Sergio Mitre has signed with the New York Yankees. If he can get back in form, it will be a nice pickup for the Yanks.
Also moving is Justin Miller, who has joined the San Francisco Giants as a non-roster Spring Training invitee.
No surprise here — the Marlins have released Sergio Mitre.
Today is the best day of they year. America’s pastime and our obsession begins. Today we’re all undefeated and in first place (except for the Red Sox and A’s, but we won’t get into that). Even though all the analysts have decided how we will do (hint: last in the NL East), today we look ahead and wonder. We’ve seen veteran teams achieve (1997) and underachieve (2005) and we’ve seen young teams fail (1998), struggle (2006), and win it all (2003). So today we celebrate the best day of the year More
The Marlins are finalizing their roster by sending Josh Johnson, Sergio Mitre, Henry Owens, Harvey Garcia, and Anibal Sanchez to the DL.
MLBTR speculates that the Marlins are looking to trade for another starter. We know Sergio Mitre is out and Scott Olsen is slow to recover but is it worth trading away Mike Jacobs or some younger talent to get one of these guys?
potentially available starters include Kyle Snyder, Kei Igawa, Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, Jason Marquis, Daniel Cabrera, Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Matt Belisle, Justin Germano, Anthony Reyes, Cliff Lee, Jeremy Sowers, Aaron Laffey, and Gustavo Chacin.
BTW, I don’t buy the salary argument. If the Fish found a meaningful starter who has a multi-million dollar salary, I’m sure ownership would make it’s infamous one-player salary splurge.
We’re launching our first poll (it’s our first poll so if it’s broken, please be patient with us). Today’s poll is a pretty basic one: what was the best trade in Marlins history? More
Until Sergio Mitre ends up with a cup stuck on his head.
From tonight’s game (I’m guessing Aaron Boone was involved)
Just when we thought Josh Johnson was on his way back, he experiences another setback (how many setbacks is that?)
Johnson threw three good innings for Jupiter last night but woke up this morning with arm stiffness. As a result, the team is sending him to visit baseball’s favorite chop-shop — Dr. James Andrews. Since we’re in late July, ligament replacement surgery will knock him out until the 2009 season.
I think we all hoped the young Marlins rotation will turn out like the young guys in the early 2000s who ended up winning the 2003 World Series. Now they’re looking more and more like that young Cubs rotation with Wood and Prior.
Lets recap:
Looks like Scott Olsen is back to his old tricks.
The Marlins have suspended Olsen 2 games for what’s officially being called “insubordination and conduct detrimental to the team”. What actually happened is that he got into a fight with Sergio Mitre after he was pulled from yesterday’s game. Maybe he was upset that Mitre knows how to get ground ball outs and not walk batters.
Olsen will not miss his next start on Wednesday and only loses about $4,000 in salary. This is probably a good thing because Olsen is a bit of a head case mentality and maybe he will feel like he has something to prove.
He is lucky that we traded away Randy Messenger.
Fine win today for the Florida Marlins against the Washington Nationals — great pitching and timely home runs will do the trick.
When we look at the Marlins today and consider all the bad things that have happened (injuries to pitching staff, strikeouts, errors, all those games Jorge Julio blew) the one stat that stands out is the poor home record (18-26). If the Fish had a decent wining home record, combined with the winning road record (25-22), they would be fighting for first place in the NL East.
So why have we failed? I think it comes down to two things — pitching and defense.
Historically, the Marlins have had good home records even in the worst of years. That has to do with the constant focus on pitching and defense. Starting with the second generation of the Marlins (around 1996), the team has always tried to have a strong defensive presence in the infield while sending out good pitchers. Dombrowski and Beinfest have both done great work bringing in talented arms throughout the years (think of the rotations in 1997, 2003, and 2006) and keeping a solid infield (think of the gold-glove caliber infield for most of this century).
Now, Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphin Stadium is a pitchers park. Humid summer air combined with the a good infield, scoreboard in left, deep gaps, and the Bermuda Triangle means fewer home runs and quick outs on ground balls.
The 2007 Marlins are a great offensive team. They have power and speed in various positions. But they also have a crippled pitching staff and the defense has been horrible. So now, instead of us beating offensive teams in our defensive park with pitchers and defense, we are the offensive team without pitching and defense in a pitchers park.
This all brings us back to today’s win. Serio Mitre had 17 groundball outs and the Marlins showed some solid defense. The result? a 5-2 win.