Thursday, July 26, 2012

HBT: Trading Hanley is latest insult to Marlins fans

I tell ya, I woulda lost money if I had bet on the Marlins at the beginning of the season. No, not because they have failed to be a championship team. Rather, because I would have given them at least a year before the sell-off began, not less than four months.

Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante were traded. Hanley Ramirez is gone. Josh Johnson is being shopped (more on this in a few minutes). All of these may very well end up being wise baseball moves at some point down the road, but coming as they do after all of the money spent to benefit Jeff Loria and the Marlins by Miami taxpayers, all of the hype Loria created and basically demanded and all of the fan attention that, reluctantly, after years of having their hopes crushed by a penny pinching owner, was given to this team, this sell-off is an insult to Marlins fans.

This truly is remarkable. Between 2004 and 2011, the Marlins averaged the lowest payroll in all of baseball. Then they are handed a sweetheart deal on a new stadium, get everyone?s hopes up for the first time in nearly a decade and ? after three-plus months, 40% of the rotation, the second baseman, the third baseman and possibly the closer are out the door. ?On a team that can more accurately be described as underperforming as opposed to fatally-flawed. A team that, if the roster they had three days ago was kept together, could reasonably be expected to play better baseball in the second half and into next season but now won?t get to.

Someone, somewhere, explain to me why anyone in Miami should give a flying fish about the Marlins? ?What possible reason should any baseball fan in south Florida have for giving a dime to a team run by Jeff Loria?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/25/after-less-than-four-months-the-marlins-revert-to-their-old-ways/related/

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