Local media, instead of unequivocally supporting the hometown team, again find the most inappropriate time to attack the team. After all, nothing helps a team desperately in need of public support more than a public attack on perhaps their most visible day of the year.

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 because:

• We win with pitching and no one in baseball has a deep collection of young talented starting pitchers like we do: Andrew Miller, Scott Olsen, Chris Volstad, Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez, Rick VandenHurk, Ricky Nolasco, Sergio Mitre, Burke Badenhop, and more (note: Tampa Bay has quite a few, but not as many)
• If our pitchers can overcome the 5th inning wall we will win more games.
• We have the best bullpen in the division.
• Our unfairly maligned owner, Jeffrey Loria, has given us all we could ever ask for: a World Series, a ballpark, and the Marlins Mermaids
• Larry Beinfest.
• Jeff Conine was a Marlins once more, even for a day and can now retire into the South Florida sunset.
• Half the stadium today will probably root for the Mets, but the rest of us will keep smiling as we remember what we did to the them at the end of last season.
• Every game we play from now until 2011 is one less day for Wayne Huizenga to take our stadium revenues
• It reminds me of the early days and Charlie Hough, who recently turned 60.

The Sun-Sentinel had an interesting take on last night’s exhibition game against the Yankees:

I’m pretty sure the headline is wrong. Here is what the Miami Herald said:

I wonder who got it right?

We kid of course. Unlike the headline, Juan C. Rodriguez’s article accurately captured the result of the game. The rest of the article though, hmm… Check out this nugget:

Either A-Rod was born in 1985 (rather than 1975) or the Marlins played in the NLDS against the Giants in 1987, before they existed. Maybe they meant yesterday’s starting pitcher, Andrew Miller, who attended the 2003 World Series. I’m sure it’s a common mistake to confuse Alex Rodriguez with Andrew Miller. Happened to me on my Fantasy Team. Maybe A-Rod plays for the Marlins now. We seem to remember covering it this past fall.

I’m sure by the time you read this, they fixed it. Don’t worry, we all make mistakes (thankfully, I’m a hack not a journalist).

Funny quote from Dontrelle Willis in the above video from ESPN calling himself a throw-in in the trade. ESPN has finally decided to shower Miguel Cabrera with love now that he’s not with the Marlins. For all the accolades about him accomplishing new things in Detroit, I will remind them that in this team sport, he has already achieved the top goal — a championship — with the Fish.

If you thought Spring Training would help answer many of the questions about the Marlins, think again. Here are some of what we believe are the lingering issues:

• Will Cameron Maybin make the major league roster?
  Arguably, Maybin proved that he deserves a spot but Alejandro De Aza had a strong spring and Cody Ross seems to have been penciled in all along. One argument is that you bring him up and let the future prosper. The other is that he could use more seasoning and you want him playing every day.
  Our guess: Maybin ends up in the Minors with De Aza starting
• Who starts opening day?
  The stars are aligning for Mark Hendrickson. He’s pitched well, he’s a veteran, and Scott Olsen isn’t ready.
  Our guess: Hendrickson — from NBA to opening day
• Do we have a starting rotation yet?
  Yes and no. Hendrickson has done well, he’s in. Olsen looks like he’ll be healthy by the 4th game of the season, so he’s in. That leaves Andrew Miller, Rick VandenHurk, and Ricky Nolasco to fight it out. Miller doesn’t seem to be ready yet but I wonder if the team needs him there to feel better about the Detroit trade (especially if Maybin doesn’t make the team). Nolasco and VandenHurk are both ready.
  Our guess: Miller and VandenHurk with Nolasco returning to his previous role has a long reliever
• Chris Volstad rocks but where will he pitch?
  Volstad has had a great spring but he probably won’t make the team. He’s 21 and the Marlins probably fear that he would be overwhelmed. Why risk it? Why allow his major league status clock to start ticking?
  Our guess: It’s AA for Volstad but look for him to come up later in the year, especially if our pitchers can’t stay healthy.
• Who’s on Third?
  Jorge Cantu can hit but can’t play defense. Jose Castillo can also hit, but not as well as Cantu. Dallas McPherson is injured.
  Our guess: Cantu starts for now, Castillo makes the roster, Dallas goes on the DL or directly to AAA
• Is anyone ready to be the day-to-day catcher?
  Nothing marvelous out of our catching core but it looks like Matt Treanor and Mike Rabelo will assume the role as expected. Both are banged up but expect them to be ready.
  Our guess: Treanor on opening day and then rotating until someone catches fire

If this report is true, and you must believe that at this point it should be, the Florida Marlins will honor Jeff Conine with an appropriate retirement act:

According to a source, Jeff Conine, one of the most popular players in Florida history, will sign a one-day contract on March 28, and then retire as a member of the Marlins.

…

The team also plans on honoring Conine during an on-field ceremony before their March 31 season opener against the Mets.

While it doesn’t appear as if the team will retire one of Jeff Conine’s numbers (18 and 19), we hope that changes one day (remember that Mike Lowell also wore 19, making it hard to retire it).

Fans and observers like to criticize team management for not caring about the team, its players, and the fans. But this event, should it happen, suggests that some are quick to judge (and perhaps carry and unfair bias). This is an honorable move that reminds us that there is some good in the game and that there are many good people in it.

Remember how those clowns in Broward County decided to throw money at the Baltimore Orioles for their stupid spring training site instead of investing those resources in a Marlins ballpark? Well, the Orioles are about to flip Broward off on their way up to Vero Beach.

Two Fort Lauderdale city commissioners suspect the Baltimore Orioles may abandon plans to overhaul Fort Lauderdale Stadium in favor of moving to Dodgertown in Vero Beach.

A source told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Thursday the team has an option agreement with Indian River County to move to Dodgertown, once the Los Angeles Dodgers move to Arizona, expected in 2009 or 2010.

Now, I know $40 Million is not the same as $400 Million, but Broward’s weird decision to spend so much on 30 days of spring training made no sense when you consider that a 30-year 81-day partner was looking for a deal.

From the good guys at FishStripes:

Lo Duca was traded to the Marlins in July 2004 and the last evidence in the report of him buying performance enhancing drugs was in August of the same year. Lo Duca signed a three-year deal with the Marlins in January of 2005.

If the report is accurate, the Dodgers juiced him up and sold the Marlins a bill of goods and the only way I can see to right the wrong is to give us Brad Penny back and have the Dodgers pay out Penny’s existing contract. And you wonder why I’m not the commissioner.

We’ve talked about this before:

• Why the Marlins Should Trade Cabrera
• Why the Marlins Should Trade Willis

Now that we’ve all had a day to digest the big trade, here are some of our thoughts:

• Most Marlins fans are angry. We traded away the best hitter and the best pitcher in franchise history. Both likable, both marketable, both young. Most people haven’t heard of any of the guys we got in return.
• The more we read, the more it sounds like Andrew Miller is the real deal. Tall and powerful with a slider and a cutter.
• He’s only 20 years old, but you have to wonder whether Cameron Maybin is nothing more than another Preston Wilson or worse Reggie Abercrombie
• Dallas Trahern may end up being a diamond in the rough.
• What did we get for Dontrelle? We should have received Miller, Maybin, Rabelo and probably one of the other pitching prospects for Cabrera alone.
• It’s Hanley’s team now.
• Who’s on third? I say Uggla and lets find a good defensive second basemen. Pitching and defense wins games.
• We all know the payroll is very low so would the team consider a one-year “special” deal for Andruw Jones?
• And about that payroll issue: The Marlins are profitable with this kind of payroll. It may not be as high as Forbes estimated, but it should be quite a bit. The Marlins can do themselves a great benefit if they come out and tell us that they are setting aside all this money to help build a ballpark. Miggie and Dontrelle for a new ballpark? I’d accept that deal.
• Finally, whatever happened to Dave Dombrowksi? He used to be a genius at acquiring great young talent. Now he’s collecting former Marlins and trading away his entire farm.
• Optimism from DeadSpin: “it wouldn’t surprise us in the least to see that collection of Florida cheap youngsters do one of their patented annoying wild-card runs to the World Series in a couple of years”