Which team would you rather root for?
Team Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total Wins
Team A: 85-77 85-77 85-77 85-77 85-77 425
Team B: 97-65 97-65 97-65 65-97 65-97 421
Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria understands that pennants fly forever, which is why he prefers option 2. That's the only way to explain his recent Christmas shopping binge for shortstop Jose Reyes, closer Heath Bell and starter Mark Buehrle at the low-low price of $191 million, and his offer to leverage all of South Beach for first baseman Albert Pujols.
Loria is trying to recreate the binge and purge Marlins of 1997 and 2003, who won the World Series with gargantuan payrolls that were promptly jettisoned. During that same period, the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros had consistently good teams at reasonable prices, but nothing to show for it.
On the face of it, these contracts are all too rich for too long. Miami will be paying Mark Buehrle ace money ($14.5 million/year) until he's 37. The six year, $106 million contract for Jose Reyes covers at least four DL stints. Giving any closer not named Mariano three years is folly, particularly one coming off a 34% dip in his strikeout rate.
What's really folly, though, is worrying about your team's record in five years when there's a World Series to be won the very next season. With Reyes scampering and Pujols, Mike Stanton & Hanley Ramirez swatting big flies, the Marlins will offer fans at their new downtown ballpark a wholesome helping of runs to back a rotation of Josh Johnson, Buehrle, Anibel Sanchez, Javier Vazquez and Ricky Nolasco, along with Bell in the pen.
There are plenty of question marks in that starting staff; most notably, Johnson, the ace, missed most of 2011 with shoulder issues; Vazquez finished the season as Dr. Jekyll (8-3, 2.15) after a first half of Mr. Hyde-your-eyes (5-8, 5.23). But what team doesn't have mound concerns? The '11 Red Sox crammed six good starters onto their roster and couldn't find two live arms as their season slipped into oblivion.
So Loria and his staff are punting years four, five and six for three solid shots at late October games under New Marlins Ballpark's retractable roof. There will be hell to pay when the team is shelling out 32 extra large for a hobbled shortstop and a defunct 37-year-old lefty after that, but the last of it will come off the books following the '17 season and then the good people of Miami can hold their breath while management dives in again.
b
b
2 comments:
They'd best pray for a wild card spot.
They won two crowns that way.
Post a Comment