Yesterday's trade is one that truly baffles me. It shows almost a complete lack of forethought and long term planning on the part of the Marlins ownership. They built a new, expensive (and bizarrely decorated) stadium then went out and put together a dream team which they promptly dismantled after one dismal season. I have to wonder what they expected to happen in 2012. Sold out games every night? A World Series championship maybe? A baseball team has to have some time to develop and a fan base has to have some time to warm up to a squad. Despite their abysmal record the 2012 Marlins were a good team. They had some injuries and some bad luck but overall the talent existed. With a few additions this team could have been a regular playoff contender in a year or two. Sadly we will never know because the Marlins management didn't give them a chance to do it.
Baseball is often a confusing game. Teams overpay for name players when lesser known but equally talented players are available, teams sign players to long term contracts knowing they will basically be useless in their later years and teams regularly play bad players just because they paid a lot for them. This is just an example of bad business. The Marlins clearly didn't have a long term plan for this team and most certainly hadn't planned for a year that didn't include massive, immediate success.
Actually, i think that the Marlins plan for failure rather than for success. Look at the contracts the Marlins gave out last year. They all have a low base in year 1 and then the contract salary rises. So basically their ideology are to do "sign and trades"; they have absolutely no intention of paying the players when they are earning the top dollar amounts. When i first saw Jose Reyes' contract i knew that they were going to trade him at some point based on the way they structured the contract and i was right.
ReplyDeleteAlso, its clear that the team is run as a business rather than a sports franchise. It's really a disgrace for the game and the Loria's should be kicked out. I understand that no one wants to lose money, but as a sports owner, you have a social responsibility to the fans and the game, and if you can't provide that, you don't deserve to own a sports franchise.
Also, your last paragraph is absolutely spot on and I am left wondering why GM's continue to give out ridiculously long and overpaid contracts to Free Agents when everyone knows that no one is worth $20 million past their age 38 season.