Merry "Chris"-mas

Have a good one out there, as we read two stories of Mr. Coghlan - one on his memories of Christmases as a kid, and the other on how the guys his late father worked with still remember that kid.

Misdirection

The Marlins try to sign a young Cuban pitcher to a long-term deal, and Josh is reportedly not angry.

Mr. Marlins Discovered

Jeff Conine may be Mr. Marlin, but I'm giving the title of "Mr. Marlins" to Fredi Gonzalez, because I know of no other person who has been so involved in so many versions of the Marlins. His Wikipedia bio shows not only that he was the first coach in the Florida Marlins organization, the manager of the Marlins' AA team in 1997, the third base coach for the Marlins in 1999 and 2000, and the Marlins manager since after the 2006 season, but his first managing job ever was with what previously had been the second incarnation of the Miami Marlins, and in 2002 he was with the Richmond Braves, which was the transplanted original Miami Marlins.

Friday's Flashes

Rickey gets a 58% raise. (fishstripes)

Jose Ceda seems healthy. (mlb)

Gookie gets caught. (mlb)

Nick Johnson's almost a Yankee. (nypost)

Eri Yoshida will be pitching in the US. (baseballmusings)

Cracked Stat Report: Baseball Verses Football

One of the many problems that is pointed out about the baseball park that for at least the next five minutes is known as LandShark Stadium is that it actually is not really a baseball park. A football team known as the Miami Dolphins has tromped all over the playing field for the latter part of every season of the Marlins' existence, and for the last two years the U. of M. Hurricanes has done even more of the same.

The question explored here is what effect, if any, this shared arrangement has had on the win/loss records of everyone involved. To examine this, we'll be using historical data from Baseball-Reference.com, and for the Dolphins from Phins.com, whose records thankfully include the pre-seasons. We'll go back through every season up to 1995, since the strike of 1994 truncated the dual-use part of the season early, and the Phins.com stats don't go back to '93.

First, does the first pre-season football home game mess up the first home Marlins game that follows it? This game can be as soon as the next day after (as in 2002) or as late as ten days later (as in 2004). The record shows that from 1995 on the Marlins have a 6-9 record in the first home baseball game after the first home pre-season football game, although in the last eight years they have evened it up to 4-4.

One would think that baseball games scheduled to be played the day after a football game would be affected by a more roughed-up condition of the field. The record shows that, so far, that negative effect is being suffered mostly by visiting teams. Since 1995 the Marlins are 8-4 in home games played on the day after a football game. It's reversed though when the Marlins start a home series 2 days after the ravages of football, as the Marlins in that situation have a 3-6 win/loss record.

Adding it all together, from 1995 to 2009 the Marlins have (by our count) a 464-409 win/loss record (.532 win percentage) in home games played before the first pre-season home football game, and a 192-151 record (.560 win percentage) in home games played afterwards (including post-season games, in which the Marlins have an 11-6 home record, which if taken away still leaves the Marlins with a .555 win percentage during football).

If you think that we will now be giving up a natural advantage once the team moves to the new digs and away from football, it should be noted that so far in the Fredi Gonzalez era the Fish sport a .522 home win percentage before football starts (94-86) but only .476 during football (30-33). (Maybe this is why Jeffrey was so ready to eject Fredi last season.)

Now how did the Dolphins do, playing off and on the dirt of the diamond? The Dolphins usually play only 1-3 regular-season games a year on baseball dirt, but I would've guessed there would still be an effect. There may be, but there appears to be a dividing line between two different eras. From 1995 to 2002 the Dolphins went 16-0 (!) in home games played during baseball (after baseball ended they were 30-18), but from 2003 to the present their win/loss record on the sandy infield is at 4-7 (after baseball 22-20). The Fins haven't won a game on top of the diamond that counts in the standings since 2006.

And just to finish it up, the Hurricanes have won both games that they have played on the baseball field.

Monday's Happenings

The Fish announce four minor-league signings. (sun-sentinel)

And here's another one. (heraldtribune)

The Marlins announce a holiday deal for tickets that cost less than parking. (blogs.trb.com/)

Andy Fox lands a coaching job with the Mariners' AA team. (oursportscentral)

Another lawsuit against the stadium loses on appeal. (courthousenews)

With Paulino's re-signing, the catching position is considered solid. (mlb)

And the Fish may have enough money for Capps. (fishpond)

Tender Is The Night

The Marlins must tender contracts to ten players by 11:59 ET tonight, or watch them sign elsewhere. (mlb)

UPDATE: Alfredo is now a free agent. And the Nats let Scott Olsen loose. (palmbeachpost)

MORE: And just like that, Scott Olsen re-signs with the Nats. (mlb)

Here's Your Hat, Matt

Lindstrom is shipped to Houston for minor league pitcher Robert Bono, minor league infielder Luis Bryan, and a player to be named. Beinfest says of his empty bullpen, "It's something that we're looking at".

UPDATE: Clark Spencer explains that the trade was made for that "player to be named", whose name is now known.

IN-OTHER-NEWS: The Pirates pick up John Raynor in the Rule 5 draft, and the Maniac discusses him at the Rum Bunter blog.

Gload Goes

Ross does the Wes-Helms Shuffle, signs with Philly. (.sun-sentinel)

Marlins are Keeping JJ

It seems the Rangers literally offered up their future to acquire Josh, but the Fish didn't budge. (i-yankees)

Chilly Indy Heating Up

Lindstrom and Pinto and Uggla, and even Anibal and Alfredo, are being talked about at the Winter Meetings.

In other news, Fredi spent his Friday not shooting deer.

Weekend Stuff

The Marlins have signed six minor-league free agents and are actively shopping Matt Lindstrom.

Today's Stuff

Billy Wagner stays in the NL East. (associatedcontent)

Now that the turkey leftovers are done, the Marlins and Hunt-Moss construction just gave out 100 Christmas trees to Little Havana residents. (kiksmedia)

Larry says "We feel pretty good about this club" but then he says "we're definitely going to be active" looking for trades at next week's Indianapolis meeting. (mlb)

Joe Frisaro gives his take on what the Marlins are looking for. (mlb)

And San francisco is "showing persistent interest" in Danny Boy. (mlb)

Samson is confident that the parking garages will be built, even though the city's taking its own sweet time in getting the money. (mlb)

For those missing live baseball, two Venezualian Winter League teams will play two regular-season games this Saturday and Sunday at the Homestead Baseball Complex. (miamiherald)

And the Miami Hurricanes will start its season Feb. 17 at home against Rutgers, and will pop in a game with the Marlins March 3. (miamiherald)

Full Moon News

To celebrate tonight's full moon I finally totalled up the win-loss record of the 2009 Marlins during the different phases of the moon, and during the times between the phases. Here it be...

      ,_______._______._______._______._______._______._______._______.
      ||  new  |       | first |       |  full |       |  last |       |
year  ||  moon |       |  qtr  |       |  moon |       |  qtr  |       |
------||-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
2009  || 10- 6 | 10-10 |  8- 9 | 16-13 | 11- 8 | 15-10 |  9- 5 |  8-14 |
------||-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
2004- || 43-43 | 70-59 | 41-48 | 49-69 | 46-34 | 60-58 | 40-37 | 50-62 |
 2008 ||       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
------||-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
total || 53-49 | 80-69 | 49-57 | 65-82 | 57-42 | 75-68 | 49-42 | 58-76 |
------||-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
win-% || .520  | .537  | .462  | .442  | .576  | .524  | .538  | .433  |
------''-------'-------'-------'-------'-------'-------'-------'-------'

In the original post I made light of the possible validity of this metric; now it's getting ever-so-slightly spooky. The totals at the end of the last six seasons show the Marlins have consistent yearly losing records in games played during the first quarter phases, and have had winning records each year during the full moons. And they weren't that great, and getting much worse, in games played between the last quarter and new moon. Of course we must be within the statistical bounds of probability here. Of course.

Things Etc.

The Marlins don't offer arbitration to Donnelly, Gload, Calero, or Nick Johnson. (mlb)

Juan C. says trading Hanley makes no sense, and that someone told him the Marlins will be raising payroll next year. (sun-sentinel)

In fact, the Marlins raised their average player salary by 52.95 percent in 2009, tops of all MLB teams. (bizofbaseball)

And the 2009 squad made some extra second-place money, too. (fishstripes)

Former Fish owner John Henry seems to have a problem with the current Fish' front office's tactics. (fanhouse)

And Cliff Eastham has a problem with calling the Marlins "the Fish". (bleacherreport)

The Hurk went 7 innings in Puerto Rico on Sunday. (mister-baseball)

As for Dan Uggla (remember him?) it looks as if the Rangers aren't interested in him after all. (mlb)