Archive for the 'Florida Marlins' Category
- Got a chance to make it out to the BAC on Friday night for the return of Roberto Luongo and his crazy father in law. The BAC was in a frenzy all night long. 17,000+ fans showed up for the matchup and the free TV giveaways. I didn’t win a TV but I did lose my voice and argue with some silly Canadians. Such fun! Check a few pictures below taken from my iPhone.
- George Richards from the most entertaining and informative blog on Miami Herald gives us an update on our walking wounded. According to JM, Radek Dvorak has two broken bones in his hand, will be out four to six weeks. I spoke to Radek after Saturday’s game, he was optimistic he was going to be OK. Apparently that’s not the case.
- Jason Taylor. All around good guy and official 2008 NFL Pimp.
- Did I mention earlier the Patriots lost? Check some Pats fans reactions here, here and here. KSK is also priceless today.
- Last week the Marlins signed Dallas McPherson. The Mets signed Johan Santana. I’d say we balanced each other out.
- Mercury Morris. Still yapping and yapping and yapping. I guess Tom Brady is cutting his front lawn this morning.
So we couldn’t put any money towards signing Miguel Cabrera but we have no problem paying guys like Luis Gonzalez and Kevin Gregg. What a novel idea. This should get fans out to the park this season. Ken Rosenthal is reporting Luis Gonzalez has decided to leave AZ and help the young Marlins. From FoxSports…
Free-agent outfielder Luis Gonzalez has reached a preliminary agreement on a one-year contract with the Marlins, according to a major-league source.
The deal, which is likely to include a guaranteed salary of approximately $2 million and incentives worth up to $1 million, is contingent on Gonzalez passing a physical.
Wonderful.
By now I’m sure many of you have removed SporTech Matter from your feed readers, bookmarks and safe email recipient list. We didn’t die, we just multiply! I’ll be honest, South Florida Sports had me down and I needed a little getaway from the daily nuances that were associated with covering this god awful section of the country that has 4 professional sports teams. Combine that with extra stuff to do at work and just the fact I needed more of a life besides blogging and work, and you have the downtime for posting at SporTech Matter. Nevertheless I am back and ready to fire on all cylinders. Or as Chad Johnson would say…”Just give me a call Bill Parcells, stop playing around already!” Lots of stuff went down while I was away so let’s catch up with the most recent notes…
- The Dolphins went absolutely nutty hiring coaches and assistants from all over the NFL and College landscape. So just what did we score? David Lee named QB coach, Brian Gaine Named Assistant Director Of Player Personnel, Tony Sparano named head coach, Mike Maser named offensive line coach, James Saxon? runningbacks coach, Evan Marcus? strength and conditioning coach, Paul Pasqualoni as their defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles as assistant head coach/secondary, Kacy Rodgers as defensive line coach and David Corrao as defensive quality control coach, Karl Dorrell as wide receivers coach. Phew. Talk about a purge. Mary Kate doesn’t even understand a purge like that.
- Today one of the more intriguing rumors came up regarding the Dolphins and the number one overall pick in the draft. Oh I bet you didn’t guess it had to do with the Cowboys? The Boys two 1st rounders and Marion Barber for the 1st overall pick. Apparently the groundwork is in place. Will the Tuna get it done? Ronnie and Marion? What a combo!
- Heat Win! Heat Win! The embarrassment of having Dwyane Wade on your team and possibly breaking the expansion Heat’s record for most consecutive losses in a season would be the icing on the cake for this season. Hey guys guess what??? We haven’t even reached the All Star break yet!
- The Cats have been a feisty bunch lately. The injury bug has bit hard and forced the Cats to call up top prospect Shawn Matthias, the chip they acquired in the Todd Bertuzzi to Detroit deal last season. Shawn spent a little over a week up with the big club and netted 2 goals during his stay. Such a fun kid to watch on the ice.
- Huge ruckus was made the last week or so about the yearly Olli Jokinen trade rumors. Somewhere Mike Keenan is sitting in a dark room writing Mr and Mrs Mike Jokinen on wedding stationary as we speak. Reports said Olli demanded a trade, other reports refuted it. The Cats are at the break sitting in good position to take the divisions. They are notoriously better after the All Star break so things should start to get interesting. Head out to the BAC. They are giving away 20+ Sharp Aquos TV’s this weekend!
- Apparently the Marlins signed a 7′ tall ex-basketball player who up until a few weeks ago has been pitching with less than 100% vision. Yes you just read that correctly.
Hope everyone has been enjoying the New Year. Should be getting a steady dose from now on. One last note. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before I am an absolute music nut. If your a member of LAST.FM add me as a friend so I can get an idea of what kind of music my readers enjoy.
Thanks for sticking around during the downtime.
It appears the Marlins are set on stockpiling 3B talent to replace Miguel Cabrera’s power. The Marlins inked Jose Castillo to a contract in December and now have inked Jorge Cantu to a deal as well to compete for the starting gig. MLB is reporting…
MLB.com has learned from a Major League Baseball Players Association source that the Marlins reached agreement on Thursday with Cantu on a one-year contract worth $500,000, plus incentives that could tack on another $100,000 based on plate appearances.
The deal is expected to be announced today. I have no problem with this deal. Why not get as many options as possible to replace one of the greatest hitters in franchise history. No sense settling on a guy like Castillo.
Castillo is a solid choice for a rebuilding team, as he still has some upside, but the Marlins will want to add one more infield option, perhaps Dallas McPherson or Jorge Cantu, to battle for the starting job at third base. The soon-to-be 27-year-old Castillo is a career .256/.297/.380 hitter. He’s currently at .370/.395/.591 in 181 at-bats in the Venezuelan Winter League.
The signing of Castillo places Florida’s 40-man roster at 39. Happy Holidays!
The stadium has yet to be discussed and the city and county have to agree on all the issues pertaining to the new stadium. Hopefully Item #1 will be voted on after lunch.
Thanks to everyone providing updates from the live feed. Keep em coming!!
You can tune into the live feed here.
More updates over on The Marlins Ballpark News.
At 10:30 AM EST the County Commissioners will meet to vote on the Global Agreement/Ballpark deal. This could be the final step for the Marlins getting a stadium deal. The Marlins Ballpark News has all the coverage and details behind the special meeting.
Feel free to stop by The Marlins Ballpark News. He does a great job of keeping everyone up to date with the ballpark happenings.
Click here to watch the meeting live.
LIVE BLOG for those who can’t get the video.
NEW streaming link here. Agenda here.
Looks like Scott Olsen is ready to step up and be a leader on this squad. Here is a collection of quotes from the various local papers put together by a buddy of mine over on MarlinBaseball.com…
“With Dontrelle being gone, someone has to do it. Whoever it is, obviously, it will be well deserving. But I’m not going to sit here and beat around the bush. I want to start on Opening Day. It’s just going to come down to how I pitch in Spring Training, and the shape I show up in, and the shape the other guys show up in. It will come down to the competition to see who gets it.”
“That’s over, that’s in the past and over with,” Olsen said about the fallout from the arrest. “On the field-wise, I was throwing a lot of balls, and I was walking a lot of people. I watched a couple of game-tapes, scouting people. You’d see, I’d get two quick outs on nine or 10 pitches, and then the inning turned into 28-30 pitch inning after two outs and nobody on base.”
“I think if you are the Opening Day starter, and you replace that No. 1 guy, there might be some more people looking up to you, and more people wanting you to be that guy who steps up every time out,” he said. “We knew [Willis] was going to be the Opening Day starter, but at the same time, he was still like, ‘Something might happen. I might have a 10-and-a-half ERA in Spring Training. Make sure you go for it, strive to do it. Give your best each day. Even if a position is set and locked, you still have got to go out and do your best.’ ”
“[Willis] always used to say that he didn’t like guys, who when they were winning, they are in the clubhouse, and they’re happy,” Olsen said. “Then when they are losing, they are down. You’ve got to be the same guy every day. He was really good about that, to maintain your composure every day, whether you win or lose.”
“It can’t get any worse than that, with all the stuff that happened last year,” he said. “All the bad, I think it’s made me probably stronger mentally and more able to handle everything that goes into this job.
“I’m looking forward to next year. It will be interesting, but it could be a lot of fun. I’ll be 24 in Spring Training. You’ve got to grow up eventually.”
It should be interesting next year. Especially since Miguel won’t be around to smack Olsen into line.
Olsen was at Select a Seat the other day and needless to say not many people were interested in seeing him and Fredi Gonzalez. Fewer than 50 fans showed up in the first two hours of a four-hour event Saturday to pick out their season tickets for next season. One fan at the stadium offered this interesting tidbit on his decision or not to buy tickets for the upcoming season…
“We’re thinking about it,” said Joe Schillan of Fort Lauderdale, perusing ticket prices with his girlfriend Cori Pasinetti of Boca Raton. “This is Montreal. They develop players for other teams.”
Scott Olsen and Fredi Gonzalez are not the fan favorites compared to Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera were. I understand where Joe from Fort Lauderdale is coming from.