The NL East - Page 3

I'd have thrown the Phillies under the bus if they lost today, and they came through. Probably their biggest game of the season thus far.

On the other hand, theres just no way that the Mets win this division. The Florida Marlins own the New York Mets in every way, shape and form (winners of 17 of their last 22 games against the Mets). Every game against them is an uphill battle, and I'm sure some day Armando Benitez's year will end up on Bill Simmons' Vengeance Scale. He's already got 8SV and a sub 1.00ERA against the Mets, with eight more oppurtunities to stick it to them.

I feel dirty, I'm actually happy that Mike Piazza got seriously hurt... it means David Wright is going to be starting tomorrow at third! Finally!

You are not dirty, but you are insane. I know you do not believe that the Mets are good enough to make the playoffs, but the team is in the middle of a pennant race and are playing pretty damn well. The Phils and the Marlins are underachievers, and do not look like they are going to pull away from the pack. The Braves are playing out of their minds and will not continue at this pace. The Mets have as good a chance as anyone to win the division with their starting pitching. Losing Piazza for some kid that may or may not contribute is not a good trade off. Piazza, even in a slump, is probably going to be better over the next 70 games then Wright.

Oh, I don't think David Wright will be better than Piazza, but it forces the Met organization to do something they've had the oppurtunity to do for a while... and that's promote David Wright. I want to see the guy on the field with my own two eyes, the Futures Game just wasn't enough.

He's the real deal. I wish they would have let him take Ty's place earlier, though. Piazza being hurt sucks, though.

I know Wright wont be better than Piazza, but you cant really be happy Piazza is hurt when the Mets have a legit chance of winning the Pennant.

He's played far more games than he ever has at this point in the season, and his numbers have dropped significantly. He's been carrying a slow bat for a while and perhaps the time off will do him some good.

Mind you, if it's anything more than a sprain (knowing the Mets and how they diagnose sprains *cough* Jose Reyes *cough* who knows?) I'll be worried... but if they've got the diagnoses right, he wont be gone for all that long and David Wright will hopefully be a staple at third by the time he comes back. So it's hard for me to be all that negative, it's David Wright!

David Wright is FINALLY at third so....Wiggy for Benson?

Please Please Please......

Seriously, I'm not really all that high on getting Benson anymore. Their bullpen is a FAR bigger hole than their starting pitching. Whose their setup man? Mike Stanton? Orber Moreno hasn't looked good in high leverage situations, and Jose Parra leaves a lot to be desired. Give me Everyday Eddie over Kris Benson any day of the week.

Ok, so the Phillies managed to hang on but only after Jaret Wright came out of the game. Shame, I'd hoped they'd lose another one and be even further back. Oh well, one out of two isn't bad!

Never mind, though; they've got to go and play the Marlins while the Braves get a hopeful cakewalk in the Pirates.

Aaah. This has been fun. I've loved all those people saying the Braves didn't still have it eat their words. Even if they don't end up winning the division (and while I'm the hugest Braves fan, I don't really expect them to make it very far into the postseason should they go), it's been great serving up some crow to some folks!

Really though, I hope that doesn't come across as jerky; it's been a great run to watch and made for more exciting baseball here in town then we've had in a long time, and that's been great.

If anything though, please, please, please, don't let the Yankees make it to the World Series. Man should not see Joe Torre cry...again.

Jarret Wright has pitched much better this year then he has anytime since his first season. He is no longer a cakewalk, though he is hittable. He had great movement on his fastball yesterday. he was throwing it inside on lefties and it was fooling everyone. The guy pitched well, and it was not the Phillies inability to pitch.

Teams with the best bullpen usually win in the playoffs. If a Braves fan wants to talk about having games blown by the bullpen, it is not something to be proud of.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... the Mets traded what? For what?

Breathe...

I know it's this news is a bit old, but Lo Duca has been fabulous as a Marlin so far, despite the team's recent slump. He also had the best player introduction I've ever seen.

Apparently, he was in tears when he found out about his trade from Los Angeles, where he's played his entire career. His flight to Miami that Saturday was postponed, so he didn't make it in time for the opening pitch that night. Finally, he gets to the ballpark, suits up, and McKeon calls him to pinch hit in the 6th inning.

When the stadium announcer called his name, the crowd went wild. Lo Duca's first at-bat as a Marlin, and he got a standing ovation as he walked up to the plate. He responded by drilling the first pitch into the left field stands, and the crowd just completely lost it. I was listening to it in my car, and the whole scene gave me goosebumps.

Still, we've got a lot of catching up to do, and we're opening against the Cards tommorow.

Funny. Considering the market down here, the Marlins are pulling in great attendace figures. Even with the team struggling lately, they're doing much better than last year. It didn't really start to pick up last year until that great homestand late in the season when Jeff Conine singlehandedly destroyed the Phillies.

AFAIK it's in a shitty location, and I simply can't disparage their fans after the '97 firesale.

God damn fucking Braves, 18-5 since the All-Star Break... I still think the Florida Marlins have a shot, but it sure isn't looking good.

The Phillies lose Burrell, pick up Lidle (not entirely sure why), and are still in spitting distance of those Amazin Mets. Speaking of which, I'll probably be at the game Wednesday, figure it'd be nice to catch Zambrano's Shea debut.

A couple of reasons why the Marlins don't draw big crowds -

1. After the fire sale, we were left with a minor league team. One positive was that Dave Dombrowski (who's doing a great job with the Tigers now) managed to trade our stars for some kickass prospects that eventually formed the core of last year's champions. The only one that immediately comes to mind is Brad Penny, but a few of the others were spawned from those trades.

2. The summer weather here sucks. Sunny in the morning, followed by huge downpours in the afternoon. If there's any team that needs a retractable roof in their ball park, it's the Marlins. At least for a Dolphins game (one of only 8 games/year), you know they're gonna keep playing if it starts to pour. If the same happens in a Marlins game (one of 81), they pull out the plastic mats and you hope they don't delay for more than an hour. Sometimes, you wait for more than an hour, and the game gets rained out anyways.

3. The stadium's location is really out of the way. In an attempt to get fans from both Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the stadium was built right on the county border, away from the typical high density urban areas. It's out of the way enough to discourage casual fans to walk up to the ticket booth, and nowhere near any local/tourist hot spots. If the Marlins played around the Orange Bowl, or the Heat's AA Arena, they'd attract a ton more fans (especially tourists), since baseball is the cheapest of the 4 major sports.

4. They play in a freaking football stadium. It's ALWAYS going to feel empty.

5. Even if they average 30k+ fans per game (which would rank them 19th in the league), everyone down here knows the team STILL won't make any money. Pro Player Stadium is owned by former Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga, who signed himself a sweetheart, long term lease before selling the Marlins to current Red Sox owner John Henry. Parking, concessions, and luxury box revenue all go to him, which is why the team is forever stuck in dire financial straits. The only way out of that is to pay a hefty penalty to break the lease, and move into their own stadium, preferably baseball-only. Even with last year's championship, they've had trouble securing a deal for a publically financed stadium, which I personally wouldn't vote for anyways.

I'm not trying to be an apologist as to why the Marlins are ranked 25th in attendance (22k average), but all of the above factors contribute to their lackluster ticket sales, and the effect it has on the team's payroll. For better or worse, all of this gets thrown out the window come playoff time. Considering the grief we've gotten lately from the Dolphins (the true epicenter of South Florida sports), we fans would sure love another championship run.

That said, if the Marlins had a park near Little Havana, that place would fill up every night.

I think Miami will draw a lot more fans when they get a new stadium. Pro Player, besides being so fucking far away from the city proper, and being in a shitty neighborhood, is just a terrible place for baseball. The seats face the wrong direction & it's just an overall dreary place.

Once they get a stadium that's easily accessable & is actually built for baseball, they'll fill the place more often.

You could easily replace Miami and Pro Player with Chicago and U.S. Cellular and not know the differance.

Not having a domed stadium in Florida was bad thinking. Just get one that looks good. Tropicana Field in Tampa is a dingy looking lace.

Monk if Zambrano starts walking everyone how long till the fans boo him? And has Mrs. Benson made the rounds in NY?

Have you been to Pro-Player, you fucking dunce? Obviously not. The two are NOTHING alike.

They'll probably boo him on Wednesday if he walks the ballpark, hell, nobody liked that trade here... which is surprising, since most fans tend to know very little about a teams minor league system.

And apparently (I was out of town during the trade deadline) Anna Benson's stayed under the radar, at least I haven't heard of much yet... then again, I don't read much of page 6 either.

The reason why the Marlins exist at all is because MLB wanted a franchise in the 13th largest market, and despite not having a stadium deal, Huizenga provided both the expansion start-up cash, and a temporary stadium solution by converting the Dolphins stadium for baseball. That year, the Yankees and Orioles played an exhibition game at Pro Player (then known as Joe Robbie Stadium) as an experiment, and the fan response was great. The idea was for it to be a temporary solution, to give the Marlins time to get their own publically funded ballpark.

Unfortunately, neither Huizenga nor MLB counted on getting stonewalled by the city and state. The Panthers were brought into town under similar circumstances, and they used their Stanley Cup run in '96 to get their own place, but it's also in the middle of nowhere, since the city of Sunrise were the only idiots to buy them what is now the Office Depot Center. The Heat pulled off a PR miracle, since they had the Miami Arena built for them in the late 80's, even though the design was considered outdated even before it opened. Thanks to a confusingly worded voter referendum (where "NO" meant "YES"), and a whole lot of political ads, the Heat managed to get a brand spanking new arena by the bay, a few blocks away from the old Arena. The Marlins have yet to introduce the issue as a voter referendum, instead relying on city and county commissions, with little success.

To make matters worse, Pro Player was considered a success story (despite the location), because the original owner Joe Robbie paid for it entirely with private financing. Huizenga was the billionaire founder of Blockbuster Video, and he owned the Dolphins, the Marlins, the Panthers, Pro Player Stadium (bought from Joe Robbie's heirs), and the local Sportschannel network that owned the Marlins and Panthers TV rights. Nobody wanted to give him the money for a new park, and despite raising the payroll in '97 and winning the Series, the local politicians stood their ground, so he dismantled the team.

The guy he sold it to, John Henry (billionaire commodities trader), promised to privately build a new stadium in downtown Miami if he couldn't get public help, with the disclaimer that the team would have to play with a reduced payroll to cover the expenses. After a few years of legislative inaction, the bastard goes back on his word, and colludes with his pal Bud Selig to illegally buy the Red Sox (despite a rival group's higher bidding price), while Selig dumped the Marlins to transplanted Expos owner, Jeff Loria.

Just for the record, I didn't know who to root for in last year's AL Game 7 playoff. As good as it felt to play (and beat!) the Yankees in last year's series, it would've been equally satisfying to have a chance to rip on the Red Sox. Down here, we actually hate John Henry more than Steinbrenner.

Even after ownership has changed hands a couple of times, and another championship, the apathy towards a publically financed stadium is not as strong as before, but it won't die easily, especially after the Miami Arena/AAA fiasco.

As for me.....as much as I'd love to see the Marlins play in a baseball-only park overlooking the bay, I don't want to see taxpayers stuck with the bill.

The NL East is long gone, the Phillies are two games below .500, the Mets have been done since the Trade Deadline, and the Expos never got started. I still think the Fish have an outside shot at the Wild Card with their rotation, but it sure isn't looking all that good for 'em either.

That leaves the Atlanta Braves. A Charlton Heston quote comes to mind, perhaps sports writers will have to place a moratorium on predicting another NL East team taking the division away from them. I just don't see the point, they're like the fucking MacGyver of MLB. All they need is a stick of chewing gum, a paperclip, and a shoestring and they'll pull a division title out of their ass.

And you know what? I wouldn't even give a damn if not for the recent rash of injuries that have beset the Mets. Mike Piazza, Jose Reyes, Kazuo Matsui and now Victor Zambrano are all hurt, leaving the Mets with a 1-2-3 of Gerald Williams, Joe McEwing and Todd Zeile...

If not for Kris Benson and David Wright, I'd have nothing to watch.

The Marlins have won 4 of the last 5, and have some big games coming up. They play a three game series against the Padres, followed by three games at home vs. the Giants.

Now's the time to rack up some wins.

The Marlins need to sweep this series against the Giants, they need to be closer to the Wild Card than a handful of games come September. I know it's asking for a bit much, but they simply can't go into September some 5 games back of the Wild Card with the Cubs, Giants and Padre's ahead of them.