So the 2010 non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone.
Amid all of the speculation, Dan Uggla and Cody Ross still remain in the Florida Marlins lineup. The club remains on the fringe of both the divisional and Wild Card races heading into tonight's tilt with the Padres out west.
With Atlanta losing to Cincinnati earlier today, the Marlins sit in a third place tie with the New York Mets in the National League East, seven games back of the Braves. This is pending the outcome of the Marlins-Padres game which is in progress during the writing of this article, and the Mets-Diamondbacks is also currently in action.
In the Wild Card race, they are also tied with the Mets, seven behind the front running San Francisco Giants. In this race they are tied for sixth, but have seven hurdles to realistically climb over (you have to factor in both the Reds and Cardinals who are tied for the Central Division lead).
Now that we see where the Fish stand in the pennant races, lets look at their player moves at this year's deadline.
On Thursday they were sellers.
Starting third baseman Jorge Cantu was dealt to the Texas Rangers in return for two AA relievers (one of which is recovering from Tommy John surgery and will not be ready till Spring Training). Yes they were sellers, but not panic sellers!
Before Monday's game in San Francisco, team president Larry Beinfest said that the Marlins would not move players just to make moves. I think he held to that. Yes that's what I said, even though they moved the starting third baseman!
Cantu is due to become a free agent after this year. The long term game plan for Florida is to have Chris Coghlan move back to his natural position at third. Now that Logan Morrison is with the big club, that fills Coghlin's outfield spot.
Chris' freak shaving cream accident kind of put the game plan on hold, but the Marlins plenty of players to fill in for now.
So, yes they were sellers, but they moved someone that didn't figure in the team's future plans and they got two young arms in return.
Today they became buyers!
Right at the 4 p.m. trade deadline they picked up much needed middle relief help. They traded Rick VandenHurk to the Orioles in exchange for left handed reliever Will Ohman.
In VandenHurk, they traded a prospect that never really lived up to his billing. He was highly touted when he was called up in 2007. While splitting time with the big club and AAA, he leaves South Florida with a lifetime 8-9 record and a 5.96 ERA.
In return, the Marlins get Ohman, a 32 year-old lefty who debuted with the Cubs in 2000. He had short stints in Atlanta and with the Dodgers before signing with the Orioles prior to this season.
So the message that was sent by Beinfest and company is—we're not throwing in the towel on 2010!
As the late Bob Murphy used to say, "fasten your seat belts!" Here comes the August and September stretch run and the Florida Marlins are poised to compete!
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