The Blue Jays acquired Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes, and Mark Buerhle from the Miami Marlins, but only after Bud Selig approved the deal first.
Jeffrey Loria writes a letter to ... us?

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIREWhat if the Marlins reloaded instead?

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIREThe goal of this article is to take an objective look at the Marlins’ decision to rebuild, without getting into the public-relations stuff. Now that we have the luxury of offseason hindsight, we can ask again if the Marlins picked the right time to rebuild.
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Read Article >Marlins hold offseason event, confirm suspicions

Mike EhrmannLike all baseball writers, I have a splendid talent for being wrong. Hopelessly, fantastically wrong, over and over again. That’s how you’re supposed to write about baseball. You start with stupid and wrong, grab a shovel, and dig down from there. But even considering that, there’s no match for this winner of a column from a year ago.
Barf.
Read Article >When no no-trade clause means no no-trade clause

Jason ArnoldJust want to get this straight ... The Marlins were the highest bidder and he signed with them mostly because of Ozzie Guillen’s steady hand? What a happy coincidence that was!
There’s a part of me that can’t help admiring the Marlins. I hate no-trade clauses. If I’m running a baseball team, I want as few fetters as possible.*
Read Article >Gratuitous Marlins reference
Apparently, the Marlins have been in the baseball news lately, so, not wanting to appear “out of touch” with goings on, here’s something Marlins related.
Marlins carpet tiles
Read Article >Commissioner approves Marlins-Jays blockbuster

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIREWell, it took six days. But maybe that’s to be expected, when a trade involves a dozen players and the baseball schedule isn’t providing some time-sensitive imperative.
You got that? He carefully reviewed this transaction. Which makes me feel a whole lot better about it.
Read Article >Selig: Marlins trade is under review
Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do. After all of the outrage and the name-calling directed toward Jeffrey Loria, there’s a chance that Bud Selig might stop the trade? From Bob Nightengale:
There is precedent here, of course. In 1976, commissioner Bowie Kuhn overturned deals made by Charlie Finley and the A’s, who were selling their best players for cash money.
Read Article >The animated Jeffrey Loria
It’s not as good as past offerings, but the important thing is the transcontinental hate for Jeffrey Loria.
The other important thing is this GIF:
Read Article >Marlins keeping Giancarlo Stanton for some reason

Hunter MartinI don’t like to mix politics into my writing too much, but there was a video making the rounds last month that I can’t get out of my head. Chris Matthews is interviewing a throng of people about the upcoming presidential election, and he interviews someone who claims Barack Obama is a communist. What’s a communist? Well, study it out. No, seriously, Matthews asks: What’s a communist? The response: Study it out.
You don’t have to be on the left side of the political spectrum to find that amusing/horrifying. It’s a bizarre response to a request for more information. But after it outlived its five-second Internet half-life, I figured I wouldn’t think of it again.
Read Article >The award for best Loria description goes to ...
After the huge Marlins/Jays trade, there was a race to see who could be more disgusted with Jeffrey Loria. This is because Loria is disgusting and frequently leaves people feeling disgusted. But who had the best description of him?
You can find good results for “horrible” and “Jeffrey Loria” on Twitter, and you can get results for “toad” and “Loria”, too. If you want, you can also enter whatever naughty word enters your head and “Loria”. No one is thinking about the poor guy named Dick Loria who just wants to search Twitter to see how people responded to his real estate seminar!
Read Article >A brief and sad history of major-league fire sales

Mike EhrmannWhat’s apparently happening to the Miami Marlins right now isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last. It’s pretty rare, though. Sure, there have been a great number of mini-fire sales, and going back for a long, long time. But the full-scale selling off of a team’s highest-salaried stars isn’t something we see very often.
The first big sell-off came after the 1914 season. The Philadelphia Athletics, managed (and owned!) by Connie Mack, had just won their fourth American League pennant in five years. They got swept in the World Series that fall, but had won the other three Fall Classics in which they’d played.
Read Article >‘Now we know [Marlins’ spending plan]: Dump $$’

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIREAccording to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post, the team drew 2,219,444 fans in its first year at Marlins Park, which ranked 18th in the league and represented the smallest first-year attendance for a ballpark since 2001.
Marlins star outfielder Giancarlo Stanton tweeted, “Alright, I’m pissed off!!!! Plain & Simple.” Ricky Nolasco, the highest-paid Marlin, added, “Huh?.....”.
Read Article >Marlins fans react: ‘The team panicked’


Josh Johnson and John Buck are part of the mega-deal heading to Toronto. Kevin C. CoxHead writer Michael Jong thinks the Marlins’ brass panicked:
He anticipates a strong backlash against Marlins’ owner Jeffrey Loria, who made many promises that the new ballpark in Miami would bring new enthusiasm and new success.
Read Article >Gio Stanton is ‘pissed off’ about Marlins trade

Denis PoroyApparently not satisfied with letting college basketball’s 24-hour marathon have the sports spotlight, news of a blockbuster trade in baseball broke Tuesday night: the Miami Marlins, salary-dumping enthusiasts, are reportedly set to send SS Jose Reyes and starting pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle to the Toronto Blue Jays. But wait, there’s more!
Additionally, Miami will throw in catcher John Buck and utility player Emilio Bonifacio, in exchange for some of the Blue Jays’ top prospects, including shortstops Adeiny Hechavarria and Yunel Escobar, pitchers Henderson Alvarez and Justin Nicolino and outfielder Jake Marisnick.
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