I get the feeling since Samson had a knack for speaking in public confidently he was the mouthpiece for the organization AND the one to be blamed for it all because of it.

 

The Marlins didn't want to trade Cabrera, he ate his way off 3B and eventually off 1B too for a period of time. The Marlins told him drop weight and they'll extend him, and he GAINED weight before he was traded to Detroit.

 

Samson was always the public face, we rarely heard from Loria or saw him... and Hill would conduct interviews and seem very quiet and meek.

 

Hills spoken more confidently and methodically since Jeter took over, which is nice.

 

But the fact remains... Loria was an impulsive child not unlike Veruca Salt... and he demanded things get done and get done now. He consistantly overruled his business and baseball people. He repeatedly negotiated MLB contracts for middle relievers that had no business being on a MLB 40 man even, personally signed FA players without consulting the baseball ops and even wouldn't take their advise on how to better spend the money since it was suddenly available.

 

He probably thought everytime he personally negociated, he'd get another Pudge. He instead looked like a putz.

 

It does make you wonder how the money would've been spent/what we'd have ended up with had the front office been able to do its job autonomously like other FOs do.

 

 

It does make you wonder how the money would've been spent/what we'd have ended up with had the front office been able to do its job autonomously like other FOs do.

 

There are a lot of what if scenarios with this franchise.  To your point though in those interviews Samson implies that all owners meddle to a point.  I don’t believe that.  I think he’s covering for loria a bit there.  

 

One thing that he dances around that I don’t think gets said enough is how bad the 2012 signings were (not the trades).  The pressure to spend going into the park superseded common sense in many cases not just Heath Bell 

 

 

There are a lot of what if scenarios with this franchise.  To your point though in those interviews Samson implies that all owners meddle to a point.  I don’t believe that.  I think he’s covering for loria a bit there.  

 

One thing that he dances around that I don’t think gets said enough is how bad the 2012 signings were (not the trades).  The pressure to spend going into the park superseded common sense in many cases not just Heath Bell 

 

Eh, I do believe they do meddle to an extent - look at the Nats, or Illitch with Detroit, but on the flip side there are owners you never really hear much about.  So its somewhere in between.

 

Yeah, obviously hindsight is 20/20, but they'd have been better off not spending that money.  But that was another case where Loria clearly intervened - would the front office have signed those guys with that money?  That's what I was getting at specifically with the 2012 season.  Obviously we'll never know.

 

 

@SilverBullet never agrees with me on anything, it is almost like he tries to take an opposing argument.

 

I miss when you two were apparently married cause you agreed on everything.

 

 

I didn't like Samson very much initially because he seemed like a complete asshat but I grew to respect the dude during his tenure and he would legitimately respond to most emails (provided you clearly took the time to type up something meaningful).  The time he took to respond to emails was impressive as I rarely would receive some generic response.  Anyway, he took on some tough jobs during Loria's reign of terror and you'd probably have to be at least a part-time asshat in order to deal with Loria's BS and not kill the man.

 

 

Eh, I do believe they do meddle to an extent - look at the Nats, or Illitch with Detroit, but on the flip side there are owners you never really hear much about.  So its somewhere in between..

 

This is probably right