For all the talk that the FO does a great job assembling talent, they have not shown that they can turn this talent into a good return the last few years.

That being said, I was fine with keeping Uggla for ‘09, because I felt the team could win that year and that Uggla could repeat a lot of his good 2008. That he had a “down” 2009 (if you count 3 WAR a down season, I suppose) is unfortunate, but not something we could have foreseen.

In general though, you’re right. It seems the team values its mid-level hitting talent (Cantu, Ross) very highly, without considering other aspects other than affordability. I wonder if the team really looks into surplus value analysis when they do these trades.

I could not agree more with everything you mentioned. The frustrating part is that the players we acquired from a combination of luck/scouting (Cantu,Uggla) are not going to be used properly in trade talk. It seems to me the team just doesn’t judge the trade value of players very well. You trade players after career years, not after subpar ones. How do you keep Uggla for 2009?! How do you not at least field offers for Cantu after a great 2008? Did they honestly feel he can repeat his performance? It just doesn’t make sense. Alas, all we can do hope the team makes the right decisions down the road.

Clearly the front office has been strapped by the payroll constraint. Moves to improve the team outside of getting young talent have been difficult to accomplish. The biggest issue perhaps is that the Marlins have missed on a few evaluations, particularly the Willingham/Olsen move for Bonifacio and resigning Wes Helms to a two-year deal to do nothing on the bench.

Still, I think you can credit them for finding cheap talent to fill out an otherwise empty roster. They nabbed Uggla in Rule 5, Cantu and Ross off the scrap heaps, and lucked out into some good performances. Without those three moves, we might be closer to the Nationals than the Braves in terms of winning. And the pitching surplus that they’ve received in trades has weathered us through the last few seasons, though we are still trying to find an identity.

I came into this blog looking for ways to analyze how well the Marlins’ front office has done in keeping the team afloat with this kind of payroll, but I’ve found it difficult to separate their performance from luck. What if Jose Bautista or Alex Sanchez win their respective position jobs in 2008 and 2006? What if Pokey Reese doesn’t go AWOL? Maybe the Marlins never luck out with Cantu or Ross. Maybe those guys do well. In hindsight, it looks like the team did a great job, but no one has the power of hindsight at the time of the move.

It’s something friend and reader Nny posted before in another thread. Maybe the team has just been lucky. Hanley’s great, and maybe a few of these moves were scouting-based, but the revelation of Cantu and bullpen luck could easily be considered out of their hands.