Miami Youth Movement -- Or Penny Pinching?

Christian Yelich, so impressive during exhibition play, made his regular season debut with the Marlins last night -- and sparkled. Three hits in his first three at-bats and a pair of RBIs in a 4 - 2 win at Colorado. Recalled with fellow pheenom Jake Marisnick (a key piece in the salary-dump trade that sent Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle to Toronto), they're part of a young team making minimum money the team hopes can become winners in a few years.
Building up and then tearing down rosters has been Miami's ugly legacy over its 20-year major league run. Proof the policy doesn't work is the meager attendance and media attention they receive. Just look at the sports home page of this morning's Miami Herald -- whose Marlins story is buried on the lower right side far below the Dolphins training camp report. Is it fair to say that ownership poisoned the baseball marketplace of South Florida? I would.
Or that palatial domed stadium (built mostly with state and county money) in downtown Miami: remember, as part of the deal for public financing, the club promised to beef up their payroll? The policy didn't even last a full season before Hanley Ramirez was shipped out, followed by Reyes, Buehrle and the other big names. Piling up revenue-sharing money while fostering apathy is a recipe for failure. It'll take a lot more than Yelich, Marisnick and their All Star teammate Jose Fernandez to change that anytime soon.

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