Marlins Sign Kevin Kouzmanoff to Minor League Deal

[oakelmpine]

I just find it funny that lou is up in arms, before free agency even gets rolling, about the Marlins being sluggish in what is going to be the weakest free agent market in years. Next year is the free agent market where you want to see your team be a buyer.

I see a little of where Lou is coming from.

This is about reputation, and we can if the reports are true, that players like Pujols & Wilson were offered more money and still turned us down - all because they (the front office) refuse to play like everyone else (the no trade clauses). Players talk, and they trust each other more than anyone else, and when the reputation of a franchise gets around, well a few million more $ don't mean that much to you if you are already going to make a bajillion $. They have isolated themselves and what's worse is they don't have to pay for it (literally and figuratively), but the fans pay for it, by not getting the kind of quality player other teams can attract. But the front office doesn't really care, because they can cut payroll, and claim poor to the league and get revenue sharing. Screw the fans and the team.

It's just a selfish arrogant attitude that doesn't make them (the FO) any form of lovable. Then they can't understand why its such a hard sell for them to promote baseball and to get people out to the stadium. They act incredulous and yet have this scorched Earth mentality in almost all areas of dealing with the public, media and the rest of baseball.

But we're stuck with them, so I guess signing Kuzmanoff is better than nothing. So I give them a D+ for trying.

[Miamarlin21]

Sadly this will probably the the most pages an off-season thread gets this winter.

[Erick]

Get a team on paper that could at least pull an Orioles in a best case scenario even if they are probably a year or two away. Don't make a team who will peak at 78 wins if everything goes right.

What does this even mean?
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Then it all changed and they stepped up. They got Reyes, Buerhle and that other guy, and made serious pushes on Pujols and CJ. Amazing first steps at establishing the market. Yea 2012 didn't work, but on paper that looked like a legitimate playoff contending team before the year. That's all you can really ask for. So cool, they traded out over $40 million in payroll obligations and got some young guys to plug into spots with potential. All good. Clearing the cash is great to use it on something else to build around the guys who are good.

So, like, you basically agree with everything they've done so far.
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It's just fucking shitty. And It's not just the Kouzmanoff thing. It's just everything, and this random signing is just the perfect example of how they think. That's something they would do in 2009.

It's something that they would do every offseason; every offseason, every team signs minor league free agents.

[oakelmpine]

They can't do this the 2nd year into a new stadium. It's insane.

Well at least we are one year closer to when they won't be here

(Just trying to look at the bright side)
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It's not keep the savings and blame the fan base for not showing up because the team sucks.

I really really hope they don't try that next year, if they indeed intend to send out a 2nd rate lineup and then are 20 games .500. If they do that then you can expect no Stanton signing and 2014 to try and be a repeat of 2006.

If they blame the fans, then they really are the lowest of the low.

But then again, they give us cause to think the worst of them.

[rmc523]

I see a little of where Lou is coming from.

This is about reputation, and we can if the reports are true, that players like Pujols & Wilson were offered more money and still turned us down - all because they (the front office) refuse to play like everyone else (the no trade clauses). Players talk, and they trust each other more than anyone else, and when the reputation of a franchise gets around, well a few million more $ don't mean that much to you if you are already going to make a bajillion $. They have isolated themselves and what's worse is they don't have to pay for it (literally and figuratively), but the fans pay for it, by not getting the kind of quality player other teams can attract. But the front office doesn't really care, because they can cut payroll, and claim poor to the league and get revenue sharing. Screw the fans and the team.

It's just a selfish arrogant attitude that doesn't make them (the FO) any form of lovable. Then they can't understand why its such a hard sell for them to promote baseball and to get people out to the stadium. They act incredulous and yet have this scorched Earth mentality in almost all areas of dealing with the public, media and the rest of baseball.

But we're stuck with them, so I guess signing Kuzmanoff is better than nothing. So I give them a D+ for trying.

Well, Wilson took less money to play in his hometown, can't fault him or the Marlins there. Wilson himself said he would've been a Marlin had the Angels not stepped up to get him. I agree with what you're saying otherwise, though.