Five things to know
JUPITER, Fla. -- Some unidentifiable Florida Marlin -- are there really any other kind? -- was walking toward the batting cages midday Sunday wearing a black T-shirt with the lettering "27 Outs and No More" across the back.
This year's Marlins motto?
"I think those were from a couple of years ago," manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
|
|
| Cameron Maybin was a key piece in the mega-deal with Detroit. (AP) |
"Horrible," closer Kevin Gregg said. "Flat-out, across the board."
"Shaky," starting pitcher Scott Olson said.
Gregg wins the description contest in a TKO.
Perhaps the most important drill the Marlins can perform this spring is the one where they oil up their gloves. Last year's fellas committed 137 errors, not only setting a club record, but shattering the old one of 89. Aside from second baseman Dan Uggla and left fielder Josh Willingham, the rest of the Marlins' everyday players and pitchers had gloves that often made some of the strangest noises this side of Scooby Doo and Shaggy whenever they came in contact with the ball. Zoink!
Yes, they were swept up in the tsunami of another youth movement. Yes, their roster was crammed with young, second-year major leaguers.
But you know what? Whether you've been in the big leagues for two days or two decades, the very least you should be able to do is catch the ball.
Gonzalez said he intends to hit defense hard this spring, emphasizing it as a talking point and spending more time on certain drills.
"Make it a pride thing," he said. "This game has been around 150 years. You're not going to invent anything. Focus on stuff maybe we didn't focus on as much last year."
It only promises to get more difficult for the Marlins after president Larry Beinfest took another sledgehammer to the roster over the winter.
Pitcher Dontrelle Willis is gone, taking with him much of this club's personality.
Third baseman Miguel Cabrera is gone, taking with him much of the lineup's fight.
The payroll, comparatively speaking, is pocket change, projected to settle in the neighborhood of $17 million.
That won't be enough to field a roster that can compete in the NL East ... but it should be enough to provide for players who can scoop up ground balls and throw to the proper base without making it look like a heroic effort.
"There were silly (errors)," Gonzalez said. "Stuff you see in Little League. Balls flying everywhere."
The affable Gonzalez does seem to be tiring of watching buffoonery in the field. For example, unprompted and smiling, he wondered Sunday about the wisdom of invoking tactics espoused by the famous Chinese general Sun Tzu in the old military standard The Art of War.
Specifically, Gonzalez wondered about the tactic where Sun Tzu apparently thought it was swell strategy to shoot his generals who did not measure up to what he asked them to do. Maybe that would begin to eliminate all of those E-5s, or E-4s -- that, or eliminate the problem players.
"As a team and as an organization, we're going to address it," Gonzalez said after that bit of light-heartedness, emphasizing that when he speaks of "addressing it," he means the defense, not Sun Tzu. "Nobody's going to get lined up against the wall and shot, but it's time for us to play better defense."
Among the worst offenders: Shortstop Hanley Ramirez (.786) ranked last among NL shortstops in fielding percentage. Cabrera (now with Detroit) ranked 15th of 16 among NL third basemen (.714).
"You could go through every position, and we were not very good across the board," Gonzalez said.
"People are going to make errors," he continued. "Some of the silly ones, we need to cut down. I'm not going to grab anybody by the neck if they throw the ball away."
Sun Tzu, grabbing players by the neck ... have the Marlins appointed a coach in charge of straight-jacketing Gonzalez if the errors start arriving in bushels again? Not in the budget? Oh, my.
Seriously, when asked what types of errors that might make Gonzalez consider grabbing someone by the neck, the manager chuckled, assured that he would never do something like that and hearkened back to one shudder-worthy moment from 2007 in particular. And remember, it's a whole lot easier to chuckle in the spring's early days than it is at any other time during the season.
"Some errors make you go, 'What is going on?'" Gonzalez said. "There was a ground ball to the pitcher at our place. The pitcher throws to first and the first baseman misses it. Cody Ross grabs it and throws it to the guy covering second and throws it into the outfield. The runner scores all the way from first.
"Those are the type of errors I'm talking about."
It probably is no coincidence that the errors rose sharply in the season after Perry Hill, considered one of the game's finest infield coaches, left the Marlins when they snubbed him and made Gonzalez manager. Now entering his second season, Gonzalez took responsibility for the defensive decline and said all of the coaches will work on fundamentals with the players this spring, rather than appointing one of them to take charge of, say, the infielders.
The pitchers were as guilty as anybody, committing an embarrassing 28 errors. Add to that the fact that they issued more walks and hit more batters than any other staff in the league, and it was a recipe for doom.
Though there will be a couple of newcomers sprinkled in the lineup -- likely Cameron Maybin, the 20-year-old whiz obtained from Detroit, in center field and a new third baseman to replace Cabrera (competition will continue all spring) -- most of the same cast is returning. Mike Jacobs at first, Uggla at second, Ramirez at short, Willingham and Jeremy Hermida in the outfield.
"For the most part, guys will be in their third year in the big leagues," Gonzalez said.
Another year older, another year wiser?
Maybe. But anybody playing in the big leagues shouldn't need music from the Three Stooges as his soundtrack, however long he's been in the league. Not while wearing a glove.
