Kuzul

Every season for the past four or five years, Marlins owner Jeffery Loria has said that if his team “does not make the playoffs, they have fallen short of the front office’s expectations.” While that might have been considered an unrealistic goal given the budget the past few seasons, using that criteria to analyze the team’s productivity the past few years means that the Marlins have fallen well short of expectations.

In an attempt to make sure this team at least competes within their division during the upcoming season, the Marlins’ front office core has made significant moves that have dramatically improved their roster.

While bringing in names such as Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle, the success of the Marlins in 2012 will most likely depend on players that have been on the roster for several years, such as Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson.

An injury-plagued Marlins team struggled in 2011, however the new Miami Marlins might only be five keys away from making the playoffs and becoming a contender once again.

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The Miami Marlins have experienced plenty of changes this offseason, including new uniforms, a new stadium, a new manager and, most importantly, a new payroll.

Using the suddenly increased payroll, the Marlins didn’t waste any time before signing free agents Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. They traded for Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, and resigned familiar names such as Greg Dobbs.

The immediate success of the new-look Marlins will most likely depend on the leadership in the clubhouse. Bringing in Ozzie Guillen will not only appeal to the surrounding fan base, but will also lead to discipline.

Guillen is not afraid to speak his mind, which could be a good or bad thing in particular situations. Guillen, like left fielder Logan Morrison, often speaks to his fans on Twitter. If anybody can control Morrison’s tweeting obsession, it would be Ozzie.

Additionally, Guillen will have to focus on the work ethic of Hanley Ramirez. He was not pleased about having to move to third base, and may become frustrated at his new position as the season progresses.

By resigning Greg Dobbs—and bringing in Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle—the Marlins will have the most leadership in the clubhouse since the 2003 World Series team.

The additions the Marlins have made this offseason have made them, a team to respect in the upcoming season.

The first major addition, free agent shortstop Jose Reyes, may have angered fellow All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez, but will most likely prove to be a great move for the team. Reyes has above average speed, and will be able to play gold glove caliber defense.

Ramirez, who will most likely be slotted third in the lineup, will have many more RBI (Runs Batted In) chances with Reyes at the top of the lineup. With Reyes and Ramirez, the Marlins might have one of the best left sides of the infield in all of baseball.

Signing Mark Buehrle and trading for Carlos Zambrano were two moves that improved an already dominant rotation. Featuring Josh Johnson at the front, the Marlins’ rotation may be one to watch in 2012.

Proceeding Johnson are Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez. They are two young pitchers who, when at their best, have “no hit stuff.”

Adding Buehrle and Zambrano supplies depth to the rotation. Buehrle, a soft-tossing lefty who has pitched multiple no hitters, will be the piece the Fish needed in the NL East, a division full of left-handed hitters.

Zambrano can have a bad temper at times, but if he stays confident and consistent—a challenge for manager Ozzie Guillen—he can very easily have a 12 win season.

Although these are not huge signings, the Marlins made some minor moves that may help them at times throughout the season. Wade LeBlanc—acquired from the Padres in exchange for John Baker—will not be in the rotation to start the season.

However, if one of the primary five starters gets injured, he may be the first to receive a phone call.

Clearly, resigning Greg Dobbs was the right move. He had a great 2011 season off the bench, and is successful when called upon to start.

Signing Aaron Rowand to a minor league deal, with an invitation to spring training, may pay off for the Marlins in the future. Previously classified as a “Marlins killer,” Rowand will provide depth off the bench and in center field.

Although they might be considered the underdog in the NL East, once again, they will most certainly be an entertaining team to watch in 2012.

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Mark Buehrle has a dream.

A dream that his four little dogs will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the ferocity of their appearance but by the content of their tameness. A 1989 pitbull ban in Miami-Dade County forced Buehrle to distance himself from the Miami Marlins ballpark in order to legally keep one of his dog.

According to the Miami Herald, Buehrle is an avid dog lover and wouldn’t even fathom parting with his pitbull Slater over the ban. The All-Star ace even said that if there hadn’t been a place for him and his family to move that permitted the pitbull, he wouldn’t have signed in Miami. Luckily for the Marlins, Broward County shares his love for canines.

Buehrle, one of many dog owners who admitted that they hoped Michael Vick would get hurt, complained about the absurd law saying (via Yahoo! Sports):

“It’s kind of ridiculous that because of the way a dog looks, people will ban it. Every kind of dog has good and bad, and that depends on the handlers. If you leave a dog outside all the time, it’ll be crazy. Slater would never do anything harmful.”

The former Chicago White Sox pitcher is right. 

You can’t judge a book or dog by its cover. To put a ban on a specific breed makes no sense. Back in 2009, a judge in the county even ruled that the law was too vague to enforce.

Buehrle has a dream that one day, down in Miami, with its unjust cat lovers, with its lawmakers having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Miami, little bulldog boys and bulldog girls will be able to join hands with little boy cats and girl cats as sisters and brothers.

David Daniels is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels

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Ozzie Guillen was a terrific manager for the Chicago White Sox the last eight seasons, but the 47-year-old new skipper of the Miami Marlins is going to fall flat on his face in 2012.

A World Series champion and former AL Manager of the Year (both 2005), Guillen has already set himself up for a few struggles next season and in one of the baseball’s most unforgiving divisions, it’ll be an uphill battle.

After the Winter Meetings massive haul, expectations are immense for Guillen and the new-look Marlins next season. I don’t see how he is going to meet them.

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Now that the drama involving a new manager has been solved for the Red Sox, General Manager Ben Cherington still has a lot of work to do.

While busy interviewing managerial candidates, the Red Sox witnessed their star closer, Jonathan Papelbon, skip town and sign with the Philadelphia Phillies.

It seemed as though during the press conference announcing Bobby Valentine as their new manager, another closing candidate was swept out from under them as Heath Bell signed a three year deal with the Miami Marlins.

To this point the Sox remain a fragmented team. They are only a few minor moves away from being ready to take the field in 2012. Here are five realistic offseason moves they should consider.

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It is well-documented how the Cincinnati Reds starting pitching has been a grave, I said grave disappointment. And when I say grave I am talking about sending them to the basement grave. It’ll sink you like a stone, son.

That is the way Foghorn Leghorn would report it. With all the injuries, lack of an ace and inexperience, the Reds are looking up from three floors down right now.

In the humble opinion of this writer, it is time to lure someone’s ace away from them. Lord knows we have young talent that would commence most GMs salivating.

Southpaw ace Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox would attract my attention. According to MLB Trade Rumors he will be freed up after this season. Not yet considered old, but certainly experienced at 32, he could be just what the doctor ordered.

He is currently being paid $14M for the Southside boys and that stings. But hey, you have to spend money to make money.

Buehrle has some good credentials. He is 10th in wins among active pitchers with 154 and has a career ERA of 3.85. He also has the best interleague record of any pitcher with a 24-6 mark, which means he tears up NL hitters.

Did I forget to mention he threw a perfect game in 2009? It looks good on his resume right beside his 2007 no-hitter.

What would the Reds have to part with to sign such a pitcher? They are in need of relief pitching, what have we got to give them?

How about the big guy, Logan Ondrusek? Don’t cry Reds Nation, we are trying to get a stud ace here. That alone would not satisfy the White Sox Muckety Mucks, I can assure you.

How else could we sweeten the pot? How about we throw in a couple of guys for good measure? For example, we could unload, er…I mean throw in Paul Janish and Wily Mo Francisco. O, my bad, Juan Francisco.

Look at that, we have now made room for Zack Cozart to pop up his head and see if there is a shadow. The 25-year-old is only getting older at Louisville, and his .327/.366/.509 numbers cry out for attention.

And about Francisco, do any of you think he actually has a future in Cincinnati? Just like W.M. Pena, if you love 5:00 upper deck shots, he is your boy.

Do you think that is enough to lure him from the White Sox? With Paulie Konerko making $12M, Alex Rios making $12.5M, Adam Dunn $12M, and I almost forget Jake Peavy and his $16M, do you think they want to keep all of that debt?

If that isn’t enough, we have more to sacrifice if necessary. Maybe we would throw in reliever Jordan Smith, provided they would give us a live body.

The Reds have many young guns, but to make a playoff run, we need an ace and we do not have one. We didn’t pick up the option on ours and he is now 7-2 with a 3.71 ERA at San Diego.

You aren’t thinking we should try to pick up Aaron Harang for cheap now are you?

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In recent memory, we’ve always heard about how the AL East is Major League Baseball’s toughest division, with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays beating up on each other, along with the rest of the American League.

Some people make a case for the NL East, where the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves have a stronghold, combined with an over-acheiving Florida Marlins squad and an even more under-acheiving New York Mets team.

It’s easy to say one division is better than the other based on records alone, so I had an idea: What if we take the best player at each position, from each division and create separate “All-Star” teams?  Which division would have the most talented squad?

That’s exactly what we are going to do in hopes we can finally come to a realization of which division is MLB’s best.  You might be surprised at how good (or bad) some of the teams end up being.

The selection process is simple: It will be the best player at each position today. It won’t be based on future potential, and it won’t be based on a player having a monster season five years ago. 

This will be a seven part series over the next two weeks: one part for each of baseball’s six divisions, followed by a summary piece that will hopefully allow us to figure out and debate which division really is MLB’s best.

We begin with the AL Central.

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Baseball season is coming up and the American League Central is promising to be one of the most competitive divisions this season. I have come up with six different reasons why the White Sox will be the most exciting team to watch within this division.

The White Sox are always full of excitement, exemplified last year by the feud between Guillen and Williams, by the 30-game stretch in which the White Sox went 25-5, and by the addition of Manny Ramirez—one of the biggest characters in all of baseball.

This season promises to be even more exciting, as the White Sox have added some new pieces to their roster, while retaining the main pieces from last year. Oh yeah, Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen still work on the South Side.

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Mark Buehrle’s name has come up a lot in rumors this offseason.

The Chicago White Sox have a surplus of starting pitching, and there’s been speculation that the team could move Buehrle and his $14 million salary to clear payroll space after giving Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko expensive free agent contracts this winter.

In addition, Buehrle, who turns 32 this month, is considering retiring after the season. This raises a silly sounding, yet important question: is he a Hall of Famer?

The easy answer is no, and it’s hard to argue with that. His 148 wins barely put him in the Top 250 all time, and his 1,287 strikeouts rank 260th.

With the possible exception of 2005, Buehrle’s never been a truly dominant pitcher; he’s never won 20 games in a season or posted a sub-3.00 ERA. Only once has he earned an FIP under 3.90, and that was the only season in which he was worth more than 5.0 WAR. 

Most egregious is his 3.85 career ERA, which ties him for 698th in baseball history, and would be the worst of any Cooperstown pitcher. 

Unless Buehrle pulls a Jaime Moyer and drastically improves in his 30’s or continues to play well into his 40’s, I’d have a hard time checking his name on my hypothetical Hall of Fame ballot.

But if he stays in baseball and ages well, his case for Cooperstown would be better than you’d think.

First, we must consider that Buerhle’s ERA is largely a function of him spending his entire career in a high-offense era and playing half his games in cozy U.S. Cellular Field.

His 120 ERA+, which accounts for yearly league and park factors, isn’t phenomenal, but it paints a nicer picture of his accomplishments.

For some comparison, Buehrle’s ERA+ beats those of legends like Warren Spahn (119), Gaylord Perry (117), Steve Carlton (115) and Nolan Ryan (112).

But how does that translate into on-field value?

Using FanGraphs.com’s model, Buehrle has 42.5 wins above replacement heading into his age 32 season. In general, 60 WAR is seen as the cutoff for serious Cooperstown candidates.

Using his career average of 4.3 WAR/season, he’d hit the magic 60 in April 2015. If you prefer last year’s 3.8 WAR as a benchmark, he’d still get there in under five years. Even if he sinks to 3 WAR a season, he’d still have 60 by the end of 2016.

Unfortunately, FanGraphs’ WAR data goes back only 30 years, so to put his value in a historical context we must use Baseball-Reference.com’s model. B-R gives Buehrle 42.9 WAR of value.

On this scale, one could argue that Buehrle is a Hall of Famer already. He has more WAR than some already-enshrined pitchers, including Bob Lemon (42.4) Dizzy Dean (39.6) and Catfish Hunter (32.5).

At his three-year average rate of 4.3 WAR/season, he’d pass Sandy Koufax (54.5) and Whitey Ford (55.3) in 2013. Five years from now, he’d have usurped Jim Palmer (63.5), John Smoltz (63.9) and Juan Marichal (64.0).

In addition, Buehrle has a perfect game to his name and got both a win and a save when his White Sox won the 2005 World Series. Throw in his terrific defense and voters could be surprised how hard it will be to leave him off their ballots.

Would this be enough for him to deserve a spot in Cooperstown?

It’s hard to say with this vague hypothetical scenario but probably not.

At the risk of sounding like a Bert Blyleven detractor (and by the way, if anyone who didn’t vote for him votes for Buehrle, there is no hope left for humanity), that he was never truly feared as a dominant pitcher would make it hard for me to endorse his candidacy.

But barring an early retirement or a rapid decline, Buehrle deserves to at least get some serious consideration for Cooperstown, even if he’s better suited to the “Hall of Very Good.”

No doubt he’d be a better choice than Jack Morris.

For more of Lewie’s work, visit WahooBlues.com. Follow him on Twitter @LewsOnFirst or @WahooBlues.

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A good starting rotation can cure many ills, and with the AL Central up for grabs like it normally is, whoever assembles the strongest rotation could easily take the division come September. There is some real pitching talent in the division, but we’ve also lost three of the last four AL Cy Young Award winners (CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Zack Greinke).

At the end of the year, whichever rotation fares best will probably get a chance to strut their stuff in the postseason. With that, let’s take a look at how the AL Central’s rotations stand up to each other.

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