IBC

Everyone is going nuts over this trade. Is anyone here actually surprised? They jacked their payroll up to $117 million, didn't sell any tickets, and had a REALLY bad team.

Johnson has 1 year left on his contract and his performance declined. He was not going to resign with the team. He had to go.

Reyes is 30 years old with 5 years left on his contract @ ~$18 million/year. The Marlins had the new park opening and needed to make a splash to sell tickets. They did just that in signing Reyes, and still didn't sell any tickets. Had to go.

They gave Buehrle a 4 year $58 million dollar contract. I like him, but is he really worth that much money? Again, had to go.

They could've done better, but they didn't do that bad considering the money they saved.

What this comes down to is that stupid ballpark. Without it, Reyes, Buehrle, and Bell never sign there and Johnson would've been dealt before the 2012 season even started. I'll never understand how a group of educated men thought it was a good idea to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building a stadium no one even wanted. People don't like baseball in Florida, plain and simple. Why would an ugly new stadium and a mediocre baseball team make them change their minds?

I don't really care either way but Miami was 17th in attendance last year. Thay sold 2,219,444 tickets this year, almost 50% more than in 2011 when they sold 1,520,562. As a percentage of capacity they were 13th in the league last year at 73.2 %, ahead of playoff teams - Washington, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Oakland. I think it isn't as much that they aren't selling tickets or that people in FLA hate baseball as much as they know the owner is a scumbag and even if they come out and support the team he's going to blow it up every three years just to line his pockets.

I didn't look up the attendance stats. 17th surprises me. Watching Phillies/Marlins games in Florida, the stadium was pretty empty. All the lower level seats littered with Phillies fans.

Season ticket holders who don't show up count in attendance.

I think the biggest problem was that they took a pretty big hit by getting Buck and Buerhle in the deal. I think they could have done a lot better one-off trading Johnson and Reyes. Including Buerhle and Buck saved them a lot more money, but also reduced what they got back. They also could have held on to Buerhle until the deadline when his deal is more palatable (2.5 years left) and got a better return.

The ridiculous part of this trade is that instead of actually trying to make good baseball moves, they just dumped money.

How in the world is Loria not in prison for cooking the books to get the taxpayers to fund the stadium?

Jose Reyes signs with Marlins to be closer to Dominican home. Oops.

Cardinals wrote:How in the world is Loria not in prison for cooking the books to get the taxpayers to fund the stadium?

I think we all could come up with a few reasons that don't even include Loria being the sly scumbag owner he has been.

But the people of Miami get what they deserve...they hire stupid politicians...they get their asses raped.

Ever since John Moores (and then the much messier Frank McCourt) divorce, I have come to believe that as far as the 3 major sports leagues are concerned (NFL, MLB, NBA) the costs of private team ownership have now severely outweighed the benefits. Teams should all be public trusts like the Packers. We've had plenty of examples Loria adds more fuel to this fire. Remember when Bud kicked Marge Schott out of baseball for racial slurs? Isn't this a lot worse for the game?

Mets wrote:Jose Reyes signs with Marlins to be closer to Dominican home. Oops.

And don't forget the nifty tax rates. And now you head to Canada...

Pirates wrote: And don't forget the nifty tax rates. And now you head to Canada...

Silver lining, if things keep going the way they are going the Canadian dollar will be worth twice as much as the American dollar by the end of Reyes contract.

Oh wait, I'm sure his contract stats that he will be paid in US Dollars. Yeah, that sucks!