The Marlins season so far has had up and downs that include losses to the Nationals and a four-game sweep of our division rival the Mets, and I can’t help and notice that a lot of success is due to good pitching, but it is also due to great progress by the rookie Gaby Sanchez.

Gaby was recognized as one of the top prospects in the Marlins farm system since 2008 when he posted amazing numbers that included a .316 BA, .404 on-base percentage, 17 HR, and 92 RBI in AA. At that time Gaby presented a excellent future and was probably pinned as the starting first baseman for the 2009 season.

Unfortunately the Marlins organization made some bad trades and acquired Emilio Bonifacio who had a good spring prior to the 2009 season and left Gaby out of the plans for that season, so they sent him down to AAA ball where he sustained injuries and had limited playing time. 

Gaby did get some time in the big leagues in 2009, and he hit a few HR but it really wasn’t that much.

At the end of the season the first base position was open after the departure of Nick Johnson and the starting position was between Gaby Sanchez and Logan Morrison, and through spring training Gaby won the position. 

So, for the first time in his career, he was going to be the starting first baseman on opening day.

So far Gaby has been a rookie success for the Marlins, not so much for his numbers posted so far, but for his maturity on the field and above average defense.

He has .275 BA, 18 RBI, and hit four HR. They aren’t off the chart numbers, but after that four-game series with the Mets that he had, they are going nowhere but up.

Gaby represents a player that plays hard and produces good at-bats, he has a nice compact swing, and he likes to make pitchers work. 

His plate discipline is possibly the Marlins best at the moment, since Chris Coghlans’ struggles, and he is always thinking what is best for the team. 

Gaby is not the best rookie out there, and probably isn’t even being considered a candidate for the Rookie of the Year. But he does deserve some credit since he has pulled together a nice stretch offensively and defensively and unlike many players he is proving to be one of the most consistent out of that Marlins lineup.

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You have to love that scroll at the bottom of the screen.

ESPN’s Bottom Line is one of my favorite things about the network. It gives me everything I need to know in bite-sized pieces, including breaking news.

Boy, am I am captivated by that breaking news red glow at the bottom. It gets my heart thumping and mind racing.

“Did LeBron just buy a house in Chicago?”

“Did the Raiders sign T.O.?”

“Did the Yankees just send a few prospects to Florida for the Marlins’ starting lineup?”

“Did LeBron just buy a house in New York?”

You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered what news the Bottom Line was breaking today:

In an interview with ESPN’s Bonnie Ford Wednesday, former Tour de France champion Floyd Landis said that he used performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career.

Thanks, ESPN. Is water still wet, too?

In a sport that has been riddled with dopers, this doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Even when Landis had his Tour de France title stripped because of positive drug tests, he was so adamant that he was clean, he got me to think that he was actually lying.

And to make himself look like less of a bad guy, he decided to throw national hero Lance Armstrong under the bus as well.

I’m not going to write about all the other stuff you’re going to see on other websites, like how could Landis have the audacity to lie, and that yet another athlete has fallen short of our expectations. I’m here to gripe about the breaking news.

Athletes in all sports use drugs. Illegal drugs. And most of those athletes are a dime a dozen. However, some of them achieve success and break records, and those few have us all up in arms.

So when a lab develops a test that can prove whether an athlete ever took PEDs, and guys like Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa pass that test, let me know ASAP. That’s breaking news.

Obviously a guy like Landis got caught up in his passion for success. It sounds like he thought that because so many other competitors were doping, he felt he had to do it to win. And he also said he doesn’t feel guilty about it.

That last paragraph could be said about hundreds–and probably thousands–of athletes in dozens of sports ever since amphetamines were the drug du jour in the 1950s.

Breaking news is when these guys are proven to be clean. Don’t waste that beautiful glowing crimson color on a story like this one, which barely qualifies as news.

Gotta go. I think I just saw LeBron James with my apartment manager.

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[Every day, stories spread throughout the sports world of another athlete or coach or team involving themselves in situations that inevitably need some PR spin.  Regardless of the severity of these issues, our very own Dr. Aaron Perlut will be there to analyze the situation and offer up some free professional advice.  Because if there is anything comparable to Dr. Aaron’s knowledge of mustaches, it’s his knowledge of public relations ]

Did you pay attention to the the flap in the Florida Marlins clubhouse between defending National league batting champion Hanley Ramirez and Manager Fredi Gonzalez? This is the same Fredi who reportedly dots the “i” on the end of his first name with a heart.

In case you’ve been on a Mickey’s Big Mouth bender and missed it: during Monday night’s game against Arizona, while trying to field a bloop hit, Ramirez booted the ball into the left field corner. He then jogged after the ball at a less-than robust pace, allowing two runners to score.

Citing Ramirez’s lack of hustle, Gonzalez benched his all-star shortstop for Tuesday’s game, and the player called out his manager.

“He can do whatever,” Ramirez said. “There’s nothing I can do about it … He doesn’t understand that. He never played in the big leagues.”

And then he was kind enough to bring his teammates into it.

“We got a lot of people dogging it after ground balls,” referring to the Marlins who are vying for first place with in the NL East—“They don’t apologize.”

Nice. Maybe Marlins stud pitcher Josh Johnson offered Ramirez a nice cup of Sanka in the clubhouse after that one.

Here’s the doctor’s PR rub.

Coaches and players get under each others’ skin on a regular basis. It’s part of the yin-and-yang of sports at any level, and most of it, surprisingly, stays behind closed doors.

In this case, Ramirez had fouled a ball off his left shin in the first inning. And according to Softball Guy , this feels something akin to having all of your pubic, nose, and eyebrow hairs simultaneously ripped off while a silver backed gorilla whips your back with a dense rubber hose.  So clearly, Ramirez was hobbling from the shin-shot when he booted the ball and it inhibited his ability to run after it at full-speed.

With that in mind, how should Ramirez have handled it? Do you throw both your manager and teammates under the bus and then move on? Not if you want to stay in the good graces of your organization and the 12.7 Marlins fans who actually attend home games on a regular basis.

As this situation was unfolding, I was thinking about what a professional would say—someone in the mold of a Mike Schmidt, Tony Gwynn, Albert Pujols, Crash Davis, or Mr. T—and it would sound something like this:

“I know I took that hard ball off my shin, but I feel like I let my team down today. I’ll talk to Fredi about it, but I’m more concerned about the two runs that scored and am sorry my injury couldn’t allow me to run full speed after that ball. I just hope I can get back to 100 percent so I can field the ball to the level at which I’ve become accustomed.”

Boom! You demonstrate remorse, suggest the injury played a role in your lackadaisical effort, put the focus back on the team’s ability to win and your role in that effort, and bridge to the future.

The bottom line is that sometimes you have to swallow the bitter pill of pride. It’s part of every day life. From telling your wife Yolanda that she’s right when you really want to lay down a karate chop, to supporting your boss Tim at work, even when he or she may not be right.

It just takes a little maturity, Hanley.

In the end, late yesterday, it was clear that someone (probably his agent) got to Ramirez and talked some sense into him, because the ordeal ended with the player  apologizing as he stood 12-feet-deep in the hole he had dug himself.

“I’m sorry that all this got so ugly. My intent was not to cause a distraction,” Ramirez told ESPNdeportes.com in a phone interview from St. Louis. “I’m sorry that things got this heated. The team, the fans don’t deserve it. We are all professionals here and we’re pulling for the same side. I’ll try to close this chapter and focus on playing baseball,” Ramirez added.

It was about time.

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What to make of the Hanley Ramirez brouhaha?  I’m still not sure.

I’ve been busy with work and I’ve kind of wanted to see how it would play out. Now that he’s back in the line-up, the one thing I can say for certain is that it’s a very ticklish situation.

Hanley made a mistake not hustling after that ball he kicked, but I can somewhat see where he was coming from. He’d hit a ball off his shin, and soon after he tries to make a play and ends up kicking the ball into the left field corner. I can see how that would be intensely frustrating and might lead to a stupid decision.

I was a lot more disturbed by all the really stupid things he said afterwards about how manager Fredi Gonzalez’s opinion carried no weight because he’d never played in the majors, how his teammates weren’t hustling either, and aren’t as good as him so they have no right to be angered by his conduct, etc. Hanley really comes off as a spoiled brat.

That being said, he’s the Marlins’ franchise player, both in terms of talent, performance, and also contract commitment. There’s pretty much no way they can trade him and get equal value in return.

Still, it’s got to be disheartening to everyone in the Marlins organization that Ramirez is so immature. Hanley is 26 this year and in his fifth full season in the majors, which means he’s right on the cusp between being young and immature on the one hand, and being a full-fledged prima donna on the other.

Also, it’s not the first time Ramirez has been accused of jaking it. He and Dan Uggla got in a shouting match in the locker room last season over what Uggla thought was a lack of sufficient effort on Hanley’s part.

It causes real problems when a team’s best player is perceived as giving less than his best effort. If he stays in the line-up, it causes dissension among the other players. If he’s benched, obviously that hurts the team too. In fact, if a player is going to be a big jerk, better to have a Barry Bonds type of jerk. Bonds got special treatment and was a real pill, but no one ever doubted his effort on the ball field (although in truth, Bonds sometimes didn’t run out ground balls and pop-ups and embarrassed himself a couple of times by giving up on fly balls he thought were home runs but stayed in the yard).

Deep down, I don’t think it’s over, even though Hanley was back in the line-up and helped the Fish with three hits today. There’s a lot of season left to play, and I have a feeling there will be problems again later in the season. We’ll see.

Also, my favorite problem child Milton Bradley was back in the Mariners’ line-up after two weeks of some kind of therapy for his anger/stress management issues. Of course, I’m not sanguine that Milton has turned a corner because he’s been down this road many times before.

I’ve said before that I don’t think Bradley is the worst human being in baseball. However, he’s got serious emotional problems that can’t be dealt with without several years of intense therapy. Unless he continues to talk to a mental health professional at least a couple of times a week for the rest of the season, I think it’s just a matter of time before he blows again, particularly if he continues his current struggles at the plate.

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We are all aware of the recent situation between Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez and Manager Fredi Gonzalez, and the good news is is that progress is being made as Hanley said to ESPNDeportes that he was willing to apologize to his team in order to move forward and get along with the season.

Henley’s fight with Fredi left a lot of mixed feelings and confusion to the team and fans, and Hanley is doing what a true athlete and person should do and that is recognize their mistakes and move forward. 

I think all of this commotion made Hanley think about his teammates and the organization that has brought him up to the success he is today. He recognized that he is the leader of this Marlins franchise and that he is going to pull this team through to the playoffs with his bat and glove, and for the marlins to win they need 25 people giving 100 percent every day.

Hanley is a once in a lifetime player and has the chance to become a legend, that we’ll tell our grandkids about, yet he is still growing in many ways, and this so called fight with the media is something that I expect will let the team grow and make them realize that to win and be the best they can be they have to depend on each other and give it all they got. 

This two-time all star short stop is the face and the pride of the Marlins franchise, and he made a mistake, a bad mistake, but as fans and writers we need to give Hanley credit for everything he has been for the marlins, but we shouldn’t only give credit to Hanley.

We should give it to every player and coach, that has given a damn to this team. 

Hanley I respect you, and I respect Fredi, ….. I respect the Marlins.

Thank you for everything and lets have a successful 2010 season!

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So by now all you of you have heard or read of the terrible case of the Monday’s Hanley Ramirez came down with during yesterday’s game versus the Diamondbacks.

If not, read Dan’s last post over at themarlinsblog.com . And appalled as I am that someone like Hanley would be perfectly fine with his public display of immaturity, I must say that I am not surprised.

Hanley Ramirez has continued to show a lack of hustle and respect for his fellow players (and fans) for the majority of his Marlins career.

It seems that once or twice every season we see instances of Hanley deciding, mid-game, to just give up when the Marlins are down by what seems an insurmountable total. Be it not diving for that line drive or stealing a base by trotting, Hanley just takes it upon himself to stop caring.

I was looking for some videos or old news articles to help illustrate my point, and with the current news of Mr. Ramirez blowing up all over the Internet, it has not been easy.

In fact, I appeal to you to submit any stuff you can find in the comments area. I did, however, come across a nice article written by FishNFinz on FishStripes that illustrates my point from the past few seasons.

I hope this jogs your memory:

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.  Last September, Hanley and Uggla got into it after Ramirez went into an 0 for 14 slump and didn’t want to play because of a hamstring injury that was bothering him most of the season.  This all happened after the Marlins were fading in playoff contention.

In the locker room Ramirez stated “You don’t get the same respect from teammates when you’re not playing.  I got people upset when I got out of the game last night. I try to do the best I can. Whatever.”

Uggla overheard at his locker and said: “I was one of them.”  The two exchanged words. And Uggla said: “Yeah, you got your $70 million” and went on to use an expletive while asking him why he had to come out of the game”

Just a month before that Hanley and Wes Helms got into a physical altercation.  If you know Uncle Wes, you know he treats his teammates like a strict dad treats his disobedient kids.  More than likely this fight was due to Hanley not living up to his potential and doing something disappointing.

And before all of that, in June of last year instead of addressing the matter personally, Hanley called out Josh Johnson and Fredi in the media after he believed he was intentionally hit by a pitch.  Hanley believed that the Marlins should have retaliated and stated  “You know, incredible. There’s going to come a point where I’m not going to feel protected. I’m going to be scared to hit a home run because I know I’m going to get hit.”

We as fans should be disgusted at this sort of behavior from a player whose salary we pay through our fan-dom.

I simply don’t appreciate such a nonchalant, rock star, “my poop doesn’t stink” attitude from someone who plays on a TEAM that relies on the successes (and failures) of everyone collectively.

I’m thrilled that the Marlins came back from this drama today and won the game (with flying colors I might add) against Arizona without—and possibly in spite of—Hanley.

With an attitude like his, good riddance.

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By now, most baseball fans have seen the highlights of Hanley Ramirez lollygagging after a ball he literally booted down the left field line in Monday night’s game between the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After Ramirez’s snail-like retrieval of the baseball, during which he probably could have enjoyed a three-course meal, he was promptly benched by his manager, Fredi Gonzalez.

While last night’s spectacle was as egregious as they come, it was only one glaring footnote in a growing trend around Major League Baseball.

Although the 2010 season is only a month and a half old, there have been a number of plays that should have resulted in benchings.

Lastings Milledge was thrown out jogging around second base earlier this month after he thought he had a hit a home run. He claimed that he was fooled into thinking the ball was gone because celebratory fireworks went off at PNC Park.

The Pirates blew out the Cubs that day, and Milledge had a great game. Bucs manager John Russell didn’t bother to penalize Milledge in any way.

The Braves were somehow uneducated about the “infield fly rule” in a game against the Mets in April, and it cost them a run. It is hard to believe a team managed by the great Bobby Cox could have problems comprehending the rule, but it happened.

No one was reprimanded.

A book could be written detailing all of Manny Ramirez’s baseball transgressions, but look no further than Monday night’s game for the most recent example. Manny “attempted” to score from first on a two-out double, and although the throw to the plate beat him fairly easily, he slowly jogged toward home and made no effort to plow into the catcher.

As usual, it was “Manny being Manny,” and everybody just laughed it off.

These are just three examples, and there are others that could be referenced. The major difference between those instances and what happened with Hanley Ramirez down in Miami on Monday is that Hanley was benched.

Kudos to Fredi Gonzalez on his decision.

How many managers would have done what Gonzalez did? It’s hard to say, but odds are that a large number of them would not have the guts to put their star player on the pine.

Baseball, at its highest level, requires a lot of skill—just like football, basketball, and hockey.

One thing baseball doesn’t require that the other three do is a large amount of cardiovascular activity. That cannot be debated.

Typically, a player might have to run the bases four times per game. Perhaps he’ll have to chase after a few balls in the field. That’s it.

So if a player fails to give maximum effort when running to first on what looks like a routine pop-up, or when he poses at the plate on what he thinks is a home run, or if he does what Ramirez did on Monday night, he should be punished.

Did Gonzalez set a precedent? Hopefully other managers have taken notice and will not simply shrug it off the next time one of their players does not give it his all.

Perhaps more importantly, maybe players all around baseball took a moment to pause and think about their own playing styles.

Fortunately, a population of Major Leaguers who play all out, all the time, still exists. But the number is shrinking.

Guys like Manny Ramirez are beyond help at this point. However, young players—even Hanley Ramirez himself—still have time to improve their images in regards to their heart and hustle.

Fredi Gonzalez’s brand of discipline might be just the thing baseball needs to make sure effort is an obligation—not a choice.

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The Marlins are playing without Hanley Ramirez, the face of their franchise, this afternoon. The reason for his not playing is unclear; whether he is injured or whether the decision was made by manager Fredi Gonzalez.

Ramirez was benched during Monday’s game after booting a ball into left field and then nonchalantly chasing it down; allowing two runners to score and enabling batter Tony Abreu to reach third.

Following the inning, Gonzalez sat Ramirez down to speak to him and then benched him for the remainder of the game.

Ramirez was upset about being benched, stating that he had been injured in the first inning following his fouling a ball off of his left leg.

Speaking to reporters following the game, Gonzalez spoke out on the issue.

“Whether he was hurt or not, we felt that the effort wasn’t there,” Gonzalez told reporters following Monday’s game. “There are twenty-five guys who are busting their butts. There are some injuries there, but we expect an effort from twenty-five guys on this team and when that doesn’t happen, we have to do something.”

Also following the game, Gonzalez reportedly asked Hanley to apologize to his teammates for his lack of play. Ramirez refused to do so, saying that he was injured and was playing his hardest.

Regardless, Gonzalez feels that Ramirez’s lack of effort was enough to have him benched today, which Hanley was unhappy about.

“It’s his team, he can do whatever he ****ing wants,” Ramirez said to reporters. “We’ve got a lot of guys dogging it on ground balls. They don’t apologize.”

He went on to fire a direct shot into his manager’s heart, saying of his removal in Monday’s game, “That’s ok. He doesn’t understand that. He never played in the big leagues.”

The battle between Ramirez and Gonzalez has clearly taken on an ugly face, with fans turning sour on Ramirez for both his actions and his speaking out on the topic.

One Sun-Sentinel article compared the instance to a similar one by Jimmy Rollins in 2008, when Rollins didn’t run out a fly ball that landed. Following Rollins’ mishap and lack of effort, he was very apologetic and seemed genuinely sorry.

“It’s my fault,” Rollins said to reports on being pulled from that game. “That’s like breaking the law and getting mad when the police show up.”

After he was benched, Rollins remained on the bench and cheered on his teammates, taking the role as a supporter for the end of the game.

“We’re a team, I’m not going to be a distraction that way,” Rollins told reporters on his remaining on the bench. “I did what I did, ok, but I still have to pull for my team. It’s not their fault. They shouldn’t have to worry about that being a distraction.”

Apparently, Ramirez doesn’t feel the same way, as he is very much making it a distraction and calling out other players on the team

Gonzalez stuck up for his players and compared Hanley’s injury to that of Cody Ross, who was hit with a fastball in the game.

Gonzalez said to reporters, “[Ross] got hit with a ball at 95 mph, it wasn’t hit or thrown any slower and he stayed in the game making diving plays and battling, got two hits and an RBI.”

The future of this debate is unknown, but the near future in the Marlins clubhouse looks ugly. Fans disappointed with their All-Star player, the media having headlines like “Why Can’t Hanley Ramirez Be More Like Jimmy Rollins,” and a star player criticizing the talent and hustle of his teammates.

Ramirez has since (somewhat, maybe) tried to downplay his criticism of teammates, saying to reporters, “I respect everybody, but I don’t know if I get the same respect back.”

Asked when fans can expect to see Ramirez back in the lineup, Gonzalez stated that he did not yet know.

“I think he needs to talk to his teammates a little bit,” Gonzalez said to reporters. “Whatever feelings he has for me are fine and dandy. We don’t have to get along, but I think he needs to get along with the other 24 guys on his team and when that happens, we’ll run him back out there. If he sets his ego aside, I think he’ll be good.”

Well, battle lines have definitely been drawn in Florida. Many questions are already being drawn up, such as if someone has to go, will it be Hanley or Gonzalez? What do his teammates think about being called out? Who are the fans siding with?

So far this season, Ramirez, the 2006 NL Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star, is batting .293 with seven homers and 20 RBI through 39 games.

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The Mets lost their fifth straight game as the Marlins finished off a four-game sweep. Jon Niese started the game and wasn’t very sharp for the second start in a row. He left the game due to injury after fielding a ground ball. It looked like it might have been the same hamstring that ruined his season last year. He ended up throwing two innings and giving up two ER (earned runs).

Hisanori Takahashi relived Niese and went three IP, which precludes him from taking Oliver Perez‘s spot in the rotation. The Mets will have to dip into Triple-A Buffalo to replace Perez.

Fernando Nieve got rocked in the seventh inning for three ER on two hits a walk. His ERA is up to 4.64 as he’s cooled off quite a bit from his hot start in the bullpen.

The defense was pretty sloppy in this one too. David Wright and Niese both had errors. But Wright had several plays that he didn’t make at third that were scored as hits by the Florida scorekeeper.

The Mets did have 12 hits and four walks in the game. The lineup featured Chris Carter hitting cleanup and playing right field. Jeff Francoeur got a “mental health” day off but he did end up pinch hitting. The big shock is that Gary Matthews, Jr. went into right field and went 2-for-2 with his first RBI of the year.

The Mets head to Atlanta for a two-game series starting tomorrow night.

Box score

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New York Mets (18-19) at Florida Marlins (19-18)  1:10 pm

Jon Niese (1-1 4.52) vs Ricky Nolasco (3-2 3.66)

TV : SNY   Radio : WFAN

What to watch : The Mets are trying to avoid being swept this afternoon. The Mets have won four of the last five games that Niese started. Although his last start against the Nationals was the worst of the season giving up 6 ER in 4.1 IP. Nolasco and the Marlins beat the Mets on April 7 when he went 6.2 IP and gave up 3 ER in a 7-6 win.

Don’t forget to visit The Mets Report Facebook page during the game to chat with other Mets fans! Connect with The Mets Report on Twitter too.

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