2025 Game Thread

[Nick]

Graham Pauley could be our opening day 3rd baseman. Graham Pauley hit .239 at AA and .224 at AAA last year. He has a .653 OPS this spring.

Things are bad.

[fish16]

norby out 4 weeks now. i couldnt even put together a starting lineup for opening day. this lineup was going to be terrible as is and now they are without probably the 2nd and 3rd best bats to start the year. And i cant even put together a rotation after Sandy and Meyer either with Cabrera, Eury, Garrett and Weathers all out. Plus Nardi out in the bullpen. I couldnt name even 4 bullpen arms out there right now.

[fish16]

AA team will be the minor league team to track to start the year. Looks like they will have Mack, Serna, Alderman, and Martorella in the lineup and a rotation including White, snelling, Mazur, Fulton, and probably Jacob Miller as well.

[fish16]

I can’t muster even a little excitement for opening day and the season and I know many on here feel the same way. If we feel that way, how do the casual fans feel and how bad is attendance going to get this season. There have been other rebuilds over the years, but the franchise really feels like it’s in the worst place it’s ever been

[Namaste]

FanGraphs has the Marlins bullpen ranked 27th in MLB (behind the Reds and ahead of the Nationals). They’re high on Lake Bachar.

[Namaste]

Everyone knew Sherman was the wrong choice. One look at his net worth when he purchased the team and everyone knew. MLB couldn’t help themselves from fellating Jeter and now Marlins fans are stuck holding the bag.

[rmc523]

Even if you want to say the recent teardown was justified. It was justified by what happened under Bruce Sherman's watch. Loria's long gone at this point. They spent money on Avisail Garcia, it was a disaster and I feel like they're using that as an excuse to never spend again. On Day 1 of his ownership, Sherman was looking to get rid of payroll. There has been no vision to this franchise since he took over beyond keeping the payroll low.

Loria had a vision. Thievery and subterfuge was the vision, but right now it's looking like at least that's something.

I didn’t like it, but I could at least understand the teardown after they bought the team (same argument applied there of need to spend and add to the team if we had a rich owner, but water under the bridge now). Now we’re restarting at square one again after that attempt failed on worse footing.
spending on a terrible free agent that everyone knew was a bad deal at the time as a reason to never spend again is atrocious…this group has yet to prove any sort of forward thinking vision except maybe lining Bruce’s pockets. On the field I don’t see anything….at least loria went nuts and spent every so often….Bruce doesn’t even think about that.

[rmc523]

said it for years now, it all goes back to the wrong owner buying the team. they needed a guy with deep pockets and the ability to understand the market, spend early and often and sustain the losses, in the hopes that you can gradually build a fanbase that consistently comes out because they trust and believe in the ownership group, and then annual revenues increase and you can sustain the higher payroll annually.

Instead they got a guy with no money and we are stuck in a circle of shit. He spends no money because no fans come out. No fans come out because he doesnt spend money. Nobody benefits. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

Yup we absolutely got screwed with this ownership group - as you said, we needed someone with deep pockets willing to spend to right the ship and get everyone to overlook the sour taste in everyone’s mouth of the last 20+ years

[fish16]

this opening day lineup is going to be unbelievably pathetic. would be even without injuries but norby and sanchez gone make it look just pathetic.

[Nick]

I mean these mother fuckers kept Michael Hill on as the GM for what 3 years, just because they didn't want to pay his buyout.

THEY KEPT THE PREVIOUS GM IN PLACE INSTEAD OF IMMEDIATELY GETTING THEIR OWN GUY IN BECAUSE THEY DIDNT WANT TO PAY THE BUYOUT.

They brought in a new GM, and let her go after by far the most successful season under Sherman. No vision. Brought in the youngest and probably cheapest GM they could possibly get, and while he may end up being good or bad, the jury's still out. He's definitely unprepared to handle what little media coverage we have, and from what I see from him and the moves he's made, looks like a pure yes man for the owner, just like Michael Hill was before him for Loria.

[Nick]

that's my entire point. Was the team a contender? No, but that doesnt mean you tear it down to nothing and start over. This team is not in a better position now than they were a year ago. It's unarguable. They got off to a bad start last year and burnt the team down without taking into consideration they were without 2 elite SP's in Sandy and Eury, Luzardo was hurt, Garrett was hurt, they sent Meyer down 2 weeks into the year for really no reason. They intentionally tanked while also being destroyed by injuries on the strength of their team while also making no effort to get better last offseason by spending money, and then used it as an excuse to say they werent good enough and blew it all up. It's fucking offensive. to act as if that was some abysmal team that got lucky without acknowledging they got extremely unlucky with injuries last year is just absurd. the bottom line is they made no effort to improve a playoff team, encountered a bunch of injuries (many of them they knew about well prior to spring last year), and then used a bad start to immediately justify a complete dismantling of any and all talent on the team.

Even if you want to say the recent teardown was justified. It was justified by what happened under Bruce Sherman's watch. Loria's long gone at this point. They spent money on Avisail Garcia, it was a disaster and I feel like they're using that as an excuse to never spend again. On Day 1 of his ownership, Sherman was looking to get rid of payroll. There has been no vision to this franchise since he took over beyond keeping the payroll low.

Loria had a vision. Thievery and subterfuge was the vision, but right now it's looking like at least that's something.

[fish16]

A team/owner with actual vision would’ve been adding a piece every year over the last few years so that the team would improve yearly, and have staggered contracts…. instead they took the opposite approach of spend nothing/add nothing and hope every single thing goes right and then are shocked when it hasn’t gone right. So here we are starting yet again from an even lower starting point. Race to the bottom to save Bruce a buck.

that's my entire point. Was the team a contender? No, but that doesnt mean you tear it down to nothing and start over. This team is not in a better position now than they were a year ago. It's unarguable. They got off to a bad start last year and burnt the team down without taking into consideration they were without 2 elite SP's in Sandy and Eury, Luzardo was hurt, Garrett was hurt, they sent Meyer down 2 weeks into the year for really no reason. They intentionally tanked while also being destroyed by injuries on the strength of their team while also making no effort to get better last offseason by spending money, and then used it as an excuse to say they werent good enough and blew it all up. It's fucking offensive. to act as if that was some abysmal team that got lucky without acknowledging they got extremely unlucky with injuries last year is just absurd. the bottom line is they made no effort to improve a playoff team, encountered a bunch of injuries (many of them they knew about well prior to spring last year), and then used a bad start to immediately justify a complete dismantling of any and all talent on the team.

[fish16]

I just don’t understand why they can’t look across town at the 2-3 other successful local franchises and understand that spending money and winning results in people coming out….
the Panthers have completely turned things around by actually spending money and winning. Our ownership group are morons that don’t understand the market at all.”

said it for years now, it all goes back to the wrong owner buying the team. they needed a guy with deep pockets and the ability to understand the market, spend early and often and sustain the losses, in the hopes that you can gradually build a fanbase that consistently comes out because they trust and believe in the ownership group, and then annual revenues increase and you can sustain the higher payroll annually.

Instead they got a guy with no money and we are stuck in a circle of shit. He spends no money because no fans come out. No fans come out because he doesnt spend money. Nobody benefits. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

[rmc523]

That is absolutely a core. Sandy, luzardo, eury, Scott, Garrett, arraez, jazz, burger, and Sanchez is absolutely a starting point that you can build off of that doesn’t need to be completely torn down to the studs. That is what a core looks like when you are in the bottom of the league in payroll. Literally all that needed to be done was spend like an actual major league organization to help the lineup. Instead, the focus was always on taking from one strength to address another weakness in a trade. Never was it even remotely considered a possibility that they could add 1 impact bat via free agency, let alone the 2-3 they needed. You can win with those pieces as a starting block, but you can’t win anything without spending the money necessary to do so. Whether that’s with that group of players or the future group of players in 3 years after we lose 100 games for the next few seasons

stripping it down for parts to save the owner money also doesn’t make the team better. It saves the owner from spending money. They have spent I think less than $10 million in free agency over the last two full offseason. They are blowing smoke uo every fans ass when they sit there with a straight face and tell you that they are better long term from all of those guys being gone.

A team/owner with actual vision would’ve been adding a piece every year over the last few years so that the team would improve yearly, and have staggered contracts…. instead they took the opposite approach of spend nothing/add nothing and hope every single thing goes right and then are shocked when it hasn’t gone right. So here we are starting yet again from an even lower starting point. Race to the bottom to save Bruce a buck.

[rmc523]

Crazy to say this, but it feels like the lowest point for the franchise. For a franchise that's had low after low too. I have almost 0 excitement for the season. Sandy vs. Skenes will be awesome, but beyond that I feel like I'll be struggling to muster excitement. I guess we know this is not the lowest low, that will come when Sandy is dealt.

I just don’t understand why they can’t look across town at the 2-3 other successful local franchises and understand that spending money and winning results in people coming out….
the Panthers have completely turned things around by actually spending money and winning. Our ownership group are morons that don’t understand the market at all.”