No one said mentorship is cheap.

Actually, at 2 million, I've seen worse.

How much do coaches get paid? You could probably factor that into this deal.

How much do coaches get paid? You could probably factor that into this deal.

$100G. Horrible signing. There have got to be AAA cast-off better than Luis G.

His reverse split, and spike vs. LHP, even if only in 112 PA's, was pretty surprising to me last year. I'm sure he is going in as a platoon player and not supposed to face lefties much. It will be interesting to see what happens if he gets some starts vs. lefties and hits vs them early in the season. Will he start complaining about PT again?

Just looking at his trends vs. LHP since 01

OPS vs. LHP

01-1038
02-827
03-702
04-888
05-748
06-740
07-889

Slg vs. LHP

01-624
02-450
03-400
04-535
05-389
06-408
07-505

ISO vs. LHP

01-312
02-178
03-177
04-291
05-120
06-149
07-188

Obviously rather severe drops across the board in 05 and 06, but he surprised last year. Doubtful he will maintain that, but you never know.

Thank god. Now at least Bavasi can't sign him when/if the Jones/Bedard deal does down.

ROFLMAO

I hope those young kids in Florida don't ruin the Marlins chances of winning the way those young hitters in LA did.

serve as a mentor for the Marlins’ younger players

So, stealing playing time from better, younger players, and complaining when they don't let you do it, is what passes for mentoring these days.

Well, he is Cuban-American (though from Tampa), so maybe they'll promote him heavily on Spanish language channels in Miami (if you guys don't speak Spanish and have never heard Cuban being spoken full bore, well, it's a sight).

This is exactly the right team for a guy who gets threatened by having youngsters around. He's going to be at least 10 years older than everyone on the team except Matt Misty-May Treanor and Mark Hendrickson. And 9 years and 51 weeks older than Justin Miller.

On the plus side, the Marlins are really throwing the big dollars around in the last couple of months, with Jose Castillo's $650,000 no longer the highest salary on the team.

Salaries on 2008 payroll (including new arbitration results):
Carlos Delgado $4M
Kevin Gregg $2.5M
Al Leiter $2.25M
Gonzalez $2M
Hendrickson $1.5M
Mitre $1.2M
Amezaga $945K
Jose Castillo $650K
Everyone else $minimum

Total payroll $less than Manny Ramirez

So he'll be 40, coming off 113, 99 and 101 years and coming to a team where the 28 year old LF had a 115, the 23 year old RF had 125 and CF was a black hole.


He can't play CF
I suppose he could outhit Jacobs at 1B (coming off 106 and 100 seasons), less than 50% chance, but he could.

I really do not understand why this team doesn't move Ramirez to CF and find a SS who can field.
I really do not understand why this team doesn't move Uggla to 3rd (or to left and move Willingham to 1B), and get a real 2B

Beinfest is a bright guy - doesn't he realize that the Marlins have the worst defense of any team in a very long time? I would argue that many of their lineups last year featured a below average defensive player at EVERY single position- has any team ever done that before?

Al Leiter is still on the Marlins' payroll? That's funny.

According to the article linked in 10 he is.

Hey, Mike Hampton is still on the Rockies payroll. I think.

BTW I was looking around the Cot's contracts website in an effort to see how many players will make more than the entire Marlins roster this season, and Vernon Wells's contract is the most bizarre thing I've seen. His entire salary for 2008 and 2009 consists of a prorated signing bonus? And then in 2010 he gets the signing bonus again, plus $11M? Then he makes $86M over the last four years? Not only is it an insanely dumb contract, but it's going to look even worse in the last half.

No, the Rockies are through with Mike Hampton except for his buyout next year. ($6M, so no small potatoes.)

I would argue that many of their lineups last year featured a below average defensive player at EVERY single position- has any team ever done that before?

2003 Yanks had Giambi, Soriano, a very old Ventura and a badly injured Jeter in the infield. A Mondesi, Williams, Matsui OF. The only one who might have been average was Ventura and when Boone came, he wasn't nearly as good as advertised.

Hopefully it'll payoff in terms of community work and community support. Perhaps they plan on flipping him to a contender down the stretch?

2003 Yanks had Giambi, Soriano, a very old Ventura and a badly injured Jeter in the infield. A Mondesi, Williams, Matsui OF. The only one who might have been average was Ventura and when Boone came, he wasn't nearly as good as advertised.

Matsui actually played well in LF that year, he wasn't as slow as he is now and had good hands and instincts, his fielding has gone south since then
Mondesi wasn't bad either.

Nick Johnson played nearly as many games at 1B as Giambi, and he was good

It certainly was a below average defensive team, bu not nearly as bad as the 2007 Marlins
Jacobs was better than Giambi, worse than Johnson
Uggla was worse than Soriano (Yes Uggla is that bad)
Hanley and Jeter is basically a push
Cabrera was worse than either Boone or Ventura
Willingham was much much worse than Matsui
Marlins CFs couldn't hit to save themselves but on average were probably better defensively than 2003 Bernie
Mondesi/River was probably better than Hermida/Borchard

I don't think I could be generous enough to call this a no-ceiling move. Why not throw this money at an international signing or pay over slot for a draft pick?

I think #16 answers #18. He is a very media-friendly Cuban-American after all.

Why not throw this money at an international signing

Gonzo will be cruising around in a trawler shouting Cuban Spanish into a megaphone, looking for competent infielders floating on rafts.

BTW I was looking around the Cot's contracts website in an effort to see how many players will make more than the entire Marlins roster this season, and Vernon Wells's contract is the most bizarre thing I've seen. His entire salary for 2008 and 2009 consists of a prorated signing bonus? And then in 2010 he gets the signing bonus again, plus $11M? Then he makes $86M over the last four years? Not only is it an insanely dumb contract, but it's going to look even worse in the last half.

I remember something about a bizarre tax law in Canada that signing bonuses are not taxable, so this deal was structured to take advantage.