Rays Offseason juxtaposed against ours

[THRILLHO]

I think we are all too quick to point to other teams as a model for what the Marlins should or should not do.  I’m not sharing this because I think the Marlins should follow the Rays model.  But I think that this tweet gives a glimpse into how poorly run the Marlins organization has been so far and why the process we’ve started has to happen (and why it will take long).  The Rays have always tended to their minor league development and because of that they have been able to part ways with players over time in a relatively un-explosive fashion.  This winter is the first winter that they’ve started a “reloading” process of sorts.  The difference though is that they HAVE the resources in place already in AA and AAA to make the next phase of competition more imminent.  The response in the Bay Area has been disappointment that a fan favorite has moved on but there is optimism and understanding laced within the disappointment because the organization has proven they know how to bring players up through the system.

 

The Marlins cannot be the Dodgers.  The Marlins shouldn’t operate like the Rays though.  The Marlins have too much in place that the Rays do not have for the Marlins to carve out a future like the Rays present.  But if the Marlins do the dirty work now and have a structure in place like the Rays they will be better equipped to keep those developed players and then spend wisely in free agency to supplement an already functioning system.

 

 

[THRILLHO]

Interesting crowd sourcing 

 

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[THRILLHO]

I realize that.  What I was getting at is that organization has been built to sustain a level of player turnover that isn’t so abrupt.  Longoria isn’t the first name moved.  They moved a whole host of major contributors over the years and they keep promoting talent.  Our club doesn’t have enough promotable talent to have a similar structure.  I think that is where we are headed.  Hopefully 

 

 

[fish20]

I realize that.  What I was getting at is that organization has been built to sustain a level of player turnover that isn’t so abrupt.  Longoria isn’t the first name moved.  They moved a whole host of major contributors over the years and they keep promoting talent.  Our club doesn’t have enough promotable talent to have a similar structure.  I think that is where we are headed.  Hopefully 

 

Because they invest in IFA and the draft.  You can win consistently (or at least a lot more often than the marlins have) when you invest in your organization to allow for cheap cost controlled talent to replace overpaid veterans who depart via free agency or are no longer effective.  It really is that simple. If the marlins did that and had in house replacements for guys we wouldnt have had to overpay for guys like Volquez, Ziegler, Chen, Tazawa, re-sign prado for way too much, etc. In turn, we also wouldnt have had to then trade Ozuna and Stanton to compensate for overpaid veterans who likely wont even play next year. It also allows you to have depth to survive injuries to your best players that inevitably will happen over the course of a 5-6 month season.  

 

 

[bmg42]

The Rays have also been in the playoffs 4 times in the last 10 years

 

 

[fish20]

The Rays have also been in the playoffs 4 times in the last 10 years

 

wouldnt that lend more credibility to the opinion that the rebuild we are doing is the right thing?

 

 

[TaiwanMarlins]

The Rays have also been in the playoffs 4 times in the last 10 years

 

Obviously they're running much better than us but still couldn't attract to the people to the ballpark in the Florida.

 

 

[el_gmac]

why did MLB expanded to TB again?

 

 

[THRILLHO]

When it comes to lobbing criticisms at Tampa Bay I think it’s best we keep it to ourselves. The rays and marlins fan bases deal with a lot of the same crap from rivals.  We should be sympathetic to each other instead of piling on. 

 

To answer your question though there are lots of reasons why but among them is that it was the biggest media market without a team at the time 

 

 

[el_gmac]

The crazy thing is that the White Sox, Mariners, and Giants were all seriously considering relocating there. And the Giants were pretty much out the door but the sale/move were blocked.

 

was blocked because the Mayor at that time assemble an investment group to keep the Giants in SF

 

 

[bmg42]

wouldnt that lend more credibility to the opinion that the rebuild we are doing is the right thing?

 

Well, no. First of all, the Rays aren't trading a 27-year-old MVP or a 26-year-old All-Star. They're trading a 32-year-old with an OPS of .737. Yeah, he's a gold-glove fielder. But at 13 million, he's really not worth it. Second, they've had 4-straight losing seasons, but two of them were 80-82, and anyway they had a decent run before that. They never really did a rebuild - they went from losing 90+ a year to a contender. They've traded a huge contract here and there (most notably David Price), but they've said that they're not necessarily trading Archer. Ken Rosenthal said they now have 7 of the top 100 prospects, and they're not looking at a 5-year rebuild.

 

But most of all, they had a sustained run of good to very good baseball in recent memory, so their front office has some credibility.  

 

 

[THRILLHO]

You are focusing on the Stanton trade.  The big picture is that outside of the batting order at the ML level the Marlins had nothing of value.  

 

Re: baseball in Tampa Bay Naomoli had a signed contract with the Giants owner and the national league voided the contract.  Another man Frank Morsani had a controlling interest in the Twins and agreed to sell it to a local owner instead to save baseball in Minnesota and in return they promised good favor come expansion time.  The same happened to Morsani in Texas when Bush’s group ultimately acquired the team.  The White Sox had a deal in principal but the governor of Illinois pulled strings to get a new park built to keep them.   Bottom line:  lots of people in baseball manipulated things to kill deals that would have put a team there earlier and someone was bound to play there eventually.  There aren’t any bigger markets available.