Opinion

A Chance for the Marlins to Improve

By Keith McGowan

A few weeks ago, amid all the Jorge Cantu and Cody Ross trade speculations, an idea randomly popped into my head. Hanley Ramirez is arguably the most explosive bat in the Marlins line up.  Unfortunately, his defense is…we’ll just go with “less than stellar.” 

The trade deadline has come and gone without the Cincinnati Reds making a significant move. That is what Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty expected.  "I don't expect anything to happen, not with us," he said a few days prior to the deadline.

Jocketty and the Reds see no glaring weaknesses and are comfortable with the team. They are leading the National League in hitting and their 3.15 ERA since June 17 is the second-best in Major League Baseball.

This Baseball Digest writer suggested the Rays trade James Shields for a hitter in the trade deadline, and he questioned why Joe Maddon would start the struggling
Shields in the divisional showdown against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium several weeks ago.

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The New York Mets are about to play the most important six games of their season. Starting tonight, the Mets will play three games against the Atlanta Braves, followed by three games against the Philadelphia Phillies, all of them on the road.

That Braves offense that led the charge to the top of the standings during a 20-win month of May has seemingly been relieved of command.

Going back to the All-Star break, the Braves are 7-9 since Brian McCann roped a bases-clearing double in the NL's 3-1 win in the Mid-summer Classic.

News flash—the Braves only have won one series since then.

These are not the Braves that many Atlanta fans came to recognize during a two-month span that took them from last place to a 7.0 game lead in the NL East.

It's well known in the baseball world that Ozzie Guillén has the biggest mouth in the majors.

Never one to shy away from publicity, Guillén recently made comments pertaining to the treatment of Latin baseball players comparing it to the treatment that Asian players receive.

It has been a pretty ugly couple of weeks if you are a Mets fan. Since the All-Star break, the Flushing Faithful have had to sit back as their team dropped nine out of 11 on the road. They've been shut-out four times, lose to the last-place Diamondbacks five out of six times, including a 14-1 loss, and not get a big-name player at the trade deadline. 

The Mariners are just coming off one of the worst months in team history. In July they had a 6-22 record and couldn't do anything right. When they had good pitching games, they couldn't score. When they had good hitting games (which were rare), their pitching struggled. 

Although the non-waiver trade deadline has passed, don't think for a second that teams aren't still looking at ways to make themselves better before the month of August comes to a close.

What's next for a lot of general managers is the waiver wire.

It always seems that on July 31st, one baseball team makes at least one move that has a significant impact on the outcome of both the regular season and the playoffs. This year, with so many teams within reach of a playoff spot, the trade deadline came and went with a lot of familiar faces jumping into the final playoff push.

The regular crowd was involved, as the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies made important moves to their rosters.