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mark marlinsarechamps : Miami's Blue Period Who's still going to Marlins games? About half a block from Marlins Park, a hunchbacked...
Miami's Blue Period
Who's still going to Marlins games?

About half a block from Marlins Park, a hunchbacked stadium in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, a scalper named Shorty spoke in a stage whisper. "Need a single?" he asked.

I did.

"Give me 10 bucks," Shorty said, cupping a crumpled ticket in his hand.

Under normal circumstances, a scalper has the advantage in these encounters. Shorty would have massaged the market for that night's Mets-Marlins game before I even showed up. But I knew all about the Marlins. I knew they had the worst record in baseball. I knew Marlins Park had become an ocean of empty blue seats. I knew Giancarlo (né Mike) Stanton, the only superstar left after the Marlins' clearance sales, had strained his right hamstring the night before and was out for weeks. Stanton was being replaced in the lineup by a guy named Marcell Ozuna, who jumped straight from Double-A. Ten bucks?

I must have looked skeptical, because Shorty played up the illicitness of our transaction. He pulled me into a parking garage. "There's a cop over there," he said.

Let the cop come, I thought. If baseball tickets were narcotics, this thing in his hand would count as "trace amounts." It had next to no value.

"I got four bucks," I said.

Shorty took the money and vanished.

That was how I got into Marlins Park on April 30, for the first of two games. Four measly bucks put me in a seat on the lower level, a ways down the third-base line, without a seatmate on any side. It was a perfectly lonely place to think about what happens when Major League Baseball is played in front of nobody, about whether we should go to a stadium in such circumstances, and about the trickle-down effects such a decision has, in turn, on people ranging from the Marlins players to Shorty the scalper.

I was sipping a Diet Pepsi and eating a hot dog when I realized I'd forgotten to look at the actual price on my ticket to see what kind of bargain I'd gotten. I looked. It was … one dollar.

I had overpaid.

The emptiness of Marlins Park pulses through Little Havana like a Martian death ray. As I drove down Northwest Seventh Street, I followed the frantic signal of a man who directed me to turn on Northwest 14th Court. There, I was waved into the front yard of Ina Questa.

Ina had lived in her brown, cinder-block house since the stadium that loomed over her was the Orange Bowl. She had been directing cars into her front yard since the early 1970s. Back then, she charged $3 to park. Three dollars in 1972 is worth more than $16 today. However, these days, Ina can get only $10 from fans. Thanks to the Marlins' extreme suckiness, Ina's yard had not kept up with inflation.

Mercedes Hernandez lives across the street from Ina. She, too, took on cars during Marlins games. "Hay muy poco público," Mercedes said. She then launched into a rant about the team. I didn't catch all of it, but I heard her repeat the words el dueño — the owner, Jeffrey Loria.

Since the Marlins began to offload their stars last season, Ina and Mercedes had noticed two things. First, of course, there were fewer cars. Second, the drivers did whatever the hell they wanted to. I saw a man pull onto the street, ignore Mercedes's instructions, and park directly in the middle of her front lawn. The man handed her $10 and made for the stadium.

Inside, Marlins Park was empty in a patchy, disorganized way. Section 7, which is between the visitors' dugout and right field, was about two-thirds full. Section 8, which is closer to home, was completely full. But Sections 9 and 10, which were even closer to the plate, had only one-quarter of their seats filled with real, carbon-based life forms. (As with all struggling teams, there is a discrepancy between the Marlins' reported ticket sales and their actual attendance. In April, the official count was thrown into further dispute when a woman managed to smuggle in a live raccoon.)

It was the same at the concessions. Sir Pizza ("Good to the Very Edge!") had long lines. But the poor woman manning the popcorn refill station — where you apparently could not buy a bucket of popcorn, just get a refill — had balled up her fist and was banging the back of her head to stay awake.

The Marlins have dealt with emptiness since the beginning. The franchise played its first game in 1993 and had the lowest attendance in baseball for its first decade. It was not unusual to find crowds at the old Joe Robbie Stadium as paltry as the 15,018 reported to have showed up April 30. "If this big," said Jeff Conine, the former outfielder known as "Mr. Marlin," who's now an announcer and works in the team's front office.

"I never gave it a thought," Conine said. "Obviously, you play off the energy of a bigger crowd. But it didn't affect me at all." Conine did remember one weird thing about Joe Robbie: In the emptiness, you could hear an individual heckler's voice with amazing clarity. It was like you and the heckler were at the same café and he was two tables over.

"I'm a Dominican," a fan named George Feliz told me, "and when they opened this place all the Dominicans were excited." Indeed, Marlins Park, which was built with more than $500 million in public financing, opened last April with a bang. The team had signed free agents Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and — what was $27 million more? — Heath Bell. Ozzie Guillen was the manager, and the reality series The Franchise was chronicling the team's first season in the new park.

Then, the deluge. The Marlins struggled to sell tickets, the team sucked, and Guillen proclaimed his admiration for Fidel Castro. (The mayor who backed the stadium, Carlos Alvarez, had already been removed in a recall election.) The Marlins would dump Reyes, Bell, and Buehrle, along with Josh Johnson, Hanley Ramirez, John Buck, and Emilio Bonifacio. After the All-Star break, Marlins Park was as ghostly as Joe Robbie. I could find only two near-sellouts at the 37,442-seat venue this spring. The first was the Dominican Republic–U.S. game at the World Baseball Classic, which came up a few thousand short. The second was the televangelist Joel Osteen's "Night of Hope," which packed the joint.

"In Northwest Miami," George said, "we were buying Jose Reyes shirts, Bonifacio, Hanley. We were spending a hundred and something dollars! Now, we're stuck with the shirts." George pointed at his friend, who'd been watching our conversation silently. "Put it this way," George said. "He came from the Dominican Republic. We came here because he wants to see David Wright."

Marlins fans had a dilemma. They could protest Loria's stinginess, and their elected officials' complicity in the public financing, by staying home. "A lot of people are upset, so they're kind of boycotting," said James Grovetzian, who was hanging out at the big bar in center field. But since Marlins tickets were basically worthless — either through the secondary market or promotions from Pepsi, Chevron, and Subway that nearly matched Shorty's prices — you could argue that fans coming to the game didn't really fatten Loria's pocketbook. By this thinking, the superior form of protest was to show up and ignore the Marlins.

That's what Julio Mallea and Ramsey Abreu had figured. They'd gotten free tickets from a friend, had watched the Mets and Marlins go 1-2-3 in the first, and then hit the concourses. Ramsey said, "We came here to have a few beers and we couldn't care less about the game."

I noted that Julio was wearing a Marlins cap. "I'm a Mets fan," Julio insisted, "but I lost my hat." Sure.

The crowd around the bar in center — where the TVs were playing TNT's NBA pregame show — had been three deep last spring. Now, Julio and Ramsey could walk right up and grab a beer. They could admire the leggy female "beauty pageant" in the concourses, which seemed to have been unaffected by the lousiness of the team.

In other words, they could treat Marlins Park like Dolphin Mall. The baseball had an apocryphal quality, and even Loria had become indistinct, like a Bond villain from three movies ago. "I dunno," Julio said, "he collects art. Let him collect art and leave us alone." Julio nodded at the giant Red Grooms installation in center, which looks like Shamu had tried her hand at pop art. "How about that hideous monstrosity?" Julio said.

The entire upper deck, an usher told me, was closed that night — a decision the Marlins made official this week. I found myself staring across the expanses of blue seats toward Section 139, in right field. I could see one man there, sitting in the front row. The section rose behind him like a Plinko board.

His name was Jim Varsalone — perfect for a solitary soul. Mr. Varsalone had brought a can of Pepsi to the box office, which got him into the stadium for $5. "This is actually better than the end of last season," he told me. "Considering what Mr. Loria did, I expected a lot worse." Varsalone wore a fishing hat with the old, teal Marlins logo, blue jeans, and a cross necklace.

It was the bottom of the ninth inning — the previous eight had played in two hours flat — and the Mets were leading 1-0. Varsalone had been here the night before, when the game lasted 15 innings and more than five and a half hours. (Stanton had gotten hurt in extras.) By the end, the stadium was practically empty.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Marlins' Chris Coghlan led off with a pinch-hit single to left. Coghlan took second on a passed ball. The scoreboard said "Make Some Noise," and we remaining stragglers put up a pretty good effort. Juan Pierre bunted Coghlan to third and wound up safe at first himself.

The Mets brought out reliever Brandon Lyon, but the Potemkin franchise wouldn't be denied. Donovan Solano hit a single the other way, tying the game and moving Pierre to third. Lyon intentionally walked Placido Polanco — if you're looking to intentionally walk a Marlin, I guess Polanco fits the bill. With the bases loaded, and the tiny Marlins fan base screaming, Lyon's first pitch got by the catcher. Pierre slid into home with the winning run.

I was the only person in Section 139 available for Varsalone to high-five. "That's three in a row!" he yelled into the emptiness. "That's three in a row! I never thought I'd say this: We won three in a row!"

The next morning, Eric Dunkley was scalping tickets over on 17th Avenue. How's business? I asked. "Shitty," Eric said. "They sold the team, man." The street was empty but for a police car that had been optimistically assigned for traffic control. A fan in a Reds hat came by clutching a couple of tickets.

"Got any extras?" Eric asked.

"How much will you pay for 'em?" the man asked.

"Pay for 'em?" Eric said.

A Marlins scalper, I learned, doesn't pay for tickets. Or doesn't pay much. Eric, like my pal Shorty, buys tickets from the Marlins' website for the group-sales rate of $1 a piece. (This explained my absurdly cheap ticket from the night before.) Then the scalper tries to flip them.

The customer is quoted an initial figure of $10. But the scalper will always take $5. By the start of the game, he will take anything so he doesn't have to eat the tickets and lose money on the bus fare back home. "Ten bucks is about as much as you can get," Eric said. "Even behind the plate. That really sucks." For Osteen's "Night of Hope," however, Eric got as much as $40 per ticket.

Besides Heat games, where it costs $150 to walk in the door (more for playoffs), Miami has turned into a scalping sewer. The Dolphins were bad business unless they were playing the Patriots. According to Eric, he'd been flying north to scalp Florida State games on Saturdays and Tampa Bay games on Sundays. The North Florida twofer could net him a couple thousand — that is, in pure profit. Of course, he had to shell out for the plane flights and $70 for a room at the HoJo.

Only tourists fell for the Marlins hustle. They — or me, the night before — would find themselves outside a new major league park and think $10 was a reasonable asking price. "If you get an out-of-towner," Eric told me, "you can get you something."

Albert Taylor, another scalper, walked up looking triumphant. Taylor had just unloaded his tickets to a sap near the Marlins' box office for — he claimed — $10 to $15 each. The box office was where the customers were, Albert said. The problem was, it was surrounded by cops. Eric headed off that way and tried to look nonchalant. "You gotta look like a fan," Albert told me. He smiled to reveal a mouthful of gold teeth.

With the Marlins, scalping had become a democratized business. While Albert and I were waiting to see how Eric made out, I met a boy named Leslie who was 16 years old but barely looked 12. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I sell tickets, too," Leslie said.

A man in a Heat jersey wandered over to dump an extra ticket. "I paid $40 for behind the dugout," he told Leslie. "Give me 10 right now."

"Two bucks," Leslie said.

The man grimaced and his face got red. "I'm from the Bronx," he snarled. "Don't talk to me like that."

A few minutes later, the man wandered back over and looked at Leslie. "Five bucks," he said.

Leslie looked away.

The man felt like a sap. "This owner should be shot," he told me. "Look at that beautiful stadium. Cheap bastard."

He looked again at Leslie. "Kid, I'm taking you for free. Come on. You made me feel bad." I saw Leslie and the man walk into the stadium and ride up the escalator together. The man had been whipped in the negotiation but had consoled himself with a write-off.

Albert and I discovered Eric near the box office. He'd found a mark: A thirtyish guy with two elderly relatives. He was the kind of guy who might not know the arid nature of the Marlins ticket market. The kind of guy who didn't want a lot of messy haggling in front of his loved ones. "How much?" the guy asked as he looked over the worthless tickets.

"Twenty each," Eric said optimistically.

The man gave Eric $60 bucks. Eric tried to stifle a grin.

I still needed a ticket. About that time, a man named Corey Sticco approached me. Corey had an extra. It was in Section 15 — lower level, directly behind the plate. Corey did not ask for money. He handed the ticket to me and we walked into Marlins Park together.

My scalping tally: two Marlins games. Two lower-level seats, including a one-in-a-lifetime seat behind the plate. Four bucks. Which seemed about right.

David Samson, the Marlins president, came down to Section 15 after a few innings. Samson, who is Loria's stepson, is a small, thin marathoner. His shirt was unbuttoned and he was unshaven, like one of the guys hanging in The Clevelander, the club in left field. Samson noted that he had not gone into hiding. "I don't sit at home in the fetal position sucking my thumb," he said.

It was Weather Day, where Miami schoolkids filed into the ballpark and listened to meteorologists lecture about hurricanes and other deadly forces. To continue the theme, the students stayed to watch the Marlins. "Weather Day is my least favorite day because of the foul balls," Samson said nervously. "Look at this kid right here." A kid from Citrus Grove Middle School was turned around in his seat, talking to some friends behind him. "No one's paying attention."

"Do you get emotional when you see empty seats?" I asked Samson.

"No, I'm not very emotional at all," he said. "My wife would change that about me if she could change one thing. No, it makes me work harder."

Samson had been roaming the concourses, talking to any Marlins fan who stopped him. (No one yelled, he said; true hate only came from "cyber courage.") Samson's message was delicate. No Marlins fan was going to be persuaded that dumping the team's stars, especially right after the new stadium was built, had been a noble act. So Samson had given that up right away. "I'm not trying to change their mind," he said. "I'm not even trying to have people understand."1

What Samson was trying to sell was the virtues of an empty stadium. He remembered going to Yankee Stadium during the lean years of the 1980s, when he regularly got in for 10 bucks. You didn't have to like the regime to like the access. Similarly, Samson wanted to decouple Marlins Park, which nearly everyone liked, from the Marlins owners, whom everyone hated.

Although Samson did not put it this way, he was trying to perform an exorcism on the park.

"I'm trying to make it OK to come to the ballpark and have a memory with your child," he said.

It is an opportunity, I admitted, thinking about my two seats.

"Right," Samson said, "because it's fun. That's what makes me feel the worst, if anyone's not coming because of me."

I wanted to watch the final inning of Marlins vs. Mets alone. It seemed appropriate. I made my way to Section 141, in right field, where there wasn't a single Miami bro waving for the T-shirt gun or schoolkid singing along to "Call Me Maybe." I sat there in a blue seat, without company, while the Marlins recorded their last three outs.

I thought of Ina and Mercedes, Mr. Varsalone, Eric and Shorty, and even David Samson. What a strange corner of baseball they inhabited. They are Marlins people, united by a communal experience that nobody else showed up for.
8 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

mark marlinsarechamps : Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross Are Nothing Like Marlins, Jeffrey Loria There are similarities between the...
Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross Are Nothing Like Marlins, Jeffrey Loria
There are similarities between the Miami Dolphins and MLB's Miami Marlins.

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria was able to acquire public funds to finance Marlins Park. Last year, Miami's baseball team unveiled a new logo and went on to sign multiple big-name free agents such as Jose Reyes and Heath Bell.

Sound familiar?

The Miami Dolphins are seeking public funding to renovate Sun Life Stadium (per Toluse Olorunnipa and Adam Beasley of The Miami Herald), have unveiled a new logo (per the Herald's Beasley) and are making a splash in free agency.

While uninformed fans are crying that history repeats itself, this is where the likeness ends.

The Dolphins and the Marlins are nothing alike, and it starts at the top.

According to Forbes, Stephen Ross is worth $4.4 billion. In Forbes' ranking of "Richest Sports Owners," which includes all major sports in the world, Ross is ranked 14th. As far as the NFL is concerned, only the Seattle Seahawks' Paul Allen (No. 3: $15 billion) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Malcolm Glazer (No. 13: $4.4 billion) were ranked ahead of him. The Miami Heat's Micky Arison ranked 10th with a net worth of $5.7 billion.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Loria is worth $500 million.

The point is that the Dolphins are a passion for Ross, where money is not a concern. The Marlins are Loria's livelihood. As a fan, you never want your team's owner to need a profit.

Arison doesn't mind paying a luxury tax every year, and Ross would pay one if the NFL would allow him. Labeled as one of the greediest sports owners by ESPN, Loria would never choose winning over profiting.

Loria told Miami citizens that if they agreed to pay for a new stadium, he would hold up his end of the bargain by maintaining a high payroll. That lasted half a season, a disgrace that Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado equated to a rape of the city.

Ross has tried desperately to improve his team by attempting to lure Jim Harbaugh, Jeff Fisher and Peyton Manning. This year, he reeled in Mike Wallace. He hasn't found continued success yet, but he will continue to try.

There will be no sell-off for the Dolphins because the NFL has minimum spending requirements and, again, it is not in Ross' nature to do such a thing.

Miami is fortunate to have Stephen Ross and Micky Arison.

Hopefully, Loria will sell the Marlins soon.

In contrast to the 2012 Miami Marlins, the 2013 Miami Dolphins will win.
8 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

Ehsan Kassim :

Arizona Diamondbacks @ Miami Marlins Series Preview: Heath Bell is the Closer, Run For Your Lives
The Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks will kick off a three game series later today in Miami. To preview the series between the second place Diamondbacks and the last place Marlins, I had an email chat with Tom Lynch, a staff writer on Venom Strikes, the Fansided D-Backs site. Venom Strikes has to be one [...]
8 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

Andy Schmidt :

Arizona Diamondbacks Should Make Matt Reynolds Temporary Closer

The Arizona Diamondbacks are surprising some people so far this season with a 21-17 record going into Monday’s play. Arizona lost their closer in J.J. Putz recently and saw how ineffective Heath Bell can be when he blew the save on Sunday. I think the way to go would be with Matt Reynolds. He may [...]

12 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

Eric Sprecher : An article I wrote about Heath Bell. #arizonadiamondbacks #fantasybaseball #MLB
An article I wrote about Heath Bell. #arizonadiamondbacks #fantasybaseball #MLB
Saint Heath - Disciple of Blown Saves
Now before I get into the article, I made the title not because I can't stand Hea- Wait. No, I did it because I really can't stand Heath Bell. I'm not going to lie, I'm one of the 60 Miami Marlins...
14 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

mark marlinsarechamps : There's nothing fishy about the Miami Marlins' implosion It's easy to pinpoint why Miami began a weekend...
There's nothing fishy about the Miami Marlins' implosion
It's easy to pinpoint why Miami began a weekend series against Dodgers with the NL's worst record. A year after it spent big and flopped, the roster was gutted.

This weekend's series between the Dodgers and the Miami Marlins matches last-place teams that took wildly divergent routes to the cellar.

New Dodgers ownership splurged for a star-studded roster and the highest payroll in baseball — a $230-million collection of talent that has produced the worst record in the National League West. And yet the Dodgers, despite a 13-20 record before Friday, lead the major leagues in attendance.

Meanwhile, after loading up on high-priced free agents to attract fans to his team's new ballpark in 2012, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria gutted his roster by season's end. The starless Marlins arrived at Dodger Stadium with a 10-25 record, the worst in the National League.

"New ballpark, new players, spent a lot of money and we just didn't play well," Larry Beinfest, the Marlins' president of baseball operations, said this week. "It didn't look like it was going to turn around so we made some tough decisions."

The backlash in Miami has been predictable.

Marlins fans, irate at Loria, have stayed away from $634-million Marlins Park, which reportedly will cost taxpayers $2 billion over the next 40 years.

After drawing 2.2 million fans last season, the Marlins have averaged fewer than 19,000 a game, last in the NL. Sales of season tickets reportedly dropped from 12,000 to 5,000. On Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported that the upper bowl of the stadium would be closed for some weeknight games.

Requests to interview Loria and team President David Samson, Loria's stepson, for this story were declined through a representative of a public relations firm.

As he watched players stretch before a game this week against the Padres in San Diego, Beinfest acknowledged the criticism that has been heaped upon the franchise.

"We understand some of the disdain right now," he said.

But Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett, who started his career with the Marlins and starred in their 2003 World Series championship run, does not question Loria's desire to win.

"Trust me, Jeffrey Loria does not want to lose," Beckett said. "I know him very, very well. He's not that kind of guy. I think if he knew he could win he would spend as much money as he had to. I really believe that."

Many fans, apparently, do not.

During their inaugural season in 1993, the Florida Marlins drew three million fans to Joe Robbie Stadium. Before last season, they had eclipsed the two-million mark only one other time — and that was 16 years ago.

In 1997, a team led by manager Jim Leyland drew 2.4 million fans en route to winning the World Series.

Original owner Wayne Huizenga sold the team to John Henry in 1999. Three years later, Loria, owner of the Montreal Expos, bought the Marlins as part of transactions that included Henry buying the Boston Red Sox.

In 2003, manager Jeff Torborg was fired after a slow start and Jack McKeon guided the Marlins to their second World Series title. The Marlins, however, ranked 28th among 30 major league teams in attendance that year.

The Marlins ranked last in the league 2011, but hopes nevertheless were high for a team that changed its affiliation from Florida to Miami for the 2012 season.

With its retractable-roof, air-conditioned stadium set to open, the Marlins went on a spending spree, bringing in manager Ozzie Guillen and high-priced free agents such as shortstop Jose Reyes and pitchers Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle.

But the Marlins stumbled on and off the field almost from the start. Guillen incensed the team's Cuban fan base when he was quoted in a Time magazine story saying "I love Fidel Castro" and other remarks.
14 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

mark marlinsarechamps : Core Values: Miami Marlins Cornerstone players: Now with Blue Jays Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh...
Core Values: Miami Marlins

Cornerstone players: Now with Blue Jays

Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson now play north of the border. What remains is a team full of players either set to be free agents after this season, arbitration-eligible players, pre-arbitration players and Jeff Mathis. The only money on the books for 2014 is $4 million of now-Diamondbacks reliever Heath Bell's salary and $1.5 million to Mathis. For 2015, there is no money on the books as things currently stand.

If you wanted to say the highest-salaried player should go here, we could list Ricky Nolasco. He's set to make $11.5 million this season before hitting free agency, but there's about a zero percent chance the Marlins retain him. He's a good bet to be dealt this season, anyway.

Face of the Franchise: Giancarlo Stanton

I guess I could have put owner Jeffrey Loria here, considering that when people think of the Marlins he's obviously part of the conscious equation. But I'd rather stay positive in this section and get to Loria later (and I will, don't worry). Stanton is one of the brightest young stars in the majors. In fact, he might be underappreciated.

Consider that Stanton clubbed 37 home runs last season despite being limited by injury to 123 games and playing his home games in a pitcher-friendly park. He led the majors with a .608 slugging percentage. This guy is the best pure power hitter in baseball. And there's more where that came from.

Face of the future: Stanton

Stanton turned 23 in November, so he's actually younger than many minor leaguers. Just because he has been around for three seasons don't discount how much more time he has to improve even further. And what he has done so far is nothing short of amazing.

Guess how many players in baseball history have ever hit at least 90 homers through their age-22 season? Just eight: Mel Ott (115), Eddie Mathews (112), Alex Rodriguez (106), Tony Conigliaro (104), Frank Robinson (98), Stanton (93), Ted Williams (91) and Bob Horner (91). Injuries have cost Stanton, too, because only Horner on that list had fewer plate appearances than Stanton's 1,498; everyone else had at least 1,874. If Stanton gathered even 300 more plate appearances, it's reasonable to think he might have challenged Ott for the top of that list.

So we could be looking at an all-time great slugger, just as Ott, Mathews, A-Rod, Robinson and Williams would become. Fortunately for Marlins fans, Stanton doesn't become a free agent until after the 2016 season.

Marlins' core value: D

If we were going to say that the core was basically only Stanton, it would be an A. It's just that it takes a lot more than that to win, and the Marlins don't have much more concrete to count on moving forward. As things stand, Stanton's the reason the Marlins don't get an F.

It's possible that the likes of well-regarded prospects Jose Fernandez, Christian Yelich, Andrew Heaney and Jake Marisnick pan out and help take the Marlins to the next level. It's possible we'll see young big-leaguers Adeiny Hechavarria, Logan Morrison, Nate Eovaldi and Jacob Turner develop into good players on a contending team. We just don't know. It hasn't been proven.

Plus, what if all these guys become good players and penny-pinching owner Jeffrey Loria isn't getting enough of a draw at the gate? Does he deal them for minor leaguers and repeat the cycle? The purpose of our "core" series is partially to see how each ballclub will look five years from now. With the Marlins, we have no idea what's real. Stanton might even be gone by then.

If the Marlins really wanted to prove they are actually trying to win with the prospects they just traded for, they could try to lock up Stanton to a long-term deal -- much like the Brewers have done with Ryan Braun, the Pirates have done with Andrew McCutchen, the Rays have done with Evan Longoria and even the Royals have done with Salvador Perez (though Stanton would cost a ton more at this point). Until that happens, I simply refuse to believe they care much about the on-field product. And that's such a shame.
15 days ago - Via Google+ - View -

mark marlinsarechamps : Do the Miami Marlins Have a Front Office Rift? With the disappointing Miami Marlins season coming to...
Do the Miami Marlins Have a Front Office Rift?

With the disappointing Miami Marlins season coming to a close, there is a lot of discussion about the potential offseason turmoil within the organization. Much of the discussion right now seems to be about manager Ozzie Guillen, whose job is seemingly threatened (but should not be), but it seems as though the Marlins are more likely to make moves with the front office rather than with their manager.

CBS Sports's Jon Heyman reported as much in his latest piece, though he mentions also that, because the Marlins may not have as much money to work with as before, they may choose only to shake up the managerial front. But what was more interesting in Heyman's piece is not the speculation about a Guillen firing, but rather the speculation regarding the front office and a potential rift between two different sides.

Rival teams have noted a bit of a split in Miami with [assistant general manager Dan Jennings] lining up with [owner Jeffrey Loria], and [president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest] and GM Michael Hill appearing to be more aligned with club president David Samson. At times to outsiders, it's looked like they've suffered from the "too many cooks'' syndrome (for instance, Loria and Jennings wanted to go for Prince Fielder after Albert Pujols turned them down, but Samson rejected that idea) .

As the Miami Marlins' front office dealings are often shrouded in media silence, we do not often get a view of just what goes on behind closed doors. This is partly why this particular rumor seems so fascinating. For years, Marlins fans have accepted that the organization is not a forward-thinking one and seems to stay rooted in its old-school analysis ways. The more you look at their moves, the more your realize that this franchise's brass at the top may fall behind in the ways that other teams are embracing. And recently, it has surfaced that Jennings, a man with a fellow scouting background akin to Beinfest's, is potentially more open to more advanced statistical analysis penetrating the Marlins.

At the same time, Marlins fans know that Jeffrey Loria, a man who does not have neither the scouting background of a Beinfest or Jennings nor the analytic background of anything other than the value of art pieces, tends to be more involved in the front office process than necessary. So to hear that a rift between Loria and the established front office is not surprising. To hear that Dan Jennings sides with Loria perhaps is.

"Loria" Moves
We cannot be certain just what moves were designed with Loria in mind and what moves were more independently produced by the current front office regime. One prime example of what is generally considered a "Loria" move is the signing of Heath Bell, a player most fans believe Loria coveted for some time before getting his chance in 2012. Even before Bell's disastrous season, it was clear signing the 34 year-old closer to a three-year contract was a mistake, and most fans likely credit Loria with that error.

What throws the monkey wrench into the plans of 2013 and beyond is that the Marlins' potential future successor to baseball operations, Jennings, is apparently siding with Loria in terms of moves. Of course, we do not know to what extent Jennings is on Loria's side, but given what we know about Loria's baseball decision-making based on moves such as the Bell signing, it cannot be the "right" side on which to reside.

The Prince Fielder Example

Fielder is another seemingly obvious example of a Loria move. As per Heyman's article, the Marlins were torn on pursuing Prince Fielder following Albert Pujols's rejection. When you hear a big name like Fielder attached to the Marlins, you have a gut feeling Loria pushed for it, as he was likely still looking to "make a splash" in the free agent market. What is disturbing is that Jennings seemingly supported the move. One look at Fielder's current batting line of .305/.404/.518 (.390 wOBA) makes you think it would have been a good move, but when you glance at the price tag (nine years and $214 million) makes you think otherwise.

But on the opposite side appears to be David Samson and the heads of the current front office, erring in the correct side in rejecting pursuing Fielder. Samson was noted for saying multiple times during the offseason that Fielder was not on the team's radar, so you know he was likely against the move. The fact that the Marlins were never seen as competitors for Fielder also makes it seem like Beinfest and company were not interested. The now much-maligned front office had made the right decision to pass on Fielder.

Whose Side Are You On?

Presuming this is true (and of course, this is all hearsay reported by one writer), it leaves Marlins fans with a conundrum to consider. Yes, the front office is slow to move to better analytic tools, and in that respect it is a dinosaur that is heading towards extinction in the industry. Why should the Marlins be stuck with a dying breed of front office thinkers when it could move towards the future by supposedly promoting one of their own? Following a tough season for which Beinfest, Hill, and the rest of their "camp" is not entirely to blame, what better time than now to move forward?

At the same time, perhaps David Samson served as a bridge in the organization between the tempestuous owner and the more reasonable front office. Perhaps a move to Jennings, who is seemingly on the side of said tempestuous owner, would remove Samson as a bridge and a filter and leave Loria too close to the top of the decision-making structure. Would you want Loria, an owner who is already considered to be too "hands-on," that capable of affecting team personnel moves by having his "side" on top of the structure? Would you want Loria essentially fully running this team without an outside voice filter?

Of course, both of these scenarios presume the worst of the potential truth that Heyman reports. We could be speculating about things that are not even close to reality. But neither decision, at its extremes, seems all that appealing to me.
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Billy Brost : Friday's Fantasy Baseball Advice
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How You Doin’? Your Daily Fantasy Baseball Advice
At the plate, on deck, and in the hole: If you find yourself on the outside looking in after a rash of injuries to closers, and missed out on Boston's Tazawa, Chicago's Gregg, or Arizona's Heath Bell, you can go a little bit deeper and make a speculative add in the form of St. Louis…
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Heath Bell turns to mom for help after save
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Heath Bell Comes Through In Emergency Situation For Arizona ...
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Heath Bell - Arizona Diamondbacks - 2013 Player Profile - Rotoworld.com

Heath Bell 2013 player profile, game log, season stats, career stats, recent news If you play fantasy sports, get breaking news and immerse yourself in the ultimate fan experience.
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Juan Otero : Dbacks win another series against the Dudgers and 14 of the last 17 games!! Talk about dominance
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