Archive for the 'Roster Moves' Category

Brett Carroll is back with the big team in response to Nick Johnson’s retroactive DL stint. 

Unsuprisingly, Nick Johnson’s Hamstring injury has proven more serious than originally thought. This is the catch 22 with trading for NJ, of course.

Nice to have Brett’s arm back on the team, and maybe he can catch fire against LHP again like he did in June/July. That would be a nice boost, though Hermida has been playing extremely well recently and really slumped when he split time with Carroll last time. Hopefully he doesn’t crumble again.

As expected, the Marlins after Thursday’s game confirmed Anibal Sanchez will get the start in the series opener in Atlanta. They optioned Cristhian Martinez, who had a phenomenal outing Thursday, back to Double-A Jacksonville.

Martinez entered for Josh Johnson in the fifth with the bases loaded and one out. He induced a Carlos Lee double play ball and pitched two more perfect innings. Johnson exited after allowing four runs on seven hits through 4 1/3 innings.

One thing’s for certain: If the Marlins are going to stay in this thing the rotation has to get better in a hurry. We’ve seen some nice starts this month, but overall the starters have been underwhelming. So far in August: 7-5 with a 5.66 ERA and 98 hits in 95 2/3 innings. Perhaps most troubling is that the starters are averaging just under 5 1/3 innings per outing.

With the Phillies up 6 1/2 games with 41 to play, it’s looking more and more like the Marlins’ best shot at the postseason is the wild card. The Rockies have a four-game cushion on the Marlins and Braves, and lead the Giants by two.

Here’s to hoping they can catch some lightning in  a bottle with Anibal. I’ve never been a huge fan of his, but I’d like to see him come back and pitch well, obviously.

Also, this is a weird story coming out of New York:

Mets Deny Sheffield’s Request For Extension
By Brian Shephard [August 21 at 9:10am CST]FRIDAY, 9:10am: Sherman reports that Sheffield demanded to be released or traded to the Marlins.

THURSDAY, 8:48pm: SI’s Jon Heyman reports, via Twitter, that the Giants were the team that claimed Sheffield on waivers earlier this month.

6:23pm: David Lennon at Newsdayreminds us that earlier this month, the Mets placed Sheff on waivers,but pulled him back when he was claimed. This means he cannot betraded; the Mets could release him or place him on irrevocable waiversand lose him if he is claimed.

5:57pm: Via Twitter, Sherman cites a Mets official who says that “Sheffield has not been released.”

5:47pm: Joel Sherman of the New York Post is reporting that Gary Sheffieldand the Mets are at odds about his contract situation. Sherman cites”two sources” who say that Sheffield asked the team for a contractextension and was denied. The sources say he is now threatening toleave the team.

The two parties are now in discussions,according to Sherman, and the release of the aging outfielder is “apossibility.” Sheffield was pulled from the roster for tonight’s game,but Jerry Manuel said he pulled himself “to clear his head.”

So he wants to be a Marlin again. This is really odd, as he can’t be traded to us, but if he is released, he might be able to scare off other potential sutors if he really is intent on coming back. His bat would be really nice to start 4 times a week, but I’m not sure there’s any room for him, unless you really want to kill your outfield defense and take Hermida out of the lineup. He’s only played 18 games there this season, but he is sporting a nifty .286/.378/.468 line that would look awfully nice in this lineup.

Would you welcome back one of the all-time great fish?

Well, I kind of gave it all away in the headline, didn’t I?

But yes, Gaby Sanchez will be meeting the team in Houston tonight, implying that Johnson’s injury might be kind of serious, though good to see he’s not going on the DL quite yet. Still don’t expect to see Gaby get much playing time; the management is obviously not thrilled with what he’s shown.

And to make room, Rick Vandenhurk was sent down to AAA New Orleans. Not too surprising given his trouble with the homers, but still would’ve rather seen him stay up and Sean West go down. RVH has shown more than West in my opinion, and he’s more likely to continue to be somewhat successful. He’s kind of like Ricky was early on in the season, and those home runs should normalize. West is also at 130 innings, 30 more than he threw last season. Would’ve been nice to get a few more starts at AA and then shut him down.

Would like to see some more of this.

And lastly, Anibal Sanchez has been great in his rehab starts, so no surprise to see him get the call for Friday. The team is hoping he’ll be able to pitch at a somewhat successful level, something he hasn’t done since that magical run in 06. His control looks pretty good in his rehab starts, and he said he was hitting 95 in his last start, so let’s see what he can do.

Are we going to see Gaby again?

Haven’t heard much by way of Nick Johnson news since his injury during the early part of the first part of Sunday’s first game, and now Gaby Sanchez has been pulled early from the Zephyr’s game today, and it isn’t because of an injury to him, apparently.

It would be a big blow to lose Nick Johnson for an extended period of time, and it’ll be interesting to see what the team does if he is indeed out for a while. Would Bonifacio slide back into an everyday role, or would they keep him in the super sub role (Which he has excelled at) and give Gaby a chance to replace Johnson?

Gaby has been killing it down in AAA over the last few weeks since he got sent back down, and has a 1.068 OPS over his last 50 at bats with 4 homers 7 walks and just 3 Ks.

Still, can’t see the team giving Gaby a shot now if they haven’t yet.

I would personally rather see Brett Carroll back up, but if Johnson is out for a while (Which we don’t know yet, nothing has been said), it makes much more sense to get a CI back up and keep Bonifacio in the Amezaga role.

MIAMI (AP)—Jorge Cantu and Ronny Paulino homered, and the Marlins continued their potent pace at the plate in a 9-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday night.

Sean West (4-4) allowed one run and five hits in six innings, and relievers Brian Sanches and Chris Leroux combined to give the Marlins their sixth win in the last seven games.

Florida remains 4 1/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia in the NL East, and three behind Colorado in the wild card. The Rockies begin a three-game series at Florida on Friday.

Now that’s more like it. Many of us were worried about Sean West starting tonight’s game but he put that rather quickly when he retired the side in the first inning on 8 pitches including a 3 pitch strikeout of Lance Berkman. He retired the first 8 hitters until 5-time Silver Slugger winner Mike Hampton  hit a ground ball single up the middle in the 3rd. In the end West only gave up 1 run on 5 hits and struck out 3 in 6 innings of work. More importantly, he didn’t walk a single batter. He threw 67% strikes and was only in a 3-ball count 3 times all night. He truly had a great start. He probably could have worked the 7th inning but had to be lifted for a pinch hitter when his spot came up in a key situation.

On offense, we came strong again tonight. The Marlins added on to their franchise record, getting more than 10 hits in 10 straight games. They scored early, getting Jorge Cantu hitting a 2-run homers in the 1st inning. Hampton kept them to that until Ronny Paulino hit a solo homer in the 5th to put the Fish up 3-1. In the 6th inning the Marlins did their business off Astros reliever Chris Sampson, who was replacing a once again injured Hampton. Wes Helms hit an RBI double to put the Fish up 4-1. Two batter’s later Fredi made the move, replacing a dealing Sean West with the pinch hitting prowess Ross Gload.  Gload kept the inning going and hits an RBI single with the bases loaded. This inning went on like this and the Marlins scored a total of 6 runs with RBI from Chris Coghlan, Emilio Bonifacio, and Hanley Ramirez.  Bonifacio, Ramirez, and Cantu all had multi-hit games and Coghlan extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

After all this Brian Sanches came out in his usual unimportant relief role, which his is absolutely killing in. He pitched two scoreless innings, keeping his 0.00 ERA at home in 24.1 IP this season. Recently called up Chris Leroux, who replaced Tim Wood, allowed 4 baserunners and 1 run in his inning of work and was not very good at all, but the whole point of him coming up was just to not use anyone when not needed and I guess he allowed that.

This was an important win. The Marlins are 4.5 games behind the Phillies in the division and are 3 games behind the Rockies in the wild card, who they start a 3 game series against on Friday. The Marlins have been playing well since then break and have a 15-10 record in that stretch, winning 6 of 8 series.

Okay then, it’s now time for everyone’s favorite segment, the Craig Counsell Hero of the Game Award!

Today’s winner is…

Sean West!

You’ll usually get an offensive player winning the award when 9 runs are scored but not only did West have a fantastic start, it was also exactly what the team needed after the way the pen has been used as of late. Before tonight’s game, at least 4 relievers had appeared in 7 of the last 8 games. So for this Sean West is the Hero of the Game!

Notes: Chris Leroux made another short stay in the Bigs, being sent down to AA Jacksonville immediately after his appearance. Also, Cody Ross was removed from the game in the 7th inning with back spasms but is not expected to miss any time.

Third baseman Matt Dominguez, the Marlins’ 2007 first-round pick (12th overall), has been promoted from Class-A Jupiter to Double-A Jacksonville. Dominguez will join the Suns today. After going 39 for his first 176 (.221) with nine doubles, two homers and 13 RBI, Dominguez from June 1 through Sunday batted .298 (61 for 205) with 16 doubles, nine homers and 40 RBI.

Dominguez opened the season as the Marlins’ No. 6 prospect according to Baseball America. He’s a good bet to play in the Arizona Fall League, where Marlins’ third base coach Bo Porter will manager the Mesa club.

Enjoy your moment in the Sun, Matt. (Ed’s note: Oh god, I’m so sorry about that…)

With the Hammerheads, he was hitting .262/.333/.420 with 11hr 38bb and 68k, but Jupiter is a tough place to hit. If you adjust for the environment he played in, you’re looking at a .281/.350/.472/.822 kind of player, which is close to his park adjusted line in Greensboro. And his glove is considered major league, gold glove worthy right now.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story, because he’s been a completely different player in the last two months:

May: 100 AB: .200/.243/.270 – .513 OPS 1 HR, 4 BB, 21 SO
June: 95 AB: .295/.352/.474 – .826 OPS 3 HR, 9 BB, 14 SO
July: 98 AB: .316/.415/.582 – .997 OPS 6 HR, 16 BB, 16 SO

The Suns are now loaded with prospects, as Dominguez, recently ranked 4oth in MiLB.com’s top 50, joins top 25 prospects Logan Morrison and Michael Stanton. I expect Matt to struggle initially at AA, as he did in A and A+, but once he figured it out he smoked both leagues, so I think he’ll be ready to rake at the beginning of next season, because he’ll most likely start in AA next year. But he is officially on the fast track. Crazy to see two 19 year old top prospects on the same AA team with him and Stanton.

Can’t help but feel for the residents of Jupiter, as there’s really not much of a reason to go to games now.

Nick Johnson

The Marlins have traded for 31-year-old first baseman Nick Johnson, sending 22-year-old AA LHP Aaron Thompson to the Nationals in return. The Nationals will pay most of the $1.8M due to Johnson this season.

Johnson has hit .295/.408/.402 with 6 HR this season with the Nats this season. His slugging has dropped a bit but he’s still been getting on-base at a ridiculous pace. He becomes a free agent at the end of the season, so this is a two month rental.

This trade is a huge deal for the Fish. Having a .400+ OBP guy in front of Hanley as opposed to the lack of baserunner that comes with Emilio Bonifacio in the 2 spot is about as big of a change as you can think of. Now, this might hurt our defense a little bit, with Jorge Cantu moving across the diamond, but Johnson has been a plus defender at first base during his career and Bonifacio wasn’t exactly Brooks Robinson over there either, leading all of baseball with 14 errors.

Now, whenever you talk about Nick Johnson, you need to bring up his injury history. He has been on the disabled list 7 times in his career, with three times on the 60-day DL and has had a wrist injury (2002), fractured right hand (2003), back injury (2004), head injury (2004), heal injury (2005), broken femur (2006, out all of 2007) and a wrist injury (2008). There is a lot of thought that the wrist injury has dropped his power this year, with his ISO down .080 from what it was coming into the season. But it is worth mentioning that none of his injuries have been nagging, repeating injuries. Most have just been freak accidents, whether getting hit by pitches or having collisions with other players, so there is also a lot of thought that he’s just had terrible luck throughout his career.

As for who’s been sent. Aaron Thompson has a 4.11 ERA this season in 20 starts. His stock has really fallen in recent years with the club but can still be a solid arm some day.

Pavano back in Teal and Black?

According to a pretty reliable source on SoFlaMarlins.com, the Indians and Marlins are close to a deal to get Pavano back to South Florida. He says the details are being worked out, but that both sides want to get it done.

This guy he been on top of a lot of Marlins rumors thanks to a contact at FoxSports, and usually scoops Ken Rosenthal. He was all over the Manny stuff last year before it was being reported and has also been all over Cody Ross rumors recently, which have then come out, so take it for what it’s worth, I suppose.

Obviously want to avoid rumor mongering, just passing along what I’m hearing. Pavano would be a good fit.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ge-tradenews072509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

The Tigers have some interest in reacquiring outfielder Cody Ross from the Marlins and playing him in right field. Florida looked like they’d be in seller mode after being swept by the Phillies but have played well since and are on the lookout for bullpen help, with the Red Sox trying to interest them in Takashi Saito. If the Phillies acquire Halladay, though, the Marlins may stage a selloff, with outfielder Jeremy Hermida a likely bat to move. Triple-A infielder Gaby Sanchez might also be available.

Eh, not really sure there’s any reason for the Marlins to move Cody right now as he’s their 2nd best everyday player and certainly has more value ot the team than in a trade.

He’s pretty convincingly a better player than Nate McLouth, and the package the Pirates got for him wasn’t all that impressive. You want more than a couple of C prospects for a guy like Cody, who is really one of the better CF in baseball.

Also, not sure why it keeps being reported that we are looking for bullpen arms. None of the guys in the pen looks like he doesn’t belong, and in a worst case scenario (Ayala and Donnelly implode, Kiko’s arm falls off) we’ve got Lindstrom in the wings who could make the kind of impact he did in the 2nd half last year. In all honesty, the bullpen should be the least of our worries.

But then again, the front office seems pleased with Bonifacio’s work this season, so who knows what’s going on in their heads. Either way, this Braves series should decide once and for all whether the team is buying or selling.

Speaking of Bonifacio, the Gaby Sanchez’s time in the Witness Protection Program doesn’t seem to be ending, as he’s been up with the team and had a number of opportunities to see time over the last week and hasn’t had a single at bat.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Pinch-hitter Jeremy Hermida drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, pinch-hitter Chris Coghlan homered in the eighth and the Florida Marlins kept rolling up the West Coast with a 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

All-Star Josh Johnson (9-2) pitched seven resilient innings as the Marlins followed up a three-game sweep in San Diego with a victory over the major league-leading Dodgers, whose five-game winning streak ended.
After Andre Ethier’s two-run double in the sixth tied it at 3 for Los Angeles, Cody Ross singled off reliever James McDonald (2-2) before Hermida drove him home with a single off Brent Leach.

In his first official start since July 12th in Arizona, Josh Johnson went 7 innings with 3 ER, 5 H, 0 BB and 4 K, making the menacing Dodgers lineup look like any other team when facing JJ. The bullpen, as has become routine as of late, followed him up with 1 hit and 1 walk in 2 innings of work and Leo Nunez once again recording the save.

On the offense, it looked way better than it did in San Diego. The Fish didn’t score a run until a Wes Helms double in the 5th inning to plate Bonifacio but they added two in the 6th, one in the 7th, and two in the 8th to win it 6-3. In the end every Marlins with an PA had a hit but Dan Uggla, with Bonifacio, Helms, and Paulino having multi-hit games. Chris Coghlan had a pinch hit home run in the 8th.

One interesting note: Hermida pinch hit for Carroll when Carroll’s 8th spot came up against a RHP. Dodger manager Joe Torre quickly countered with a LHP from the pen but Hermida was left in, as opposed to Fredi making a second pinch hitting move with Gaby Sanchez. Even more interesting was that Chris Coghlan, not Sanchez, was on deck to PH for Johnson, even though CC has hit .222/.323/.333 in 63 plate appearances vs LHP. With every decision made, it’s becoming more and more puzzling as to why the Marlins called up Gaby Sanchez in the first place.

Well then, now that all that is settled, it’s time for everyone’s favorite segment, the handing out of the Craig Counsell Hero of the Game Award!

Today’s winner is…

It’s a tie!

For keeping one of the top offenses in baseball to 3 runs, the first part of the award goes to Josh Johnson!

And for hitting a 2 out, PH single to bring in the go-ahead run in the 7th, the second part of the award goes to Jeremy Hermida!

You two share now.