On Being Poor In Baseball
The Marlins have produced a great deal of talent in the last 7 or so years. The list includes Miguel Cabrera, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Beckett, Josh Johnson, AJ Burnett, Dontrelle Willis and others. Cabrera is a Hall of Famer, Ramirez could be and if Beckett plays long enough at this level he’d likely get a lot of “Jack Morris-ian” support from voters.
The thing is, not one of those players is likely to be remembered as a Marlin. Due to ownership and other reasons, the Marlins never lock any of their stars up. They can’t afford to.
However, there are a number of teams that can.
The Yankees can sign anyone they want, whenever they want. They are, without question, the richest team in the sport, and can outbid anyone. Don’t let Brian Cashman’s posturing fool you.
The Red Sox, Phillies, Mets and perhaps the LA teams are also rich, but not on the Yankees level. They can outbid the smaller clubs pretty easily.
The main issue with small-market clubs isn’t that they can’t sign Matt Holliday. It’s that if they should produce Matt Holliday, signing him long-term is out of the question. That puts a tremendous strain on development–teams like the Twins understand this; teams like the Reds do not–because in order for the club to succeed, the farm system must be producing at all times.
I’m of the opinion that prospect development is very tricky business, sort of like the stock market. There’s little reason why Andy Marte or Alex Gordon didn’t (or hasn’t) panned out. They just didn’t.
The Royals needed Alex Gordon to become a star. He hasn’t. Welp! We’re screwed.
Without Gordon becoming Diet George Brett, the Royals remained… well… the Royals. Now they do have a superstar, Zack Grienke, but eventually the big teams will come calling, and what will KC do?
Trading him is the obvious move. But, if by some tragedy Dayton Moore is still in charge, the Royals might trade Greinke for the 2012+ equivalents of Yuniesky Betancourt and Scott Podsednik.
I joke, but the development of stars for a small-market is vital. You create a star, he leads your team, time comes for him to be dealt, you deal him, acquire new prospect, develop him into a star, and on we go. If the machine ever slows down–think Oakland after they produced Nick Swisher, who seems to be the last star they produced–the team suddenly falls into the abyss. Of course, random things happen in any business, and sometimes a no-name becomes a star, but sometimes a big-name fails.
Such is the life of a team with no money. Smart GMs can make it work, like the Twins have for years or like Oakland used to. But there are GMs who are entirely clueless, like Wayne Krivsky and Walt Jocketty in Cincinnati or Ed Wade in Houston. Resources are limited, fellas. Don’t waste them on relievers or old third basemen.
Spending what little money correctly is nearly as pivotal. There is no logical reason for this. Brandon Lyon? Are you kidding me? Wade proved that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
The Astros are a great example of my machine idea. They haven’t produced a good player since Hunter Pence. Wandy Rodriguez developing was blind luck, by all accounts, so he doesn’t qualify. Pence, though, is hardly a star. He hit .282/.346/.472 last year. No one’s going to give the Astros a damn thing for that.
Houston could trade Roy Oswalt, of course. But his value is limited now too. Perhaps someone would want Lance Berkman, but he’s aging. If someone did want either Oswalt or Berkman, Houston should immediately trade them.
All of this information–which, by the way, was all available to Ed Wade–makes the money spent this off season by Houston all the more stupid. The Astros have a terrible farm system. They won less than 75 games this year. You can’t afford to build through free agency, even if you wish you could, Ed.
Anyway, back to the Marlins. I wrote all of that to get to this. Locking up Josh Johnson would be nice. The kid’s talented. But the goal of the Marlins should be signing Hanley Ramirez long-term. You keep Ramirez around, you show the fans you’re willing to spend, and perhaps they’ll return the favor.
Plus, Ramirez is one of the most wildly talented baseball players in the world. If he’s your best player, you damn sure can win a championship. He’s a top-5 player right now, and he’s young. Lock him up.
If you can’t, trade him when the time comes. And I know that’s the likely endgame here. Teams have money but won’t spend it. That’s fine.
The cycle repeats.
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