Are you surprised? We’re not. In fact, we’re so unsurprised that it took a six pack of beer and a half-pint of Jameson to write this article.
Miami finished 69-93 this season, last in the NL East, again, to no one’s surprise. After the first half didn’t go well for them, Owner Jeffrey Loria and General Manager Michael Hill took the easy way out, and sent everyone packing. Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers, Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to Detroit and some other less recognizable bums to less recognizable teams. On Sunday, they traded Heath Bell to the Diamondbacks for Yordy Cabrera.
Before the season began it seemed as though Marlins management was willing to spend the big bucks to make things happen for their new-look ball club. They even built a new stadium which ironically was rarely full.
Making these moves showed that Loria and club president David Samson are indeed idiots. It makes no sense to bail on a team half way through a single season. Yet, that is exactly what they did. They seemed so concerned with wiping the crap off their faces that they accidentally smeared the crap all over the ball field. And now, all that’s left on the field is crap.
In 2013, the Marlins will boast an overpaid, fat first basemen in Carlos Lee (if they decide to keep him), and one decent starting pitcher in Mark Buehrle. Sure, there’s Jose Reyes and Giancarlo Stanton, but with the departure of Ramirez, and Infante, they have no second basemen, and no third basemen. Way to go, jerks.
Perhaps after the first-half attendance tally reared its ugly head, management felt they wouldn’t be able to pay for their roster. Perhaps they realized that they looked like a bunch of idiots and decided the best way to cope was to trade everyone and start fresh. Whatever they thought, the end result is that they no longer have a core group of players to build around.
To make matters worse, they fired Ozzie Guillen, who really isn’t a bad manager, after a quick look at his numbers.
In 8 years with the White Sox, Guillen compiled a win-loss record of 678-617. Add to that a World Series Championship and 5 seasons with a record above a .500 win percentage. Baseball is a game of bottom lines, and the bottom line on Guillen is that he has won more games than lost, and he did it (for the most part) without superstars.
Like Bobby Valentine in Boston, Ozzie Guillen was chased out of town due to the ineptitude of his owners/players. Rest assured, Guillen will find an organization where he will be allowed to be an epic jerk, but more importantly win games, as he has done throughout his career.
Who knows how the Marlins would have finished had ownership not jumped ship and traded the core of their team.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com
