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A year ago, the Florida Marlins chose Joe Girardi over Fredi Gonzalez as manager.

Now they're going the other way.

Florida fired Girardi after only one season Tuesday and hired Gonzalez, the third-base coach for the Atlanta Braves the past four years.

Gonzalez said he expects no problems with his new bosses, even though owner Jeffrey Loria is on his fourth manager since buying the Marlins in 2002.

"I left a pretty good place in Atlanta," Gonzalez said. "If I had any hesitation, I wouldn't have come here. The more I spoke to Mr. Loria, the more comfortable I got. I think our relationship will be fine."

Gonzalez was runner-up to Girardi for the job in October 2005. A year later, the Marlins were so eager to reverse their decision that they began negotiations with Gonzalez a week before the season ended, hoping to head off other teams in the market for a manager.

By the middle of last week, the Marlins and Gonzalez had reached an agreement.

"We knew Fredi was our guy, and we wanted to beat our competition to him," general manager Larry Beinfest said. "Interviewing while you have a sitting manager probably isn't the greatest thing, but we went through proper channels with the commissioner's office and the Atlanta Braves."

The Marlins are coming off a surprising 78-win season with baseball's youngest roster, including four rookies who won 10 games or more. San Francisco, Washington and the Chicago Cubs also decided to change managers, but Gonzalez found the vacancy in Miami especially appealing.

"This one might have been the most coveted one in baseball," he said. "With a good young pitching staff, you've got to like that."

Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, Gonzalez became the first manager in the Marlins' organization when they hired him to run their first minor league team in Erie, Pa., in 1992. Beginning in 1999, he coached third base for 2 1/2 years under Marlins manager John Boles.

"It's a long way from Erie, man," a smiling Gonzalez said at a news conference. "I hope I'm here for a lot of years."

Girardi's departure after only one season had been expected after a rift with Loria boiled over two months ago in an on-field confrontation over the owner's heckling of an umpire. Beinfest said the Marlins decided to fire Girardi not because of the umpire incident, but because he failed to mesh with others in the organization.

"Joe is not returning because it was not a good fit," Beinfest said. "I will take some of that blame. I'm in charge, and it's my job to make sure everything runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible."

The cost-conscious Marlins wanted Girardi out so badly they were willing to let him go with two years left on a guaranteed three-year contract, which may cost them as much as $1.5 million. Florida also made the move even though Girardi's considered a strong candidate for NL manager of the year.

Girardi said he was fired during a short, unemotional meeting in his office with Beinfest, assistant general manager Mike Hill and team president David Samson. Loria did not attend the meeting but later spoke to Girardi by phone, a spokesman for the owner said.

Girardi, an Illinois native, Northwestern graduate and former Cubs catcher, becomes a potential candidate to replace Dusty Baker, whose four-year tenure with the Cubs ended Monday.

Girardi said he has no idea what he'll do next season, and plans to discuss options with his wife. His voice broke when he began discussing his dismissal with reporters in his office, but he was soon smiling and cracking jokes.

"I'll land on my feet," he said. "I talked to one of my mentors last night and I said, 'I've never been fired before.' And he said, 'Welcome to the club.'"

New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, who served as a mentor to Girardi, said he talked to his former catcher Sunday.

"There was no anger," Torre said. "He understood that managing is not always based on how well you do. There are certain things you need to do, and people you need to please."

SAN DIEGO -- Intentionally walking Miguel Cabrera isn't necessary the best strategy for Marlins' opponents.
After the slugger was put on intentionally in the fifth inning Sunday, Cody Ross delivered a crucial three-run homer that helped propel the Marlins to a 7-3 win over the Padres on Sunday afternoon at PETCO Park.
"We take pride in that, if they are going to walk our best guy, we're going to try to make them pay for it," Ross said. "That's our intention. Everybody knows what a great hitter [Cabrera] is. We've got to follow up and do something about it."
Brian Moehler (4-5) overcame a rough first inning, settled and tossed seven quality innings, giving up two runs on eight hits. The victory was the veteran's fourth in five starts, and it enabled the Marlins to take two of three in San Diego, while completing a 6-3 road trip.
"It was a very good road trip for us," said manager Joe Girardi, who's club has now won 12 of its last 18. "There was really one game we didn't have a chance to win. It was a very, very good road trip for us. Our starting pitching did a great job. Our hitters did a great job against some tough pitchers."
In the fifth inning, Dan Uggla doubled and with two outs, Jake Peavy intentionally walked Cabrera. Ross, who was 2-for-17 since being obtained from the Reds on May 26, uncorked his first home run as a Marlin.
Cabrera has been intentionally walked 10 times this season. On those occasions, the Marlins following Cabrera are 5-for-7 with two walks and a sacrifice hit, with two home runs, one double and 12 RBIs.
"It gives our guys an opportunity," Girardi said. "I'm sure teams aren't going to think too hard in those situations. When you've got Miguel Cabrera and an open base, there are not too many hitters in the National League that are better than him. It just makes sense [to walk him]. Our guys get a great opportunity."
Putting an exclamation point on the game was Uggla, who crushed a solo home run to the third deck of the Western Metal Supply Co., down the left-field line, in the ninth inning. The estimated 428-foot shot was the seventh to reach the that level in stadium history, and third by a visiting player. Last May 13, Cabrera also reached the third deck. Rich Aurilia is the other non-Padre to do it.
Uggla's monster drive came on reliever Scott Cassidy's first pitch of the inning.
"I knew it was gone when I hit it," said Uggla, who now has 10 homers in his rookie season. "I just put my head down and started running."
He wasn't aware it was in the third deck until teammates in the dugout pointed to the spot.
"You don't square many balls up like that," Uggla said. "At least I don't. I may have peaked where it went."
Actually, Uggla was miffed at the 428-foot estimate. He felt that spot is at least 450-475, but distances down the line tend to be measured shorter than those to the gaps. The left-field wall in that spot is 334 feet.
The Marlins completed a strong road trip because they were able to wear down Peavy (4-6), who gave up six runs on eight hits in five innings. The right-hander did strike out 10.
The Marlins took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning on Alfredo Amezaga's RBI single, scoring Jeremy Hermida, who doubled, from second.
After falling behind by a couple of runs in the first inning, they tied it on Miguel Olivo's two-run single in the second inning. Cabrera opened the inning with a single, and the Marlins had a chance to add more but a suicide-squeeze bunt attempt backfired. With runners on first and third and one out, Amezaga broke home from third. But Moehler pulled back his bunt attempt, and Amezaga was out easily.
Moehler said he misread a sign.
"It was a squeeze, I just missed the second half of [the sign]," Moehler said. "It was a suicide [squeeze], but I thought it was something else."
RBI singles from Brian Giles and Adrian Gonzalez gave the Padres a 2-0 first-inning edge. Mike Cameron started the rally with a one-out double, and he scored, barreling over catcher Olivo, on Giles' single to center. Gonzalez, who had a 17-game hitting streak snapped Saturday, slapped his run-scoring single to center.
As for the collision with Cameron, Girardi said he felt the Padres' outfielder may have gotten the worst of it because Olivo is so compactly built.
"Olivo is like running into a brick wall," Girardi said. "I've said he would have made a great fullback."
After absorbing the hit at the plate, Olivo went 4-for-4, tying his career high for hits in a game, done previously in 2003 while he was with the White Sox.
In the eighth inning, doubles by Gonzalez and pinch-hitter Rob Bowen produced the third Padres' run. But rookie left-hander Taylor Tankersley worked 1 1/3 innings for his first big-league save.

MIAMI -- A basic Marlins draft philosophy is to select the best player available, regardless of organizational needs.
As things filtered out in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft, which wrapped up Wednesday, the Marlins were able to accomplish several objectives. They were able to pluck their highest rated players available, which happened to coincide with some needs.
As always, Florida kept an eye on pitching, and for the fourth straight season, the club selected a pitcher with its top overall pick -- right-hander Brett Sinkbeil from Missouri State University.
Once Sinkbeil, who likely will sign a bonus of about $1.5 million in the upcoming weeks, was secured, the Marlins also were able to meet some needs by picking left-handed-hitting position players, plus adding some shortstop depth.
On Wednesday's second day, the Marlins went heavily with pitchers to fill out their Gulf Coast League and short-season Class A Jamestown squads.
"I think it worked out where we did a terrific job of filling some needs," said Jim Fleming, the team's vice president of player development and scouting. "That was not the objective of this draft. It just worked out that way."
Some much-needed catching also was selected. Based on past drafts and several offseason trades when the Marlins dealt high-priced players for prospects, the organization is pretty well stacked with pitching at all its levels.
Heading into the draft, the Minor Leagues were a bit thin on positional players. That area was addressed on Tuesday with the selections of 20-year-old third baseman Chris Coghlan (sandwich pick) from the University of Mississippi, outfielder Thomas Hickman (second round) of Pepperell High School in Georgia and outfielder Scott Cousins (third round) from the University of San Francisco. Those three are quality left-handed hitters.
Coghlan is an interesting prospect. He's batting .349 for the Rebels with four home runs and 48 RBIs. Mississippi is preparing to face the University of Miami in the NCAA Super Regionals.
Coghlan lacks the power traditionally reserved for a third baseman, and there is a chance he could wind up at second base.
Fleming believes Coghlan can improve his power numbers, but he points out the organization never asks young hitters to be what they aren't.
"I don't think he will be a big power hitter," Fleming said. "But I think there is a little more in his bat."
But Fleming pointed out that young hitters who traditionally make contact and hit for average can boost their power naturally as they mature. Jeremy Hermida, the Marlins' first-round choice in 2002 and the team's current starting right fielder, is a prime example.

An adjustment these young hitters will have to make is switching from aluminum bats to wood. Coghlan used a wooden bat in the Cape Cod League last summer, and ended up leading that league in batting average.
"We tried to see every hitter we liked hit with a wood bat," Fleming said.
The team has high expectations for middle infielders, Justin Jacobs (sixth round) from Chino H.S. (Calif.), Daniel Garcia (eighth round) from Nogales H.S. (Calif.) and Osvaldo Martinez (11th round) from Porterville College Junior College (Calif.).
"Jacobs is a guy we're not sure he will stay at short," Fleming said. "He's an athlete we're going to move around. Garcia is a shortstop and Martinez is a shortstop."
Catching, arguably the toughest position to fill, was obtained in the third and fifth rounds. Torre Langley, a high school product out of Georgia, was the first of two third-round picks taken on Tuesday. And David Hatcher out of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington was picked in the fifth round.
Over the two-day draft, the Marlins had 52 total picks. They selected 26 pitchers, three catchers, 13 infielders and 10 outfielders.
The draft picked up with round No. 19 on Wednesday, and the Marlins used nine of their first 11 picks of the day on pitchers: right-hander Thomas Davis of the University of Alabama (19th round); right-hander Corey Madden from St. Mary's (Calif.) College (21st round), left-hander Kevan Kelley of Cal. State-San Bernardino (22nd round), left-hander Rylan Hanks of Cal. State-San Bernardino (23rd round), right-hander Joel Fountain of St. Mary's College (25th round), left-hander Andy Jackson of the University of Central Arkansas (26th round), right-hander Jeremy Hall of East Tennessee State (27th round), left-hander Kedrick Martin from Meridian C.C. (28th round) and left-hander Jonathan Van Looy of John Swett (Calif.) H.S. (29th round).
"What we did today was we needed pitching for our Jamestown and Gulf Coast League teams, so we took a lot of that," Fleming said.
While a majority of Wednesday's picks will be "draft-and-follow" players, the Marlins are hopeful of signing a good number of those picks from Nos. 19-29.

Tuesday, June 02nd, 2006 10:15 PM ET

Right fielder Jeremy Hermida insists he doesn't think about the many pre-season projections that had him as the favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year award according to many Sportsbook odds.
That's good because Hermida essentially has been starting his season over again after missing most of April and May with a sore right hip flexor.
He returned May 22 and hit his first home run on Sunday, a three-run shot off Orlando Hernandez of the Mets in a 7-4 Marlins loss.
"I'm going to work back to getting my timing back and my rhythm back," he said. "It's hard to say how long it's going to take. I'm pretty close to full speed."
One day after Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run, he said he definitely wants to stick around in 2007. He'll be 43 when the '07 season ends.
He said he's motivated to play another year after being encouraged by his son, Nikolai the first to congratulate him at the plate after homer No. 715 Sunday against the Rockies.
"I'm going to give it a shot," said Bonds, whose feeling improved health after undergoing three surgeries to his right knee last year. "There will be a good chance."
Although manager Felipe Alou suggested Bonds might rest in the series opener, he was in the lineup and went 1-for-4 with a single in a 5-1 loss. Alou now says Bonds will rest Wednesday, a day game. Then come three games in New York.
Bonds is not expected to come close to Hank Aaron's record of 755 this year, but next year it might be possible, particularly if he plays in the American League as a designated hitter.
Before the game, Bonds said Alex Rodriguez has a chance to catch Babe Ruth and Aaron. The game drew just 7,683 fans, the smallest crowd to see Bonds play this season.

For all their pluck and spunk, the Florida Marlins, the majors' youngest team, entered Friday night's game at a monumental disadvantage. Their lineup boasted a combined 10 plate appearances against the Mets' ace, Pedro Martínez, and had recorded only one hit.
For all their talent and payroll, the Mets have proven unsuccessful in solving young pitchers. Their lineup boasted a combined zero plate appearances against the Marlins' impressive rookie starter, Josh Johnson.
Martínez and Johnson matched each other nearly pitch for pitch through six innings. Johnson retired the Mets in an uneventful seventh. Martínez served up more hits to begin the seventh (three) than he had until that point (two), and the Marlins capitalized, scoring the go-ahead run in a 5-1 victory at Dolphin Stadium. After Martínez left, the Marlins in the eighth pounced on reliever Duaner Sánchez, who allowed three runs, one unearned, and did not record an out until the inning's sixth batter.
The Marlins, coming off a sweep of the Chicago Cubs, defeated a likely Hall of Fame pitcher for the second consecutive game. They defeated Greg Maddux on Wednesday, and they will get another chance Saturday, against Tom Glavine.
It was Martínez's fifth consecutive start without notching a victory, and his first loss of the season after winning his first five. Martínez struck out 10 Marlins, including every Marlins starter and Dan Uggla twice, and walked none, and he retired 12 consecutive hitters between Miguel Olivo's leadoff homer in the third and Mike Jacobs's leadoff single in the seventh.
Martínez entered the seventh having thrown 70 pitches, and was showing no signs of tiring. But Jacobs slapped a line single into right field, and Miguel Cabrera followed with a sharp liner to left field, advancing Jacobs to left. The next hitter, Josh Willingham, squared to bunt, which seemed the prudent decision.
Considering how well Martínez was pitching, the Marlins were praying to get a run any way they could. Willingham could not move the runners over, however, and after taking a pitch to even the count at 2-2, he decided to hit away. His next swing connected with a low-and-outside slider, sending the ball hurtling past Martínez's outstretched glove and into center field.
The announced crowd of 15,338 (approximately 15,000 were rooting for the Mets), finally had more than just Johnson's effort to cheer. Johnson was masterly in his fifth career start, allowing two hits: Carlos Beltrán's run-scoring single in the first and Paul Lo Duca's single in the fourth. When he departed after the seventh inning, he had recorded eight strikeouts and walked two.
The Marlins' bullpen, which had blown four ninth-inning leads in the last week, had no problems shutting down a Mets lineup missing one of its stars, David Wright. Logan Kensing pitched a perfect eighth and Joe Borowski dampened Carlos Delgado's first game back here since his November trade by striking him out with José Reyes on second to end the game.
Wright was removed about a half-hour before the game because of back spasms. He was replaced by José Valentín, who became the 132nd player in franchise history to start at third base and was certainly not the first one to go 0 for 3.
If possible, Martínez was even better than the 22-year-old Johnson until the seventh inning. Fans around the stadium waved Dominican Republic flags in honor of Martínez, and the chants of "Let's Go Mets" began after Reyes walked to lead off the game. Martínez steamrolled through first-time victims and, before the seventh, befuddled Cabrera and Jacobs.
In the first, Jacobs, the former Met, struck out on an unhittable 1-2 changeup, but he did not so much swing at the pitch as throw his bat at it. The bat flew out of Jacobs's hands and up the third-base line. Then, in the fourth, Martínez struck out Cabrera on a pitch that, according to the Marlins' scoreboard pitch tracker, registered 43 miles an hour. While Martínez no longer overpowers hitters the way he once did, that figure seemed ridiculous.

By Jonathan Wachs
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Now that most teams have played around forty games, let’s look on in the Divisional Races:

NL WEST

Here’s a division where all the teams are in the hunt for the title. Not much has been determined in the first quarter of the season except that the division is not nearly as bad as many thought it would be. All four teams currently have winning records and they are only separated by 2.5 games.

Arizona has been led by Brandon Webb (7-0), who is probably the early leader in the NL CY Young race. Unfortunately, the rest of their pitching staff has about a 6.00 ERA. Jose Valverde (13 saves), Luis Vizcaino (3.38 ERA) and Brandon Lyon have led a bullpen that is improved over last year’s version. After a miserable start, Shawn Green has been on a torrid pace and Chad Tracy was recently rewarded with a $13 million plus contract extension for his fine work. The offense has been a moneyball fan’s dream: Craig Counsell (.387 OBP), Conor Jackson (.372) and Luis Gonzalez (.387) have certainly managed to get on base. Most analysts of the minor leagues rank Arizona near the top of the list and they are going to need to dip into their system to get some rotation help if they are to win the division or compete for the wildcard.

Colorado has been one of this year’s early surprises. One of the best bets in recent years was against the Rockies on the road, but they have dramatically improved this year. The skepticism usually associated with their gaudy numbers are not valid this year as guys like Brad Hawpe who is hitting .340 overall is hitting .383 on the road. Matt Holliday has added 11 dingers and Garrett Atkins has filled out what has been a very productive, albeit no name, middle of the order. In Jeff Francis and Aaron Cook, the Rockies have developed two nice young starters. Brian Fuentes (10 saves, 1.45 ERA) is having his second straight good year. The Rockies appear to finally have a sound plan in place. In a division that will beat up on each other, you can’t count the Rockies out.

The Dodgers have gone the high risk/high reward strategy the last couple of years. Nomar Garciaparra is the perfect example. He has hit .369, but injuries have limited him. J.D. Drew has 8 homers and 33 RBI so far, but don’t you wish wagerweb.com let you bet on whether or not he would make it through the season? Kenny Lofton (.350 OBP) keeps chugging along, but the Dodgers are waiting for Furcal (.244) to get going. Brad Penny has been pitching well (4-1, 2.53), but also has a dicey injury history. Will Eric Gagne be healthy and effective for the second half of the year? Like Arizona, the Dodgers have a strong farm system. Unlike Arizona, they may be willing to trade a few to fill holes.

Most of the attention surrounding the Giants has been around Barry Bonds. The fact that Bonds is hitting close to .250 and still has an OBP close to .500 speaks volumes about the Giants offense, especially without Moises Alou. The starting rotation led by a resurgent Jason Schmidt (3.07 ERA), the recently returned to action Noah Lowry (3.38 ERA) and Jamey Wright (3.38 ERA) have pitched well enough to keep them in contention, but it would seem another bat is needed for them to stay in the race.

The San Diego Padres recently won 15 out of 18, but still appear to be the weakest team in the division. Mike Piazza has hit 6 homers and has hit better of late, but 15 RBI for a cleanup hitter is just not going to cut it. The challenges of Petco aside, this team has a definite power outage. Only Khali Green has joined Piazza in hitting over 5 homeruns to this point. As usual, Brian Giles continues to get on base with an OBP over .400 and Trevor Hoffman (7 saves, 1.20 ERA) and Scott Linebrink (3.27 ERA) lead a strong bullpen.

So it will come down to Arizona’s farm system, Colorado’s youngsters, The Dodger’s health, The Giants pitching and San Diego’s ability to keep doing it with mirrors. Stay tuned.

By Jonathan Wachs
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

After a few weeks and with some surprises, the NL Central has begun to look a lot more as expected, particularly at the very top.

With a lineup containing the best player on the planet, the Cardinals have recently started to pull away and
seem well on their way to their third straight division title. Pujols’ numbers are mind-boggling (22 homers and 54 RBI). Barring an injury or a stunning slump, he’s practically locked up the MVP Award in May. Underrated David Eckstein has an OBP of .390 and provides the kind of spark few leadoff hitters can match. While injuries and age have slowed Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen to some degree, they are both still dangerous hitters. Juan Encarcion and Yadier Molina have been disappointments, but the rest of the lineup has picked them up so far. Chris Carpenter has continued to pitch like an ace and starters Mark Mulder, Jeff Suppan, and Jason Marquis form a solid rotation that always keeps the Cardinals in the game. After a slow start, closer Jason Isringhausen has rounded into form. Only injuries will keep the Cards from playing in October.

Losers of 10 of their last 15, the “Big Red Mirage” are starting to play like their talent level indicates they should. Bronson Arroyo has been an outstanding acquisition and is obviously thrilled not to have to face those tough NL lineups, but you simply can’t send out such a mediocre starting rotation and expect to stay in the race. I told you a few weeks back to bet against them and those who listened are a bit richer today.

The Astros got off to a hot start before their starting pitching went through a horrid stretch. Roy Oswalt remains one of the league’s top pitchers and Wayne Rodriguez has been a nice surprise, but Andy Pettitte has struggled, Brandon Backe is out for the year, and the rest of the rotation has been inconsistent. Brad Lidge has struggled (mostly with his control), but expect him to turn things around. Morgan Ensberg hit home runs in six straight games early in the year and Lance Berkman would be an MVP candidate in a league without Pujols. Also, very quietly, Brad Ausmus has put together a very good year (.418 OBP). The Astros could stay in the wildcard race and may soon get the kind of help that could rocket them to the finish line.

The Brewers are fun to watch. They lead the majors in home runs, and youngsters Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and Bill Hall mix nicely with veterans Geoff Jenkins, Carlos Lee, and Corey Koskie. The only thing is they may be too dependent on getting home runs and they strike out too much. A bit of small ball might help them at times. Getting Ben Sheets healthy would help a rotation that has one underrated star (Chris Capuano) and mostly back-of-the-rotation types. Derrick Turnbow is showing he’s no fluke, but the bullpen lacks depth. This year’s trendy sleeper pick will stay around a while, but ultimately doesn’t have enough for the playoffs.

First the Red Sox, then the White Sox, now the Cu … stop right there. Derrek Lee’s injury has revealed just how impotent the rest of the Cubs lineup is. Juan Pierre has an OBP of .271. Aramis Ramirez is hitting only .231. It’s ugly on the North Side. Greg Maddux’s May has been very different than his April and still no sign of Mark Prior. Dusty Baker must be on edge. No playoffs here, folks.

The Pirates were expected to be an improved team this year, but their starting pitching has failed them. Zach Duke has hit a bit of a tougher time facing teams the second time around, and whatever happened to Oliver Perez, who was thought to be a fast rising star? Not much hope in the Steel City either.

So early on, it looks like it’s the Cards division to lose and the Astros waiting for Roger Clemens to make them serious wildcard contenders.