Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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Moneyball? How about Cheapball? The 2006 Marlins


Forget the A’S or the Twins,
the Marlins are the ultimate low budget
kings of baseball.
With a total payroll of $15 million they
might even make it to the Postseason.
If you like to get the most bang for your buck,
like tax cuts, like management that can
get the most for the least, do not believe
throwing money at things to make them better is the correct philosophy, or you don’t think minimun wage should be raised, then you have to
like the 2006 Florida Marlins.
Under the circumstances nobody does it better.

By Amaury Pi-GonzalezDetroit’s Jim Leyland will win the Manager of
the Year in the American League and Joe Girardi
should win it in the National League.

Joe Girardi is one of the best young managers in the game. He has managed the
youngest team in baseball to an excellent season with 15 games left still in contention as a
Wild Card team. These are the Florida Marlins.

What do the Marlins have ? Aside from only really paying big bucks to two of their players, Dontrelle
Willis and Miguel Cabrera.

-They have Anibal Sánchez, the only pitcher in
Major Leagues in 2006 to have thrown a no hit no run game. He is 24.

-They have one of the most exciting baseball
players in the game in outfielder Miguel Cabrera,
who (by the way)plays everyday and is hitting
.342 with 25 home runs and 110 runs batted in.
His .342 leads the league and could win his first
batting title. Also the team MVP. Like his friend
Sánchez he is from Venezuela and in Miami they
speak the same language, Spanish.

-They have a serious contender for 2006 NL Rookie of The Year in second baseman Dan Uggla, as of
today hitting .292 with 25 home runs and 87
runs batted in. Dan Uggla is 26 years old.

-They have 6’7″ righthanded pitcher Josh Johnson (22 years old) a Rookie with a 12-7 3.10 ERA and
133 strikeouts.

But wait…there is more !
This, the youngest team in the Majors also have such good players as:

1B Mike Jacobs (25 years old) hitting for .280
with 19 home runs and 75 RBI.

SS Hanley Ramírez. The 23 year old Dominican
is only in his second season in the Majors he can make all the plays at short is hitting .289 and has
48 stolen bases.

OF Josh Willingham (he is 26) hitting .285 with 25 home runs and 73 RBI.

Miguel Olivo a young catcher that started his career with the White Sox was dealt to the Mariners and then to the Marlins is their everyday catcher at
25 years of age,he is getting better each day defensively and at the plate.

The youthful Florida Marlins a franchise that has
won 2 World Series since they were born in 1993
are a solid ballclub that plays ball like it was meant
to be, not only winning with the longball,but they
can steal, hit and run and flat out outplay anybody at any given time. Their pitching is serious business young arms that throw strikes and are not afraid
of pitching inside. A NL scout told me “I have seen all the teams in the NL this season, I would pay to see the Marlins before I pay to see any of the other teams”.

In 2004 and 2005 the Marlins were in contention for
the Wild Card, in both season they finished with the
same 83-79 record.

With all this talent, Miami is not supporting this team
as they average just above 13,000 people in
attendance per game at Dolphin Stadium. The day that Anibal Sánchez threw the no-no there were not even 10,000 people in the stands.

This is the ultimate Cheap-o-ball team in baseball and they can play. With a total payroll of $3.5 million dollars less than that of Barry Bonds in
the 2006 season the Marlins are cooking.

The Florida Marlins could easily finish second behind the Mets in the very tough N.L East and that
‘by itself’is a great story.

The Detroit Tigers are a huge surprise this season,
no doubt about it, but the 2006 Florida Marlins are not far behind.

Wouldn’t you love to see the Marlins in the World
Series for the third time in their short but very interesting franchise ?

0 comments

1 Anonymous { 09.17.06 at 10:26 am }

I think the other ingredient is you have to spend lots of money to get big starts, plus have some higly touted players about a year from free agency. then after one year if they don’t win the world series, you trade your high priced and about to leave players for the top prospect and rookie talent of your salivating competitors….then hope the youg studs take no more than a year to mesh as a real team.

Seems to work for the Marlins!

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