Maybin Will Be Okay

Following his tumble into the outfield wall in Atlanta, we were fearing the worst for Cameron Maybin, who had to be carted off the field. However, X-rays taken after the incident came back negative, and Maybin could even play in the final weekend of the season should he choose to. From Joe Frisaro's mlb.com recap:

"My left leg and my lower back are pretty sore," Maybin said. "It could have been a lot worse. Nothing broke. I was just in pain. I'll be all right. Just a lot of pain right now." 

Moral of the story: Don't mess with the Twitter bird.


Image via sun-sentinel.com

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Angry Twitter Bird Strikes Again

Marlins centerfielder Cameron Maybin joined Twitter last week. In the seventh inning of tonight's game against the Braves, Maybin injured his leg leaping against the wall on a Brooks Conrad triple. He had to be carted off the field and may have broken his leg.

We're wishing Maybin a speedy and full recovery, but also warning Mike Stanton (@mikestanton27) one more time: avoid the Twitter, for your safety. Seriously hoping we can finish the final five games this season quietly and without incident.

UPDATE: But we could think of a few people on the team who should join Twitter.

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Meet the Mets

Via Jorge Sedano:

Burn.

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Blog Famous

Many thanks to 'Duk at Big League Stew for allowing me to write the Stew's Marlins 2010 retrospective. Read it here. I'd have liked a more fun trip down memory lane, but thems the breaks.

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Groan

Insert double rainbow reference here. If only MLB allowed video embeds...

Watch the play here, as both Gaby Sanchez and Dan Uggla allow a Brian McCann groundball to slip through their legs before Mike Stanton picks it up. This season can't end soon enough, folks.

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Heads Up

@CamMaybin

UPDATE: Crap.

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I Will Not Embed the Song, I Promise

Scott Stapp on recording Marlins Will Soar:

I had some trepidation in the beginning. Is this going to be cheesy? Or what's this going to be? What made all of that go away was in talking with [Marlins President David Samson] and the folks in the Marlins organization. I didn't want to get paid. I said I want my son and my nephew to be able to be batboys. You make that happen and give me some season tickets and I'll be happy. That was the deal, man. I gave it my best shot, and I've seen a lot of the comments. It is what it is. I'm proud of what I did and why I did it.

I'm going to go on and keep pretending it never happened.

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Week In Review

 How come so few of you joined Ted at the ballpark today?

Overview: After being swept by the Phillies, the Marlins allowed themselves to be degraded by the Cubs for three games.
Positives: The Dolphins are 2-0. I only have to write two more Weeks in Review after this week.
Negatives: The Marlins are now officially out of playoff contention. All other negatives seem inconsequential now.
Line of the Week: Logan Morrison has been performing admirably, and clearly deserves a full year at the Major League level in 2011. His stats this week:

8-22, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 6 R, 6 BB, 2 RBI

Highlight of the Week: Cameron Maybin made a sweet catch against the wall this afternoon, then flipped to Logan Morrison to hold the runner on first. Solid fundamentals, in this case.
Looking Ahead: After making up a rainout with St. Louis on Monday and hosting a two-game set with the Mets, the Marlins travel to Milwaukee for four games against Los Cerveceros.


Photo via Ted's BlackBerry.

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Commerce

It was only a matter of time before someone channeled the uproar over the Marlins' financial documents into an apathetic fashion statement.

There's more here. Now you know. Which is worse, my own ennui about the whole thing or this attempt to make a few bucks off of the fans' outrage without really doing anything to the source of that outrage. I'll leave that question to the philosophers...

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So, um, yeah...

Via BLS:

Surely this makes up for the Marlins "snubbing/disrespecting" Cox.

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His name remains Dan Uggla

Being an adolescent franchise, the Marlins have to stretch to get their names, and the names of their players, into the record books. So it is fitting that Dan Uggla made history last night, becoming the first second baseman to record four straight 30-home run seasons (while also becoming the first second basemen to homer 30 times in four nonconsecutive seasons to boot). In some ways, it is not much of an accomplishment. Plenty of non-second basemen have equaled this feat. But as Marlins fans, we have to celebrate any achievement of immortality, no matter how trivial.

Up on baseball's Mount Olympus, the pantheon of legends is virtually bereft of Marlins, and those who are there, like Gary Sheffield and maybe one day Miguel Cabrera, only spent a tiny portion of their careers in a Marlins uniform. In a game which fetishizes history to an excessive degree, it takes time for expansion teams like the Marlins or Rays to develop their own legacies worthy of other, more established franchises. Indeed, even when one of the expansion teams wins a World Series (or two, in the cases of the Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays), it is treated largely as a footnote or aberration unless that team continues to succeed over multiple seasons.

This is all to say that, despite the seemingly inconsequential nature of his record (though really, hitting 30 home runs four times is exceedingly difficult no matter the context), we should take this opportunity to celebrate Dan Uggla, who may not be with the Marlins much longer, but who brought much joy to the few of us who could stomach to watch the Marlins over the past four years. Thanks, Dan.

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JJ Exits

The Marlins are shelving Josh Johnson for the remainder of the season. Not surprising, since the Fish are 7 games out of the Wild Card with only 20 games left in the season. As Michael pointed out at Marlin Maniac the other day, the risk wasn't worth it, as the Marlins will be paying him many dollars for the 2011-2013 seasons. Letting him pitch his four remaining starts with lingering elbow and shoulder pain is not smart, no matter which way you slice it. The Marlins have officially thrown in the towel on the 2010 season, not that I blame them for doing so now.

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Week In Review

Overview: The Marlins lost three of four in Philadelphia but won all three this weekend in Washington D.C. The team is now 73-69 but remains nine games out of first place and eight and a half games out of the wild card.
Positives: The Marlins and Nationals played a series (with Nyjer Morgan) and didn't have any incidents. The weekend sweep also ensure the Fish finish with a dominating 13-5 season series record over the Nats. Mike Stanton came out of his slump and has hit the 20 home run mark.
Negatives: It sucks losing to Philly.
Line of the Week: Adalberto Mendez silenced the Phillies bats for six innings in his major league debut and collected the win.

W, 6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 6 K's

Highlight of the Week: Screw it, we'll pile on Nyjer Morgan. He was caught stealing on a perfect throw by catcher Brad Davis. Tip of the cap to Mike Stanton for hitting two homers today.
Looking Ahead: The Marlins come home for three games each with the Phillies and Cubs.

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Off-Day TV Guide: September 9

Another Thursday off-day coinciding with football. It's one of the few consolations us Marlins fans have at the moment...

• 7:30 pm EDT NCAA FB Auburn at Miss St (ESPN): Hopefully better than their 2008 contest, in which Auburn prevailed by a score of 3-2.
• 8:30 pm EDT NFL Minnesota at New Orleans (NBC): I hope Favre fails in entertaining fashion. 

Tonight's book recommendation is The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis. I'm totally late to the party on this, but it is essential reading if you want to know about the events leading up to the Crash of 2008 and the bursting of the housing bubble. Lewis is a wonderful writer, and the story is impeccably reported and explained well enough that a financial novice can understand the construction of a synthetic CDO. Pair the book with The Giant Pool of Money, the fantastic episode of This American Life which traces the origins of the housing bubble.

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The Curse

A quick look at the Marlins Twitter Directory informs me that there are 5 Marlins on Twitter at the moment:

1. Chris Coghlan: Out for the season after injuring himself while giving Wes Helms a shaving cream pie after a walk-off base hit.
2. John Baker: Out for the season, just underwent Tommy John surgery.
3. Brett Hayes: Out for the season after separating his shoulder on a play at the plate this week.
4. Logan Morrison: Almost died at the hands of an Emilio Bonifacio foul ball this afternoon
5. Mike Stanton: Healthy so far.

Mike, please do Marlins fans a favor and deactivate your Twitter account now. It's only a matter of time before the Twitter curse catches up.

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Week In Review

Overview: The Marlins won two of three from both the Nationals and the Braves.
Positives: See above. Also, the Fish provided the baseball world some great theater with a bench clearing brawl on Wednesday night. Gaby Sanchez' clothesline takedown of Nyjer Morgan is an internet classic now.
Negatives: The Marlins have been very unlucky with injuries. Ricky Nolasco is being shut down for the rest of the season. Donnie Murphy dislocated his wrist and is also done. John Baker underwent Tommy John surgery. Logan Morrison was hit in the face with a foul ball while he was in the on-deck circle and his status is in question. Also, the downside to the brawl are a number of suspensions (Volstad, Sanabia, Sanchez) that are currently being appealed.
Line of the Week: With a solid weekend series, Logan Morrison has raised his batting average over .300%

3 games, 6-12, 2 doubles, 3 triples, 2 RBI's

Highlight of the Week: Cameron Maybin made two great plays: A diving catch on Saturday night, and a grand slam-robbing over the fence grab this afternoon.
Looking Ahead: The Marlins/Zephyrs/Suns travel to Philadelphia for four games, including a double-header tomorrow. On the weekend they will travel to Washington.

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Who Cares?

Today at Big League Stew, 'Duk asks why the Marlins are declining to honor longtime Braves manager Bobby Cox in his final appearance in South Florida before his retirement at the end of the season. The conventional wisdom seems to be that this snub is Jeffrey Loria's revenge for Cox's critical comments on the firing of Fredi Gonzalez. That could very well be true, but I am still left wondering why the Marlins are obligated to honor the retirement of someone else's manager. In other words, if Cox had not made any disparaging comments towards Loria earlier this summer, would the decision not to honor Cox be questioned so skeptically?

As this week's brawl with the Nationals showed us yet again, baseball is full of obscure and tricky unwritten rules that make little sense outside the context of baseball (I don't think we'll be seeing a Bobby Bowden tribute at Florida Field anytime soon). Bobby Cox should be proud of his illustrious tenure with the Braves, to be sure, but I don't think every team in the National League is required to shower him with praise on his way out (even if most chose to do it anyway). I hate to rain on a Loria-hating parade (I really do), but the only crime I see hear is Loria's apparent justification for "snubbing" Cox. He should snub because it's not the Marlins' responsibility to give a formal farewell to Cox, not because Loria is a petty jerk.

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Off-Day TV Guide: September 2nd

Ah, the rare Thursday off-night, when there is actually worthwhile television programming (to quote the overrated 20th century philosopher Garfield, Mondays blow).

• 7:30 pm EDT NCAA FB Florida A&M at Miami (ESPN3.com): This is what Ted and I will be watching, as it is all about the U.
• 8 pm EDT Tosh.0 (Comedy Central): Back to back episodes. This show doesn't quite make the level of appointment television, but I always end up watching if I stumble upon it while channel surfing.
• 8:30 pm EDT NCAA FB Pitt at Utah (VS.): If you can't get ESPN3 and really need football, this will do. It should be a good matchup, and hey, Wannstache!
• 9 pm EDT County Jail: Miami (Discovery): It's a rerun, but if it has Miami in it, it can't be that bad, right?
• 10 pm EDT Jersey Shore (MTV): If you like it, that's cool. Just don't expect me to care.

Tonight's book recommendation is the Football Outsiders 2010 Almanac. As you may have gathered by my attitude around here lately, the baseball season has been a bit of a drag for me as of late, so I am eagerly awaiting the kickoff of college football season tonight and the NFL next week. Anything to distract me from the disappointment of the Marlins this year, right?

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Didn't Think Last Night's Brawl Could Get Any Better?

You were wrong!

God damn, now I want to clothesline someone! 

Domo arigato to Rizzmiggizz

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Fight!

Better video here. Somewhere, fellow University of Miami alum Lamar Thomas is smiling at Gaby Sanchez' clothesline of Nyjer Morgan.

UPDATE: Adam Smoot may know where Sanchez learned his technique:

Also, haters gonna hate.

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