Marshall, stillborns and happiness

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Jorge Costales

In Graham Greene’s perfectly titled novel, The Heart of The Matter, he addresses life and the emotion of happiness:

It seemed to Scobie that life was immeasurably long. Couldn’t the test of man be carried out in fewer years? Couldn’t we have committed out first major sin a at seven, have ruined ourselves for love or hate at ten, have clutched at redemption on a fifteen-year-old death-bed?
…
What an absurd thing it was to expect happiness in a world so full of misery. … Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, evil – or else absolute ignorance.

I thought of Greene’s perspective when I read Jason King’s moving article about three major college basketball coaches who are friends and have a rather grievous thing in common, the death of a stillborn infant.

When Billy Donovan was hired at Marshall [yes that Marshall] University in 1994, he hired two assistants, Miami Senior High alumni Anthony Grant and John Pelphrey. When Donovan was hired at Florida in 1996, he brought Grant and Pelphrey as assistants. They would work together until 2002 when Pelphrey took a head coaching job at South Alabama.

It happened to Grant’s family first in 1999. His reflection on the tragedy; ““God doesn’t make mistakes,” Grant says. “All things work for the good. All things happen for a reason. Maybe what I went through enabled me to help Billy [Donovan].”

It then happened to Donovan’s family in 2000. From the King article, Donovan’s thoughts immediately after leaving the hospital following the stillborn birth of his daughter, Jacqueline:

Donovan stopped at a red light. “I’m sitting there,” Donovan says, “and I look over at this church, and there’s a sign on the marquee that says, ‘God is Good All of the Time.’ I kind of shook my head and thought, ‘What’s good about this?’

“But then I sat there a little longer, and I said to myself, ‘I’ve got an incredible wife, and right now I’m going home to three healthy kids.’ A lot of times, when bad things happen in your life, you fail to remember all the good things that are in your life, too.

“At that moment, a calm came over me, a peace that made me realize that, although this was a terrible loss, I was still very, very blessed.”

It happened to Pelphrey’s family in 2002. His reaction? See the web site Pel’s Pals.

Getting back to Greene on happiness, he may have just been paraphrasing St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:11-13:

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

Sometimes in sports, when an athlete makes a good play, a commentator may note, ‘grace under pressure.’ I believe there is such a thing, just not in games.

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The Marlins Twilight Zone – 3B

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Rod Serling’s thoughts on the Marlins 3B possibilities:

You’re traveling through another dimension; a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are a diamond marked off at 42 paces. If you step up to that hot corner up ahead, your next stop could be the minor leagues?

There was an interesting article last week by Eric Seidman from the Fangraphs blog about how the Marlins should approach their search for a third baseman. The article was written before Matt Dominguez was hurt. Seidman’s conclusion:

[Marlins will be] able to see if certain players can be considered assets moving forward. Assuming they handle this situation correctly–meaning they don’t work out a silly trade for Michael Young–the Marlins can really help themselves for the future by not forcing Dominguez into a starting role before he is ready.

The Marlins have played the development game since 2006 and played it very well. But their time as the Brazil [joke was that it was the country of the future and would always be] of MLB , is winding down precisely because of that success.

In his analysis, I thought that Seidman gave the Marlins too much credit for not forcing Dominguez into the lineup right away. There was no way that Dominguez was going to be with the Marlins to open the year because giving up one year of arbitration eligibility is not something the Marlins would have even considered. That’s just not how they roll, arbitrage eligibility speaking.

But that aside, the Marlins 3B search is an irresistible topic for us fans. Part of the reason is the perception that since so many of the Marlins are playing out of position, there is no reason not to continue to fiddle with the lineup. In reality, only Coughlan and Morrison are playing positions which were not their primary positions in the minor leagues. They both saw limited time in the minors in the outfield when it was evident that that was where they would get their opportunities to play. Gaby Sanchez was primarily a 1B in the minors, Omar Infante a 2B and Bonifacio was versatile, even in the minors.

Jonathan Sumple from the Through the Fence Baseball blog makes the case that if the Marlins go through the season with 3B as a development position, Edwin Rodriguez should not be judged as competing with a full roster. He wrote, “management’s willingness to wait for Dominguez – however long it takes – doesn’t sound like a win-now mantra.” Agreed.

I actually agree with the strategy of staying with the internal options at 3B and waiting on Dominguez. But management can’t have it both ways regarding expectations. Talk is cheap, but established third basemen aren’t.

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Insurance Coverage For Autism Therapies

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Sean Trende from RealClearPolitics [RCP] makes the case why a new Virginia law that mandates that certain insurance policies cover autism therapies should not be opposed by conservatives. Excerpts from the article:

What of the objection that the market should not be interfered with? In most cases, this is a very wise objection. But the dirty little secret is that there is no health care market [for autism therapies]. This is not a situation like automobile insurance, where a person may opt for a low-cost high-deductible plan, only to find themselves in a bind once a serious accident ensues. Insurance plans that cover this therapy simply aren’t available. And demand won’t create supply, because so few people participate in the insurance marketplace. Their plan is selected by a third-party provider, who frequently had little knowledge or interest in the individual needs of the people on their plans.

This is shocking for many parents of autistic children, who work hard, play by the rules, see a deduction for health insurance every month, and then find out that the ever-increasing insurance premiums that they pay will not cover the therapy that can help their child become a functioning member of society. This is exactly the kind of expensive catastrophic treatment that most expect to receive from health insurance.

And this isn’t an exotic therapy either. It is the only therapy that is proven to mitigate the effects of autism. It is what a doctor prescribes when a child is diagnosed with autism. Insurance companies simply do not offer it.

Finally is this “Obamacare lite?” The answer here is an obvious “no.” The mandate here is not that individuals purchase these plans. It is that large employers make plans that offer these benefits available to their employees – the employees do not have to select a health care plan after all. It is an attempt to make possible an outcome that would almost certainly occur in a true marketplace.

Trende is one of the reasons that the RCP blog is so popular. The style is always analytical, avoiding the polemical attacks. The one thing which confuses me about this issue is why coverage is not offered with very high premiums. Trende seems to indicate that it is because “so few people participate in the insurance marketplace.” But that seems to run counter to the fact that Trende noted about “autism now affecting one in seventy boys in the United States.”

I hope to follow this more closely in the future. This issue will only get bigger because, as Trende notes very personally, autism affects a rapidly expanding base, which includes my family.

The entire Sean Trende article is copied at end of post.
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Bona Fides For Bonifacio

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Jorge Costales

How does one obtain a Marlins Fan bona fides? First you have to fan invest [explained here] in the team. Ideally, you would take a seemingly indefensible situation and attempt a reasonable defense. For example, defending a manager’s [Fredi Gonzalez] handling of a non-pitching change which resulted in a grand slam. I also fan invested in Emilio Bonifacio last year, see here. [No I don’t see a pattern]. Do any readers have equivalent defenses?

My Marlins fan bona fides established, let me tell you about why you should care about a player who has zero power, a career .306 OBP coming into the 2011 season, much speed, and no real success as a base stealer.

Speed, defensive versatility and maturity. The unfortunate recent minor [Stanton and D. Murphy] and major [Dominguez] injuries have one possible bright spot. A great opportunity for Bonifacio to prove himself. He got his season off to a great start in last night’s loss with productive at-bats and a key defensive play. Bonifacio had a great start to the 2009 season as well, but that start involved an inside-the-park grand slam. By having success in an area he could not expect to repeat, his grand slam turned out to be the Marlins worst success since Chuck Carr’s grand slam in 1993. I swear, but won’t look it up, that Carr’s next 42 outs were fly balls.

Carr went on to infamously talk himself out of MLB in 1997. After popping out to third base on a two balls, no strike count, Carr was questioned by manager Phil Garner [Brewers]. Carr replied to Garner in third person: “That ain’t Chuckie’s game. Chuckie hacks on 2-0.” Carr and ‘Chuckie’ were both released shortly thereafter.

Bonifacio did not hack last night. But Bonifacio’s versatility was on display, as he played RF-3B-CF, made good defensive plays in both the outfield and infield, had 2 hits and a sacrifice. Using up my ‘season-extrapolation-after-only-one-game-allowance,’ earned here, for Gaby Sanchez in 2010, I think [OK hope] that 2011 will be a very good year for him. Then again I may just be 2 months away from badgering 790’s Jonathan Zaslow on why the Marlins released Bonifacio on his radio post-game shows.

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A Fan’s Ode To Renyel Pinto

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Do you remember where you were when you heard that Renyel Pinto had been released last year?  I meant his June 23rd release by the Marlins, not his August 21st release by the St Louis Cardinals.  I was at a family dinner, which also included a priest, and I still cursed.  Even the US victory over Algeria in the World Cup that day provided little solace.

You see I had fan invested.  Fan investing involves taking limited knowledge of a sport, mixing it with tribal-like allegiances and attaching oneself to a potentially dubious, but convenient, product.  As a sports fan, my goal is to approximate what I once heard someone say sarcastically about my hero *William F. Buckey Jr.’s politics:  “He chose his side like a fanatic, and defended it like a philosopher.” Well, as you will soon click and learn, I got at least half of that right.

For my first defense of Pinto, I brought Fredo Corleone into the discussion. For my next defense of Pinto, I realized that I needed a little more muscle, so I brought in Jack Bauer. One month later Pinto was gone. Can’t help thinking I could have done more, or less. Even Wes Helms very funny interview on March 18th with the 790 Radio Station, in which he jokingly calls out Pinto for being the least manly Marlin last year, did not soften the blow.

Great start for the Marlins fans last night, especially against the hated and hateful New York Mets.  Speaking of giving up on players too soon, did you see what Cameron Maybin did on opening night for San Diego? Although in his case, we know from recent interviews that that the final decision to release came from ownership, not the baseball people.  Please remember that somewhere in Pawtucket, Andrew Miller is throwing in the mid 90’s.

* – Turns out that the original quote came from Thomas Babington Macaulay who was speaking of Edmund Burke. Coincidentally enough, Burke’s offspring also came to be released by a professional baseball team, the New York Highlanders. However, Burkey, as he was known, was so embarrassed by his intellectual father, that he had changed his name to Stubby Magner, no relation to Honus.

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Blinded By The Loria?

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Jack Woltz quote in GI prior to gaining [not getting] a head:

Johnny Fontane ruined one of Woltz International’s most valuable proteges. For three years we had her under contract, singing lessons, dancing lessons, acting lessons. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was gonna make her a big star. And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I’m not a hard-hearted man, that it’s not all dollars and cents. She was beautiful, she was innocent…. And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous. And a man in my position can’t afford to be made to look ridiculous.

From a business perspective, Jack Woltz’s personal animus towards Johnny Fontane, caused to him to do a poor job of assessing risk for Woltz International.  Similarly, Jeffrey Loria’s spectacularly profitable investment in MLB franchises, has not gone unnoticed by his unwitting benefactors.  A few examples of their frustration over being made to look ridiculous:

  • 2008 – Hank Steinbrenner remarks: I don’t want these teams in general to forget who subsidizes a lot of them, and it’s the Yankees, the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets,” he said to The New York Post. “I would prefer if teams want to target the Yankees that they at least start giving some of that revenue sharing and luxury tax money back. From an owner’s point of view, that’s my point.
  • 2009 – John Henry remarks: … seven chronically uncompetitive teams, five of whom have had baseball’s highest operating profits, had received over $1 billion in revenue sharing money.
  • 2010 – First ever criticism of the revenue sharing abuse by the Florida Marlins from the Major League Baseball Players Association and the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball.
  • 2011 – Revealed that the New York Yankees had contributed about $130 million between revenue sharing and luxury tax in 2010.
  • 2011 – Revealed that the Boston Red Sox had contributed about $86 million between revenue sharing and luxury tax in 2010.
  • 2011 – Revealed that MLB had fined John Henry $500K for his 2009 complaints about the current revenue sharing structure.

No truth to the rumor that Loria asked MLB if the John Henry fine could be direct deposited into his bank account.

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The Loria Years: $300 Million Double Double

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Forbes has produced their annual MLB valuations, which gives me an opportunity to update my Profit and Loss financial statement for the Florida Marlins. BD [Before Deadspin], producing the financials was like putting together a puzzle whose contents were constantly refuted by the fittingly embarrassed ownership. By now I assume we can focus on what the numbers reveal. See below for the Profit and Loss financial statement for the Florida Marlins during the Loria ownership years, 2002 through 2010.

My financial statement is a combination of actuals [Deadspin] and estimates [Forbes]. In addition, I adjusted the Deadspin/actuals, to be consistent with the Forbes [and conventional accounting] criteria regarding operating income. I illustrate and explain the change here and here. In effect, I am adjusting for a concession MLB made to teams building new stadiums. Ideally, Forbes would address the discrepancy directly, but for now, the teeming MLB finances community is stuck with me.

Professional athletes have their milestones, owners have theirs. During 2010, Jeffrey Loria surpassed the $300 million mark in revenue sharing monies received from the MLB revenue sharing payer teams during his nine years of owning the Florida Marlins. Those teams were mostly the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Cubs. If you think that is a tough crowd to feel sympathy for, you’ve probably never co-owned a franchise with Loria.

For Jeffrey Loria, the $300 million from revenue sharing was one part of a double-double.  He has also seen his investment in MLB franchises grow by over $300 million.  Follow along as we trace how Loria’s investment in MLB has grown through the years:

  • 1993 – Failed in bid to purchase the Baltimore Orioles.
  • 1999 – Initial $12 million dollar investment in the Montreal Expos for a 24% interest in the franchise.
  • 2000 – Instead of putting up an additional $39 million towards a new downtown ballpark in Montreal as called for in the deal under which he entered as an investor, Loria outmaneuvered the other partners by cancelling those plans and initiating capital calls. Those capital calls result in Loria investing an additional $18 million to increase his ownership percentage from 24% to 93%. Thus Loria gained 93% of the Expos for roughly a $30 million investment.
  • 2001 – Loria threatens MLB with an antitrust lawsuit if they proceed with plans to contract the Montreal franchise without allowing Loria to continue to own another MLB team, preferably in Washington DC.
  • 2002 – MLB exchanges Loria’s ownership interest in the Montreal Expos for the Florida Marlins. The price MLB ascribed to the Expos was $120 million — a 900 percent return on his original investment, but only a 400 percent return on his total Expos ownership investment — plus a $38.5 million loan, $15 million of which was later forgiven.
  • 2002 through 2010 – Florida Marlins receive $302 million in revenue sharing monies.
  • 2002 through 2010 – Florida Marlins earn $154 million in operating income.
  • 2006 through 2010 – Florida Marlins Major League payroll is consistently one of the lowest in MLB.
  • 2009 – Local governments approve financing for construction of a retractable roof facility at the Orange Bowl site in Little Havana.
  • March 2011 – Forbes estimates the current value of the Florida Marlins at $360 million. Forbes earlier valuations of the Marlins have been very accurate.

Florida Marlins estimated Profit & Loss statement. Please click on image to enlarge or print.

This spreadsheet addresses the discrepancy between the Deadspin actuals and Forbes estimates. Please click on image to enlarge or print

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Larry Beinfest: Hyman Roth’s Progeny?

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Tom Hagen, he of German-Irish descent, quote from G2:

Roth, he … he played this one beautifully

Hyman Roth meet Larry Beinfest. The kid’s been running molasses out of Jamestown, Greenboro, Jupiter and New Orleans. He always make money for his partners and eventually, he’ll do the same for some of his prospects. They just need to be patient.

If you’re the Marlins getting ready for 2011, there is one financial constraint you have to work around. The next prospect with a chance to continue the recent string of rookie successes — Coghlan, Sanchez, Stanton and Morrison — cannot use up a year of arbitration in 2011. Which means, as Juan Rodriguez from the Sun-Sentinel explains, that Matt Dominguez won’t make it to the majors until “probably after the late-May arbitration cutoff date.”

So these were Beinfest’s options coming into Spring Training:

  1. Announce that 3B was Emilio Bonifacio’s job to lose
  2. Announce that 3B was Wes Helms’ job to lose
  3. Announce that 3B was Matt Dominguez’s job to lose
  4. Announce that there was an open competition for the job

Option #1 would have brought threats of violence from the Sabermetric community. Option #2 would have brought threats of violence from Wes Helms. His role and future with the Marlins appears set. No need to risk a .150 average in mid-May to potentially ruin the good vibes. So it came down to option #3 or #4.

The risk with option #4 is that Dominguez has a nice spring under the radar and now the Marlins have created a PR problem — New Ballpark = Caring = PR problem — when they send him down at the beginning of the season. Think of it this way, the Marlins had to decide under which option Dominguez would perform better this Spring and then select the other option. The choice on how to handle Dominguez came down to under the radar or as a top gun.

Evidence of the top gun expectations choice is that Dominguez was touted as one of the best fielding 3B in MLB right now and that only hitting would be a question mark. Once Dominguez struggled, now the Marlins have a prospect who probably accepts that he needs additional time in the minors instead of thinking that he belongs in the majors right away.

Somewhere, likely in Hell, Hyman Roth is smiling through a persistent cough and a urinary tract infection. If the Marlins trade for a 3B before the regular season begins, please ignore all the above.

The Rodriguez article is copied in full at the end of the post.
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Unsparing Profile Of A Heart Breaker

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Jorge Costales

Take a moment to see photographer Darcy Padilla’s Julie Project. A profoundly sad pictorial documentation of the life of a someone who never escaped the odds stacked against her. Ms Padilla states that she hopes that people will have a hard time forgetting Julie after seeing her work.

I never really think of God as having thoughts. But if He does, the Julie’s of the world must make Him sad and angry. I worry that the quicker I can forget about a Julie, the farther I move away from God.

Lyrics from the Rolling Stones 1973 song — DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO (HEARTBREAKER) — written by M. Jagger and K. Richards:

A ten year old girl on a street corner
Sticking needles in her arm
She died in the dirt of an alleyway
Her mother said she had no chance, no chance!
Heart breaker, heart breaker
She stuck the pins right in her heart
Heart breaker, a pain maker
Stole the love right out of you heart

Oh yeah (doo, doo doo doo doo)
Oh yeah (doo doo doo, doo doo)
I wanna tear that word apart

Yup.

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Lady Badgers Earn Fourth Title

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Jorge Costales

If they were ignorant, rude, loud and smelled [i.e. New Yorkers], we would be raising our pitchforks in unison to protest their domination of the Frozen Four. But they’re from Wisconsin, skilled and mostly blonde so nobody, and we mean nobody [outside of Minnesota], has an issue with them. They are the Lady Badgers and they recently earned their fourth NCAA championship. We first became aware of their greatness back in 2008 click here. Nice to know some things haven’t changed. Congratulations again Lady Badgers!

H/T to Scott — the Wisconsin Badgers proudest alumni south of the Mason-Reese Line — for the idea.

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