General FA: Beinfest Says Rotation Set

[Erick]

The A's acquired a closer in free agency for big bucks recently? Which?

No.

The A's actually had a closer, but paid Grant Balfour 2 years, 8.1 million. They also proceeded to give Brian friggin' Fuentes 2/10.5.

Not exactly an efficient use of resources there, either.

Is there one team within the Marlins projected payroll estimations who hasn't "overpaid" for a closer/reliever? I mean, in our defense, at least we overpaid one of the most consistent in the game over the last five years.

[Mainge]

Why?

Is Mark Buehrle a waste of money?

Moves like this get criticized because, sabermetrically, we improve our record by about a win so whoopty-doo.

Well, assuming Bell returns to 09/10 Bell (which is possible), the difference between a Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle who's been consistently worth ~3.5 wins the past three years is approximately...one win.

Buehrle's looking for probably another year, more money, and apparently wants a no-trade clause. And he's regarded as the 2nd best pitcher on the market with about half the teams in the big leagues rumored to be interested, meaning there's a strong chance we don't even get him if we keep waiting for something to happen.

Bell's not a waste of money. It might be an inefficent use of money, but the same can be said for a lot of free agents.

Also, while the sabermetric world views it as dumb, I have to question how dumb it is if every team keeps doing it (even the A's).
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Not to mention the fact that acquiring a closer like Bell might actually give us some leverage in signing one of these SP's.

You're really good at creating strawman arguments and knocking them out of the park.

[Erick]

You're really good at creating strawman arguments and knocking them out of the park.

If you find something wrong with it, you can always give me your reasoning as to why it is wrong.

I can't respond to what you just said because I don't know what you're referring to.

[Ramp]

It's amazing how much this franchise gets shit on from the outside. I don't even mean shitty message boards either, I mean at places like Baseball Prospectus and Fan Graphs. Writers, authors, commenters at these smart sites just doody all over the team for every move they make.

[Valid]

Yeah. I mean, you would never think that this franchise has won two championships in the past 14 years. They act like the Marlins are the effing JV version of the Pirates.

[Bobbob1313]

Well, the way they've run the franchise outside of those two WS has been pretty crappy.

[Ramp]

Well, the way they've run the franchise outside of those two WS has been pretty crappy.

I mean, I get it.... There's plenty of jealousy out there as the "New Boys" have two WS titles in under 20 years. That and everyone hates Loria, so no matter what he does, he gets shit for it.

But it's still such absolute hatred from people for a team that's been around for such little time.

[HUGG]

Nobody has made those "experts" look more wrong than the Marlins on a consistent basis. Not just the championships, think about how many times in the last 10 years they get pretty widely picked to finish last and then flirted with contention most of the year.

People hate being wrong.

[Valid]

Well, the way they've run the franchise outside of those two WS has been pretty crappy.

But like Hugg said; this organization has been so "crappy" that they have managed to at least stay in playoff contention for the good majority of the last decade or so (save '07 and '11).

Also, there are plenty of other franchises that run themselves pretty crappily (I just made up a word) but, unlike the Marlins, they don't have the two rings to compensate for it. Why not pick on them?
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Seriously; the FO could go out and sign Pujols to a five-year, $100 million deal and all of the "experts" would still find a way to spin around to make the Marlins look bad.

[Bobbob1313]

I think most people around the game have a lot of respect for the baseball side of things. That's not the issue.

They dislike Loria and the perception, right or wrong, that he's running the team solely for profit.

[Jay]

I think most people around the game have a lot of respect for the baseball side of things. That's not the issue.

They dislike Loria and the perception, right or wrong, that he's running the team solely for profit.

Shouldn't any business have the goal of making a profit. You can't really blame an owner for making sure he is receiving a return on investment.

[Metes]

I think the key word there is solely, as in, at the expense of winning

That seems to be the prevailing perception

[Bobbob1313]

Yes. Exactly.

Regardless of whether it's fair or not (and there has been some conflict about the accuracy of the reporting following the Deadspin leaks,) that is the perception many have of them.

I think most people think they could have won even more with a better owner.

[Valid]

That doesn't really explain why writers hate on moves the Marlins make, though.

[Mainge]

Yes. Exactly.

Regardless of whether it's fair or not (and there has been some conflict about the accuracy of the reporting following the Deadspin leaks,) that is the perception many have of them.

I think most people think they could have won even more with a better owner.

We would have won more if we had an owner willing to spend money despite making none.

Does that make the hypothetical owner better or just richer? He has a bad rep for sure but I can't blame him for not setting his money on fire every year.

I'm working with a lot of assumptions here though. Like those profits going towards stadium, etc