Fish Bytes

Zambrano doesn't want to be in the bullpen long

ATLANTA -- Carlos Zambrano made it clear Tuesday he doesn't think he's built to be in the Marlins bullpen long term.

"It's not my role, but I have to do it," said Zambrano, who struggled with control over his last nine starts. "There is no other choice. If they put me in the bullpen, they put me in the bullpen. I have to keep doing my job, and keep trying to come back and being in the rotation again.

"The Cubs tried to do that to me, put me in the bullpen. It didn't work. My arm is not built to be in the bullpen, but I have to do it. I'm at a stage in my career where I've been my whole life as a starter. But I have to do it. I will do it until somebody remembers me."

Asked about the trouble he has had issuing walks, Zambrano became a little testy.

"People walk. It's not only me. Obviously, I'm the one people most see here," he said. "What can I do? Be in bullpen. What can I do?"

> Manager Ozzie Guillen said Tuesday the loss of Edward Mujica won't affect the roles of anybody in his bullpen because "nobody has a role here."

"When that phone rings get up," Guillen said of what his relievers will do from now on. "I can't say this guy is my closer, this guy is my setup. We're going to see the matchups and what gives the guys the best opportunity for success."

> Guillen said he's not going to ask a lot of Wednesday's starter Wade LeBlanc. "Give me three good innings. We'll take care of the rest," he said. "We got Zambrano. We got [Chad] Gaudin. Whatever your going to give me, give me good ones. We'll figure it out for the next time."

> Guillen said he's happy Josh Johnson made it through the trade deadline without being shipped off. "I want JJ here. JJ is a gamer," Guillen said. "This kid is going to give you everything he has on the field. And as a manager and a coach you appreciate that. He don't want to come out of games. He wants to help. He's not that superstar ace that I know [right now]. But this kid goes about his business the right way and that's why I love him."

> Guillen said Jose Reyes "got a bad jump, a bad read" off Carlos Lee's single Monday when he was thrown out at the plate by Martin Prado. 

> Guillen said he still isn't sure who will start along with Johnson when the Marlins face the Nationals in a double-header Friday.

> Guillen said if any of his players were worried about being traded before the deadline "they should look themselves in the mirror and ask 'Who wants you?'"

> Guillen was asked about what the Marlins got in return from the Cardinals for Mujica, third baseman Zach Cox: "I don't know. I'm not that type of manager, baseball who guy goes to computer and finds out. I know he's a pretty high round pick. I think the Marlins before St. Louis drafted him they liked him a lot and they had an opportunity to pick him up. He's an athletic third baseman and has an opportunity to help us here in the future. Hopefully he can help us."

As for incoming outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, Guillen said: "So far in the big leagues he's only played defense. He'll have an opportunity to get some at-bats. We'll figure it out. I'm going to play him in centerfield, get him some at-bats to see how he's doing. Then we make decision how we're going to play. It's all about opportunities. We'll move [Justin] Ruggiano to one of the corners."

Beinfest discusses latest round of Marlins trades

ATLANTA -- Here is what President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest had to say after Tuesday's trades: 

Opening comments... “Again, our disappointment with the team continues. As part of the restructuring that began last week in earnest with the Detroit and Los Angeles trade, we’ve been on the phone exploring a number of different things that really brought us right to the deadline.

“We were able to get two separate deals done today that we’ve been working on for the better part of a week once we exited it out of the two deals last week.

“First deal was Edward Mujica to the Cardinals for Zack Cox, highly touted third baseman was a draft pick in 2010, accomplished player at the University of Arkansas. We really like the bat. We’re going to send him to Jacksonville. He’s moved through the Cardinals’ system very quickly. Third base is an area of need for us. We thought it lined up. We love the bat, a left-handed hitting third baseman. A guy we know well obviously spring training with the Cardinals. We’ve seen him in spring training and our scouting people knew him very well out of the draft and thought very highly of him.”

"In terms of moving Edward, he’s done a good job for us. It’s an area of some depth now with Big Z in the bullpen and prospects like Even Reed and A.J. Ramos and Hatcher ready to go. It was an area we felt like we had some depth to make the move.

"The second deal with Gaby, Gaby did a great job here. What’s going on the past year with him offensively is something that’s been baffling to him and baffling to us. He struggled. Having to send him to the minor leagues this year was difficult on two separate occasions. This may be a good opportunity for him to get a fresh start.

"We’re going to get Gorkys Hernandez, a fleet-footed outfielder, can play center field. We’re going to take a look at him out in center field. Defensively we have him well above average. This is a guy again that has upside, does not have a lot of experience in the major leagues. We’re looking to provide that opportunity for him to show us what he can do. Ruggiano will move to a corner and hopefully we’ll get Giancarlo back as early as next week and move on.

"A big part of this is the competitive balance pick. It is the second pick following the first round. We’ve been involved now in a couple of these things. These are very valuable assets. To have access to the 33rd pick in the country is a very big deal.

"Gorkys is a young player we’re going to take a look at and we’ve liked for quite some time all the way back to his days with the Tigers and the Braves.

"That’s how we finished things up. Now we’ll go through the post-waiver deadline and hopefully start to improve on the field and win some games, and take a look at some of the assets we’ve accumulated in the last 10 days."

On how close the Marlins came to making other trades... “You never really know until they’re done. There are so many moving parts and so many teams are talking to multiple teams. I don’t know that you know exactly where you stands. I think trades in general build momentum and you get a good feel if you’re close, but it’s hard to identify. I know you’re looking for something big that may or may not have been close. We had some things percolating. It didn’t happen. Again, I’m not sure the momentum was there any way for things to come to fruition.

“These two deals, we had a pretty good feeling when we got to the office this morning there was a chance these two things could happen.”

On if Logan Morrison's future is at first base... “His future is hopefully back on a baseball field. Obviously the DL is not the goal. We’ve always known LoMo can play first. He’s very good at first. That’s where he came up. We had Gaby and subsequently Carlos Lee over at first base. Let’s get LoMo healthy. I think first base is a reasonable outlook for 2013, but we’ll see. Things can change, etc. The priority is to get the knee healthy, get him back on the field, have him not be a .230 hitter because he’s not a .230 hitter and go from there. It’s reasonable to speculate he could at first base.”

On how quickly Cox could become a factor at third base for the Marlins... “He’s kind of rocketed through the St. Louis system and I guess that’s a good thing. He’s had two injuries of late. One was he got hit in the head by a pitch and had a concussion in late May. Recently he had a mild hamstring strain which landed him on the minor league DL and caused him to miss some time. I don’t think we have a good answer for that. This guy is an offensive performer. Having not seen him a lot of late because of the injuries, I can’t really speak to how close he is, but this guy is in our view and this trade was made with the thought he could be our third baseman in the near future. We just need to get him on the field and we’ll have a better idea of the time table."

Marlins trade former All-Star Gaby Sanchez to Pirates for OF Gorkys Hernandez

ATLANTA -- Gaby Sanchez's career with the Marlins is over.

The former All-Star first baseman and native Miamian was shipped off to the Pirates along with a minor league pitcher Tuesday before the trade deadline for outfielder Gorkys Hernandez and a competitive balance draft pick (No. 2 after the 1st round).

Hernandez is expected to join the Marlins Wednesday in Atlanta.

Hernandez, a 24-year old Venezuelan, made his major league debut on May 21. He hit .083 for the Pirates (2 for 24) with two stolen bases and two RBI. He's spent the last two seasons in Triple A Indianapolis, where he's hit .274 with three homers, 65 RBI and 34 stolen bases in 67 games.

Sanchez -- the third starting infielder for the Marlins dealt within the past 10 days -- welcomed his first child to the world on Saturday when his wife Judy gave birth to Sky Michelle Sanchez. Gaby Sanchez, 28, was sent down to Triple A on July 4th after the Marlins acquired Carlos Lee from the Astros. Sanchez hit just .202 with three homers and 17 RBI this season in 55 games for the Marlins.

The Marlins also sent Double A right-handed reliever Kyle Kaminska to Pittsburgh. Kaminska was 6-4 with a 5.11 ERA in 31 relief appearances in Jacksonville.

The Marlins -- we're told -- aren't done dealing. Stay tuned.

Marlins ship Mujica to Cardinals for minor league third baseman

ATLANTA -- The Marlins have shipped off reliever Edward Mujica to the Cardinals for minor league third baseman Zachary Cox.

The 6-foot, 215-pounder and 25th overall pick in the 2010 draft was hitting .254 (76 for 299) with nine homers, 30 RBI for Triple A Memphis. 

Cox fills a big need for the Marlins, who traded away three-time All-Star Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers last week for pitching prospects and have little at the hot corner.

Cox, a left-handed hitter, will report to Double A Jacksonville the Marlins have said.

More deals are expected we've been told.

Here's a video of Cox hitting a home run for Memphis on July 20.