Florida Marlins Could Fire Manager After Today

Jeffrey Loria, the owner of the Marlins, seems to be upset that his team did not make the 2009 postseason. He is so mad he may even fire manager Fredi Gonzalez in the upcoming weeks. Loria and his executives will meet about the future of the team. There is some that Gonzalez could be out, with wacky but effective Bobby Valentine to be the new skipper.

If Loria wants to upgrade managers and go with Valentine to try to improve, then I can respect that. Much has been made about the fact that the Marlins have the lowest payroll in all of baseball at $36-37 million. The Marlins were only six games out of the Wild Card and finished with 87 wins. The Marlins had the best payroll cost per win in all of Major League Baseball at $423,149.43 per victory. The Major League average is $1,090,122.40 per win. I think its short-sighted to act like the underfunded Marlins are a playoff powerhouse and are expected to make the postseason. If you fire Fredi he will not be out of work long, as some other team will gladly sign him to a new deal.

Loria needs to understand that it costs money to make the postseason or even compete for it on a regular basis. The 2008 Rays had a magical season and made the postseason and even the World Series with a $43 million payroll. That is the exception and it is not the rule—as the old saying goes, you do get what you pay for.  The Marlins rank second to last in attendance despite playing solid baseball because the fans do not believe in the product and the team lacks stars. If you hire Valentine or stick with Gonzalez, go out and get some more talent to make a serious postseason run. You are getting $30-40 million annually from MLB in luxury tax and revenue sharing, so use it to build a winner.

I personally thought the Marlins had an awesome season and did very well for what they had in the talent pool. It is not easy to make the post season in Major League Baseball as only eight out of 30 teams make it. MLB has the longest schedule at 162 games and the most selective post season process with only 27 percent of teams qualifying. The NBA is at 58 percent and the NFL is at 38 percent of teams that make the post season.

It has also been rumored and even joked about that Dan Uggla, the second base man of the Marlins will be shopped in the off season as a way to shed some payroll.