“[Forget] The Veterans”
Passed on with minimal comment: Miguel Cabrera is the latest example of a tumultuous Marlins clubhouse.
Those of you around for the game thread last night may recall that Dave considers Cabrera one of three players he would trade King Felix for. Knowing how Dave feels about Felix, that says a lot. No reasonable person would dispute the young man’s talent, or his future.
His attitude, though, has come under recent scrutiny. First he kept showing up late for things. Then he refused to shag fly balls, relenting only when asked by Tony Perez. When Jeff Conine suggested that one of the team’s veteran players take Cabrera aside, the 22-year-old’s response was measured and well-reasoned. Oh, wait, no it wasn’t:
“[Forget] the veterans,” he told the Post. “They haven’t told me anything and they better not come tell me anything, either … I’m not going to go crazy worrying about these things.”
I’m guessing that the word they swapped out for “forget” begins with the same letter.
This comes after A.J. Burnett’s outburst and subsequent punishment by the organization. Short version: he dissed them, they dismissed him. Manager Jack McKeon is also reportedly gone at season’s end.
First thought: what is going on with the organization here? It’s like an open mutiny, to use a nautical analogy. Next thought: there is no way, save temporary insanity, that the Marlins would trade Miguel Cabrera for anything less than overwhelming value. So don’t get your hopes up.
Yes, I am talking to myself with that last sentence.
Comments
67 Responses to ““[Forget] The Veterans””
Adam, I agree with you. Except that, other than Ortiz, all the other players, when healthy, played OK. Lowell in ’05 probably had a lower performance-to-salary ratio than anyone not named Sammy Sosa.
I think going after National League talent is risky this year. I don’t think the National League is as good, in general, as the American League is this year. I would try to support this with a great deal of anecdotal evidence (Randy Winn, for example) and the interleague results, but the truth is that I am far too lazy. I just feel that the difference between the two leagues is similar to the difference between the NFC and the AFC in the late 80’s, early 90’s.
I’ll take Manny Ramirez.
There, I said it.
I’ll take Manny too. Although I get the feeling Boston would want Felix and/or Ichiro as the other major component in that deal.
You can have Manny for peanuts if you eat most or all of his salary. He was put on waivers last year, or was that the year before?
Could have had Manny, not anymore.
You can still get Manny for not a lot in return. He won’t get expensive in prospects, etc., until the last year of his contract, 2008. No one wants to pay $20 mill + for a weak fielding left fielder even if he does hit like Manny.
Did you look see what Boston was getting in return in the proposed deal back in July? That’s not peanuts.
They were also going to give up a bunch of their own top talent in order to get rid of his contract.
“Burnett’s season was superficially quite good–a 3.44 ERA and 198 strikeouts–but 17 unearned runs and the Marlins’ home ballpark tended to overstate his effectiveness. Controlling for home park and compared to the league, Burnett’s RA+ of 1.04 was not much better than teammate Brian Moehler’s (1.00)
Of course, Burnett’s done that over more innings this year, and Moehler’s got a lifteime ERA almost a run higher, and the K rates make it clear who’s the better pitcher, but yeah, he’s not awesome.
Then again, people thought Bartolo Colon was a ripoff at 4/50 mil. I wonder if the Angels feel ripped off.
A few points about Manny:
1) The more time passes, the less unattractive Manny’s contract gets. Simply put, the last three years of a bad contract are not as burdensome as the last five years, which was the offer on the “irrevocable waivers†table in the fall of 2003.
2) John Henry, the principal Red Sox owner, made it clear at the trading deadline that he would not pay one cent for Manny to hit homeruns for another team. You want him, you gotta pay him.
3) Omar Minaya is still trying to make Los Mets “Latin America’s Team.†Manny and Pedro are still buddies. Minaya is willing to overspend on brand name talent, as Pedro’s contract demonstrates.
4) The Red Sox will not do a deal that takes Manny out of their lineup without being able to replace his bat, either as part of the trade, or on the free agent marketplace in the offseason.
5) Face it, Manny is a DH playing in LF. The Red Sox already have a capable DH who has a, uh, large frame, and they don’t want him out in the field playing 1B every day even if he could play something close to an average defense – his bat is simply too valuable to risk his knees taking a pounding. Fenway’s LF makes Manny’s lack of range a pretty small issue, but if Manny goes to any another AL team, he should be DH-ing.
About Burnett:
AJ is one inning shy of the 210 IP he needs this year to collect a $50,000 bonus. We went around a bit on this issue when Boone was DFA’d. Does anyone here think he will collect his $50,000.
Why would Bavasai give Dan Rhon a major league job?Rhon has done nothing but great things for the mariners and the mariners keep going outside and rewarding others.Garcia for example has only coached 2 years in the minors and he gets the 1stbasecoaching job over rhon a 10 year mariner.So dan best of luck to you .You deserve to be a major league coach are manger somewhere but bavasai is to stupid to see this good luck and please come back and haunt the mariners everyone else does…
I’m hoping for temporary insanity, since Luria at least has an ego bigger than _any_ ballplayer’s and a budget much smaller than will hold Miguel Cabrera. Anybody who’s followed how Luria’s organization treats people finds no surprises here.
While I’d trade Felix for Miguel Cabrera in principle—yes, he’s that good—I probably wouldn’t do it in fact. But I’d love to see an offer of, say Asdrubal Cabrera, Adam Jones, and any pitcher not named Hernandez for Miguel Cabrera. Yep. Sprain my thumb dialing the phone to say yes.
For a different perspective, over of Dodgerthoughts.com the Marlins implosion has gotten almost unrestrained glee. The local sportswriters (imagine 4-5 Steve Kelleys without the intellectual integrity) have been bashing DePodesta for months for not picking “character” guys and for trading away “chemistry” players like Paul “The Human Heart” Lo Duca, who was making the Marlins so…successful and harmonious. What gets ignored is how Lo Duca’s heart hasn’t kept him from tanking his way into a ~.500 OPS every September, how the Marlins leadership has led them into two straight pennant-race implosions (just like Lo Duca’s last 3 years with the Dodgers), or how Jason Phillips has played as well or better while making ~1/10th the money.
To be honest, the Dodgers and M’s could swap GMs and save themselves a lot of headaches: Bavasi would get all the warm fuzzies for being a “baseball guy” with long California roots and the network DePodesta lacks, while DePodesta could just do his job, not make 40-50 embarrassing moves per season, and stop getting called “Google Boy” by the local media.
AJ and the $50k… I’m guessing there’s a settlement btwn 0 & 50.
Cabrera… the subsequent team meeting and post-remarks remarks lead me to believe that the storm around Miguel is over. Everything I read about this guy speaks to the fact that he’s a good kid who loves baseball. Teams don’t trade players like Miguel Cabrera.
Florida… despite Cabrera being untouchable, I agree that they’re a potentially good trade partner, as evidenced by the Bazardo for Villone deal. The problem I foresee is that with the exit of AJ, they’ll want pitching and we don’t have any to deal and that’s what we’re trying to find.
benny young said:”Why would Bavasai give Dan Rhon a major league job?Rhon has done nothing but great things for the mariners and the mariners keep going outside and rewarding others.Garcia for example has only coached 2 years in the minors and he gets the 1stbasecoaching job over rhon a 10 year mariner.So dan best of luck to you .You deserve to be a major league coach are manger somewhere but bavasai is to stupid to see this good luck and please come back and haunt the mariners everyone else does… ”
um. Garcia is coaching at 1st as a temporary fill-in while Jeff Newman is out with achilles surgery. They should have pulled Rohn from the Rainier’s pennant race to fill-in at 1st for a month & a half?
#65– there was an interesting piece today noting that Cabrera’s quote was actually in Spanish to a Spanish-speaking reporter for an English language paper….
No they shouldnt have had to he should have been there in the first place now he is leaving and there letting him. That was my point they lat the good ones walk typical…