Linden Now a Marlin

The Marlins picked up Linden yesterday from waivers.

I had such high hopes for him, particularly after his great year in AAA. Unfortunately, he is probably one of those prospects who take too long to develop, so he leaves his first team and finds success elsewhere, making the first team look stupid. Probably because he was a switch-hitter, and it took so long for him to figure out how to do that productively - the Giants were on him last year to just bat right handed from then on but he insisted on continuing to hit from both sides.

I'm a little surprised the Marlins took him. They have so many young good outfielders, so I'm surprised they have a spot for him, Willingham, Hermida, hmm, OK, maybe I'm thinking of Tampa Bay :^). They dropped John Gall for him, whose stats looks a little like Linden's career stats, except that Gall is now 29 years old, and at the end of the line. So I guess they don't have that many good OF. Actually, Linden's minors stats was better, so I'll give him that, plus he's only 26 years old, heading into his prime physical years. Too bad for John, too bad for the Giants, good for Todd and the Marlins.

I feel conflicted, one part of me want to wish him well, another part hopes he sucks and don't make the Giants look bad. But really, he did nothing - NOTHING - to keep his spot with the Giants. Lewis, however, is hitting the way we had been hoping Linden would. Plus the Marlins also play in a pitchers park, so I don't see him hitting well enough to stay up with the Marlins if they have a young OF waiting to come up, plus they have Reggie Ambercrobie, another failed top prospect, who was a better prospect than Linden, so he might just be the 25th man on the roster.

I'm still surprised that the Giants got something for Ellison but got nothing for Linden. But them's the breaks sometimes, timing is everything, if we had tried to trade him like Ellison, we might have gotten something for him then, but then if he hit like we had been expecting him, we would have looked stupid for selling him low. Go Lewis!