SB Nation - Florida Marlins

SB Nation Baseball Awards (ROY Edition)

craig — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:17:27 -0000

Here are the results of the NL Rookie of the Year as voted on by the SB Nation bloggers.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

GameFish and I both put Chris Coghlan #1 and then neither of us can remember what order we placed Hanson and Happ. But they were #2 and #3 on our ballots.

My reason for Coghlan being first is that when evaluating a rookie the latter half of the season should be weighed more heavily than the first half. When a player breaks into the league normally one of two things happen, either they start off well and then the league learns them and the impressive start fizzles. Or they start out slowly until they figure out the league and then come on blazing. A strong finish, I feel, is more representative of who was the better rookie. Now both of the NL East pitchers were pretty steady throughout but an every day player should get the benefit of the doubt when making the comparison.

SBN Awards: NL ROY

DyingQuail — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:00:54 -0000

by Tony Tribble - AP

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This was, by far, the most difficult category for me to make my selections and I believe it was the same for HLP. Although we ended up texting out a resolution, I know that we ended up with different picks.

At some point during that insanely depressing text conversation, I realized that I didn't have as firm of grasp of the ROY pulse because there were no Astros with possible hopes of claiming the title. Apathy really got the best of me in this incident. I guess next year we could have Gervacio, Jason Castro, and someone I'm not thinking of at this second.

The fun part of this vote is playing: can you spot the homer-ism? Not that I'm lambasting anyone for it, but there a couple that jumped out at me and made me snicker a little.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tommy Hanson	Atlanta Braves	9	9	6	78
2	J.A. Happ	Philadelphia Phillies	6	9	7	64
3	Andrew McCutchen	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	3	5	54
4	Chris Coghlan	Florida Marlins	7	5	4	54
5	Dexter Fowler	Colorado Rockies	-	3	1	10
6	Randy Wells	Chicago Cubs	-	-	6	6
7	Garrett Jones	Pittsburgh Pirates	1	-	-	5
8	Casey McGehee	Milwaukee Brewers	-	1	2	5
9	Seth Smith	Colorado Rockies	-	1	-	3

Live Blogging the GM Meetings

craig — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0000

This is completely stolen from Photi at Fish Chucks. normally I would make you go to his site to see it. However, I want to provide the direct link here at FishStripes.

Fox Sports Latest buzz for MLB's GM meetings

But to give Photi his due, if you go to his site via here you can find out how Danny and Cody are spending the offseason, so far. When they get back to Florida, I guessing they will spend the rest of it in the dog house.

All of that said, checkout the live blogging of the GM meetings. Not much is going to happen, but it will give you and idea of what is to come in December.

Hayden Penn back on the 40-man

craig — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:38:58 -0000

The Marlins purchased the contract of Hayden Penn and now he is on the 40-Man roster.

The Marlins are planning on taking another look at right-hander Hayden Penn.

The team on Monday announced it had selected the contract of the 25-year-old, who spent most of the season at Triple-A New Orleans.

Florida's 40-man roster now stands at 34.

I thought about this all night, and I still can't come with a reason for the Marlins to make this move now. Not against the move per se, but if the Marlins want to move him off of it, he will once again have to clear waivers. Which more than likely isn't a problem, but it still seems strange to me. Something gives me the idea that I am missing something here.

Any thoughts?

Cameron Maybin good to go

craig — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:25:25 -0000

Or at least will soon be. Cameron Maybin's surgery by the press reports went fine.

Maybin, 22, underwent surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder. The team announced everything went well, and the speedster is expected to be ready when Spring Training opens in February.

Don't know what to expect from Maybin for the season, especially since he is so young, he can be a bit erratic. But is nice to know the doctors were able to put him back together.

Arizona Fall League: Matt McBride Homers, Aaron Crow Hit Hard Again

raygu — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:00:40 -0000

The AFL was back in action on Monday following a day off on Sunday. The Rising Stars game was very exciting for those who watched as the Indian's catching prospect Matt McBride hit a two-run homer off of Nationals pitching prospect Drew Storen.

Let's take a look at the performances from Monday's games:

Jose Tabata, OF, PIT-0-4, (.349)

Buster Posey, C, SFG-1-3, BB, K (.224)

Brandon Allen, 1B, ARI-1-4, K (.167)

Domonic Brown, OF, PHI-1-4, 2K (.256)

Thomas Neal, 1B, SFG-0-4, RBI, BB (.288)

Hector Gomez, SS, COL-2-3, RS, 2B, HR, RBI (.271)

Starlin Castro, SS, CHC-1-4, RS, SB (.414)

Bryan Peterson, OF, FLA-2-3, BB, RBI (.400)

Jay Buente, RP, FLA-2 Inn, 5 K (3.86)

Matt McBride, C, CLE-2-4, 2 RS, 3B, HR, RBI (.420)

Yonder Alonso, 1B, CIN-3-4, RS, RBI (.293)

Freddie Freeman, 1B, ATL-0-3, 2 K (.267)

Jonathan Gaston, OF, HOU-1-3, HR, 3 RBI (.226)

Ike Davis, 1B, NYM-2-4, RS, (.339)

Taylor Teagarden, C, TEX-0-3, BB, 2 K (.240)

Aaron Crow, SP, KC-4 Inn, 7 H, 4 ER, 4 K (7.94)

SB Nation Baseball Awards (MOY Edition)

craig — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:43:13 -0000

The postseason awards as voted on by the SB Nation baseball bloggers rolls out today. Each site is given two votes in their respective league, in this case GameFish and I are the voters for FishStripes, just like last year. SB Nation awards in the past have been pretty decent predictors of the BBWAA awards, which may not say much about us as a group.

The votes are scored 5-3-1 for the ones where you only get to vote on three, like today's award, the Manager of the Year.

The schedule for the awards is as follows:

Monday, 11/9: Manager of the Year
Tuesday, 11/10: Rookie of the Year
Wednesday, 11/11: Cy Young
Thursday, 11/12: MVP

So without any further ado here are the results for the MOY:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

Normally at this point I would tell you who we voted for, but they change up the voting this year and it was done by some Google app. instead of email and neither GameFish or I wrote down our selections. However, we both think we put Tracy in the number one slot and Fredi number three. Who we put as number two is anyone's guess.

Oh, they also email us the results of the AL and if you are curious about them, just let us know, and we will post those results too.

SB Nation Writers Vote: NL & AL Manager of the Year

Eli Greenspan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:04:11 -0000

More photos » by Will Powers - AP

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Here are the results from the SB Nation's writers poll regarding the NL Manager of the Year award:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

And below are the results from the AL Manager of the Year vote:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Mike Scioscia	Los Angeles Angels	9	8	3	72
2	Ron Gardenhire	Minnesota Twins	9	5	1	61
3	Don Wakamatsu	Seattle Mariners	6	3	8	47
4	Joe Girardi	New York Yankees	2	4	2	24
5	Ron Washington	Texas Rangers	1	4	4	21
6	Terry Francona	Boston Red Sox	1	1	3	11
7	Jim Leyland	Detroit Tigers	-	2	4	10
8	Joe Maddon	Tampa Bay Rays	-	1	1	4
9	Ozzie Guillen	Chicago White Sox	-	-	1	1
10	Trey Hillman	Kansas City Royals	-	-	1	1

Let's hear some reaction from these results in the comment section below.

GM Meetings start today

craig — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:37:58 -0000

The General Managers Meetings start today in Chicago. Not exactly sure where, but they generally don't get too far away from the airport.

The GMs Meetings last until November 11th.

Normally they will bring up stuff like expanding video replay which they will discuss for approximately five seconds and table the discussion. The main point of the meetings is to start laying the ground work for the Winter Meetings. Putting out feelers to see who is available and who is not, while trying to gauge what they may have to give up in the process. After that, they go bowling.

I don't expect this one to any different, though I do imagine the phones will be ringing in the Marlins hotel room.

SB Nation Awards: Manager of the Year

Jim McLennan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:25:16 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Jim Tracy = NL Manager of the Year

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As well as the ongoing 'Pitties, we also have an SB Nation-wide set of awards, voted upon by two contributors from each site - in the case of the SnakePit, it's myself and 'Charmer. This week, those awards will be handed out: we start with the Manager of the Year today, and then tomorrow we have the Rookie of the Year; Wednesday is the Cy Young, and Thursday will be the MVP. As with the BBWAA awards, there's one for each league; for obvious reasons, we'll be concentrating on the National League awards, though will also mention the top few finishers in the American League, for completeness.

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

Probably not too much of a surprise here, with the stunning turnaround achieved by Jim Tracy on the Colorado Rockies impressing the members of the SB Nation academy. After starting the season 18-28 under Clint Hurdle - a win percentage fractionally worse than the one that got the other 2007 NLCS manager, Bob Melvin, fired here in Arizona - Colorado went 74-42 the rest of the way. That extrapolates to a 103-win full season, an amazing reversal to disprove the argument that in-season managerial changes never work. It worked immediately in Denver, where they went 18-5 over his first four weeks, including a 16-1 run.

Be interested to hear from some of the visiting Rockies fans why they think it made such a difference to the team. I am, of course, supremely jealous that it didn't work out quite so well in Arizona - Bob Melvin's winning percentage (.414) was only improved upon slightly by AJ Hinch (.436). One of the suggestions touched upon in 'charmer's end of season review, was that the players in Colorado were much more on board with the change. The ones here had to be convinced, to varying degrees, both of the need for change and that Hinch was the right man for the job, given his lack of managerial experience.

My ballot is actually sitting at work, so I'm not certain who I picked, though I'm fairly sure that it was Tracy as my #1 - odds in favor, since he got 80% of the first-place ballots [looks like one blog didn't take part]. A lot less unanimity for the second- and third-place spots, with nine of the 16 NL teams seeing their helmsmen mentioned. I think I went for Fredi Gonzalez as my runner-up, based on the wonders worked in Florida on a budget that could be funded from the back of the sofa in George Steinbrenner's office. Fire sale or not, the Marlins are probably the poster-child for winning in a small market, and one can only wonder what Gonzalez might do if given a reasonable amount of cash.

Of course, this is as much an award for the front-office who construct the team: I'm really not certain how much influence the manager generally has. There are exceptions, however, and if any manager does affect his team, it's probably third-place finisher, Tony LaRussa. He has absolutely no hesitation in rejecting "conventional" wisdom when he feels it's in the best interests of winning, e.g. batting his pitcher eighth. If I could pick any other major-league manager to be in charge of Arizona, it'd be LaRussa. Elsewhere on the ballot, I'm not sure who voted for John Russell in Pittsburgh, for leading his team to a brilliant 62-99 record, ahead only of the Nationals. I went over to Bucs Dugout, and if it was them, they're not 'fessing up, yet...

I trust it wasn't 'charmer, anyway - I'm sure she will be along a llttle later to discuss her ballot and explain her picks. I'll finish with a quick mention of the American League results, where both Ron Gardenhire of the Twins and the Angels' Mike Scioscia ended up with nine first-place votes. However, Scioscia got more X's further down the ballot, and so took the award, with Don Wakamatsu of Seattle finishing behind Gardenhire. I can't believe that almost half the voters left Gardenhire off their ballots entirely: again, we're talking about a man who has worked wonders with little or no cash, and has got to be in the running, at the very least. He'd have got my vote, certainly, though as we only get to vote for our own leagues, that's a token gesture. Here's the full results there:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Mike Scioscia	Los Angeles Angels	9	8	3	72
2	Ron Gardenhire	Minnesota Twins	9	5	1	61
3	Don Wakamatsu	Seattle Mariners	6	3	8	47
4	Joe Girardi	New York Yankees	2	4	2	24
5	Ron Washington	Texas Rangers	1	4	4	21
6	Terry Francona	Boston Red Sox	1	1	3	11
7	Jim Leyland	Detroit Tigers	-	2	4	10
8	Joe Maddon	Tampa Bay Rays	-	1	1	4
9	Ozzie Guillen	Chicago White Sox	-	-	1	1
10	Trey Hillman	Kansas City Royals	-	-	1	1

Tomorrow, we'll continue the series with the Rookie of the Year award.