Announcement Tomorrow

First of all, Happy Halloween. Not a big Halloween guy these days, but if you celebrate it, then enjoy!

This is a heads up to pay attention to Marlins Diehards tomorrow as we will have a big¹ announcement.

¹Not big really, quite small actually

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They exist, for reals

That's a New Era Marlins hat found in Buffalo by the Herald's Florida Panthers beat writer, George Richards.

The team is unveiling the new uniform set on November 11, how this hat ended up on a retail shelf in Buffalo before then is a mystery (though human error, as always, is the best guess). 


Regardless, if you were hoping that leaked cap logo was fake, well, you're going to be disappointed come November 11.

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Request Denied

The Baltimore Orioles have a vacant GM job, and Marlins assistant GM Dan Jennings is among their prospective candidates to fill the vacancy. Problem is, Team Lori has denied Baltimore permission to talk to Jennings.

Baltimore is talking to various general manager candidates from other organizations, but Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com reports that the Marlins denied the Orioles permission to interview vice president of player personnel and assistant general manager Dan Jennings.

And according to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun this is actually the fourth time the Marlins have denied a team permission to interview Jennings, who's under contract through 2015.

All together now:

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This is the funniest thing ever

Poo-poo cards and pee-pee cards. The 2003 Marlins were about as mature as a Boy Scout troop:

"In between innings they'd [Josh Beckett and Brad Penny] go to the clubhouse to get a drink or hang out," McKeon recalled this afternoon from his home in North Carolina.

"I said, 'Hey, I got no rule against going up if you have to go to the bathroom or something, but get back.' A couple of times I looked down the bench to talk to somebody and they weren't there. They were in the clubhouse. So I went up and got them out and said, 'OK, boys that’s it. We'll lock the door.'"

McKeon told that same story in June, after he took over as Marlins manager when Edwin Rodriguez resigned. In June, McKeon was a little more animated in his recollection of what he did in 2003: "I would go in clubhouse with bat and (say) 'get your asses out of here!' I locked the clubhouse."

McKeon recalled in June how he handed out what he called "poo-poo cards and pee-pee cards. Put them where I was sitting (in the dugout), so if you wanted to go to bathroom you had to get a card. That broke it up."

Never change, Jack, never change.

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2011 Goose Gossage Award Ballot

[Note: Ted and I are members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, and along with Michael Jong of Marlin Maniac we comprise the Florida/Miami chapter of the BBA. As BBA members, we have been asked to vote for the BBA's end-of-year awards through our blog. This is our ballot for the NL Goose Gossage Award, given to the best relief pitcher.]

1. Craig Kimbrell, Braves
2. John Axford, Brewers
3. Joel Hanrahan, Pirates

We gave Kimbrell our vote for NL ROY, and he certainly deserves the nod in the Goose Gossage race as well. His 14.84 K/9 rate is outright otherworldly (among MLB pitchers with at least 60 IP, the next best K/9 was 13.50 - David Robertson of the Yankees). His 3.2 WAR far outpaces all other NL relievers as well. If you're more into the traditional reliever stats, we point to his league-leading 46 saves (tied with John Axford of Milwaukee).

But the save statistic is useless, so instead look at his FIP of 1.52 (which is basically ERA with defense and other factors out of the pitcher's control stripped out). He was tops in the NL, with only one reliever within 0.5 of him.

Axford tied Kimbrel with 46 saves and posted an excellent 10.51 K/9, but his 1.9 WAR and 2.41 FIP were well behind Kimbrel's. Hanrahan did not amass as many strikeouts as either (8.00 K/9), but his 2.0 WAR and 2.18 FIP were stellar. He may have been the beneficiary of some good luck, though, as his 0.13 HR/9 and .282 BABIP were two of the lowest among qualifying NL relievers.

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2011 Willie Mays Award Ballot

[Note: Dave and I are members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, and along with Michael Jong of Marlin Maniac we comprise the Florida/Miami chapter of the BBA. As BBA members, we have been asked to vote for the BBA's end-of-year awards through our blog. This is our ballot for the NL Willie Mays Award, given to the best rookie.]

1. Craig Kimbrel, RP, Braves
2. Vance Woorley, SP, Phillies
3. Lucas Duda, 1B/OF, Mets

Yikes, a trio of players from our NL East rivals. Deciphering the rookie crop was a bit difficult. In fact some of the other candidates were from the Nationals. It seems all the decent rookies were in our division.

Craig Kimbrel gets our first place vote in a landslide. Blown save in game 162 aside, he was dominant. He finished the year with 46 saves and an absurd strikeout rate of nearly 15 per 9 innings. He was nearly unhittable (.176 BAA) and posted a nifty 1.52 FIP. Just an absolute beast. Except perhaps he was overworked and couldn't come through when Atlanta needed him most. For shame.

Vance Woorley finished 11-3 with a very nice 3.01 ERA in 25 games (21 starts). His slightly higher FIP suggest he was perhaps a bit lucky, but will forgive him for giving up 10 long balls considering he plays in Philly's bandbox. A nice season from the rook, and more than okay for the Phillies fifth starter.

Lucas Duda was a bright spot for the Mets and didn't play like his last name suggests. He was way down the leaderboard in WAR, but mainly because of his fielding. We give him the third place vote for his work at the plate, namely a .368 wOBA. He played 100 games and hit 10 homers with 50 RBI. With a pretty good BB/K ratio he looks like a mainstay in their lineup.

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