Carl Barger's No. 5 is "unretired" for Logan Morrison

     No member of the Florida Marlins has ever worn No. 5. That number was retired by the organization following the death of Carl Barger, the franchise's first president. The Marlins chose to retire "5" because it was worn by Barger's favorite player, Joe DiMaggio.

     But the Miami Marlins are allowing outfielder Logan Morrison to have the number and will commemorate Barger's memory with a plaque in the new ballpark. Morrison had been wearing "20." Now the only remaining number that is retired by the Marlins is Jackie Robinson's "42."

     Have the Marlins ever had a player whose number needs to be retired, in your opinion? Do they have such a player in the making?

Comments

[No Fans of Lomo the Tool]

Will that improve Lomo's terrible .182 BA w/RISP or hitting under .200 from the 7th inning on , and in close/late game situations??? Did Loria give Lomo #5 because he was the 5th worst hitter in all of MLB last season with a minimum of 100 AB's( over 200 players ) at batting w/RISP??? Tell us ,Lomo's butt lickers,what does the number change mean in reality ???

[Michael]

I agree with you No Fan.

[Lomo's Gay Tool Club]

The only thing it means is that all the Lomo ball licking schmucks that went out and bought Lomo the Tools new gay Marlins jersey #20, will have to buy his #5...happy spending,Lomo the Tool's Fools...

[julio]

Does this mean that Lomo will be called Lomo Cinco Stinko ?

[bob]

What's with all the LoMo hate?

Quite frankly, I'm surprised they haven't retired a number for Jeff Conine, being Mr Marlin and all.

[More to it]

BA RISP is a indicator, and often a poor one. Balls in play, and how put in play, are not considered. The best indicator is bases advanced, but without going into those details, better than BA RISP is how many RISP scored/PA (evens out GO to middle infield that scores a runner and Sac Flies). Next in line would be how many RISP scored per AB. This is RBI RISP less HR over AB. Since that was readily available, some comps for last year:

Hanley .383
LoMo .347
Gaby .344
Stanton .343

Infante's .266 BA RISP did at least allow another batter a chance moreso than LoMo, but he had 40 RBI RISP with 1 HR in 143 AB. The 39 RISP he drove in with 143 chances comes out to .273 of the runners on scoring. The wins come from the RBI moreso than the BA with RISP.

[Stan M]

Clark,
What is your (or anybody elses for that matter) take on the Cuban coming to the US, then leaving right after meeting with the Marlins and no one else. Also saying that he hopes to play for the Marlins. It sure looks to me like they have him locked up and are only waiting until gov't. gives him permission to work in USA.

[spitballer]

Stan...he's got $40 mil sit'n on the table from the marlins. One of those AL teams will probably throw $50 mil at him.

[Glags]

It sounds to me like it's in the bag. I'd rather it not be a bidding war if other teams are involved. Samson did change his tune from saying they're going to take the bidding to the point of stupidity to saying that he's a want and not a need. So if someone does try to jack up the price they may very well let him go. Who knows.

[larry r]

Loria should un-retire the Teal and burn those rainbow clown costumes. Along with the cheesy carnival contraption.And his toad of a stepson.

[frank]

they should retire # 19 Jeff Conine. he was called MR. Marlin. he was a great player for the team. and not just any team. the champion teams.

[John H Venables]

One Florida Marlins player was issued #5 and played one game before it was discovered that #5 hd been retired. Hint: it was an infielder.

[Jimbo]

Hands down #19 Jeff Conine has to be retired

[Waste of $$$$]

In the NFL if a player wants to change numbers ,the league requires that the player himself ,pay for all jerseys that are unsold with his number on it. Lomo should offer refunds and do the same,out of his own pocket.Cmon, Lomo step up and put your money where your mouth is.

[el loco]

JEFF COOOniiineeee

[Not Bill James, but close]

@More to it...the stats u use in your post r interesting...please verify where u got them from ...the stats posted in No Fans of Lomo can ve verified to be true on the MLB/Marlins website...

[Miamiandy24]

I'm a big fan of Logan Morrison, as all bloggers know, Jeffrey Loria knows when I brought my paper megaphone to the 2nd to last game of the season giving him my "don't trade LoMo chant". I liked him from the times I saw him interviewed when he was first called up. He always had his hat on, and a little askew, not much about 1/8 turn to the left. I imagine he's like the later day Luis Tiant who used to shower with a cigar in his mouth, LoMo is such a gamer that he probably showered with his Marlins cap on during his rookie season.

Last year I decided to get back on twitter to follow LoMo after his trip to the troops. LoMo had about 13,000 followers then. LoMo sent out a tweet to guess what his cell phone bill was after that trip. I guessed $683 and the amount was $724. I was honored with a retweet and invoice to pay his bill. (Life is tough on the MLB minimum).
Whoaa, a lefty comedian, right up my alley. He didn't know he made friends with the three stooges of Marlins fans. (3 for the price of 1).

I decided to take a trip to Roger Dean to see LoMo. It was the 1st Braves trip ( without Uggla ). I got to row 1 off third, even got an easy as you please foul ball that rolled right up to me. As I reached over to pick it up, I still thought I was going to get steam rolled by somebody for the ball, even though there was nobody within 3 rows of me. Bam, well that sure makes up for the one I dropped when I was 10 at Yankeed Stadium, sort of.

I kid you not, there were 3 or 4 groups of people that came from great distances just to say hello to LoMo. He said hello to them all, passed by me on his way to the dugout. Not wanting to be a dork, too much I yelled "Logan, I'm here to pay your cell phone bill" He stopped and smiled. Just then, another one of Lomos friends called to him, so LoMo comes right over to where I was sitting, I didn't know what to do, i just yelled over to him, now he's heading towards me. I got all timid, and half got up, I wanted to shake his hand, since I didn't think of the sharpie for an autograph fast enough.

As I put my hand up, LoMo leaned up and over me to say hello to the people behind me. I quickly pulled my hand down because what I was about to shake, you don't want to know. All I kept thinking of was being arrested as a Bartman like pervert at a spring training game. "Miamiandy24 arrested in Jupiter for attempting to grope Logan Morrison".

so, thanks LoMo for the retweet, the foul ball, showering with your cap on askew and most of all for not leaning further into the stands than you did.

[F19]

Luis Castillo is the only player who was here long enough and played well enough in my opinion to deserve having his number retired. Conine was here over 2 stints and wore 2 different numbers. Great Marlin for sure, but I don't think it was enough to warrant retiring one of his numbers.

Unretiring #5 shows a further lack of class and respect from Loria & Co. The utter disdain for the history of the FLORIDA Marlins they have shown over the last 4 months is sickening and a disgrace to the game. If they want to shed the relationship to the Florida era fine. Then they should also forfeit the 2 World Series trophies and give them to the hall of fame, or put them on display at Joe Robbie Stadium where they belong.

[MIKE MARCHANT]

PLEASE RETIRE
RENE LACHEMAN !!!
CHARLIE HOUGH
PAT "BUM" RAPP
and of course.......
WALT WEISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[Marlins Fan in the Gables]

@miamiandy...Your immature ,chronic Blogs on the Marlins website are boring, not funny,and indicate you need to get a life. Obviously, you exist vicariously thru your Marlins blogs,which are void of any interesting info to the sophisticated or the average MLB/Marlins fan. You should seek professioal help for your chronic Marlins obsession. Best of luck becoming a normal adult.

[More to it]

@Not Bill James, but close

It was quick and dirty from Yahoo. Here is the page for LoMo: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8633/situational;_ylt=AlKI8852d3g978.qfha4cwKFCLcF

From the RISP line, (RBI - HR)/AB. In LoMo's case, (44 - 2) / 121 = 42 / 121 = .347

[Hank G]

That is a ridiculous stat..anyway you look at it Lomo's numbers were terrible w/RISP however it is served up..

[Hank G]

more revealing are Lomo's stats in the Batter vs Pitcher column...Good thing he played against the Cubs and the Astros, otherwise his stats would be even worse.

[Flav C]

Instead of #5, the numbers i want to see from LoMo this season are: .280 - 28 - 92, for batting avg, HRs and RBIs. That will help to shut up a lot of cranky people. I trust this kid. He can be a pain-in-the-butt and drives people crazy with this tweets and attitude, but he works hard and hustles like no other player on the field.

[Flav C]

And before i forget;@ miamiandy24, i appreciate your posts; both here and at mlb.com.

[Old School Perfessor]

Young unproven players trying to make a career as a Pro ,should be seen and not heard, until they have earned that right.

[DanaCreative]

Conine's jersey should be retired. As for a current player whose jersey may be retired in the future, I think we're seeing that in Mike Stanton. As or LoMo's jersey number, given his penchant for Twitter, he should be #140

[@keeganitreal]

No Marlin should have a number retired yet and only players should be honored with retired numbers. The Marlins have raised or had some retire worthy talent (Beckett, Cabrera, Sheffield) but none have logged the years necessary in a Marlins uniform. Conine would be understandable but his on the field numbers don't seem worthy. Hopefully we can hang up Stanton's # some day amongst a few more World Series banners.

[ShadowScoobySTi]

There is one player's number that comes to mind... Mr. Marlin himself, 2-time world champ #19 Jeff Conine.