Tigers nearing deal to get Cabrera and Willis

Jeffrey Loria needs to be fired. And to the remark earlier about Willis not being that good, last year was his worst year and it was because the middle relievers couldn't hold a lead and the offense was sluggish when they got behind. Angels were offering 4 prospects for Cabrera.

And you can officially say goodbye to the 2003 World Champion Florida Marlins, and say hello to the "Detroit" Marlins.

Edgar Renterria
Pudge Rodriquez
Gary Sheffield
Todd Jones
Miguel Cabrera
Dontrelle Willis
Denny Bautista
Nate Robertson


Now who plays 3rd for the fish, because we know management won't sign anyone this offseason unless it's aaron boone, I guess right now that's a hope.

 

I don't necessarily disagree, but there really wasn't any point to Willis and Cabrera remaining in Florida. Both were getting closer to free agency, and the Marlins aren't contending in the next couple of years regardless. But if Loria doesn't deserve his team, Miami doesn't deserve it either.

Willis' strand rate was 70%, which is pretty average, so he wasn't being victimized by relievers letting him down. The real problem is that he's walking a shitload of people while he's never been much of a strikeout pitcher. He's got to keep his BB/9 under 3 to be effective, and he was at 3.81 last season.

Quality matters a lot more than quantity, and again, Maybin is a lot better than anyone else they were being offered.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE: First Jeff Loria killed les Expos, he's now doing the same to the Marlins !!!! MLB should've never let this guy own a MLB franchise. I mean, how can you make tons of money selling really expensive art to wealthy individuals? This guy makes George Shinn look like a billionaire!!!!!!!

Obviously, he doesn't have enough deep pockets to pay the few stars this team does have. Yeah, yeah things will get better I-F they ever get their new ballpark built at the Orange Bowl. But in the mean time, he should try to hold on to the few good players he has as a good faith gesture to the few Marlins fans left to show that he at least wants to put a half way competitive team on there.

At this point, the Marlins should just go ahead and leave Dolphin Stadium and play at U. of Miami Ballpark. I'll bet you their crowds hit the 10-12,000 per game level next year. Either they get a new ballpark or they move to Portland or Las Vegas.

 

how?

They make around 60 million from various areas even before selling one ticket. They'll have a 7 million dollar payroll this year. MLB people go around and defend it as some wonderful method to win two world series championships, while complaining about their stadium issue at the same time.

 

Don't even get me started on Loria and Girardi. How Loria handled that situation is ridiculous.

 

Now, yes, but revenues have only been that high the last couple of years. Also, you forget that payroll is far from the only expense in running a big league team. Yes, Loria is going to bring home a profit and the other owners should take some steps to prevent him from being a complete cheapskate, but the Cabrera/Willis deal makes sense regardless of who the owner is.

Come on. Name me one boss on the planet who would let an employee tell him to "shut the fuck up" in public and not fire the guy. Girardi unquestionably brought that on himself.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE: ITS ALL ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE!!!!

Marlins' moves all about profit, not product

Posted on Thu, Dec. 06,

BY GREG COTE
[email protected]

Start by correcting the misconception set afloat to justify the Marlins' latest gut-punch to their fans: That ownership, because of the continuing lack of a new stadium, could not ''afford'' to keep Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

That's rich!

Nearly as rich as the Marlins' ownership, actually.

Believe none of the notion that this franchise is losing money either because it has failed to realize a retractable-dome park or because attendance plays the sad caboose on the big-league train.

Owner Jeffrey Loria and son-in-law/club president David Samson absolutely could have afforded to keep Cabrera and Willis at least for this season and perhaps beyond.

It's just that they couldn't keep both and continue to enjoy the same extremely healthy profit margin.

For this franchise that, not winning, is the perpetual bottom line. Other clubs spend big money to get better. This one trades big salaries to keep the wallet fatter.

That is what makes this week's eight-player deal -- Cabrera and Willis to the Tigers for six prospects -- another sad day for Florida and its beleaguered fans.

It's all about money. Again.

Not product, but profit. Again.

Marlins owners have at least $60 million in income built-in each year, from revenue sharing and national and local television contracts. That's before you include other streams of revenue such as corporate sponsorships and ticket sales.

You know what the club's MLB-low payroll will be this season? It is expected to be between $10 million and $15 million, for a roster that will be utterly bereft of veteran clubhouse leadership. Include as many nonpayroll expenses as you'd like. It still adds up to Team Loria making a lot of money even when a lonely few thousand fans are rattling around on a Wednesday night against the Royals.

UNDESERVING

Marlins fans do not deserve to be made fun of, incidentally. The team's hard-core fan base of 10,000 or so stalwarts might qualify as the best fans we have down here in any sport, given all of the fire sales and restarts they've been put through and all of the favorite players they've watched depart. Local TV ratings for Marlins games suggest a broad interest even if crowds are small.

But how can an ownership expect much more -- like a stadium more filled more often -- when incessantly low payrolls and roster upheaval reflect a franchise not doing enough to hold onto its best, most popular players? And thus not doing enough to hold onto its fans?

The small-market Marlins will never compete on a spending scale with the crazy Yankees or Red Sox or even the Dodgers or now Tigers. Not even close. Not even with that dreamed-of and forever-delayed new ballpark.

Even as is, though -- small market, bad stadium deal, low attendance, all of it -- a team salary that sinks well below $20 million is thoroughly unnecessary, an insult to fans, an embarrassment. You say baseball needs a salary cap? It might need a salary floor just as much.

Call it the Loria Rule.

Because on a scale of silly, whatever the Yankees are spending is no more ridiculous than Florida slicing its payroll to near $10 million. The Marlins get a fair amount of credit for making smart deals and ''living within their means.'' I'd argue they are living way below their means.

But for the owner's notorious penny-pinching, the Marlins could afford to drastically increase the payroll and still turn a fair profit. The club can surely afford to keep at least one superstar-salaried player around whom to build.

It might have been Josh Beckett.

It could have been Cabrera.

It should be Hanley Ramirez next, unless the same cycle of shame keeps turning and he, too, is traded in his prime, just as his salary begins to reflect his talent and worth. (Anybody doubt such a happenstance?)

It has to be somebody worth spending on to keep. There has to be an end-game here, a plan that doesn't revolve around constant turnover to buy young, cheap labor.

JUSTIFICATION

The problem is that the Marlins can claim to justify their course by pointing to the two World Series championships in only 15 years' existence, the latter, in 2003, with a team of young guys that blossomed en masse prior to then being sold piece-meal.

The club happens to have, in Larry Beinfest, the perfect general manager for the Scrooge-like Loria, a talent-finder adept at identifying guys who'll be very good in a few years and buying them cheap.

He might have done the same in this week's deal, especially in acquiring left-handed pitcher Andrew Miller, 22, who is supposed to be special, and center fielder Cameron Maybin, 20, a five-tool player who also fills a big position need.

Miller, if he develops as advertised, could more than compensate for the loss of Willis. Maybin, if his potential is realized, could be Ramirez-like in his ability to do everything well. If one or two of those other four prospects turn into anything this trade may well look better when reflected upon in, say, 2010 than it does today.

The problem is that Florida has turned itself into a farm team for other franchises, and that is what lends an unavoidably depressing note to this latest deal.

A local fan who imagines Miller or Maybin will turn into superstars must in turn lament which lucky team will have them next when they get good enough for the cheap Marlins to inevitably trade.

 

It's not about whether or not the Marlins could afford Willis and Cabrera, it's about whether or not those two were worth paying. In those conditions, they weren't. Just as it makes no sense for a terrible team to pay Alex Rodriguez (since they'd still be terrible), it made no sense for the Marlins to give big contract extensions to Willis and Cabrera. I normally detest Baseball Prospectus, but they did a quality article on spending utility where they examined exactly this point (well before this trade) and talked about how it makes no sense for small market teams who aren't ready to win yet to give big contracts to players. Instead it's best to prepare for a window where your collection of players might peak at the same time, giving you your best chance to be competitive.

Make no mistake, I'm not defending Loria, and personally I'd love to see a new rule put in that no money gained from revenue sharing can be kept as profit. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to keep Cabrera and Willis on a team that's not going to be competitive for a while. And by dealing them now, they got one of the best hitting prospects in the game and one of the best pitching prospects. From a purely baseball standpoint, this deal makes sense.