Miami Sports- The City of Champions

After David Samson’s epic failure of an interview with our Le Batard yesterday, in which he “no-commented” the bleep out of every question Lebby had regarding this report, the Marlins have begun the process of actually spending money.

According to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN, who wrote an excellent book with Johnson’s  agent (LIAR) a few years ago, Johnson has agreed to a 4 year 39 million dollar deal with the Marlins. It doesn’t much matter whether they planned to do this deal before the MLB union stepped in, or whether they did simply as a result of this report, but it’s fantastic news regardless. Congratulation, fellow Marlins fans…in the last year, the team has locked up Hanley and JJ, two of the best 5 players to every play for this franchise..

Yesterday, we released a report from our sources that Josh Johnson was upset with the Marlins offering Aroldis Chapman a five-year deal, yet they were splitting hairs with Johnson and not offering him a guaranteed four year deal.

Later on in the day, another Marlins blog, Fish Stripes, talked to Johnson’s agent, and he denied the report:

“Josh laughed, and said that was the dumnest (sic) thing that he’s ever read.  He said that he likes both Sampson and Loria, and hopes the team signs as many good players as possible this off season.  He also said that he is hoping to do a deal that keeps him in Florida for the long haul, either this year or next off-season.”

If you remember, a month ago, Johnson and his handlers walked out of the room because the Marlins refused to go past three guaranteed years, and got frustrated with the Marlins stance on not giving out long term contracts to pitchers. Also, if you remember correctly, Matt Sosnick, Johnson’s ever-truthful agent, responded with this:

“Based on our conversations, there’s no chance of doing a long-term deal with the Marlins,” Sosnick said. “We made it clear that it was going to be this year or it wasn’t going to happen. It was now or never. And the Marlins agreed.”

Ah, so there’s no chance of doing a long term deal with the Marlins! And…….. We’re hoping to keep JJ in Miami long term in Miami. Wait, what?

The problem is, Sosnick has nowhere to go here. The fact that he responded and mocked the report, tells us the truth is packaged all around our report, and we stand by our sources. Besides, what else was he supposed to say? “Bleep the Marlins, Johnson IS pissed?” We’re sure that would have went over well.

And if you’re going to rip the report..try and spell “dumbest” correctly, please.

Sources tell The City of Champions that Josh Johnson is “beyond pissed” in regards to the Marlins 5-year 13.5 million dollar offer to Aroldis Chapman, a young Cuban defector. We’re told that Johnson is upset because David Samson and the Marlins front office has always said that they refrain from offering five year contracts to pitchers, and now it has gone public that the team is offering Chapman a five year deal, and they were hesitant to give JJ even a 4 year deal with no team options.

We’re also told that the Marlins have angered Johnson to the point that he is close to setting a hard-line stance and refusing to accept any offer the Marlins throw at him, and simply waiting two years until he is a free agent..

The decision is a puzzling one on the Marlins part, and Johnson isn’t out of line to ask for a deal similar to the one Zach Grienke received, a 4 year/38 million dollar contract, as Johnson put up a season strikingly close to the one Grienke had, just before he signed the contract. Consider:

Josh Johnson in 2008: 15-5, 209 innings, 191 strikeouts, 58 walks, 3.23 ERA

Zach Grienke in 2007 (he signed the contract immediately following this year): 13-10, 202 innings, 183 strikeouts, 56 walks, 3.47 ERA

Yet another development in the Josh Johnson saga, and as they are usually wont to be this organization, another negative one….

We certainly think so…

To (what should be) no one’s surprise, the Marlins have low-balled Josh Johnson, the most valuable asset this franchise has ever had, sans Hanley Ramirez. Sources tell us, that this afternoon the Marlins and Johnson’s representatives reached a breaking point that culminating with Johnson letting the Marlins know he’d prefer to play elsewhere. We’re told JJ wants to sign a one year deal and leave as soon as he can. The disagreement stems from Johnson perceiving the Marlins offer as a slap in the face. From what we’ve gathered, the Marlins would offer a 4 year deal but only with the contract splits looking like this:

‘09: 7 million

‘10: 8 million

‘11: 9 million

‘12: 9.5 million.

Given the situation that Johnson finds himself in, potential free agent in 2011, it appears more and more to feel like the Marlins will explore their options on the trade market with Johnson. We’re not sure what the point of angering Johnson is, and this ridiculous offer continues to show why the Marlins are regarded as a minor league organization masquerading in the MLB.

UPDATE: 11/21: We have been informed that the potential deal the Marlins offered had the 4th year slotted as a team option, not a guaranteed year on the deal. So, ostensibly the Marlins offered a 4 year deal worth 33 million with a team option on the tail end of the deal, and we were told Johnson would have absolutely signed for 4 years/38 million with no options on the deal. Wow.

Sources tell the City of Champions that the Marlins and Dodgers have had multiple talks regarding shipping off Dan Uggla to the Dodgers. We are told the Marlins have asked for Chad Billingsly, and while the trade at this stage may be unlikely, the story has some legs to it, and if one team budges either way, you may see Uggla swapped within the next few weeks or so.

Earlier today, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the Marlins have traded Jeremy Hermida to the Red Sox for AAA lefty Hunter Jones and another  lefty named Jose Alvarez. This trade, from afar at least, feels like the kind of trade in which the Marlins can’t possibly be criticized. Arguably the most maligned player in Marlins history, for most Marlins fans the trade of Hermida is the kind of washing away that is both soothing and exhilarating. We talked to a few scouts to get a feel for how the trade is being received by that community, and the feeling has been overwhelmingly positive in favor of the Marlins. One scout we spoke to responded immediately with “The Marlins ripped them”. Pressed further, we were told that Hunter Jones is a 25 year old local kid from Palm Beach Gardens who went to FSU. He throws 88-91 MPH and projects as a solid bullpen pitcher. As for Alvarez, there’s far less of a database on the young 20 year old, though we were told his change-up ranges from 72-76, and a fastball that tops out in the low nineties with good control.

Our friends over at the Jorge Sedano Show have created a masterpiece. Seriously. We here at the glorious City of Champions have deemed this the best Ted Ginn song ever. Enjoy it…

(h/t to Alex Donno of the Sedano Show)

One of our favorite baseball writers out there, Jonah Keri of the great Baseball Between the Numbers, and a handful of other books (we highly recommend ‘Mind Game’ which Jonah worked on with the Baseball Prospectus crew), has been kind enough to join us for an interview. As always, our questions in bold; enjoy!

1) We’ll delve into a broader set of baseball questions in a bit, but let’s start local, with the Marlins. From afar, you made what of the handling of Emilio Bonifacio this season? Is there any justifiable reasons to give him 400+ at-bats at this level?

There’s a strong recency effect in baseball, where a manager will overlook a career worth or awful minor league and major league numbers and fixate on some recent success. It’s possible that Bonifacio’s long history of ineptitude wasn’t even considered in the Marlins dugout. He looked like a good player in April, so they kept riding him. It’s the GM’s job to step in when such situations occur.

2) Sticking with the Bonifacio theme, the only argument spoken on his behalf on talk radio down here, is that given his age and skill set, that his on-base percentage is something that can improve. Would you say that as a 24 year old with a substantive sample size of playing time in both the major and minor leagues that his OBP prowess sort of ‘is what it is’, or that it’s still fluid?

There are players who improve with age, and there are occasions to give a player the benefit of the doubt. Circumstances should dictate the decisions. If the Marlins have no one in the entire organization who can be a passable option, give Bonifacio a chance. If they do have someone, don’t.
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So yeah….Valentine talked to Loria, despite all of David Samson’s best efforts to lie deny (it) all over the Miami airwaves.