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.

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.

Don’t listen to anyone that tells you a 9-5 job isn’t so bad.

So as the trade deadline nears and teams behind trying to make moves, the Marlins have been suspiciously quiet recently, thus the lack of posts relating to the comings and goings of the major league team. There’s just not much to report about now that the marlins are officially ‘holders’. The only move recently was to call up gaby sanchez to fill out a uniform and waste away on the bench. It’s pretty remarkable that he hasn’t been given a chance, but it isn’t very surprising. So there really hasn’t been much to write about.

However, Anibal Sanchez and Matt Lindstrom have both thrown pain free bullpen sessions recently, so that is one thing to think about.

Do either of them have a place on the roster right now? Who deserves to be sent down for either? As bad as Andrew Miller was his last few starts, I have much more faith in his abilities than Anibal’s.

I hate to say it, but I think Anibal is done as a solid major league pitcher. Labrum injuries are just too tough to recover from, and he really hasn’t shown anything since 06 that says he can even be a #5.

And as for Lindstrom, I do think he can be a solid member of a major league bullpen, but I have no reason to think anyone currently in the pen deserves to go down for him.

This could be a blessing. With how bad he was this year, if he stays down after his injury, his arbitration number should be pretty low and we should have a fairly effective reliever at a low cost for next season, so that is certainly a positive.

Gaby Sanchez

Corner infielder Gaby Sanchez was recalled from AAA New Orleans this morning, taking Andrew Miller’s spot on the roster. Sanchez hit .289/.357/.447 with 9 HR in 59 games with the Zephyrs this season.

Sanchez was expected by many to be the starting first baseman for the Marlins after winning the Southern League MVP in 2008 but after a terrible showing in spring training and the emergence of Emilio Bonifacio in the Front Office’s eye, he ended being sent to AAA a week before the regular season started.

It has yet to be seen what place he has on the team but this could be a sign of the end Bonifacio’s stay at third base or of a looming trade.