Author Topic: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays  (Read 23777 times)

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Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #300: February 12, 2013, 08:32:04 PM »
Brutal.  This should make any future proposed Miami-Dade bond issues, uh, interesting.

You mean like this: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/10/3225787/dolphins-agree-to-referendum-for.html

Offline tomterp

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #301: February 12, 2013, 08:48:49 PM »
You mean like this: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/10/3225787/dolphins-agree-to-referendum-for.html

Hey NA, welcome back. 

Brutal what's happening down there.  Brutal.  Hope your college baseball thing is going better.

Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #302: February 13, 2013, 01:10:26 PM »
Hey NA, welcome back. 

Brutal what's happening down there.  Brutal.  Hope your college baseball thing is going better.

Thanks, Tom.  It's rough, very hard to root for the Fish.  I have MLB Extra Innings, and intend to watch primarily the Nats this year.  I just can't stomach the Marlins anymore.  I hope Stanton escapes so he can enjoy the career he deserves.  It's bad when you're hoping whatever talent you have left gets away.

FAU is looking great, going for a repeat and its 3rd conference championship in 4 years.  This is our last year in the Sun Belt.  We join CUSA in July.

Offline spidernat

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #303: February 13, 2013, 02:49:51 PM »
Marlins are such a disaster that NatsAddict decided to come back to the Nats.   :mg:

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #304: February 13, 2013, 02:55:58 PM »
Thanks, Tom.  It's rough, very hard to root for the Fish.  I have MLB Extra Innings, and intend to watch primarily the Nats this year.  I just can't stomach the Marlins anymore.  I hope Stanton escapes so he can enjoy the career he deserves.  It's bad when you're hoping whatever talent you have left gets away.

FAU is looking great, going for a repeat and its 3rd conference championship in 4 years.  This is our last year in the Sun Belt.  We join CUSA in July.

you guys may be the only fan base that I actually feel bad for- most small market teams don't pretend to be large market teams, but last year was a huge cock tease by loria

Offline NatsAddict

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #305: February 15, 2013, 01:40:09 PM »
you guys may be the only fan base that I actually feel bad for- most small market teams don't pretend to be large market teams, but last year was a huge **** tease by loria

With all the head cases, a crap manager, and St Claire as pitching coach, the Marlins were unanimously picked for last place by everyone in the FAU booth last year.  It was so much of a tease as it didn't even resemble a team.

This year, the discussion is whether FAU or the Marlins will win more games.

Offline imref

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Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #307: February 17, 2013, 02:19:37 PM »
That team is like a mad economist's creative destruction experiment gone horribly wrong.
 
With all the head cases, a crap manager, and St Claire as pitching coach, the Marlins were unanimously picked for last place by everyone in the FAU booth last year.  It was so much of a tease as it didn't even resemble a team.

This year, the discussion is whether FAU or the Marlins will win more games.

Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #308: February 17, 2013, 07:14:56 PM »
With all the head cases, a crap manager, and St Claire as pitching coach, the Marlins were unanimously picked for last place by everyone in the FAU booth last year.  It was so much of a tease as it didn't even resemble a team.

This year, the discussion is whether FAU or the Marlins will win more games.
  GOT RINGS?   FAU at least has rings.   MARLINS?   NO CHANCE!

Offline spidernat

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #309: February 17, 2013, 09:49:49 PM »
:lmao:

Offline Tyler Durden

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http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/2013/02/jeffrey-lorias-letter-to-our-fans.html

Loria writes a letter to Miami fans.

-----
LETTER TO OUR FANS

        It's no secret that last season was not our best -- actually it was one of our worst. In large part, our performance on the field stunk and something needed to be done. As a result of some bold moves, many grabbed hold of our tough yet necessary decision only to unleash a vicious cycle of negativity. As the owner of the ballclub, the buck stops with me and I take my share of the blame where it's due. However, many of the things being said about us are simply not true. I've sat by quietly and allowed this to continue. Now it's time for me to resond to our most important constituents, the fans who love the game of baseball.

        THE ROSTER

        Losing is unacceptable to me. It's incumbant upon us to take swift action and make bold moves when there are glaring problems. The controversial trade we made with the Toronto Blue Jays was approved by Commissioner Bud Selig and has been almost universally celebrated by baseball experts outside of Miami for its value. We hope, with an open mind, our community can reflect on the fact that we had one of the worst records in baseball. Acquiring high-profile players just didn't work, and nearly everyone on our team underperformed as compared to their career numbers. Our plan for the year ahead is to leverage our young talent and create a homegrown roster of long-term players who can win. In fact, objective experts have credited us with going from the 28th ranked Minor League system in baseball to the 5th best during this period. Of the Top 100 Minor Leagues rated by MLB Network, we have six -- tied for the most of any team in the league. We'll evaluate this roster and possibly bring in additional talent based on our assessment of what we need. The very same naysayers who are currently skeptical once attacked us for bringing Pudge Rodriguez to the Marlins in 2003. More than any other, that move contributed to our World Series Championship.

      THE BALLPARK

      The ballpark issue has been repeatedly reported incorrectly and there are some very negative accustations being thrown around. It ain't true, folks. Those who have attacked us are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. The majority of public funding came from hotel taxes, the burden of which is incurred by tourists who are visiting our city, NOT the resident taxpayers. The Marlins organization also agreed to contribute $161.2 million toward the ballpark, plus the cost of the garage complex. In addition, the Marlins receive no operating subsidy from local government funding. The ballpark required that all debt service is paid by existing revenue. Furthermore, many are attacking the County's method of financing for its contribution, but the Marlins had nothing at all to do with that. The fact is, with your help, we built Marlins Park, a crown jewel in our beautiful Miami skyline, which has won over twenty design and architecture awards and will help make us a premiere ballclub moving forward.

      OUR FINANCES

      The simple fact is that we don't have unlimited funds, nor does any baseball team or business. Fans didn't turn out last season as much as we'd like, even with the high-profile players the columnists decry us having traded. The main ingredient to a successful ball club is putting together a winning team, including a ncecessary core of young talent. Are we fiscally capable and responsible enough to fill the roster with talented players, invest in the daily demands of running a world-class organization and bring a World Series back to Miami? Absolutely! It is sound business sense to witness an expensive roster with a terrible record and sit idly by doing nothing? No. I can and will invest in building a winner, but last season wasn't sustainable and we needed to start from scratch qjuickly to build this team from the ground up.

      COMMUNICATION

      An organization is only as good as its connection with the community. We know we can do a better job communicating with our fans. That starts now. From this point forward we can ensure fans and the entire community that we will keep you abreast of our plan, rationale and motivations.

       Amidst the current news coverage, it an be easy to forget how far we went together not so long ago. In 2003, I helped bring a second World Series Title to South Florida. We know how to build a winning team, and have every intention of doing so again. I know you share my passion for great Marlins baseball, my love of MIami and my desire to win again. We're in this together and I humbly ask that we start fresh, watch us mature qjuickly as a ball club, and root for the home team in 2013.

      Sincerely,

      Jeffrey Loria

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/2013/02/jeffrey-lorias-letter-to-our-fans.html#storylink=cpy

Offline imref

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so the long and short of it - we saw what the Nats did and we want to copy it.

Offline DPMOmaha

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Not likely they'll get as lucky with two generational talents, though...

Offline Vega

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so the long and short of it - we saw what the Nats did and we want to copy it.
Houston will screw that up because they'll get the first pick for the next couple of years no matter what Miami does.

Offline Tyler Durden

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It's all lies.  Oh, the tax revenues only came from hotels and was only tourist money and not money from anyone in Miami?  Is he saying that that tax revenue could not have gone to infrastructure or more teachers or back to Miami residents and taxpayers rather than into the Loria family coffers? 

He should have just kept his mouth shut.  He looks more and more like a pathetic liar and crook and snake oil salesman the more he talks.

Offline BrandonK

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It's all lies.  Oh, the tax revenues only came from hotels and was only tourist money and not money from anyone in Miami?  Is he saying that that tax revenue could not have gone to infrastructure or more teachers or back to Miami residents and taxpayers rather than into the Loria family coffers? 

He should have just kept his mouth shut.  He looks more and more like a pathetic liar and crook and snake oil salesman the more he talks.

"It ain't true, folks."

Offline HalfSmokes

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Poor Loria doesn't like being universally despised

Offline spidernat

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As a result of some bold moves, many grabbed hold of our tough yet necessary decision only to unleash a vicious cycle of negativity.

BiL

Offline CALSGR8

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  • BE LOUD. BE PROUD. BE POSITIVE!
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/2013/02/jeffrey-lorias-letter-to-our-fans.html

Loria writes a letter to Miami fans.

-----
LETTER TO OUR FANS

        It's no secret that last season was not our best -- actually it was one of our worst. In large part, our performance on the field stunk and something needed to be done. As a result of some bold moves, many grabbed hold of our tough yet necessary decision only to unleash a vicious cycle of negativity. As the owner of the ballclub, the buck stops with me and I take my share of the blame where it's due. However, many of the things being said about us are simply not true. I've sat by quietly and allowed this to continue. Now it's time for me to resond to our most important constituents, the fans who love the game of baseball.

        THE ROSTER

        Losing is unacceptable to me. It's incumbant upon us to take swift action and make bold moves when there are glaring problems. The controversial trade we made with the Toronto Blue Jays was approved by Commissioner Bud Selig and has been almost universally celebrated by baseball experts outside of Miami for its value. We hope, with an open mind, our community can reflect on the fact that we had one of the worst records in baseball. Acquiring high-profile players just didn't work, and nearly everyone on our team underperformed as compared to their career numbers. Our plan for the year ahead is to leverage our young talent and create a homegrown roster of long-term players who can win. In fact, objective experts have credited us with going from the 28th ranked Minor League system in baseball to the 5th best during this period. Of the Top 100 Minor Leagues rated by MLB Network, we have six -- tied for the most of any team in the league. We'll evaluate this roster and possibly bring in additional talent based on our assessment of what we need. The very same naysayers who are currently skeptical once attacked us for bringing Pudge Rodriguez to the Marlins in 2003. More than any other, that move contributed to our World Series Championship.

      THE BALLPARK

      The ballpark issue has been repeatedly reported incorrectly and there are some very negative accustations being thrown around. It ain't true, folks. Those who have attacked us are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. The majority of public funding came from hotel taxes, the burden of which is incurred by tourists who are visiting our city, NOT the resident taxpayers. The Marlins organization also agreed to contribute $161.2 million toward the ballpark, plus the cost of the garage complex. In addition, the Marlins receive no operating subsidy from local government funding. The ballpark required that all debt service is paid by existing revenue. Furthermore, many are attacking the County's method of financing for its contribution, but the Marlins had nothing at all to do with that. The fact is, with your help, we built Marlins Park, a crown jewel in our beautiful Miami skyline, which has won over twenty design and architecture awards and will help make us a premiere ballclub moving forward.

      OUR FINANCES

      The simple fact is that we don't have unlimited funds, nor does any baseball team or business. Fans didn't turn out last season as much as we'd like, even with the high-profile players the columnists decry us having traded. The main ingredient to a successful ball club is putting together a winning team, including a ncecessary core of young talent. Are we fiscally capable and responsible enough to fill the roster with talented players, invest in the daily demands of running a world-class organization and bring a World Series back to Miami? Absolutely! It is sound business sense to witness an expensive roster with a terrible record and sit idly by doing nothing? No. I can and will invest in building a winner, but last season wasn't sustainable and we needed to start from scratch qjuickly to build this team from the ground up.

      COMMUNICATION

      An organization is only as good as its connection with the community. We know we can do a better job communicating with our fans. That starts now. From this point forward we can ensure fans and the entire community that we will keep you abreast of our plan, rationale and motivations.

       Amidst the current news coverage, it an be easy to forget how far we went together not so long ago. In 2003, I helped bring a second World Series Title to South Florida. We know how to build a winning team, and have every intention of doing so again. I know you share my passion for great Marlins baseball, my love of MIami and my desire to win again. We're in this together and I humbly ask that we start fresh, watch us mature qjuickly as a ball club, and root for the home team in 2013.

      Sincerely,

      Jeffrey Loria

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/2013/02/jeffrey-lorias-letter-to-our-fans.html#storylink=cpy

Yahoo Response

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jeffrey-loria-s-spin-cycle--separating-fact-from-flack-for-marlins-fans-205315315.html

Offline Tyler Durden

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More from Loria -

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/2013/02/25/marlins-owner-jeffrey-loria-speaks-out-on-fan-reaction-reyes-buehrle-stanton/

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria speaks out for first time since November trade
by Joe Capozzi
Marins owner Jeffrey Loria spoke to reporters tonight at Marlins Park for the first time since the team’s controversial trade with Toronto last November.

An edited transcript of his remarks follows below. He says he never told Jose Reyes to buy a house and never told Mark Buehrle that he wouldn’t be traded.

Loria said he has heard very little negative reaction lately. He said attended a food and win festical on Saturday and was “probably approached by 20 or 30 people all of whom congratulated me and said, ‘You had to do what you did.’ To a person.”


(Your reaction to the negative feedback?)
I haven’t seen anything. I got a few silly phone calls. That was in November. It stopped. I’m hoping maybe we can just call a halt to it all and try and get behind the home team this next year.

(Your reaction to fans want you to sell)
The team is not for sale. Of course I care, it means people are disappointed. But I know what we are doing. I just know we have got to get a little bit down the road here so we can see what we brought in.

(You understand fans are angry because they thought the new ballpark meant an end to fire sales)
It’s not a fire sale. You can call it a fire sale. It’s called hit the re-start button because it didn’t damn work.

I understand the feeling but I have no interest in endless losing and we had two years of that. I want to us get back to our winning ways.

(Jose Reyes said you told him to buy a house just days before the trade.)

What you were told is inaccurate. I never told him to buy a house. He was looking for a house. I will tell you that he came to an ALS dinner which I invited him to. He sat two people away from me, He came late. I asked him what he was doing in the next week. He told me he was going to Dubai. I said. ‘Has your wife been down to Miami? He said yes she has gone down. She is looking for a home. I didn’t say anything after that…

Three or four days after that, Larry came to me with the trade he wanted to do. I immediately called Jose’s agent out of respect for him and said Jose is going to be traded and I want you to call him before he reads about. He hasn’t bought a house yet has he? ‘No, he is contemplating.’ Just call him and let him know…

(Why you wait until now to speak out and not in November?)
It’s hard to stop a runaway train. I wanted to decompress sit back and see what we needed to do…

(You understand the anger fans have toward you?)

I have a sense of it. I’m sorry that we’ve built this amazing ballpark and fans are feeling the way they do but we did this for a reason – we weren’t going anywhere and I think anybody who is a baseball person will realize that after two years that we had, we had to do something. We had to do something quickly and swiftly and bold.

I’d like to turn the clock ahead two years from now and look back at what we did. We had three or four prospects in our system. We didn’t have people in our system that we could call up last year…

As I said to somebody last week. We didn’t break up the 1927 Yankees. We broke up a losing ballclub that was going nowhere for two straight years. I’m about winning I like to win, I love winning. I love this ballclub and I like what we’ve done now. It’s a little painful for a lot of people but no pain, no gain.

Frankly, we stunk and it was a disaster. I stood by and I just watched it and finally I spoke to our guys and said what do we do and these are the suggestions that came forward, we’ve got to start again …

We didn’t build this building for 10 years to have probably going to be this year fewer fans coming. It’s a spectacular place. But the baseball people told me we aren’t going anywhere.

(Why include Buehrle and Reyes in the trade? Why not keep them?)

Buehrle is a very interesting guy. He’s in this mid-30s. Where he is to join us? You have to look ahead… You make a team four years from now, Buerhle doesn’t fit in. he’s at the end of his career earning $17 million, 18 million, and frankly that doesn’t work down here at that point for us because there are other players we want to sign…

(He talks about Marlins farm system)
We haven’t had great luck from 2002 to 2008 or 09 with the exception of Mike Stanton. We brought Josh Johnson along and a couple of other guys but I can give the names of players who never made it… Hermida didn’t work out, Jeff Allison didn’t work out, Sinkbeil didn’t work out. Volstad came here, wonderful kid, terrific guy, didn’t really work out that well for us.

(Do you intend to sign Giancarlo Stanton?)
We are hoping that that moment will come but Giancarlo needs to play this year. He is here for certainly the foreseeable future and we will cross that bridge at the appropriate moment.

(Your reaction to his comments after the trade?)
I love Giancarlo. He’s a great young talent and I wish him nothing but the best. I have nothing but fond admiration for him. I don’t have any negative feelings.

I understood that. But I’m going to wish him a great season. My wife and I saw him in France… (Loria said he met in Paris and had dinner in the Eiffel Tower.)

(But a lot of fans think it will be only one more year.)
I don’t have any comments about that? One more year? He will be here this year and I’m hopefully he will come here the next year… I would love to see him be the centerpiece of this ball club. He’d the young giant in the ball club but you can’t make promises in this game because strange things happen all the time…

Loria said the team won’t make Stanton an offer this year. “I dont think this is the year to go to Giancarlo with an offer. We have to let him play it out, let him feel more comfortable.”

He elaborated again about Stanton’s criticisms: “I know it was an immediate knee-jerk reaction saying what he said. I don’t hold that against him.”

I’m a firm believer that Miami loves its baseball but nobody wants to watch losing baseball…

We’ll get back to where we want to get to.

It was very hard last year, you comer to a ballgame and Heath (Bell) is blowing ballgames day after day, it’s kind of depressing. Other things happened and we need to fix the chemistry and we needed to fix the core of this team.”


Offline welch

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #320: February 27, 2013, 07:49:01 AM »
Loria defends self to Miami in full-page add / fantasy fiction:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/2013/02/jeffrey-lorias-letter-to-our-fans.html

Bits of self-serving illogic: Loria argues that taxpayer money was not poured into the new stadium, because the county paid from hotel tax. Therefore, argues Loria, visitors paid for most of the ball-park. Obvious question: could that hotel tax have been used for public libraries, roads, railways, or schools?

Nausea-topper? Has to be the last paragraph, where Loria reminds readers: I brought you greatness in 2003! (approximately).

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #321: February 27, 2013, 08:26:03 AM »
I think that in order to provide the bonds with dedicated revenue to make them marketable, they shifted some spending that the hotel / tourist taxes had been paying for to financing from general revenues.  I think that was in the Yahoo piece linked  below.  If so, then they really did end up just extracting at least some of the funs from Miami / dade citizens.


Yahoo Response

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jeffrey-loria-s-spin-cycle--separating-fact-from-flack-for-marlins-fans-205315315.html

I'lll shift some of the discussion out of the MLB thread.

Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #322: February 27, 2013, 01:13:24 PM »
How can you tell when Loria is lying?   His lips are moving!

Offline KnorrForYourMoney

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #323: February 28, 2013, 03:14:59 PM »
Loria defends self to Miami in full-page add / fantasy fiction:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_bytes/2013/02/jeffrey-lorias-letter-to-our-fans.html

Bits of self-serving illogic: Loria argues that taxpayer money was not poured into the new stadium, because the county paid from hotel tax. Therefore, argues Loria, visitors paid for most of the ball-park. Obvious question: could that hotel tax have been used for public libraries, roads, railways, or schools?

Nausea-topper? Has to be the last paragraph, where Loria reminds readers: I brought you greatness in 2003! (approximately).

Someone needs to take out a full-page ad reminding people that 2003 was brought to them by John Henry and Dave Dombrowski.

Offline blue911

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Re: Marlins trade franchise to Blue Jays
« Reply #324: February 28, 2013, 03:22:29 PM »
Loria makes me want to pinch him below the arm pit