The Miami Marlins, and for that matter most teams in baseball, have very little going on the last few weeks. Spring training is close now. And for the team that still has not figured out what kind of roster they want to have going into the new season, I would assume they are better off letting things develop. Not only are there few free agents left on the market, teams will make moves within spring training. That happens every year. Moves to cover an immediate need, or moves to create more opportunities at a certain position (for example when there is a log jam of outfielders).

- The Marlins potentially might make a move with one of their young starting pitchers. Sean West has not done much here. But he is still young, and more importantly, he is left handed. Plus, he is out of options. So as teams look around baseball to cover this particular need, expect the Marlins to listen to offers. The team's starting rotation is settled. And there are plenty of spot start candidates in the minors. The ball club did a great job this off season of adding names that could come in at any time (Gaudin is one example).

- This Saturday tickets go on sale for the upcoming exhibition games against the New York Yankees. Expect these to sell quickly. Especially when you consider there are only 1,000 tickets left to opening day against the Cardinals. On top of that, the list of people that have signed up for an on line lottery to bid on these 1,000 seats is now up to 52,000. The odds are against all of us.

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Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times sent me an interesting blog post this morning about a very special event in Florida Marlins history: it turns out today is the ten-year anniversary of Jeffrey Loria's Marlins ownership.

Jaffe goes on to discuss the fates of both the Marlins and the Montreal Expos (soon to be Washington Nationals) and how they were embroiled in the ever-present threat of contraction. Of course, neither team underwent the dreaded "C" word, as the Nationals moved and the Marlins eventually got their wish of a new, state-of-the-art, retractable roof stadium built almost entirely from public funds.

This has not made Jeffrey Loria a popular character among Marlins fans and baseball fanhood in general, however. As Jaffe points out, the Marlins were next line for the contraction threat due to their comically low attendance records, so it was feared that Loria would profit from snagging two teams and selling them before contraction came to town. But it seemed that contraction was never a real threat, so Loria could not benefit as such. In addition, the Marlins did a little something that would have made such a move look hideous in comparison: they won the World Series in 2003.

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Earlier today I read an interesting piece on building through the draft by FanGraphs' Jim Breen. Breen shows a table of each team's production from homegrown players via FanGraphs WIns Above Replacement (fWAR) since the 2002 draft. Take a look at the table yourself:

The interesting part to me and to readers of this site is of course the placement of the (former) Florida Marlins, listed in bold.

Recently, Baseball Prospectus released their latest version of their projection system, PECOTA. PECOTA strives to be the best projection system in the business, but projecting players is really difficult, and it is not always successful, much like other systems. At the same time, PECOTA is among the best projection systems in the game, and one of the coolest features of the system is the "Comparables" section. The system uses the comparables to find similar players in order to identify a possible aging pattern, but most readers like looking at that list of names in order to dream about a future to be with their favorite players.

Hey, here at Fish Stripes, we are not that much different than other baseball fans. We like to dream too, and PECOTA's comparables are an excellent way to do that. Let us look at some interesting comps for the team's players.

(By the way, if you want to check out the rest of the PECOTA goodies along with tons of other great things that Baseball Prospectus offers, take a look at what the Fantasy section has and sign up!)

Mike Stanton

*TAv is True Average, Baseball Prospectus's all-encompassing offensive stat. It works very similarly to wOBA, and it is already park-adjusted. It is on scale with batting average, with the league average set to .260 every year.

#MONSTERDONG is already one of the most exciting players in baseball, and by the looks of those numbers and those comps, he could be in for an even better time. Upton is well-established as one of the better outfielders in the game, though he is not known as elite, but merely an "All-Star." Of course, Upton has a lot of pedigree behind him, and baseball evaluators still rave about his skill set. Dunn was quietly one of the better power hitters in the 2000's, and we know that Stanton's defense is much better than Dunn's. And Strawberry? The former New York Mets first rounder hit .252/.343/.467 (.289 TAv) in his age-22 season, but he followed that with a monstrous .277/.389/.557 (.331 TAv) campaign at age 23. In other words, some bright things are on the way for Stanton and the Marlins.

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After news came out of the Marlins' offer to Yoennis Cespedes, a lot of us felt that there was still a ways to go for negotiations, but that the Marlins were the rightful front-runner for the outfielder's talents. It turns out that the Oakland Athletics ended up with Cespedes's services, as they have signed him to a four-year deal worth $36 million. Cespedes will move to an outfield that has little depth and the A's will get a potential star around whom to build their team. It was a perfect marriage for Oakland and Cespedes, as he will get opportunity very soon and the A's will get someone who can anchor their lineup if and when they finally resolve their stadium and potential relocation issues.

On the Marlins's side, this does not really change much. Sure, the Fish were interested in getting Cespedes, but they were almost certainly going to open the season with Emilio Bonifacio playing a hefty amount of center field. Not signing Cespedes means the Marlins will not have another future piece around whom to build, but it does allow for more playing time for Bonifacio and Bryan Petersen. Neither of these players are long-term options for the club at the position, but for the immediate future, the Marlins can work with this spot as among their weaker positions.

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Whether you plan to attend games or support them from across the world, you probably own some Florida Marlins gear. With the new change to the Miami Marlins colors and logo, much displeasure has been expressed. Many fans wanted the teal to stay, I was one of them. However I do think that many of us are learning to accept the change, and are embracing our new look. I even bought my first piece last week, the Orange Authentic 2012 Road Performance 59FIFTY On-Field Cap, so change is possible.

This week I ask readers..

We knew the Miami Marlins were ready to deal with Cuban import Yoennis Cespedes, so it is not surprising to hear that they fired the first salvo, according to a source that spoke with Eric Reynoso of Cafe Fuerte. The deal was initially reported to be worth $40 million over six years, but Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reported that the deal was worth a bit less than that.

At its highest, the deal is worth a little less than $7 million annually, which is right around what we expected to offer. One suspects that the deal will have to get bigger in order to lure Cespedes to Miami in the face of other bidders like the Chicago Cubs and possibly the Detroit Tigers, but with the Marlins considered the front-runner, having a deal already offered and potentially being negotiated is a good start. Even if the Fish go up to $48 million ($8 million annually), they would still be expecting a two-win player during his prime years. This sort of expectation is mild enough that one would not balk much at it. For now, I would say this is a good offer for the Fish, but negotiations remain, and FIsh Stripes will keep you posted.