An Almost Insane Trade by the Marlins

[EDGECRUSHER]

According to Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Marlins discussed trading Mike Stanton to the White Sox for manager Ozzie Guillen.
It's an absolutely insane story, but actually somewhat believable. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is known for being stubborn and De Luca's source said that Loria was "intent" on making Guillen his club's next skipper. Talks eventually fell through and Guillen agreed last month to return to the White Sox for another season. Stanton, 20, is one of the most promising outfield prospects in baseball and slugged 22 home runs this year in only 359 at-bats. To say the least, it wouldn't have been a fair trade for the Fish.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times

That would've been a disaster for Florida. How can an owner be so stupid?

[Sunstroke]

This sounds like the typed-out wet dream of a ChiSox beat writer who doesn't like Guillen...

[Brian Fein]

I think this would have been the last straw for some Marlins fans...

[Sunstroke]

If they made that trade, I swear, I'd buy a Mike Stanton White Sox jersey and wear it to as many Marlins home games as I could get tickets for...

[Landshark]

If they made that trade, I swear, I'd buy a Mike Stanton White Sox jersey and wear it to as many Marlins home games as I could get tickets for...

Seeing how the Marlins are dead last in attendance, I'm sure you could get tickets for all 81 home games. 

[Pappy13]

I'm afraid that the White Sox would have lost out on that trade.  Ozzie is the best manager in baseball in my humble opinion.  The players all love him.  The fans love him because he tells it like it is and doesn't talk all that stupid manager double talk and his style of baseball is fun to watch.  I love me some Ozzie Ball.  Hope he stays with the Sox for a long time to come.

[Dave Gray]

Ozzie would probably do well in the South Florida market.  They're really marketing hispanics for the Marlins.  It might give the team some swagger or personality, for which it has none.

[Brian Fein]

^^ fine, but Stanton is the future of the team.  He's been much better than Maybin, the previously anointed future of the team.  You give him away for a manager and you give away any chance of being good in the next 5-10 years, IMO.

[Sunstroke]

I'm afraid that the White Sox would have lost out on that trade.  Ozzie is the best manager in baseball in my humble opinion.

Stanton has a legitimate shot at becoming a "35+ HR, 100+ RBI every season" kind of slugger, and you don't deal away 20 year old (and already) major league starters with that sort of pop, unless you have an abundance of pop and need starting pitching desperately.

Florida isn't in that position. They actually have a decent amount of quality young pitching, from Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez to young arms at the AA and AAA levels. Not to say you can EVER have too much good pitching cookin' down on the farm...just that Florida isn't in desperation mode in that area right now.

I like Ozzie Guillen, and while I'll stop short of calling him the best manager in baseball, I'll say that I consider him one of the best...pretty much every season. With that said, I just don't think you trade away talented ballplayers for a new manager. I think the key is to get a quality manager, quality pitching and hitting coaches, and give them a ridiculous amount of Hanley-Josh-Stanton-type talent to work with.

[Pappy13]

I like Ozzie Guillen....

I'm a White Sox fan so I'm a bit biased.  I also don't know a thing about Stanton, so you'll have to take my comments with a grain of salt on this one.  Still Ozzie has done a great job with a mediocre White Sox team winning 1 series and making them competitive all the other years and Stanton hasn't done a whole lot....yet.

[Sunstroke]

Considering that Stanton has only been in the majors one season, I'd say that he's done quite a bit.

Again...I like Ozzie too...but not enough to start trading away the Marlins' best young players to get him.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I believe the best thing a manager can do is not screw up. When they do screw up, they are detriments to the team and should be booted. Ozzie flip flops between these two things.

Besides, Stanton played amazing this season for a rookie. His power is off the charts. You do not trade a player like him, especially if you are the money grubbing owner of the Marlins for a high priced manager. The first thing Ozzie would do is start fights with Hanley Ramirez and force a trade.

[Pappy13]

Considering that Stanton has only been in the majors one season, I'd say that he's done quite a bit.

Again...I like Ozzie too...but not enough to start trading away the Marlins' best young players to get him.

Only part of one year.  That's not nearly enough time to determine his long term value to the Marlins or anyone else.

[Pappy13]

Don't believe everything you read on ESPN about Ozzie.  A lot of the stuff they write about Ozzie is blown way out of proportion.  The White Sox organization really likes Ozzie.  Sure he's had some disagreements with the general manager, but they are good friends and that's partially why they can argue about stuff.  They both just want to win real bad.

And yeah Ozzie says some stuff at times that the White Sox would prefer he not say, but the truth of it is that Ozzie doesn't filter himself like 99% of managers do.  They'll tell you what you want to hear rather than what you know is the truth.  Ozzie doesn't do that.  He'll tell you like it is straight up, he doesn't care whether it's the politically correct thing to say.  That's extremely refreshing in this day in age.  He's a bit like Rex Ryan without all the macho "Were #1" bullshit that Ryan spouts.

The fact is that Ozzie is good for baseball and the players love him to death and would run through a brick wall for him because they know that Ozzie would run through a brick wall for them as well.