What are we thankful for?
Thursday, November 24, 2011
- Sr. #MONSTERDONG himself, Giancarlo Cruz Mike Stanton.
- Larry Beinfest, Michael Hill and Dan Jennings, who somehow keep Team Loria from trading Hanley Ramirez for a bucket of D-batteries every season.
- Dr. James Andrews, who keeps Josh Johnson's throwing arm from falling off.
- Whatever deal with the devil Emilio Bonifacio made that turned him into a competent baseball player this year.
- The end of baseball at
Joe RobbiePro PlayerDolphinLandsharkSun Life Stadium. - Team Loria's crazy-ass design choices, including the psychedelic arcade display in centerfield of the new stadium and the impending ruination of Billy the Marlin. It is better to be ugly than bland.
- Luis Castillo.
- Kevin Millar.
- Kurt Abbot.
- Alex Arias.
- Charles Johnson.
- Cody Ross.
- Carl Pavano (the Marlins version).
- Seinfeld reruns.
- Readers who indulge our obsession with Earl Weaver and let us slide for ending the title of this post with a preposition.
Image via Fins Nation. We're also thankful those dudes haven't started a Marlins blog and made us obsolete. Read more...
So Long, @manbearwolf
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
I'm pretty sure that Baker was the first Marlin on Twitter, so you can imagine that Ted and I are sad to see such a media-savvy player leave the team. It's been grand, @manbearwolf.
It's hard to tell what LeBlanc has to offer the Fish, other than a back-of-the-rotation option should some of the team's free agent targets not sign. LeBlanc made 14 starts for San Diego last season, but his 3.16 BB/9 and home-road splits are cause for concern (San Diego's Petco Field is decidedly a pitcher's park). Let's just call LeBlanc Miami's Plan B and hope the team can land one of the free agents it is honing in on and convince Javy Vazquez to come back for one more go-around. Read more...
Realignment and Expanded Playoffs Update
Friday, November 18, 2011
Baseball will be making major changes in the next two years -- adding two teams to the playoffs, moving the Houston Astros to the American League and extending interleague play to September.http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7246443/houston-astros-sale-approved-mlb
The expanded playoffs could come as early as next year. That will put 10 teams in the postseason, requiring a new wild-card playoff round that probably will be one game, winner take all.
As a condition for approving the sale of the Astros from Drayton McLane to Jim Crane, the Astros agreed to shift from the NL Central to the AL West as soon as 2013, giving each league 15 teams. It's baseball's first realignment since the Milwaukee Brewers went to the NL after the 1997 season.
If I were an Astros fan, I'd be a bit bummed. Alas, I am not an Astros fan. Therefore, I'm okay and borderline happy with the future realignment. I like balance, and having 15 teams in each league, with each division having exactly five teams is nice. I also don't mind the perpetual interleague play that will be required with an odd number of teams in each league.
As for the expanded playoffs with another wild card team? I'm for that too. Hell, the Marlins seem like they never want to win a division title, so having more wild card entries improves our chances of making the playoffs.
Dave and I discussed this before, when this was just a rumor (here and here) and pretty much the same holds true now. In brief:
- Rewards division winners
- Punishes wild card teams, subjecting them to luck of a one game playoff and wasting their best pitcher before the division series
- Pennant races better, more incentive to get higher seed and win division
- One game playoffs are fun and uber-exciting.
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