Hitting the Re-Set Button in Miami Was the Right Thing to Do
Ben Cherington (GM of the Red Sox) has been hailed as a genius after he jettisoned 250 million dollars of payroll and cleared the way for a roster re-do in Boston. And I am one of those people who hailed him, getting the Dodgers to take all those dollars on AND hand over a few good prospects was brilliant.
Now, if you forget his history, I would argue that Jeffrey Loria made the exact same brilliant move when he got ditched nearly 160 million of remaining payroll by sending Reyes, Johnson and Buehrle (I couldn’t remember how to spell this dude’s last name if you tattooed it on my hand) to the Blue Jays. Earlier in the off season he sent Heath Bell and his remaining 18 million to the D-backs.
And yet all I read about Loria is what a monster con man he is–the worst owner in the history of sports! (some have claimed). Now, there’s no reason to go through his history as an owner with the Expos and the Marlins, I’m assuming you all know it. Otherwise you probably would have clicked off this non-Giants related article about 50 words ago. So let’s put history aside for a moment and just look at the facts.
As the Marlins we set to move into their new stadium (quite possibly the ugliest stadium I have ever seen), they did what a lot of teams moving into new stadiums do—they splurged on free agents. They spent close to 200 million on Jose Reyes (6years/100mil), Mark Buehrle (4 years 58 million) and Heath Bell (3 years 27 mil). And if you throw in J-John’s salary owed before the 2012 season that’s another 27 mil they owed him). Do a little head math and you’ll get to a little over 200 million. They hired Ozzie Guillen to manage them. They were poised for a dominant year and many pre-season prognosticators had them as the flashy pick to win the National League East.
And then the season started and things went sour from the start. Guillen made a dumbass public comment about Fidel Castro and the fans went nuts. That firestorm seemed to blow over after Guillen was suspended for a few games but the team was bad from start to finish in 2012 losing 93 games. The attendance figures did not reflect a team with a brand new stadium. They checked in 18th in mlb at 27,400 average home attendance. That was a tick below the Mets and just above the D-backs. In July, Forbes wrote an article titled “Marlins on Pace to Draw Fewest Fans at First-Year Ballpark in Three Decades”. So let’s look at this closely: The team spent 200 million on new players, hired a high profile manager, and the fans refused to come out to watch them play in a stadium that they (the fans) built. Now does that make any sense at all?
Now, if I was an owner and my team lost 93 games I’d want some answers. I’d sit down with my GM and talk to people smarter than me about where the failure points were. I wish I could have been at that meeting to counsel myself. If you go through the blog archives (and I’m not going to do that right now, you’ll just have to trust me) I gave critical grades to all of those free agent pick ups. And if you watched the year that all 4 of those guys had, you would be quite reticent to hope for anything better in 2013. Bell looked done from the start of 2012, lost his job at least twice and appeared to be a shell of the closer we all saw in San Diego. Buehrle (sorry, had to scroll up and check that spelling again) was a JOKE signing. A .500 pitcher (and that’s all he ever has been over the last 7 seasons) who just eats up innings would NEVER get signed by me for 58 million dollars. He certainly would never appear on one of my fantasy teams with his penchant for avoiding the strike out. Josh Johnson, a guy who as always had so much talent and promise, really only did one thing well last season: he didn’t get hurt like he usually does. He was 8-14 last year. Yeah, can’t wait to throw another 13 mil at him in 2013 and just pray he doesn’t hit the DL again. And finally, Reyes is a good little player who also managed to do something he hadn’t done in a while: stay healthy for an entire season. He’s fast, he’ll always get you a bunch of steals, but EVERYONE who studies numbers knows that his .337 batting average in 2011 was an aberration. And if I were the owner I would be looking at the next 5 years of Jose Reyes with a concerning eye……..
So he blows the team up and starts over, as he should have. He started by firing his inept GM and VP. And then he somehow found buyers for all his under achieving and over paid players. Yesterday, I read an article where Mark Buehrle was crying about *being lied to* by the Marlins. Look, everyone in baseball knows the Marlins don’t do no-trade clauses. If Buehrle was so worried about this he should have signed somewhere else. That is 100% on him and his agent for failing to secure a no-trade. And to whine about being lied to makes him look that much more of a pussy.
Now, if Loria has no intention of fixing the mess in Miami and is just battening down the hatches of his brand new publicly funded stadium while he waits for the storm to pass and his money to roll in then so be it. If he is a scuzzy owner, he wouldn’t be the first.
But the Marlins did the right thing in getting rid of those players. And if the Marlin fans want their owner to follow through on a promise they might start by fulfilling THEIR promise and actually attend the baseball games that their team is playing……….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Jose Reyes is one thing, but Yunel Escobar is quite another. You still have to give fans a reason to come out and watch someone besides Stanton that might make them stick around after BP. This is a pretty tough division with Nats Braves and Phils; I realize if you can finish last and spend all that money with the guys in the trade you can certainly do the same without them for less $$$. It just seems like he could have gotten more for Johnson and Reyes by themselves.
Hey, the Warriors have gotten to the point of being watchable again, with a bunch of young guys that have some talent and grit inside and out. The injuries have led to new guys getting minutes and the results have been very encouraging, and the learning curve narrowed down a notch or two. And Jackson is coaching with some insights to what he has, how they match up and what they can do.
Loria is one of the “brilliant” lowlife scumbags in sports. The fans have a duty? No,they have a right to spend their entertaint bucks wherever the fuck they choose.to. As I pointed out before-the fans never returmed after “Citizen” Huizenga, mob tied Blockbuster mogul made the first :”brilliant” firesale, breaking up the ’97 championship team. Loria has previously brilliantly destroyed the Montreal Expos. He’s an art dealer, I think a prospective buyer of an 18th century masterpiece would be wise to check for wet paint..
Here’s an excellent column by th Washigton Post’s Thomas Boswell
http://tinyurl.com/c7zb4mj
I know everything about him. The link was unnecessary. My point of this thread is to support the decision to blow up the team. They were going no where with all those poorly purchased free agents from last year. And, as I already said, if he just shuts down spending and rakes in all the revenue sharing dough then that’s his right to do that and I agree already, he’s a scumbag as his history suggests. But people are getting so blinded by what an ass the guy is that they are missing the reality of the moves: they were the right moves to make.
IMO if the public funded number really is 2.4 billion then the fans did their part. I agree that if you lose 93 games then something has to change, most owners would have started with the GM or manager and not blow up the whole thing. They did get some good prospects out of the deal so in the end it may work out for them. They better hope so, because not allowing a no trade provision in their contracts I doubt any vets are going to sign with Miami now. Also, until that team starts to win, good luck getting fans in there whereas Fenway will still be sold out or close to it.
“And to whine about being lied to makes him look that much more of a pussy.”
Lol 🙂
As ugly as that park may look to me on TV, it’s a helluva lot better than that dump they used to play in. As bad as the Marlins ended up being this season, I figured they’d fire Guillen, hire a new guy and give their investment one more chance to pay off. One season is pretty damn quick. For Guillen to say what he did in a city full of Cuban expatriates was incredibly crass and set the tone for the pissy season to come.
Interesting perspective. I am casually aware of Loria’s history, but not enough to make an educated comment on whether or not his latest moves are good or not. On the surface, I was one who thought “WTF…this asshole should be forced to sell his franchise.”
I like John’s take on it, and think too that maybe he should have started with the GM and manager, but not necessarily dumping all the players.
But without knowing more about Loria or the Fish I do have strong feelings and that’s “Fuck the Fish.”
The troubles they have had getting asses in the seats, even when successful on the field, and now with a new yard and the high-profile players makes me question the validity of Miami as a viablle baseball town. Seriously, there have been times that I thought baseball might be stronger with some contraction, but that could be a thread of and to itself.
All I got to say is go Niners. I just rewatched game 5 of the LCS, only to turn on the 49er game to hear Joe Buck again. I think I just threw up in my mouth.
The book “Comeback Kings,” a book about the Giants 2012 championship season is not one that I would really recommend to Flappers. To the general public, sure, but Flappers will find little new material here. It’s mostly recycled material from sportswriters who are part of the Bay Area News Group, or something like that, whatever that is. Most of the stuff is from Alex Pavlovic, but there’s also a little bit of Carl Steward, Monte Poole, Tim Kawakami, and a few other people. It’s game articles and columns recycled from the season. A nice collection, in one sense, but not new material to anyone who followed the season closely. Still, if you have a Kindle, $3.99 is a nice price for a nice summary of the season, with some nice photos, some of them quite iconic.
And occasionally a new nugget jumps out at you. Like, for instance, I didn’t know that Pablo’s 3 homers in Game 1 of the World Series was the first time anyone had hit 3 HRs at AT&T since the very first regular season game there, when Kevin Elster of the Dodgers did it. Remember that day? After Elster did that, a lot of people were saying: “Wow, this park’s a bandbox, there’s gonna be a ton of homers hit here.”
Well, har de har, the joke was on everyone. Good joke, Elster. (grin)
Eventually, after Bonds had achieved the career HR record in a Giants uniform (for the few people who still cared about that record), Sabean was finally truly free to build an SF Giants team that fit the stadium, and of course, it has turned into the best of times in SF Giants history.
i was at that game. it sucked.
I was at that game, too..and concur…it SUCKED.
Doesn’t sound like it’s as good a read as “Band of Misfits.”
The big difference is that Baggs actually sat down and wrote a book about the 2010 season; he didn’t just publish a collection of his articles and columns from the season. It’s too soon for books like “Band of Misfits” about the 2012 season. The books out now about the 2012 season are “rush jobs.” Getting something quickly in print about the season.
Snarkk may have a beef with Pavlovic. In the introduction to the book, Pavlovic says “The 2010 season was a Band of Misfits; the 2012 season was a Band of Brothers.” Snarkk posted the exact same thing on the Flap.
Royalties! I want royalties!…
Gift touchdown to the Saints. Bad play by Guin, Jr. More bad decisions by punt returners.
Not sure what’s up with Alex Smith wearing his helmet on the sideline.
Zum, I thought the same darn thing. The whole game long…
yeah, that was weird. But the results are in, Kap passed the test. He did it on the road in front of an angry loud crowd and he actually made it look fairly easy. I was a Smith guy, and I still am, but it’s clear when you watch Kap that he’s moving the offense in a different, better way than Smith.
And at the end of the day, that’s all that JH cares about. Make the team better with the best player you have on the team…………..
My take was that he brought nothing different. receivers dropped balls, defense made plays, qb just had to manage the game. yawn.
I truly was on the fence with the QBs. As I said before, both have intangibles that the other does not. Hard to argue with Smith’s success – took the team to the Conference title game, which they could have won, no fault of Alex’s, and also has won 25 of his last 26 starts.
But, I do feel Kap has a bigger tool set, and I think at the end of the day he gives them a better chance to win. Agree with Flav – Harbaugh is going to go with the guy who he feels gives the team the best chance to win. I will be very surprised if Kap is not the guy rest of the way.
A full pickup load of storm debris, picked up and ready for large trash day (Tuesday). Kitchen floor laid and ready for new cabinets install (about a week before we finish those). A tiring weekend but a very happy Niner win is the icing (although, I must mention that a lot of my friends wore black and gold today). My thought on colors is, If you wear black the other color should be orange, if you wear gold, the other color should be red. A damn good weekend all around for the clown family.
Cheers Y’all.
Kyle Williams cost Alex Smith his job last January.
We’re left never knowing what would have happened in the Super Bowl. Maybe the Niners would have won it, or maybe they would have lost to New England 38-10.
Smith wearing his helmet on the sideline today was his “statement,” I guess. But he’s going to be the #2 guy for a while.
Smith’s last two games vs. NYG didn’t go well, and probably did a lot to cost him his job as James says. I didn’t see the loss this year and watch less of Niners than most of the rest here, but that loss had to hurt.
Kap made a couple nice plays where he avoided rush and completed a ball to an open teammate. But the defense scored 14 points by themselves and hassled Brees into a lot of underneath stuff. Plus they stuffed the run and tackled hard It was their game way more than Kaps, and I didn’t see much from Moss or Davis.
One thing I have noticed is that Akers and kicking game are a lot less reliable. JH is going to have to make an adjustment on red zone and longer FG situations about what plays he calls and when, because the 3 pts are no longer a gimme.
The two areas I feel need to be really tightened-up is the kick-off coverage, and stupid-ass penalties. There were penalties that ended drives yesterday, and took points off the board. Cannot continue to do that.
Colin plays differently than Alex, which does not mean better.Obviously Harbaugh has chosen Kap, whether it is the right decision is not known yet. They were going to the postseason with Smith- it’s there where Kap will have to prove he was the right choice. Despite ridiculous denials from Room B, it’s been made clear that the move was made because Coilin was the guy to take us farther than Alex. He should get a chance to prove it this year.Can he return punts, too?
As to why Alex wore his helmet, I’m sure there’s someone with that dime store degree who can clue us in. Maybe they can tell us why Harbaugh is still being a dickhead about this- calling fans droolers and saying we don’t care if they win or lose, being hostile to a press who have treated him like deity. He’s always been socially inept but never off the rails as he’s been since Alex went down.I’ll use my penny store degree- frankly, he demonsrtrates some classic bipolar symptoms-unpredictable mood swings,excessive happiness,with the Kap move it would be making grand and unattainable plans- im short, he’s nuts.
Nice pic for the countdown.
This went into complete non-formatted mode again. Is it only me?
Maybe it’s your computer.