Florida Marlins

Many times after jumping out to a sizable lead, the Florida Marlins' bullpen gives fans a reason to be nervous; no matter how many innings the starter pitches.

The bullpen hasn't been properly address by Flordia's front office. 

Most good teams have a strong bullpen. In 2007 the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series thanks to a stellar bullpen. They rarely let leads slip away.

The exact opposite is happening to Florida this season.

It’s been reported that the Giants will be sending about $2 million along with Bengie Molina to Texas, which means the Giants got almost nothing for him unless Chris Ray ends up surprising almost everyone.

No more interim label. No more sentimental stories about becoming the first Puerto Rican to manage in the Major Leagues.

From now on, Edwin Rodriguez is the man.

No doubt, Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria hit the equivalent of a home run.

Ubaldo Jimenez has been absolutely filthy through 16 starts this season, going 14-1 with a Bob Gibson-like 1.83 ERA. The 26-year-old flame thrower even tossed a no-hitter back on April 17 .

Simply call it perfect timing.

It's only fitting that MLB's first Puerto Rican-born manager stood in Hiram Bithorn Stadium for baseball's return to the island.

Edwin Rodriguez's story, though uncertain with the mystery surrounding who will be the Florida Marlins' permanent manager, is a good one. 

He lives five minutes from the stadium.

More than 150 people greeted him at the airport and began chanting his name when the Marlins arrived.

The Marlins' recent decision to fire Fredi Gonzalez has not worked out so far. They were just swept by the Padres, and on top of that, Bobby Valentine, their primary managerial target, will probably not join the squad because of philosophical differences.

What does this mean to Marlins fans?

It means the Marlins will probably not land a top-notch manager for the rest of the season. Let's discuss two in-house candidates, including the current interim manager.

SI.com's Jon Heyman is reporting that Bobby Valentine is going to be the next manager of the Florida Marlins.

A source close to the team has told Heyman that the Marlins have a tentative deal with the former Rangers and Mets skipper.

What an unbelievable day it was in sports yesterday! How about that soccer game!

When Landon Donovan scored that goal, I screamed, "YES!" in my office. I felt bad because one of the girls on my team was giving a demo of our product and I completely threw her off.

I am pretty sure that is not in the being a good manager manual.

We also saw a 10-hour tennis match yesterday. A 10-hour tennis match! I can’t even sleep for 10 hours, let alone play a highly competitive tennis match.

The Florida Marlins have fired manager Fredi Gonzalez, naming Edwin Rodriguez his replacement, but only on an interim basis.

Rodriguez has spent the past one-and-a-half seasons as manager of Triple-A New Orleans.

The team also said Wednesday it would be dismissing bench coach Carlos Tosca and hitting coach Jim Presley.

You would think major league teams would learn from previous ill conceived giveaways and promotions gone awry.

The most famous promotions gone wrong are the Cleveland Indians selling Stroh’s Beer in eight ounce cups for 10 cents and Disco Demolition Night at a Chicago White Sox game.  The offer included an all you can drink deal so by the time the disco demolition was about to take place, most of the 25,134 fans were full of alcohol and chaos ensued at Municipal Stadium.