Post by THE Mister Marlin on Jul 25, 2008 16:27:21 GMT -5
CHICAGO - Marlins President David Samson was at Wrigley Field after spending much of the past two weeks in Miami-Dade Circuit Court due to Norman Braman's lawsuit.
While a resolution isn't expected until mid-September, a delay that endangers the club's plans to open a new stadium by April 2011, this setback will have "no impact" on the Marlins' ability to make a key addition before the non-waiver trade deadline, Samson said Thursday.
"We're always going to do what we can with revenues and match payroll to revenue in a current year," Samson said of a team that had baseball's lowest Opening Day payroll at $22 million.
Despite published reports linking the Marlins to Rockies reliever Brian Fuentes and Reds catcher David Ross, among others, President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest has yet to bring a potential deal to Samson and owner Jeffrey Loria for approval. Samson, however, said there was "plenty of time" to get something done before 4 p.m. on July 31.
"We will not make a trade that is not good because we value our players," Samson said. "What we value is the way Larry does business, which is making good trades. I think his track record speaks for itself, so we're not going to do something that we don't think makes sense."
Among the factors the team must weigh, Samson said, is the potential impact on the field as well as at the gate, where the Marlins again rank 30th and last in major league attendance.
"Larry has to start that ball rolling," Samson said. "What we don't do is go to Larry and say, 'Hey, you've got X million. Go find a player.' That's never how it's happened."
As for the stadium, Samson said it would take at least 29 months to go from groundbreaking to completion, a schedule that would require construction to start by early November in order to be ready for the start of the 2011 season.
"And that comes with a lot of risk that I'm not sure we're willing to take," he said. "We are covering every penny of cost overruns and we do not want mistakes."
www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/baseball/marlins/sfl-flspmarnot25sbjul25,0,2467842.story
