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Giancarlo Stanton: Stuck In Miami
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Follow @mlbreportsSatuday, March 16.2013

Giancarlo Stanton had 37 HRs in 2012 in only 123 Games which was 2nd most in the NL. Even more impressive, he averaged a true distance of 413 ft on those 37 dingers, coming off that bat at an average speed of 107.2 MPH. He also hit the longest Home Run in 2012 at 494 FT(true distance or about 95.5 Altuves if you use that measurement).
By Ryan Dana (MLB Reports Writer): Follow @ryandana1
Normally Miami is a desirable destination, but playing for their Major League Baseball team, the Miami Marlins, might be the one time it is not. It’s amazing how things have changed in the past year. Around this time in 2012 the Marlins moved into a brand new ballpark and opened up their wallets to sign big name free agents Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Heath Bell.
Now all 3 players have been traded, along with Marlins stars Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Josh Johnson, and other solid players like Omar Infante, Emilio Bonifacio, and John Buck. The Marlins traded away nearly all significant contracts and veteran talent to rebuild. That is not what the fans in Miami wanted, and certainly not something their lone remaining star Giancarlo Stanton would find desirable.
Giancarlo Stanton, the Marlins Right Fielder, is just 23 years of age, but his ability is on the baseball field is far beyond most players of his age. Stanton is 6’5” and weighs in around 245 lbs. He is about as intimidating a hitter as you will find. These days baseball talent evaluators will argue over the importance of how a player looks on the field, and what numbers are attached to their play.
There is no debating that Stanton is a top talent in both senses. He is a stud athlete who received offers to play for top colleges in his home state of California in both baseball and football, but he opted to go pro after being drafted by Miami (then Florida) in the 2nd round of the ’07 draft.
2012 Giancarlo Stanton Highlights – Mature Lyrics so Parental Guidance is advised:
Florida Baseball and The San Juan Rays
Thursday November 15th, 2012
Alex Mednick (Baseball Writer and Analyst)
Last week Jonathan Hacohen, the founder of MLBReports.com called to my attention that the Tampa Bay Rays are an anomaly. Ultimately, if you look at the way their team is structured and where their talent lays, and the kind of game that Joe Maddon manages the Rays are ultimately a National League team; displaced in the AL East. The Rays greatest strength is their depth of pitching that they can reach into the bowels of an amazing farm system ripe with young talent. But from there on out, they rely on an offense that generates runs due to other inefficiencies.

Joe Maddon might very well be the best manager in baseball. He possesses a unique approach to the game, that if had to be categorized, is definitely more national league style than american league. He has to be creative in how he manufactures runs, as his offense does not boast the big sluggers other AL East teams do. He does, however, have a plethora of pitching talent available.
With B.J. Upton leaving town, and Carlos Pena only a carcass of what he once was, there is ultimately zero power left in their lineup. Their DH for the past two years have been the likes of an aging Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and Luke Scott. Ownership is constantly complaining about attendance and looking for bargain free agents like Johnny Damon to bring in at the end of their careers and hopefully attract some Yankees and Red Sox fans to the stadium.
At this point, the Rays power hitters are Evan Longoria, Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist. They have an amazing nucleus of pitching talent, including David Price who just won the AL Cy Young, and they are mentioning trading almost all of their starting pitchers. This is understandable, as you have to dish out talent to bring back offensive talent that they are in great need of. But I still have major gripes with the way owner Stuart Sternberg has approached the past 4 seasons in St. Petersburg, and I will get into more detail about this in a little while. Read the rest of this entry
The Demise of the Montreal Expos Franchise: Part 3 of the Expos Article Series
Friday June.29/2012
Note from Chuck Booth: I am attempting to bring the history for each of the 30 MLB Franchises into a 5 part series that will focus on 1. The teams history. 2. The hitters 3. The pitchers. 4. The Team’s Payroll going into in 2013 and 5. (The stadium articles will all be done next summer when I go to all of the parks in under a month again.) To follow all of the updates, be sure to check my author page with a list of all archived articles here.
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on Twitter)- The Montreal Expos were a model franchise from 1979-1994. They only finished under .500 in 3 seasons out of 15 in this stretch of time. The club simply drafted better than any other Major League team. Long before the Oakland Athletics and Billy Beane came up with MoneyBall, or the Minnesota Twins, Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays showed us that you can have good runs with your baseball teams on a shoe string budget, the Expos wrote the book on it. The Expos were forced to trade away their best talent when they came up for free agency or lose them outright. There was no way the team could ever re-sign the players. It wasn’t even in question. The province of Quebec said good-bye to Hall of Famers: Pedro Martinez, Vlad Guerrero, Tim Raines and Andre Dawson in the prime of their careers with nothing back in return as Free Agents.
Gary Carter was the 1st great player to be traded by the club after the 1984 season. Other great players like Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou and John Wetteland were jettisoned out the door as part of a 1995 Firesale after the strike/lockout because the team could not pay them after a massive loss in revenue at the end of the 1994 season. With the clock ticking on the Expos brass (financially as soon as the lockout was lifted) the ownership could not pay the bills! It is a sad commentary on this franchise that the two big work stoppages in 1981 and 1994 stifled this franchise-perhaps the most out of any team in the MLB. It all ended up costing the Expos the team and/or a chance to build a brand new ballpark in the downtown core to ever revitalize the interest of the avid baseball enthusiasts in Montreal. This fan base had suffered enough and they made the baseball club pay for it at the turnstiles. They had suffered 7 losing seasons at Jarry Park, a 2 billion dollar scam gone wrong in what was Olympic Stadium, a park that was supposed to be a modern-aged retractable roof that never materialized at all and Quebec was left with the bill. I don’t blame the fans for walking away from the game after the 1994 strike. They had supported the team through many of trials an tribulations-only to be disappointed time and time again by the economics of baseball.
There is a lot more of this article past the video clip, just click on: READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY
For Part 1 of the Article Series, The Expos Hitters: click here
For Part 2 of the Article Series, The Expos Pitchers: click here
For Part 4 of the Article Series, The Washington Nationals Franchise 2005-2012: click here
For Part 5 of the Article Series, The Nats Best 25 Man Roster 2005-2012 click here
A nice tribute video to the club!
Montreal Expos Drafting Record Part 2: The Pitchers
Wednesday June.27/2012
Note from Chuck Booth: I am attempting to bring the history for each of the 30 MLB Franchises into a 5 part series that will focus on 1. The teams history. 2. The hitters 3. The pitchers. 4. The Team’s Payroll going into in 2013 and 5. (The stadium articles will all be done next summer when I go to all of the parks in under a month again.) To follow all of the updates, be sure to check my author page with a list of all archived articles here.

Drafted in 1985 by the Montreal Expos, Randy Johnson was erratic in his early days. After trading away Mark Langston to acquire the young fireballer, the Mariners worked him into the rotation and he developed into a Hall of Famer.
Chuck Booth (Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- When looking back at some of the pitchers that the Montreal Expos have had in their organization, you don’t have go down the list very far to find Randy Johnson. He is the ‘crown jewel’ of the draft history record for the club. It is unfortunate the ‘The Big Unit’ was traded to the Seattle Mariners with Brian Holman and Gene Harris to the Mariners for rental player Mark Langston and a player to be named later. To be fair to the Montreal Expos, they were in serious contention for the pennant in 1989 and were trying to chase down the Chicago Cubs. Langston was one of the top Left Handed Aces in the Majors and he was available. Johnson was completely wild in the Minor Leagues and the Expos had a lot of veteran pitchers like Dennis Martinez and Bryn Smith that were on the back end of their careers. The time to try and win was now and they could not wait for Johnson to come around. The Expos did not succeed in capturing the pennant and Langston moved onto the California Angels as a free agent while Johnson blossomed into the premier left handed pitcher in his generation. Speaking of Martinez and Smith, they won 100 and 81 games respectively for the club. While they were not drafted by the Expos, they are 2nd and 3rd on the all-time win list.
Along with Smith and Dennis Martinez (who threw a perfect game as an Expo in 1991 and note: Bill Stoneman also threw two no-hitters for the franchise), you have to factor in the career of Pedro Martinez as an Expo for guys that were great pitchers during their prime. Pedro was acquired prior to the 1994 season from the Dodgers in exchange for the Expos departed ALL-Star second baseman Delino DeShields. Martinez went 11-5 in the strike shortened year and formed an impressive 1-2 ace combination with Ken Hill. Pedro went onto a 55-33 record and a 3.06 ERA for his 4 year Expos career. Pedro’s best year with the club was 1997 where he was the NL CY Young with a 17-8 record and a 1.90 ERA. Martinez finished the year with 305 strikeouts and a ridiculous 13 complete games. Pedro ended up signing with the Boston Red Sox before the 1998 season and he ultimately won a World Series with the Beantowners in 2004. In his post game celebration, Martinez mentioned the Expos franchise and their fans. Pedro shared his triumph as a testament to them. It was talent like this that Expos could never afford to resign and would lose outright- or have to trade for prospects based on their economic viability. I will get more into this in Part 3 of the Article Series on Friday.
For Part 1 of the Article Series, The Hitters: click here
For Part 3 of the Article Series, The Demise: click here
For Part 4 of the Article Series, The Washington Nationals Franchise 2005-2012: click here
For Part 5 of the Article Series, The Nats Best 25 Man Roster 2005-2012 click here
MLB Payroll Report: Rating the Value of Each club Per Win
Wednesday, May.16/2012
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- Once again the New York Yankees top the charts for payrolls in the Majors, although the other teams are definitely catching up a little. Now while the below charts tell us a story on value, obviously you are better off being one of the teams that spends more money. Tampa Bay, Toronto and Baltimore are amongst some of the best valued teams for payroll and wins so far. This bodes well for the competitive balance in the American League East long-term. What I am also seeing, is that teams that are on the bottom of the payroll scale are starting to invest money in their teams. One can only hope that the Houston Astros will start investing in the club once they shift over to the AL West. Oakland may be still playing ‘Moneyball’ as the top value for each win, however this concept will only carry them so far. The team still needs to find a long-term home so they can catch up with the moneys spent by the rest of the Major Leagues. Read the rest of this entry











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