arbitration guys (Eury, Max, Weathers, Nardi, Faucher, etc.). Practically speaking, I think they could get this for that trade group above, so 20-30 names would get quickly added to the above with core 2024 draft picks and you'd have amazing 2025 draft picks for sure.

FV55/50 - 3
FV50 - 3
FV45 - 7
FV40 - 12
FV35+/Real Flyers - 10

They'd have close to the best farm in baseball quickly here more than likely with a new target window of 2027-2031 or so.


Not sure I can take another 2+ year rebuild as the end result would probably be instead of saying they have a $60m team needing 5-7 bats in 2025, we're just going to change that to they have a $40m team needing 5-7 players in 2027 (because Eury/Max/few others will hit their own arbitration and instead of paying Garcia, they will be paying Giancarlo $10m each year 26-28, so they would be relatively in the same position as how much better could these new players be than collectively Jazz, Sandy, Burger, Garrett, Cabrera, DLC, Puk, Rogers, etc. Those guys are pretty good or should be good?).

So what's being accomplished here unless they have say 3 perfect "Ozuna" trades, have 2 perfect drafts in a row, and hit on a few of the guys they have already (VMJR, Head, Noble, White etc.). Absent them turning this group into Gunnar, Holliday, Westburg, Cowser, Kjerstad, Bradish, Grayson, Mayo, Basallo, etc., they will be the same exact place as right now, but they'll have an extra $20m to spend in free agency which is really not a lot of money. Seems kind of crazy to punt 2 years to have marginal extra money, because I guess there is hope eternal you can run the gauntlet and get 10 crazy young and great guys like the Orioles have.


Rinse/repeat if they do this. Bruce should be run out of town if this is their Plan A.

[Namaste]

Bendix looked like he was going to throw up when he said "more difficult decisions will have to be made" after the Arraez trade so I won't be shocked at all if it's a complete FIRE SALE. And I'll be here posting about it!

[lou]

Bendix looked like he was going to throw up when he said "more difficult decisions will have to be made" after the Arraez trade so I won't be shocked at all if it's a complete FIRE SALE. And I'll be here posting about it!

Hopefully it drives everyone else away so Bruce sells because frankly, nothing is going to change absent this turning into 10 studs (30+ collective WAR) for collectively under $30m for 2027. Eury/Max are over half this money if all went to plan too:

Eury
Max
Weathers
Noble
White
VMJR
D. Head
Epic breakout from a Berry, Cappe, Cruz, Cova, Fulton, etc.
----
Luzardo return 1 (B. Lee?)
Luzardo return 2 (G. Gilbert?)
Sandy return 1 (C. Mayo?)
Sandy return 2 (Bradfield/Basallo?)
Jazz return 1 (Rushing/Cartaya?)
Jazz return 2 (K.Hurt/R. Ryan?)
Braxton return 1 (Justin Foscoe?)
Cabrera return 1 (Blake Mitchell?)
Burger return 1 (Jake Eder?)
----
2024 1st rounder
2024 2nd rounder
2025 1st rounder (# 1/2 overall?)

Gonna need to bat .500 here as this would be the presumed top 20 assets.

And then, maybe year 10 of the new ownership group (2027) is when they will FINALLY spend with that team above, with the fear that Giancarlo Stanton isn't their 2nd highest paid player after Eury. No joke there, he's getting $10m in 2027.

Basically, I'm not sure what a firesale accomplishes beyond Bruce saving and making money. It just gets them back to right now on the field in a few years, with maybe a little more money to spend but thats negligible.

It's just beyond stupid and an insult to the City of Miami, Major League Baseball, and all the fans. They blow it up, I think something will give here. They can't let this guy drive what is left into the ground. The team isn't moving. They have 20+ years left. Should be fun!

[Nick]

Meanwhile, Max Meyer’s been absolute shit in AAA. Gotta love being the worst team in the league and deciding to play mind games with up and coming talent that is actually doing well. No definitely no chance this could stunt development or anything.

[Namaste]

Meanwhile, Max Meyer’s been absolute shit in AAA. Gotta love being the worst team in the league and deciding to play mind games with up and coming talent that is actually doing well. No definitely no chance this could stunt development or anything.

10 innings

.393 BABIP

3.71 xFIP

But yeah I'm definitely expecting him to get injured down there from the ramp up ramp down.

What a time to be a diehard.

[fish16]

Trevor rogers is not a major league starting pitcher. The fact he is still being given leeway from a first half in 2021 when we are now in 2024 is ridiculous. Hes been garbage the majority of his career and he has 0 trade value. His velocity is also down a ton

[Nick]

Trevor rogers is not a major league starting pitcher. The fact he is still being given leeway from a first half in 2021 when we are now in 2024 is ridiculous. Hes been garbage the majority of his career and he has 0 trade value. His velocity is also down a ton

Only reasons he is still in the rotation is the injury situation. Sixto and Roderry Munoz are also in the rotation.

[Todd]

Trying to find any positives I can, and LHP Adam Laskey(Rule V from Chicago) and Chandler Jozwiak(2021 draftee) are two LHP relievers pitching well in Pensacola and could move up to Jacksonville fairly quickly.

[Namaste]

Kim Ng got SMOKED in the JJ Bleday trade

especially because she traded a desperately needed bat for an arm

[dgriot]

Kim Ng got SMOKED in the JJ Bleday trade

especially because she traded a desperately needed bat for an arm

This made me check JJ’s stats for the season, and I was expecting to see more than DLC in CF.