End of Season Awards

The offseason is upon us, so let's hand out some awards and superlatives. On with the memories with some awards I made up...


Dontrelle Willis Out of Nowhere Award, given to the player who was completely off the radar in Spring Training that made a big impact on the team: Chris Coghlan. Who knew Coghlan, who had never played a game in left field until the night before he was promoted to the big club, would flourish in the position? Coghlan wasn't even on my radar before the season, but what he lacked in buzz he made up for with performance, solidifying the leadoff spot and getting some Rookie of the Year consideration along the way.

Jorge Julio Award, given to the new addition to team who completely flopped: Emilio Bonifacio. Things went downhill quickly for Bonifacio after his inside-the-park home run on opening day, as he posted a .309 on base percentage this year, eighth-worst among NL qualifiers.

Darren Daulton Deadline Dandy, given to the best midseason acquisition: Nick Johnson. Johnson was the perfect hitter to place between Coghlan and Hanley Ramirez, when he was healthy. Hey, it's not like Luis Ayala was getting this award.

Next Member of the Marlins Diaspora, self explanatory: Dan Uggla. Congratulations on another great year with the bat. Unfortunately, you have priced yourself out of the Marlins' 2010 payroll. And when Emilio Bonifacio replaces you, hits .215, and costs the Marlins their season, Jeff Loria will blame Fredi Gonzalez and fire his ass. Way to go, Dan.

Bret Barberie Bizarre Boo-Boo: given to the player with the weirdest injury of the season, named after the time former Marlin Bret Barberie missed a game due to a case of habanero juice in the eye: Jorge Cantu. Everyone's favorite sassy senior had to leave the Marlins' June 10 game against St. Louis with a bout of the dizzies. The problem was caused by his cholesterol medication. Cantu is 27 years old, which may make him the youngest person in America to take cholesterol medication...


On with some other, more generic awards...


MVP: Hanley Ramirez. No explanation necessary.

Best Pitcher: Josh Johnson. The only pitcher you could count on to give a quality start.

Biggest Surprise: Chris Coghlan. In a deep farm system, Coghlan was not the first player you would have expected to make an impact for the Marlins, but he did.

Biggest Disappointment: Four-way tie for Ricky Nolasco, Chris Volstad, Anibal Sanchez, and Andrew Miller. Before the season, Ted said "The top three of the rotation [with Johnson] has a chance to be great... they don't need to be all stars now, just decent." I said "None of the Marlins' pitchers will get any Cy Young consideration, but not because they didn't deserve it." Josh Johnson held up his end of the deal. The rest, not so much.

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Two Omens

Two things happened in the past 48 hours:

Exhibit A: Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla went all Jeff Kent/Barry Bonds on each other Tuesday, with Uggla questioning Ramirez's commitment to the team and implying that Hanley pulled out of Tuesday's game to preserve his league-leading batting average. The incident was later played down as "family business."

Exhibit B: Wes Helms hits a walkoff home run Wednesday night after Leo Nunez gives up a game-tying home run in the top of the ninth inning. Afterwards, Craig Minervini receives word via a text message from the man himself that Nick Johnson is rejoining the team and is "good to go."

I have a feeling that at the end of the month, I will look back to these two incidents and (myopically) consider one to be an omen of how the month of September played out. Which will it be?


Image via Page2.

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Josh Johnson Still Boss (And Other Notes)

We of course know this, but he likes to reaffirm it to us. Another brilliant performance: 7 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 11 K. He is now 12-2 with a 2.84 ERA and is sure to get Cy Young consideration less props than he should.

Great combined effort by the pen to notch the Alfonseca-save. We only asked them to get five outs, and they gave up four runs, all in the ninth inning. And predictably, when Todd Helton comes to the plate as the tying run, he flies out. By now, I am calling out what our bullpen will do as it happens about as accurately as I can reference any line of Animal House. They need to mix it up and surprise me every so often.

Nick Johnson has now played 11 games with the Marlins and has posted an even .500% OBP in just over 50 plate appearances. He is also OPS-ing .944% which is just a colossal improvement over Bonifacio's .600% he was posting for four months. Just saying.

Tonight we had three sacrifice bunts, and two sacrifice flies. The small ball was getting too much for my head to take, but thankfully Dan Uggla launched a two-run shot and I was back to normal.

(AP photo via ESPN.com)

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Trade Deadline

The Marlins have traded minor-leaguer Aaron Thompson to the Nationals for Nick Johnson.

The deal seems really good for the Marlins. Jorge Cantu will likely displace Bonifacio at third, while Johnson moves into first base and the two-hole in the lineup. The Nats will be paying most of Johnson's remaining salary, and all the Marlins had to give up was a former first-rounder who couldn't get noticed in the minors behind Josh Johnson, Andrew Miller, Chris Volstad et al., and struggled this year in Double-A ball. Suckers. Welcome to the team, Nick. Don't fuck this up for us.

No one had Aaron in this year's Trade Pool, and it looks like there will be no winner this year, unless something else hits the news late. So no one is getting a free 12-pack from me this year. That's too bad for everyone else, but I'll be celebrating later with some Bell's Oberon.

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Madness

As it appears that the Marlins might make a trade to replace Emilio Bonifacio, let's examine just how stupid it is to have B-Face in the everyday lineup while the team is fighting for a Wild Card spot.

1. Bonifacio's Win Probability Added (WPA, for an explanation, go here) is at -1.94, third worst among everyday players. He is much worse than the average replacement player.
2. Bonfacio is batting .248 with a .293 OBP, and he is batting second, where he is supposed to simply get on base. He has drawn just 26 walks in 438 plate appearances while striking out 85 times.

Bonifacio is not the first infielder to get plenty of playing time while struggling at the plate. Alex Gonzalez did this for years at shortstop. Of course, Gonzalez was otherworldly on defense and would at least give you 15 home runs a year. I can't say the same for Emilio. Hopefully, the rumors of the Fish trading for Nick Johnson pan out. The trade would allow Jorge Cantu to move back to third base to make room for Johnson, whose .810 OPS (and 2.24 WPA) would be a drastic improvement over Bonifacio's .600. It is time for the Bonifacio experiment to end, and I hope it happens today.

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