Marlins Fire Ozzie Guillen After Troubled Year

When the beginning of a managerial tenure starts with the guy praising Fidel Castro in a part of the country that would take exception to that comment the most, you are not going to last long, especially when the team is that bad.

The Miami Marlins were looking to make a huge splash this year with a new look, new players, a new manager, and a new stadium. It was going to be a new era of baseball in Miami and put the city (possible the state) to the test on whether there can be baseball in South Florida. Needless to say, it didn't go so well this year.

The team looked awful for most of the season with the Marlins finishing last in NL East with a 69-93 record. The attendance numbers were not that bad with averaging 27400 per game which is definitely an improvement from the old stadium. However, according to an online article in The Palm Beach Post, Marlins Stadium's first year is the lowest first year attendance of new ballparks that have opened since 2001 (Joe Capozzi).

The easiest thing that the team can do? Fire Ozzie Guillen that had rubbed the Cuban American Community in South Florida the wrong way since the beginning. So they did just that. Changing managers is an easy thing to do and after the season they had no one is going to complain. However, this team needs improvements across the board. Changing the manager is a nice start but if they want to attract fans or see if a consistent successful team can even attract fans in Miami, they will have to do more than that.

Anyone Want Overpriced Talent?

The Yankees were so awful during this postseason but one guy stood out and that was Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod had a drop during the regular season batting .272 with 18 home runs and 57 RBI's in 122 games. He was worse in the postseason. He went 3-25 with no HR's or RBI's, 2 BB, and struckout 12 times. Now Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano seemed to be just as bad or even worse but A-Rod has always been the lightning rod for the Yankees because of his past and how much he gets paid.

Now with the season over for the Yankees (heck, even the game before the season was over) speculation has risen that A-Rod will not be on the Yankees next season and that he will be traded. A-Rod, however, is a very expensive player with five years and $114 million remaining on his contract. If he is traded to some other team, the Yankees will have to eat most of the money remaining to make him appealing and A-Rod would have to approve the destination. Miami is right now the rumored destination to be despite the denial of Yankees GM Brian Cashman saying he hasn't had any trade talks with anyone about A-Rod. Alex says he wants to be a Yankee next year.

So the question is simple: Will Alex Rodriguez be on another team next season? It seems like he will end up somewhere else. There is not much more benefit for A-Rod staying in New York with the media hounding him all the time. He will want to move on from that spot and find a place with less pressure. As for finding him a team, if the Yankees are willing to eat enough money then some franchise will negotiate for A-Rod. I could see a team with a good pitching staff looking to make a postseason run with an average lineup getting him. It could be other teams looking for someone to draw in the crowds but that doesn't seem like the stronger selling point.

Whether he stays with the Yanks or goes somewhere else, Alex Rodriguez is going somewhere he wants to go now: away from the attention.

P.S. I'd stay away from the Super Bowl, hot celebs, and popcorn while you're at it. Maybe just watch it at home... with the curtains closed.