Florida Marlins

The New York Mets fell to the Florida Marlins on Sunday by a score of 2-1, despite an outstanding performance by Met starting pitcher Johan Santana.

Santana, who is now 1-1 on the season, took a loss in a start for the first time since June 18, 2008 despite striking out 13 batters in seven innings and allowing only three hits. The two runs scored on the Mets were not charged to Santana.

With a payroll that couldn’t even net a team two Alex Rodriguez’ (not that any team would even want one Alex Rodriguez), heading into Saturday April 11 games, the Florida Marlins lead the majors as the only undefeated team standing.

Develop, use, trade, and start over. That's the unofficial Florida Marlins team motto. 

We all know and appreciate that the Florida Marlins consistently have great young talent. But at some point, you have to wonder how the heck they got all this talent.

Sure, when you trade away anyone that gets too expensive for prospects, at least one of those prospects will probably pan out. But what are the chances of one of these guys becoming the top player in the game?

After it was widely assumed that the St. Louis Cardinals would head to Memphis carrying 26 players, the management decided to finalize the Opening Day roster by relegating Joe Mather to Triple-A Memphis.  Mather, who had been relatively inconsistent with his swing through the Jupiter campaign, finished the Grapefruit League with a lowly .227 batting average.

With David Freese looking like the clear favorite to grab the third baseman job in the absence of stud Troy Glaus, Mather's swing issues hurt him down the stretch with regards to grabbing the final roster spot.

The folks at Right Off Russell sum up the Baltimore Orioles trade of Hayden Penn:

The Orioles made the move, in all likelihood, because they felt Penn had not pitched well enough to secure a bullpen spot and felt he would claimed by another team if he was waived. 

The Orioles were able to secure a middle infielder, who appears to be a younger upgrade over Chris Gomez, and can play both the SS and 2B positions. 

In the past couple weeks, the hot topic of fantasy nerds and GM wanna-be's has been Jay Cutler's pending divorce from the Denver Broncos. How much is a young stud quarterback worth in a trade?

Today, maybe a bigger name wandered into the mix. Quietly, maybe one of the five best professional athletes under the age of 26 made (and subsequently backed away from) a statement of wanting out.

The Phillies have won two World Series titles since 1883. The Florida Marlins have won two titles since 1993. The Marlins are a pesky team for the Phillies.