Pokey's Deal Smells Fishy

"Say goodbye Pokey"

The Florida Marlins finally decided to play hardball with AWOL shortstop Pokey Reese, by releasing him. It took the Marlins three days to figure out that the veteran infielder wasn’t coming back to camp, so they gave him the boot.

"We're moving on," Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest said. "We think that the 72 hours that have passed was more than a reasonable amount of time for him to offer some sort of explanation for his unexcused absence. We still do not have that explanation and we're moving on. He will not be with the Marlins in '06."

Odd. Pokey and everyone else on the planet knows why Pokey decided to head for the hills. As GM, you’d think that Beinfest already knows that the Marlins are the worst team in baseball. After his fire sale the past two seasons, why would anyone want to play for the fish?

Even mediocre players like Reese want to believe that they have a shot at winning, but the Double-A roster the Marlins intend to field this season doesn’t provide much optimism.