Clearly overmatched in his first two starts, Rick VandenHurk will have to work through his problems in AA. After today’s loss, the Fish sent VandenHurk down to Carolina. He’s has talent but he wasn’t ready last year either and clearly needs more seasoning. The Marlins did not announce who will take his roster spot.
Update: Looks like Burke Badenhop is the lucky winner of a major league roster spot.
The first place Florida Marlins have brought back Wes Helms via a trade with Philadelphia. Helms was designated for assignment by the Phillies and the Marlins traded for him plus cash in exchange for an infamous player to be named later. Helms is making $2.15 million this season and has a $750,000 buyout for 2009.
Here is what the experts are saying:
“Wes was unbelievable in the role for us in 2006, filling in at third, and filling in at first, and being a primary bat off the bench,” Marlins president of baseball operation Larry Beinfest said. “He was a guy that we never wanted to lose in the first place. We’re happy to have him back.”
To make room for Helms, the Marlins designated Jason Wood for assignment. No word if the last place winless Detroit Tigers will try to pick up Wood (just a joke).
The AP reporters worked extra hard today to come up with a stunning revelation that Alex Rodriguez earns more than the entire Marlins payroll. The earth, as expected, trembled at this newly discovered anomaly.
Showing his disgust with the situation, A-Rod said:
“The Marlins? It’s amazing,” Rodriguez said. “And they still seem to find a way to be very competitive. They have a great pool of talent; they made some unbelievable trades, so they have great personnel people. To win two championships in 11 years, that’s really admirable, and I’m very proud of that organization, being from Miami.”
Adding fuel to the fire, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said:
“They’ve won a championship more recently than we have as an organization. So there’s many different ways to skin a cat,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, whose team lost to Florida in the 2003 World Series. “Alex earned that contract in the negotiation. Right now, the Marlins are in a different place. But they’ve got a stadium coming on board and they’re going in the right direction, and I think they’ve already proven they know how to build something.”
Seriously people, get over it.
Update: They all hate us, they really hate us (jealousy hurts)
Marlins owner Jeffery Loria was acessible to the media yesterday which meant we the fans get some more insight into what’s going on with our beloved team. I think many people spend far too much time speculating about what Loria is doing and often they are wrong.
Talking about his current roster and future payroll plans, Loria said:
“I’m not asking for patience,” Loria said before the Marlins’ season-opening 7-2 loss to Johan Santana and the New York Mets. “I’m asking people to realize we’re doing it the right way.
“We know how to build a championship team here. We’ve already done it once. When the stadium opens, we’ll be able to do the things we want to do.”
It’s clear they are following their plan of building with young talent but the main concern from fans is whether they will recycle these guys before they win again. To that, Loria responded:
“There are a lot of guys we’re going to keep,” he says, although he doesn’t say which ones.
“It’s OK to fall in love with these players,” he says, adding that this is “the most intriguing team” he’s ever been around.
We can interpret that to mean many things but in general you have to be optimistic when he encourages us “to fall in love” again.
As for the ballpark we learn that Loria, an internationally renown art dealer, is very hands on:
Loria finds himself drawing upon those early lessons more than ever as he increasingly turns his attention to planning every last intricacy of the Marlins’ future home. He spends hours each week on the phone to Kansas City, where a team of architects at the legendary HOK firm is working steadily to prepare the first set of renderings.
They aren’t expected for perhaps another year, but already certain hints are emerging.
The new park will give pitchers every chance to succeed when it opens in 2011, per the Marlins’ philosophy. But considering the day job of the club owner — international art dealer — it has the potential to be so much more than just another brick-lined playpen for millionaires.
Loria doesn’t sound interested in building yet another throwback yard.
“We’re not looking at retro,” he said. “We’d like to see a contemporary building … realizing that we’re in Florida.”
I already know that some people will complain about this. The fact is, the ballpark is located in the middle of a neighborhood without any strong architectural characteristics. Retro ballparks are great, but they’re also becoming more and more repetitive and stale. The jewels of the retro movements — Camden Yards and AT&T Park, were built sometime ago and both leverage their surroundings (the warehouse, McCovy Cove) to bring in a special feeling. Closed roof retro stadiums look like fake big airplane hangers.
The trend to modern styling, apparent in many of the new projects in Miami, is a trend around the world. Just look at Allianz Arena in Munich or the Beijing National Stadium for the latest inspiration in modern stadium design. In the end, we are better off with something that looks like the picture above then another Turner Field.
We’re going to try to live blog opening day. It’s our first real try at it so lets see what happens.
4:00 PM — We’ ready to go!
4:05 PM — FSN just showed some clips including Jeff Conine. Nice to have the team recognize him today.
4:15 PM — Player intro. Luis Gonzalez making his 18th straight opening day start.
4:19 PM — Quickly switched over to see that Miguel Cabrera hit a solo home run for the Tigers. He also just struck out with the chance to win the game. Anyway, back to the Fish.
4:27 PM — And the Marlins take the field on this windy day at Dolphin Stadium. Mark Hendrickson is a veteran but this is his first opening day day. I’m sure it feels a bit different from your average start. He still is a serviceable number 3 or 4 starter.
4:29 PM — First pitch strike down the middle… three pitches… three strikes… one out
4:30 PM — First walk of the year. Luis Castillo on first (it’s amazing to think that Luis was a member of the Marlins for 10 seasons)
4:33 PM — We said Gonzalez is making 18th straight opening day start. We didn’t know that he has never played in Right Field. Wow.
4:35 PM — Cody Ross made a great dive but then dropped the ball. Thankfully Castillo didn’t make it beyond third.
4:40 PM — Hanley Ramirez leading off with a huge swing off Johan Santana. Rich reminds us that Santana was a Marlins Rule 5 pick (then traded).
4:41 PM — Nasty stuff from Santana strikes out Hanley.
4:43 PM — Three up, three down. That’s the first inning.
4:45 PM — FSN just did us all a huge favor by showing some video from the 1993 opening day. I really miss the teal caps and pinstripes (not really, just nostalgic).
5:01 PM — Luis Castillo is a trouble maker, we know that well. He just dropped a perfect bunt single.
5:02 PM — … and he stole second…
5:03 PM — … but another pop fly to center ends the inning. Still scoreless.
5:10 PM — Santana just plowed through our entire lineup. Hopefully we’ll do better second time around.
5:17 PM — Runners on first and second with no outs and Hendrickson seems like he may be in trouble. He dropped a nice curveball that for some reason was called a ball.
5:18 PM — Crap, ball goes down the third base line and the Mets are up 1-0 and still have runners on second and third with no outs.
5:19 PM — Fredi just had some words for the home plate umpire. Maybe he’s asking about those curveballs that the ump keeps missing.
5:21 PM — Another run. Time to warm up the bullpen? Wiley out for a chat.
5:22 PM — Great diving stab by Jacobs. He was so close to tagging church for the DP.
5:29 PM — This inning will never end. Hendrickson seems to be hitting the Marlins 5-inning wall here in the 4th.
5:30 PM — First shot of the fat guys who dance. Like us, they’re waiting for this inning to end.
5:31 PM — Ricky Nolasco warming up… fast…
5:32 PM — Hendrickson has thrown 30 pitches this inning (total of 71) and he’s not hitting he plate right now. It’s disturbing to watch pitchers just fall apart like that. Bases load so he better get some strikes.
5:34 PM — you can hear all those Mets fans in the crowd root as 3 more runs come in. It’s 6-0 Mets.
5:35 PM — Top of the inning finally over. So painful.
5:40 PM — First base runner for the Fish as Hanley manages a walk. Still looking for a a hit.
5:45 PM — GONE!!! Willingham with a 2-run home run for the first hit, home-run, RBIs, and runs of the season. And this against a Cy Young award winning lefty!
5:46 PM — Now Cantu thinks he can swing for the fences. We’ll see.
5:53 PM — Hendrickson gets a much needed 1-2-3 top of the 5th. Marlins coming up and Jeff Conine will be in the broadcast booth.
5:57 PM — Niner says that Dave Samson suggested the sign and retire to him about a month ago. He said they’re also going to talk about a job (I assume after he completes his Ironman competition).
5:58 PM — Meanwhile, Luis Gonzalez gets a hit.
6:00 PM — Jason Wood on deck. Hendrickson is done after 5 innings and 6 runs allowed.
6:07 PM — Hanley looks lost out there facing Santana. Marlins strand 2 base runners.
6:10 PM — Ricky Nolasco is now pitching for the Marlins. It’s easy to forget that he was one of the five young starting pitchers who won more than 10 games for us in 2006 (along with Willis, Johnson, Olsen, and Sanchez).
6:16 PM — Treanor guns down Reyes trying to steal second. Nice way to end the top of the inning.
6:29 PM — Treanor guns down Wright trying to steal third. (Wright was safe, he just sneaked behind Cantu’s glove).
6:51 PM — At least Santana is out of the game. Alfredo leads off with a pinch hit.
6:54 PM — Not a fun day for Hanley (0-4). At least this time he managed to actually put the ball in play.
7:10 PM — Treanor throws one away and a run comes in. The Marlins are down 5 in the ninth. Doesn’t look promising.
7:16 PM — Nice place by Uggla. Showed both range and speed. We’re going to the bottom of the ninth.
7:22 PM — It’s over. The Marlins lose to the Mets 7-2. 1 down 161 to go.
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.
The injury to Alejandro De Aza has really scrambled the roster just hours before opening day. With De Aza on the DL, the Marlins decided, surprisingly, to bring up Robert Andino and send down Alexis Gomez. Brett Carroll is already here and with Robert Andino around, expect Alfredo Amezaga to see time in CF.
Update: De Aza out 4-6 weeks.
The Marlin placed Mike Rabelo on the disabled list and are likely to keep Paul Hoover around until he returns.
Not yet confirmed but it is likely that Jeremy Hermida will also start the season on DL meaning either Alexis Gomez or Brett Carroll will join the opening day roster.
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).
The 2008 Florida Marlins roster is now set. Our starting rotation is Mark Hendrickson, Rick VandenHurk, Andrew Miller, and Scott Olsen with Ricky Nolasco likely taking in the fifth slot when it comes up.
Update: Sorry, it’s not completely final. We need confirmation that Jason Wood is also on the team.
Update 2: If Jeremy Hermida ends up on the DL, Alexis Gomez will take his spot on the roster.
Our full roster is as follows:
| Pitchers | B/T | Height | Weight | Birth | |
| 48 | Lee Gardner | R/R | 6-0 | 220 | 01/16/75 |
| 63 | Kevin Gregg | R/R | 6-6 | 240 | 06/20/78 |
| 30 | Mark Hendrickson | L/L | 6-9 | 240 | 06/23/74 |
| 19 | Logan Kensing | R/R | 6-1 | 185 | 07/03/82 |
| 22 | Matt Lindstrom | R/R | 6-4 | 210 | 02/11/80 |
| 23 | Andrew Miller | L/L | 6-6 | 210 | 05/21/85 |
| 32 | Justin Miller | R/R | 6-2 | 200 | 08/27/77 |
| 47 | Ricky Nolasco | R/R | 6-2 | 220 | 12/13/82 |
| 34 | Scott Olsen | L/L | 6-5 | 215 | 01/12/84 |
| 37 | Renyel Pinto | L/L | 6-4 | 215 | 07/08/82 |
| 57 | Taylor Tankersley | L/L | 6-1 | 220 | 03/07/83 |
| 56 | Rick VandenHurk | R/R | 6-5 | 195 | 05/22/85 |
| Catchers | B/T | Height | Weight | Birth | |
| 58 | Mike Rabelo | S/R | 6-1 | 210 | 01/17/80 |
| 20 | Matt Treanor | R/R | 6-0 | 210 | 03/03/76 |
| Infielders | B/T | Height | Weight | Birth | |
| 3 | Jorge Cantu | R/R | 6-3 | 200 | 01/30/82 |
| 17 | Mike Jacobs | L/R | 6-3 | 215 | 10/30/80 |
| 2 | Hanley Ramirez | R/R | 6-3 | 200 | 12/23/83 |
| 6 | Dan Uggla | R/R | 5-11 | 200 | 03/11/80 |
| Outfielders | B/T | Height | Weight | Birth | |
| 4 | Alfredo Amezaga | S/R | 5-10 | 180 | 01/16/78 |
| 7 | Alejandro De Aza | L/L | 6-0 | 175 | 04/11/84 |
| 26 | Luis Gonzalez | L/R | 6-2 | 210 | 09/03/67 |
| 27 | Jeremy Hermida | L/R | 6-3 | 210 | 01/30/84 |
| 12 | Cody Ross | R/L | 5-9 | 205 | 12/23/80 |
| 14 | Josh Willingham | R/R | 6-2 | 215 | 02/17/79 |
