Thus far, based on rumors, it appears we may be dumping salary (.eg. A.J. and Mikey for mediocre players.)

 

Wouldn't that have an affect, psychologically and realistically, on the leverage we need to get the Stadium deal done?

 

I mean if we're kissing this season good-bye...

 

Wish we could trade Lowell, Burnett, Encarnacion for one MAJOR LEAGUER capable of 27 Home Runs.

 

Otherwise, just suck it in and go with what we have. It's got to get bettter!

 

And we can't afford to disillusion our slim fan-base.

And continue to lose our new Stadium leverage.

disillusion? We will improve in the future by collecting the 22 million we owe Mike Lowell.

 

Burnett is a FA and Lowell is owed a bunch of money so no 1 team would trade him for say a Adam Dunn because there is no way that AJ would sign with the Reds long term.

Frankly, not to disaparage your post, the opposite may be true.

 

What may be happening in the case of Mike Lowell is that the Marlins are attempting to find a way to increase their contribution to a new stadium.

 

If the Marlins were able to jettison $20 million (Lowell alone) in onfield costs, the organization is then in a position to increase their contribution significantly and help close the gap on the shortfall that exists, without damaging their onfield performance. And in doing so (adding another $20 million to their end of the deal) that would make it easier for the city and county to reconsider increasing their share as well.

 

Where it started out that signing Mike Lowell was meant to be viewed as a good faith effort to show the commitment Loria et al were making to bringing quality major league baseball to the community, it may be now that trading away their commitment to him furthers their ultimate cause of getting a new stadium.

If the average fan base appears to sense a salary dump, we could have a negative backlash. It hasn't yet been long enough since the 1997 offseason for people to have forgotten that incident.

Don't worry about a fan base. The team has to be successfull for at least 5-6 consecutive years to start establishing a good fan base. Playoff runs, good play, living up to expectations, etc. This is important for the less obvious reasons. The better the team plays the more they are on sports talk radio. Instead of listening to heat and dolphins news you would hear about the Marlins victory last night. I think fan base rests more on the South Florida media than just dumping salary.

 

And they aren't dumping salary. You forget that we still have Carlos Delgado and the team has made obvious attempts to spend within their limits to produce a better ball club. We aren't the royals, devil rays, or rockies. We will spend if need be. What you will have to look out for in terms of long term success is that Willis and Beckett will be FA soon (3 years?). I can see Willis accepting less money to stay here (if we have a stadium) but I can see Beckett having a breakout season his FA year and asking for a boat load of money.

 

Stadium deal, stability in the fo, consecutive success (at least in the wild card or divison hunt every year), and getting the attention of the media is what will make the marlins' fan base grow. This is not "salary dumping" this is being a smart FO and thinking of managing the payroll and being long term contending.

I'm not worried about Beckett demanding a lot of money yet. He still hasn't had an injury-free season.

one thing i will say is beinfest and samson have always said they're looking for ways to improve our teama. they did it in 2003 and they did it in 2004 so until they prove us ALL wrong i think we should give them the benefit of the doubt.

considering the shortfall is only about $30 million, dumping a high-priced player or two could make a considerable dent in the amount needed. cutting down costs this season would be worth it in the long haul if it helps the stadium deal along.

 

further, that kind of shake-up might have a positive effect. the way the team is playing now, i think it's passed from slump to just not being a good. clearing the way for some young guys might help us in the immediate term as well.