Why would the Marlins, with the worst attendance in the game and desperately trying to land a stadium deal, unload their best player and one of the top hitters in baseball?

For one, Cabrera – who made $7.4 million last season – stands to make at least $10 million in arbitration this winter, a challenging price tag for a low-revenue team. Also, despite averaging 31 homers, 116 RBI and a .327 batting average the past three seasons, he has had several troublesome episodes.

Okay, I understand that $10 million is a lot to spend on one player when your entire team was paid $30.5 million in ‘07. What I’m not clear on is how this somehow makes, as the article seems to suggest, Alex Rodriguez affordable.

In case anyone has forgotten, Rodriguez just opted out of the final three years of a 10-year, $242 million contract. This means that he and Scott Boras think they can get more on the open market, not less. Or to put it more bluntly, Rodriguez won’t be coming to Miami for $10 million — you know, what Cabrera might make in arbitration.

I love this bit on Cabrera:

He has been benched a couple of times for arriving late for games, his weight is a concern and sources say the Marlins are frustrated with his overall attitude and approach.

What is the euphemism? “Socializing,” I think they call it. This is management and local media “socializing” Marlins fans (should that really be plural?) to the idea that Cabrera won’t be around much longer and that somehow this is a good thing.

Boy, I sure would be frustrated with Cabrera’s attitude and approach if I were the Marlins. It’s only produced MVP caliber results every year. Check out Cabrera’s list of similar players through age 24 at Baseball-Reference:

1. Hank Aaron
2. Ken Griffey
3. Frank Robinson
4. Orlando Cepeda
5. Hal Trosky
6. Joe Medwick
7. Al Kaline
8. Mickey Mantle
9. Andruw Jones
10. Vladimir Guerrero

That’s six guys who are in the Hall of Fame; three who will be; and Hal Trosky, a brilliant hitter from the ’30s and ’40s whose “demise as a player is solely attributable to migraine headaches that made his life a living hell” (The New Bill James Historical Abstract, p. 447). In other words, Cabrera is a special talent. Whatever other issues may surround him (and I don’t doubt there are some) would seem to pale in comparison to what he can offer a team.

Are the Marlins shopping Cabrera? Sure sounds like it, and maybe it’s not even a bad idea — jettisoning Josh Beckett worked out well for them. But just say that you’re cheap and don’t want to pay the guy. Don’t spew garbage about his “approach” or how the more expensive Rodriguez somehow makes sense as a potential replacement.

People aren’t stupid, you know…

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Two aspects of this story fascinate me:

1. The announced attendance was 10,121, but a photo from the game tells a very different story. Er, forget steroids for a moment; someone is cheating here, and it ain’t the players.
2. The Marlins are a great case study in the difficulties of promoting a team that has no identity. This is a franchise that came into existence in 1993 and has won two World Series. If you’re keeping score at home, they’ve won rings in 13.3% of their seasons. The Boston Americans/Red Sox have done so in 5.6% of their seasons, the Dodgers (and their various predecessors) in 4.8%, the Cubs in 1.6%. Heck, the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 85 years before the Marlins came into existence. (Even Miami’s original team, the Class D Florida State League Hustlers, didn’t appear until two decades after the Cubs’ last World Series victory.) Anyway, the point is that apparently winning isn’t enough to sustain a franchise. There needs to be at least some kind of tradition, and it’s hard to build one when you’re busy slashing payroll all the time and alienating your potential fan base.

[Tip o' the Knuckle Curve cap to Baseball Musings, whose suggestion of a move to Havana, Cuba, intrigues me...]

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Now Guillen is telling Cabrera to lose weight. Quoth the Chicago skipper:

When you’re getting older and you go down, they say you’re fat. Right now it’s, “Oh, he’s a little chubby. He likes to eat.” When you’re not hitting .340 with 40 home runs, they’re going to call you a fat boy from Venezuela. You’d better lose some weight.

This is sort of touching, but it’s also sort of weird. Like, it’s nice to see Guillen concerned about his fellow countryman, but the guy plays for the Marlins.

Guillen and Cabrera had their little chat over dinner Sunday night. No word on what they ate.

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(Careful readers will note that Gonzalez didn’t specify what “it” is.)

If there’s anyone who can make Marlins fans forget Jorge Julio, it’s Benitez. As for folks in the Bay Area, no doubt they’re ecstatic over the departure of Benitez. At the very least, we can be reasonably well assured that they won’t shoot the Messenger.

Swiftly exits room without apology…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

The other interesting item here, and it’s really just a footnote, is how much pitching talent the Mets have given away over the past several months. In two separate trades this off-season, they sent Matt Lindstrom and Henry Owens to Florida for Adam Bostick and Jason Vargas, as well as Heath Bell and Royce Ring to San Diego for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson.

Here’s how these guys are doing through games of May 1, 2007:

Bell: 16.2 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 17 SO, 0.54 ERA
Lindstrom: 11.0 IP, 8 H, 7 BB, 10 SO, 2.45
Owens: 15.2 IP, 13 H, 7 BB, 10 SO, 2.30 ERA
Ring: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA

Adkins: 12.0 IP, 16 H, 4 BB, 10 SO, 5.25 ERA (AAA)
Bostick: 23.0 IP, 24 H, 11 BB, 17 SO, 7.43 ERA (AAA)
Johnson: 21 AB, .238 BA, .385 OBP, .286 SLG (AAA)
Vargas: 27.2 IP, 29 H, 7 BB, 20 SO, 4.55 ERA (AAA)

I understand that the Mets’ bullpen is stacked and they could afford to move some arms, but shouldn’t they have been able to get a little more than this in return?

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Post from: Knuckle Curve