The subject of one of the most dramatic trades of the off-season, the Florida Marlins moved key players Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera to Detroit for a host of young prospects, as ownership starkly asserted that they were no longer able to afford the rising performers. While the validity of that statement may depend on who you ask (Jeffery Loria is not a rigidly strapped man, financially), it appears the Marlins have decided to shell off their major talent in favor of potential once again.

To put in perspective exactly how much the bottom scrapers have fallen behind the rest of the school, their total payroll for 2008 will only be slightly more than Francisco Cordero’s new salary with the Reds. Seriously. Their highest paid player receiving barely two million, and most looking at under 900 K, I imagine Loria’s pockets are feeling rather capacious right now. This is, of course, nothing new for Marlin fans, for whom the yearly hot stove seasons must perpetually feel like Beatrix waking from her coma to realize the orderly has been selling sexual access to her body. Florida’s been ravaged again!

Ah, the life of a small revenue team. Notice I didn’t say small market—their market, though not obtuse, supports exceedingly more than the owners’ pockets. With an annual income averaging about $60 million, but only throwing about a fifth of that to salaries, these penny-pinching businessmen are really raking it in. As we see them shipping off all their talented guys, just as soon as the world begins to notice, it’s curious to speculate the validity of their actions.

Are they helping or hurting their team? Are they building for the future or acting out of indifference to their place in the league standings? It seems that Jeff Loria and his strategies are great from a business standpoint, even though they’re lousy from a fan perspective. Loria and crew has managed to keep the club’s total payroll on the bottom rung of the major leagues, while maintaining a flourishing farm system that replenishes itself by acquiring more young hopefuls as the existing ones reap the monetary gains as soon as they glimmer with possibility on a larger stage. Their rosters are eternally “almost great”, brimming with unproven talent and escalating ability. As witnessed in 1997 and 2003, they’ve even somehow found a way to win a couple World Series’ in the capping years—when their system had been brewing and brewing and would soon overflow so dramatically that the majority of the stew would land at other places on the stovetop, the potent boil reduced to overdone potatoes and broth. In the years following those victories, the front office promptly executed shocking fire sales showing no concern with the sentimentals that had just won them the big prize. And there they would start all over, lying on the ropes, like rebels waiting in the shadows, building legitimate competitors at every position, slowly mounting an attack against the empire. All of the sudden, just when we’ve neglected to count them into contention, they emerge out of nowhere with a substantial team and take everyone by surprise.

And it may not take them too long to get there this time. Acquiring promising centerfielder Cameron Maybin (1st rd draft pick in ’05) and 2006 1st round draft pick, lefty Andrew Miller along with Mike Rabelo (potential back-up catcher) and right-handers Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz and Burke Badenhop, the fish certainly got their money’s worth while shedding contracts and fan support.

It seems like the Marlins, on a Jennifer Love Hewitt Expand and Shed diet, have found the secret to cultivating a profitable business based on a modest market. Will they produce a dynasty any time soon? Not unless Florida brass has a massive turnover or abandons their financial concepts. But will they win it all again in the next decade? I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw it again a couple times. They’ll keep the big dogs on their toes, their fans teetering between summers reeking with swelling anticipation and winters spent contemplating driving off a very steep cliff. The stew is simmering. Waiting for the moment when it overflows is simply a matter of time.