The Miami Marlins were officially born yesterday, and they grabbed some headlines by extending contract offers to free agents Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, and Mark Buehrle. They also expressed some interest in Ryan Madson. Let's round up the latest from South Beach…
- MLB.com's Joe Frisaro reports that Reyes "loved his visit" to the team's new ballpark this past Wednesday, and he would like to play in Miami. SI.com's Heyman hears that Reyes is the team's top free agent target (Twitter link).
- Within the same piece, Frisaro says that people connected to the team have told him that their offer to Pujols "probably isn’t close to being enough" to land the free agent slugger.
- Talks with Reyes, Pujols, Madson, and Buehrle are "preliminary" according to Heyman (on Twitter), so there's no threat of all four players accepting offers.
- ESPN's Buster Olney called the Marlins' strategy fascinating (on Twitter), but cautions that it is risky. The 1997 team also went for quick fixes, then had to tear it all down immediately after winning the World Series.
“immediately after winning the world series” is the key phrase of that last bullet. I think the vast majority of teams would sign up for that strategy.
They also did not have a brand new stadium opening in 1998. They do in 2012, ergo its no way risky at all to go all out this offseason and acquire big names that fans will want to come see play. Its like the opposite to what the Pirates did, who opened a new park and didn’t buy anyone interesting when they should have made the biggest splash.
they were also told that they would not receive any funding for a new stadium in 1997 which is why Wayne decided to sell and blow up the team.
The second time they won the world series they kept the team mostly together (except dlee for heesopchoi) and even signed extra individuals like Carlos Delgado to try to compete before giving up due to their financial situation.
If you win in South Fla they will come. If you make a big splash they will really come.
See the Heat, they are sold out for season tickets for the next 4 years still, they actually sold out the season tickets then fired all of the members of their sales group since they would no longer be needed. Ironic
Boy, somebody’s got the checkbook out.
I just made an offer to Albert Pujols.
Just like the Marlins questionable uniforms leaked, the new manager for St. Louis has leaked as well.. Looks like Jose Oquendo got offered the position and Mike Matheny was offered the assistant manager role. Press conference scheduled for Monday. Looks like Albert might have got his boy in STL. Just hope Ecksteins comments were right.
Where did you hear that?
Dont worry about it just wait till Monday.
At least say if your source is credible.
Very credible.
Well… Ok. Cardinal fans are family, so…. I believe it. What happens to Joe Pettini?
No idea.
Better go back you your “source” LOL FAIL
Where did you see this leak?
Assistant manager? Would that be bench coach?
Yes, which is odd cuz usually the coached get to choose their staff… Im think Oquendo may have offered it to Matheny
I’d like to see Matheny stay with the organization and take over for Duncan when he retires in a few years. Matheny would make a great pitching coach – he handled the rotation well while in St. Louis. He’d be the only former catcher to be a pitching coach – once Duncan retires.
where have you heard this? everything I’ve heard it’s Matheny
You’re starting rumors.
You should be banned forever from this site if this doesn’t happen, fair?
Anything can happen, they could hire Larry Walker tomorrow if they wanted.. All im saying is I heard this through a very credible source. Makes sense and I would be surprised if it didnt happen given who I heard it from but you never know in the baseball world.
* Not claiming im an insider or anything guys, in fact the source I heard it from probably shouldnt have been talking about it where he did.
*Stops blowing*
We have to set up this excuse raft before Monday!
*Blows*
What?
You’re just covering yourself incase your ‘source’ is wrong (which I’d be willing to bet quite a bit is going to happen)
oh ok… why didnt you just say that instead of your awful analogy?
I went to school to get an English degree. I need to justify it.
Did you drop out?
Ask your source if I did.
Ill take that as a yes
If I have my degree, then obviously I didn’t drop out…
“I went to school to GET a degree” .. does not imply you graduated.
You still can’t make posts like that here, if none of us reading it can verify your sources, so please refrain from posting stuff like in here. Why? Because that means I can say my source near the top of the A’s organization says the A’s got the go-ahead from ownership to throw as much money as they can at Darvish & Cespedes. Also I have another source in the MLB front offices that tells me George W. Bush is going to be the next commissioner. Who are my sources? Cant tell you!
See how that works? If you do it, what’s stopping everyone from doing it? These discussion threads are made to discuss the post, not to attempt to start new rumors with absolutely nothing behind it. Now yes, many journalists often operate under those same parameters, but they are paid professionals, you are an anonymous commenter, there is a difference.
Major league Baseball Trade Rumors
he was wrong! Banish him Tim!
“…so there’s no threat of all four players accepting offers.”
Jeffrey Loria breathes a sigh of relief…
The main difference between now and 1997 is that ownership OWNS the revenue streams linked to the new ball park. Not many observers predicted the 1997 team to stay together.
The fans knew it, ownership knew it.
This time around will be different; it’s a ten-year plan versus a one-year plan.
In the unlikely event that all four (Pujols, Reyes, Buehrle, and Madson) signed with the Marlins, they would obviously have another ‘dream team’ — just like the Philadelphia Phillies (2011 season), Philadelphia Eagles (2011 season), Boston Red Sox (2011 season), and New York Yankees (2010 season) to name only a few recent examples. How’s that worked out?
At least 1 world series?
My mistake; corrected.
Interesting to point to TWO teams in Philly. I’m sure the Flyers would mentioned in that breath if it wasn’t for that pesky salary cap.
…and if I knew anything about hockey (other than it’s played on ice)…
there is a salary cap in NFL , and i dont recall anybody calling phillies the dream team could be wrong but i dont think utley or howard or rollins etc. said we are the dream team ,and the only person that said with the eagles was a backup and if you looked flyers just traded all their old talent except Jagr and pronger in exchange for young kids , maybe you could call them something else like rookies
you dont listen to mikey miss do you? and im pretty sure schwartzman said it too. for those of you who dont live in the philadelphia area they are two of the more widely known personalities on sports radio.
flyers…how about breezy? stud goaltender. and traded old talent? richards and carter? they are very well paid, but not exactly old. Rookies is a bit of a stretch, sure they are young (and have played alot of rookies) but the top 3 lines are not manned by rookies. and they signed jagr as a free agent.
moved away from area 🙂 like the teams , not the weather , I was kinda thinking nobody on the team said that , local sports hacks dont really count in my book, but I guess I was wrong then since some yuck said it
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2010-11 Miami Heat too!
except they wouldn’t be a dream team, because grabbing a #3-4 starter, and an over priced reliever does not make a pitching staff.
I still don’t think bringing in all those players makes them the team to beat, but we’ll see. I’m thinking they bring in Reyes, a starter (Buehrle or EJax), and a closer, and maybe one of them will come via trade.
Shouldn’t that be “The latest from Little Havana” rather than South Beach?
Curious, though, that the team would either overpay for Reyes or underpay for Pujols. I’m guessing the length is the key factor in both deals: both are looking for long-term, but the Fish are only looking to pay for productive years.
Which is the way to go. I am relieved their not just recklessly throwing cash out there to sign a big name.
Whew, I thought I was the only one that found those new uniforms awful. What were they thinking??? It looks like the letters are lined in rainbows!
Those are probably the worst uniforms in baseball. HAHAHA… I actually liked their old ones a lot.
Geez. Who wouldn’t rather live and play in Miami over the beer fumes and boredom of St Louis?
lol Miami is a pretty terrible city though.
Right…compared to St. Louis? It’s too bad Detroit didn’t make the world series, because then for this year at least, those two cities could have duked it out for something other than the country’s highest crime rate.
Don’t take my word for it, google “forbes america’s most miserable cities” Miami’s only behind Stockton, CA. The average person in St Louis actually loves baseball more than the average person in most other cities, its a nice baseball town, for sure. Miami, not so much. They should have never expanded into Florida and Arizona, those places are for spring training.
Well, we have no autumn nor winter (well technically we do but it’s never cold here xD) so it’s pretty crappy here especially right at this moment where we are in the wind before the storm phase :/ I wish I lived in St Louis to be honest with you. I’d still be a Marlins fan though 😀
i guess i’m in the minority that really likes the new uni’s. they are not like the old astros uni’s like i thought they might be. the black and white ones are my favorites. the grey and orange are good.
The black ones are very very nice. The home whites are ok. The orange parking cone ones are a tad too much for me.
I still cannot explain the mardi gras float they built in CF.
Lmao. That thing is quite odd now isn’t it. Looks like something at the local carnival your parents dont want you to ride.
there is no explaining that mess.
there is no explaining that mess.
I Brought the black and white ones yesterday online I really think they look good. Most of the people who are hating about them are fans from other teams.
I think they end up with Cespedes and Reyes. Guillen gets the aggressive team that he wants and has a chance to have three players with 30+ stolen bases.
agreed, coupled with a trade for a starter with dominguez and prospects and convince vasquez to come back or another starter and you are set for a nice solid team with a run at the WC
plus watching the mets not get a 1st for reyes would be wonderful
from your mouth to god’s ears. i certainly hope so. cespedes looks like a beast. what an outfield the marlins will have! stanton, cespedes and lomo.
from your mouth to god’s ears. i certainly hope so. cespedes looks like a beast. what an outfield the marlins will have! stanton, cespedes and lomo.
I wish Reyes well.
i dont. if he doesnt sign with the mets he’ll be llike his terrible rap song to me “no hay amigo”.
It seems like there are two extreme Mets fans. One side that will root for him no matter where he goes and one side that wants him to get hurt. I’m in the middle. I appreciate everything he did for the Mets, but frankly, I believe he was probably offered a lucrative deal if he’s willing to sign this quickly with the Marlins. The Mets are a mess. Have you never interviewed for a better paying job with a better company? Right now there are a lot of “companies” better than the Mets. Like I said, I wish him well, I thank him for what he did and meant for this franchise, but I won’t root for him if he signs with a division rival.
in no way do i wish he gets injured, i also do not want to have him have career years in the same division with the mets. sorry if it came off that way. there is also no way that i root for him if he takes a contract that is in the vicinity of what the mets offer.
I understand what you’re saying. I won’t root for him regardless of his contract, but if he does accept a deal similar to what the Mets offer then it will sting pretty badly.
Personally, I don’t see Reyes having a better career with the Marlins (if he signs there) than what he did with the Mets. He posted a total 33.4 fWAR with the Mets in 1050 games while being a 6 WAR SS in 4 separate seasons. I know he was hurt a few times, but he was still damn good for us and that’s going to be hard for him to top as I feel he will continue to have leg issues as he gets older on top of losing some speed, which will also rob some of his value. He’ll still be able to hit a lot of XBHs, but he doesn’t walk a lot and the last time he hit a fair share of HRs was at Shea Stadium and I read that the Marlins’ new stadium is pretty big, so that won’t help him in the HR department.
If the Mets offer him a similar contract, he’ll take that offer, the problem is the Mets probably won’t offer him as much. If he went to the Marlins, I’ll remember him for his bat disappearing down the stretch in 2007 and in the 2006 playoffs. I liked Jose, but he was never my favorite and I have no interest in him doing well anywhere else, especially the Marlins. I have my fingers crossed that his contract with them, if that is in fact who he signs with, turns out to be a Crawford-esque albatross.
Nobody leaves the Mets and gets away with it. Not Fonzie (still my favorite behind Piazza and Wright), not Strawberry, not Koosman, not Hampton, and not Reyes.
Your avatar is awesome.
Just for fun:
SS Reyes
CF Bonifacio
1B Pujols
3B Hanley
RF Stanton
LF Morrison
C Buck
2B Infante
Probably looking at signing a CF, moving Bonifacio to 2B, and making Infante a utility guy.
i think it is more like:
SS Reyes
2B Infante
CF Cespedes
3B Hanley
RF Stanton
1B Sanchez
LF LOMO
C Buck
maybe flip lomo and infante in the order
The marlins have no shot at Pujols and if Reyes was smart he would look at options like Detroit and Philly for teams that will actually be contending next year.
i don’t see it im a Detroit fan but im a marlin fan too and order wise i would do it like this
1 reyes
2 lomo
3 hanley
4 sanches
5 stanton
6 infante
7 buck
8 bonafacio
9 pitcher
i like them going after grady sizemore but like i said if Reyes was smart he would go to a team that could use him like Detroit and will more than likely be in the playoffs again
maybe flip lomo and infante in the order
I Think That Pujols Will Stay In St. Louis. He Won’t Get The 200+ million (or whatever) That He Wants, But I Don’t Think Anyone Will Give Him Enough To Leave.
St Louis offered him 9 years at 207MM
I <3 Shift?
Ha ha how do you even type like that… I mean that takes some focus
Ha Ha… It’s An Ocd Thing.
I think the Nats might give him the money he wants, their owner, Lerner is worth over 4.6 billion according to Forbes and is the richest owner. I think some of that money is burning a hole in his pocket this year. Now its time for the Dodgers to sell to Cuban.
I think the Nats might give him the money he wants, their owner, Lerner is worth over 4.6 billion according to Forbes and is the richest owner. I think some of that money is burning a hole in his pocket this year. Now its time for the Dodgers to sell to Cuban.
“The Miami Marlins were officially born yesterday…”
This made me laugh a bit.
I’d rather have no baseball team than having a MLB team controlled by Jeffrey Loria.
Good god we didn’t had a new ballpark in Montreal with a circus-like platform in CF with fielders wandering around in questionnable uni’s.
“I’d rather have no baseball team than having a MLB team controlled by Jeffrey Loria”
…uhhhhh…that is exactly what happened to the Expos…ironic comment…really.
as much as wud want and appreciate Pujols; Reyes makes more sense and costs less. i actually wud prefer to get a real third basemen like David Wright or Aramis Ramirez; no one talks about them. Hanley is going to struggle at the hot corner.
Has there been any news at all of the Royals pursuing Buehrle? If they could entice him, I could see him being an exceptional fit for the organization.