• Marlins Draft Josh Beckett

  • Florida chose high school right-hander Josh Beckett with the second pick in the Major League Baseball Entry Draft. Beckett, from Spring High School in Texas, was the first high school right-hander taken as high as second since Bill Gullickson in 1979. He was 13-2 with an 0.39 ERA and 178 strikeouts in 89 innings this season. Beckett, 6-4, impressed scouts with a fastball that hits the mid-90s consistently, and a lively curveball.

  • News

  • Beckett Donates $100,000

  • Pitcher Josh Beckett has made a $100,000 donation to found the Florida Marlins-Josh Beckett Youth Baseball Tournament, a featured component of the Club’s new “Cornerstone for Kids” community program.

  • News

  • Marlinsanity? The Marlins On the Cover of Sports Illustrated

  • For the 5th time, the Marlins are on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

    With a photo of Ozzie Guillen and Jose Reyes laughing will sitting on top of the dugout at Marlins Park, the word “Marlinsanity?” graces the cover of this coming week’s Sports Illustrated magazine. The teaser for Ben Reiter’s article uses words like “bing”, “psychedelic”, “mad”, and “mania”. It’s sure to be an interesting read.

    As for previous Marlins SI covers, the list is short. The logical ones, meaning World Series wins: Edgar Renteria (11/3/97) and Josh Beckett (3/12/07); and the odd ones: one-week Marlin Mike Piazza (5/28/98) and Dontrelle Willis in a global-warming flooded Joe Robbie Stadium (3/12/07).

  • News

  • SI Hacks Continue to Push Loria Urban Legend

  • I’ve always thought that Jeffrey Loria‘s bad reputation in the media was highlight exaggerated. Therefore, I’m not surprised to read that Sports Illustrated just named him as one of the 5 worst owners in MLB. Here is what they had to say:

    Despite the best efforts of another crop of youngsters, Loria may be running a second franchise into the ground. The art dealer turned a nation of fans against him with his first team, the Expos, before forcing their move from Montreal and selling them back to Major League Baseball. He then took control of the Marlins and watched his exciting team shock the Yankees in the 2003 World Series and then became Miami fans’ worst nightmare: the second coming of Wayne Huizenga. The Marlins slowly have been rebuilding themselves with more young talent, despite the lowest cash outlay provided by any owner, and could be turning a corner soon. That is, until Hanley Ramírez and Dan Uggla are shown the door like Josh Beckett, Derrek Lee and Miguel Cabrera.

    =It is clear that the SI team just phoned this one in. After all why do any research and thinking when you have this urban legend about Mr. Loria. While he didn’t make the best moves in Montreal, he was, in the end, nothing more than a caretaker for a dying franchise. His time with the Marlins has been a mix — a couple of fire sales on one hand, but a championship and a new ballpark on the other. We can debate his decision to keep a low payroll for most of his tenure but it is the results on the field and talent today that matter. Despite not being a serious contender since winning it all in 2003, the team still outperforms many MLB teams over this period.

    Today, the Fish are looking at a new ballpark which secures their existence in South Florida for the long run. Hanley Ramirez is locked up for the next 6-years of his potential Hall of Fame career. Larry Beinfest and Mike Hill continue to run and excellent front office which has built a nice core of young players that allows the Fish to compete. Yes, we will miss Josh Beckett, Derrek Lee and Miguel Cabrera but no team (other than the Yankees, perhaps) could have kept all these guys. In fact, in baseball, you can be good one day and terrible the other. See Dontrelle Willis. And SI, since you liked ripping Dan Uggla for his All-Star errors, but now elevate him to a star, I will point out his sub .200 average today.

    I’m not elevating Mr. Loria on a pedestal. He, like every MLB owner, has made mistakes and clearly he hasn’t spent as much money as everyone would like him to spend. But his performance as the owner of the Marlins has been a successful one. He has a championship, a great front office, a new ballpark and talent for the future. It’s something very few teams have today.

  • Opinion

  • The Marlins are Everywhere

  • The baseball season just ended and already the Marlins are making news across the league:

    • Congratulations to Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, Julian Tavarez, Dave Magadan, and Gary Tuck for winning the World Series with the Boston Red Sox. Extra credit to Mike for being named the World Series MVP (although we all know that had Boston lost that game, Josh would have won the next one and ended up with another MVP). Asked about his two rings, Mike said:

      “I think with the Marlins no one expected us to do this and I think with the Red Sox people expect you to win and I think both are very satisfying.”

    • Welcome back Joe Girardi. You have just been named the manager of the New York Yankees. Lets hope you know how to behave with your new owner because the younger Steinbrenners seem as feisty as their father.
    • Speaking of the Yankees, greetings to A-Rod, who is now a free agent and some are reporting that the Marlins may make a run at him (unlikely since he’ll get a long-term deal somewhere else) and that the Yankees may try to replace him with Miguel Cabrera (maybe, but hopefully no).
    • See you later to Armando Benitez who filed for free agency and will now have to beg someone else to pitch for them.
    • Hello to Yorvit Torrealba who joins the growing list of catchers who are rumored to be talking to the Marlins He handled the Rockies pitching staff very well.
    • Farewell to Edgar Renteria who heads over to the the American League, joining Dave Dombrowski‘s project to rebuild the 1997 Florida Marlins (plus Pudge). No word on yet on whether they can convince Ed Vosberg to come out of retirement.

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