Samson Speaks, Doesn't Do Much Better

Yesterday, ESPN's Outside The Lines delved into the Marlins/Loria issue. I joked on Twitter that I wasn't going to watch because of troll Darren Rovell. I read some of the tweet responses and decided to give a listen this morning (It's available as a podcast), curious as to how David Samson would fare. Samson talks to the media and fans much more often than Jeffrey Loria. Despite the silliness of his movie-talk and other bullshit on local sports radio, I thought there's a slight chance he could rescue the Marlins PR efforts or provide a different outlook.

Nope. Samson is no sociopath, like Loria, but he's either completely brainwashed or extremely naive. He's basically just Loria's minion and for that, I can't really be mad at him. He's really in no position to stand up to him (pun intended, because he's tiny)

Host Bob Ley talked to Ketih Law, one of the most respected baseball analysts. Law explained how the Marlins didn't get appropriate value from the trade. The Fish surrendered Jose Reyes, a legit star, Josh Johnson of Cy Young Award caliber, and Mark Buehrle proven quality starting pitcher. In return you should be expecting championship prospects, wich the Marlins didn't get. Law said it's clear the motive of the trade was salary dumping, rather than receiving equal return.

Samson was eager to get in his rebuttal, but had to wait. When it was his turn he didn't offer much of an argument.

• He first embarrasses himself by saying he didn't know those players names like the fans either (Law later stated despite not being blue chip prospects, their names are still well known in the industry). 
• He then tries to make the point that you never truly know what you get in prospects and brings up Dontrelle Willis as an example. Again, just like Loria, harkening all the way back to something ten years ago trying to present an example of something they did right, in order to validate something now.
• Samson also brought up the point the Josh Johnson is in the last year of his contract and that gives him less value since he isn't under club control. Again, Law countered with explaining that getting a year of his service on his current contract (well below his actual value) gives him great value in a trade.

Not that it would have mattered, or swayed anyone's opinion, but that's really not the right way to answer those challenges. Either confess that salary dumping was the number one objective of the trade (fat chance) or at least fib and explain that your scouting department has those prospects rated very highly and that you're certain you are getting equal value in the trade.

There's more goodies in the show, it's worth a listen. Rovell,who I despise actually makes a superb point about Loria not being able to speak to the common folk, probably as a result of his lofty art background. Unfortunately he also explains that Loria is pretty well liked amongst baseball owners, which is frightening, but old white guys gotta stick together, I guess.

Greg Cote mainly argues that the Marlins have betrayed fans by upping the payroll, but going right back to their same operation model a year later. Samson counters by saying it didn't work and the team stunk. True, but hey let's give up on that philosophy after just one year, and go back to our old ways, which produced nine mediocre to poor seasons in a row. Marlins baseball!