Marlins Trade Everyone to Toronto, Receive lifetime supply of Maple Syrup

[Chewford]

2013 Miami Marlins team photo:

[MiamiHomer]

Samson mentioned JJ's W-L record as one of the things that was unacceptable. Also said Alvarez is a good #3 behind Ricky and Turner.

[emkayseven]

So we still rely on standard counting stats in this organization after all these years.

[Big Z]

Samson mentioned JJ's W-L record as one of the things that was unacceptable. Also said Alvarez is a good #3 behind Ricky and Turner.

Yeah because the offense and bullpen didn't blow a bunch of games for JJ you fucking midget asshole.

Loria and Samson can go to hell together.

[TheMendozaLine]

2013 Miami Marlins team photo:

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am.

[ochre]

I think I remember them citing such valuable stats like RBIs on The Franchise.

[emkayseven]

That's why they traded for Carlos Lee, right? He's an RBI man!

[MiamiHomer]

The Samson interview was taped because he had some business meeting today but he's also going on tomorrow to take calls. You can find the LeBatard podcast on their site theticketmiami.com under podcasts and you can just skip to the end and listen to the interview. All it did was just piss off people even more because the stuff he was saying made absolutely no sense.

[KnuckleBalls]

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_...#storylink=cpy

Samson transcript from LeBatard show

Marlins President David Samson joined the Dan LeBatard Show on 790TheTicket Wednesday to discuss the trade and the direction of the ballclub. Here is the first half of his conversation.

Q: When and how did you guys make the decision to do what you did yesterday, which is trade all the players everyone knows?

"Basically, the decision was made when we sat down after the season and talked about the team and said we cannot keep finishing in last place. It just doesn't make sense. We lost 93 games and we trusted all of our scouts and development people and upper level baseball people and said 'What we can do to possibly start this to turnaround? What needs to happen? How can it work?' And all sorts of different plans were possible. And it just so happens we found a way to possibly in one fell swoop get a whole lot better and get on the road to getting better. I actually recognize the names coming back are not names people are familiar with. But in the baseball world, people are familiar with them and so as far as I'm concerned what I really hope will happen and what I plan on happening is win more games. Each year, starting to win more games. That's what we want to do."

Q: The anatomy of the trade to the Blue Jays. How did it begin?

"I was just thinking about some of the calls we had during the season when the team wasn't playing well and losing all those games. I remember very well that our fans spoke to us and they said they were not happy with what we were doing and what the team was doing. So we said what can we do and where can we start and what can flexibility do we need going forward. We just started -- meaning the baseball guys -- started talking around something possibly came to fruition.

Q: Any part of you embarrassed today?

"No. To lose 93 games was the most embarrassing thing, far more embarrassing than this. Putting together a team in 2012 that we expected to win and the fact they didn't that was the most embarrassing. I think when we made the managerial decisions and player decisions we made last year we could not have guessed that our season would end that way. It's time to change. I'll be embarrassed if our team is as bad next year as it was last year."

Q: What do you say to the people who feel betrayed?

"I think people should feel betrayed by the fact we were losing so much and I would think they wouldn't want us to stand pat and keep losing because that's what everybody wants and that's what we want. We didn't think it would happen so many years in a row that we would finish in last place. But we don't want a team that for 20 years doesn't win 81 games or doesn't make the playoffs. We've already gone 10 years without making the playoffs. That's too much. I absolutely understand that. On the positive side, it's a great ballpark and now we need a great team go with it. We thought we had it last year. The evidence was overwhelming that we didn't."

Q: What do you say to those people who think this is a sham?

"What I say to them is we spent it wrong and it showed with everything off the field and on the field. We didn't approach anything we needed correctly. I don't blame more fans for not coming out because who wants to see 93 losses. But the fact is we think we have a young team that is maybe hungrier and should more. So, I say to them the difference with Montreal there was no ballpark, there was no future. There is a long term future for baseball in Miami and that is what the ballpark has been about and has always been about was making sure an All-Star Game comes to Miami, making sure that generations will see baseball. There's going to be losing seasons over the years. You just want to try to curb with as few as possibly. In our opinion, we were just having too many in a row."

Q: Why should anybody trust you guys just a year after you invested so much money in players that are no longer here?

"That's exactly what we said and exactly what did not happen. That's the whole issue. If we had all those starters pitching to where we thought they would pitch, then I don't think we're losing 93 games. So, that's my exact point. You may not know the name Jacob Turner or Henderson Alvarez or Nathan Eovaldi, but the fact of the matter is we think we're in better position to win more games. So, I hear you, it's the names. But at the end of the day the names added up to 93 losses. So shame on us if we go at it the same way."

Q: But why should anybody trust you guys?

"Trust in the fact we chose the right players. No, I will give you the fact we haven't been choosing the right players recently. But the faith we have in our scouts and our upper baseball management to come to our fans with names of players who can win more games, we still have that faith. We've been with them a long time. They were a big part of how we got a World Series ring in 2003. We have to trust them. If we move in a new group of pitchers and lose the same 93 games, that's not great."

Q: Right now, you're on the hook for about $16 million on books for 2013. Give us an idea of what the payroll will be next year?

"Those numbers aren't right. I'm not sure what range the payroll will end up at, but I know we will have the players in place to do better than last year and that's what it's about. We tried to raise payroll and ended up losing more games. Whatever the payroll is, the real important part is having better players. That's what it's about. It's been 10 years that most teams don't talk about a final payroll number. The final number that matters wasn't our payroll, it was 69-93. Because at the end that's all anybody focuses on."

Q: When a ballpark is publicly funded here is why a payroll is relevant: If a fan base doesn't know a payroll is going to be large, it sounds like you're just lining your pockets with money.

"Yeah, but I think everyone knows that can't be true. Everyone looks at the ballpark last year and saw the fact the team wasn't winning and the games weren't selling out, so obviously we have to do something different. Obviously, it was a public/private partnership. Let's not forget how much money Jeffrey Loria put it. $160 million of his money to get a ballpark, which has been a very positive thing and will continue to be long after all of us are gone."

Q: What was your reaction to Giancarlo Stanton being angry on Twitter

"Honestly, I have none. He's a good young player, very good young player and I don't expect players to be anything other than emotional. I get that. I didn't even call him about it."

Q: How did the players react? It's seem that now you would have a free agency problem

"I think at the end of the day players do come where the money is and that's okay. Listen, I spoke to Mark Buehrle and he said he was sorry things didn't work out. I said I'm as sorry as you are that they didn't work out. That's truly how I feel. If there was a year not to lose 93 it wasn't last year. It was just the perfect storm, starting with the Castro comments moving to the fact we couldn't win a game. It all snowballed. He was the only one I spoke to. Larry spoke to the others."

[Bobbob1313]

I'm not really on the 'blame beinfest' thing, but there's a lot of talk in that interview about how they did everything wrong. If you think the process was flawed, how can you not hold the people accountable for the process?

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

I can't get over that crap about Samson saying the team will be better next year. You're going to throw out a ton of young, untested, unproven guys that are probably in AAA to start the year next year in most other organizations in one of the toughest divisions in baseball and that's an improvement?

[Bobbob1313]

Well, they were really, really bad last year.

[MiamiHomer]

They are still finishing in last place.

[AdamRavs]

Q: Why should anybody trust you guys just a year after you invested so much money in players that are no longer here?

"That's exactly what we said and exactly what did not happen. That's the whole issue. If we had all those starters pitching to where we thought they would pitch, then I don't think we're losing 93 games. So, that's my exact point. You may not know the name Jacob Turner or Henderson Alvarez or Nathan Eovaldi, but the fact of the matter is we think we're in better position to win more games. So, I hear you, it's the names. But at the end of the day the names added up to 93 losses. So shame on us if we go at it the same way."


Starting pitching?? Heath Bell had nothing to do with losing 93 games?

[Miamarlin21]

So we are looking at (for now)

SP-Ricky (probably not)
SP-Turner
SP-Alvarez
SP-Eovaldi
SP-Hand/Sanabia/LeBlanc/Koehler