Marlins to fans: Why go to the Salvation Army?

Buried in this press release:

In addition, the team is making available a limited number of $99 season tickets. The Marlins Holiday Pack, includes 25 games for just $99 (less than $4 per game) with two accessible plans. The Marlins Holiday Pack is a limited-time offer with seating subject to availability.

Thats basically the equivalent of a game against a bad opponent for a Red Sox or Yankee fan, no? See, sometimes it's fun to root for the little guy. Even if the little guy brought this on himself by stealing revenue sharing money and not even using any of it to fund his team. In a way, Red Sox/Yankee fan, you are paying the Marlins money so that they can sell packets of 25 tickets for $99 a piece.

Better know a minor league affiliate: Jupiter Hammerheads

The Hammerheads, the Marlins FSL Affiliate (High A), finished dead last in the Eastern Division last year with a 48-84 record. Ex-Mets farmhands 3B Grant Psomas (.291/.341/.427, 8 homers) and SP Gaby Hernandez (9-7, 3.68 ERA, 35-115 BB/K in 123 innings) were probably the two best prospects for Jupiter coming into the season. Former Baseball America #10 prospect Trevor Hutchinson put up a nifty 3.27 ERA as well, but with significantly less strikeouts (45 in 71 innings); it also hurts him that he’s about 300 years old. Asides from the bullpen, these were the only two players of any real consequence on the team for most of the year. The starters were brutal all year for the club and the offense had only two other players with more than 100 at-bats who posted an OPS over .700.

However, the big story that came out of Jupiter this year was 21 year-old RHP Jose Garcia. He started the year off many a scout’s sleeper, and ended it as arguably the best prospect in the Marlins organization. He was called up to AA Carolina after just 11 dominating starts with the Hammerheads, where he posted a 1.87 ERA in 77 innings, while striking out 69. Later, he made it all the way to the big club.

The Red Sox contributed greatly to this Hammerhead team. Of all the people who stuck with Jupiter throughout the year, the best was probably 22-year-old closer Harvey Garcia, who had a 2.92 ERA, 21 saves, and struck out 83 batters in just 64 2/3rds innings after coming over in the Josh Beckett trade this offseason. Garcia was originally signed by the Marlins, but after being released and picked up by the Red Sox, worked on his control enough to lower his walks allowed from 30 in 2004 to 18 in 2005. His partner in that trade, 22-year-old Jesus Delgado, also pitched in the Hammerhead bullpen. Delgado managed a 2.58 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 38 1/3rd innings.

Like all minor-league teams, the Hammerheads also had a great promotional slate. Halloween in April, Pay It Forward (Free tickets if you give up contact information), Kid’s Hygiene Awareness Night (first 500 kids receive a free dental gift bag!), Guaranteed Win Night (If the Hammerheads lose, all fans get a free ticket to an upcoming game; they did win). Most importantly, they celebrated the birthdays of Hamilton R. Head and Robbie the Redbird on September 2nd, with a mascot kickball game before the baseball.

Roger Dean Stadium has hosted both the Cardinals and Marlins FSL teams and Spring Training since it was opened in 1998, and it is the only minor league ballpark that hosts two teams simultaneously throughout the season. It is apparently run by Nazis, as you are not allowed to bring signs or banners into the park. It’s ballpark A-Z has a very strict policy on interfering with balls in play, then brings up probably the only thing that Cardinals and Marlins fans actually have in common.


DAWWWWWWW!

As the team only began operation in 1998, very few players who played for Jupiter are actually established MLB players. Probably the biggest two are current Marlins Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. They were originally a Montreal Expos affiliate, and so they also housed former Expos Milton Bradley, Brad Wilkerson, Carl Pavano, Jorge Julio, and Tony Armas Jr.

Baseball around the World, 9/29/06

MLB:
Roger Clemens shits bed, Astros playoff hopes, and all but mathematically eliminates the Reds - Is Clemens the A-Rod of pitchers? The only World Series win he took part in, he threw a bat at Mike Piazza. He also has failed to win games despite his ERA, yet fans make excuses for him. Not that I think wins matter, I'm just interested as to the big difference in vitrol between the two of them. The Reds will need the Cardinals to lose the last three games and they'll need to win their last two to tie them.

Philadelphia rapes Brian Moehler to keep Phillies mathematically alive for wild card - Time to go back to sandpaper. Fun fact: Brian Moehler is the second highest paid player on the Marlins this season.

Poker legend Paul Phillips, Emil Brown, come up with clutch win to keep the race for #1 pick interesting - With two games left, the Royals hold only a one game lead on the Devil Rays, who managed a "shocking" 2-1 loss when Seth McClung "accidentally" walked in Jhonny Peralta with 1 out in the ninth. The Royals still have the clear advantage as they are playing a team with incentive to win, but this could come down to the wire with the Rays starting Jae Seo and Jason Hammel for the last two days of the season.

Japanese League:
Buffaloes linked with Terry Collins - After having respected manager Akira Ogi die before the the season and going in with replacement Katsuhiro Nakamura, the Orix Buffaloes are now looking to bring in former Astros and Angels manager Terry Collins to the club. Collins would join Marines manager Bobby Valentine and Nippon manager Trey Hillman as the lone foreign managers in the twelve team league. Anyone actually wanting to hire Terry Collins should take a look at this September game log from 1996.

Tigers win ninth straight, move within 2 of Dragons - This is a huge series at Koshien for the home-standing Tigers, who have a chance to completely tie up the Central League with about two weeks to play. They took game one behind the efforts of Makoto Imaoka, who had his first hit since June be a pinch-hit three-run double that broke the game open. The CL winner wins an automatic berth to the Japan Series against the winner of the PL's playoffs. On an unrelated note, try to see how much sexual innuendo Jim Allen can fit into one column.

Dutch League:

DOOR Neptunus' Raily Legito, who won the MVP after hitting .366, won't be playing.

Game 4 of the best-of-5 Holland Series will be played this Saturday, with Konica Minolta Pioneers (25-17) playing host to Corendon Kinheim (33-7-2). Pioneers lead the series 2-1. Kinheim sends stopper Patrick Beljaards (12-2, 1.76) up against the Pioneers Richard Orman (6-4, 3.55), a rematch of the game two starters, where Beljaards threw a CG and gave up just one earned to get Kinheim's one win. Pioneers seem to be a team of destiny this year though, especially after knocking off DOOR Neptunus, which had won the last eight Holland Series. In other Dutch league news, Instant Holland Almere 90 (14-26-1) earned the right to stay in the league with a 3-0 sweep in the promotion/relegation series with RCH-Pinguins.

Apparently, this guy will be putting up a live play-by-play. You'll have to suffer through the Dutch, but it's exciting baseball!

Mexican League:
The season is long over, I just wanted to point out that the Mexican league has perhaps the dumbest playoff structure ever. There are 16 teams, 12 make it, and the 2 "best losers" get to play in the second round too. Just in case you thought the NBA was bad.