Larry Brown Sports

Ozzie Guillen is out of baseball this season and would like back in. The former Chicago White Sox manager said so this week. He also says that going to manage the Miami Marlins was a “big mistake.”

Guillen was a guest with Waddle and Silvy on ESPN Chicago Radio on Wednesday and says he still has a good relationship with the White Sox. He also says his decision to move to the Marlins was a “big mistake.”

“I was naive about the situation like everybody out there,” Guillen admitted, saying he went to Miami for the money. “My dream and my eye was a little deeper than last year, and all of a sudden, ‘boom’, it got shutdown.”

Guillen says he’s still not sure why he got fired, but figures it’s because he finished last. He does think Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria was “fair” with him, which is different from how he felt last year.

Guillen also holds no hard feelings towards the White Sox, for whom he played 13 seasons and managed eight.

“I don’t have anything against the White Sox. One thing about it is people really (didn’t) understand what the situation was (that led to the departure). Jerry (Reinsdorf) came out and said, ‘Listen, that’s what it was.’ I want(ed) (a) one more year contract. They (didn’t) give it to me,” Guillen said, via ESPN Chicago. “I (made) a big mistake and (went) down to Miami.”

Guillen was asked about managing the Chicago Cubs and said he was open to it, however, he wanted to make it clear that he was not campaigning for the job out of respect for Dale Sveum, who is his former teammate. He did say he was available to any team interested in him.

The best part of the interview was when Ozzie was asked about his dream job and he said being married to Jennifer Lopez so he could stay at home without having to work. Typical Ozzie. After last year’s disaster in Miami — which included his comments about Fidel Castro — I don’t see any team being desperate enough to hire him any time too soon.

Miami Marlins fans are not entering the 2013 season with a great deal of optimism, and why should they be? After building a brand new ballpark, bringing in Ozzie Guillen as manager, and signing big names like Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle last offseason, the team has already decided to blow up their rebuilding project and start fresh.

According to Joe Capozzi of The Palm Beach Post, a handful of Marlins fans decided to protest the team’s recent failures at the home opener on Monday by showing up wearing shirts and holding signs that were critical of the team and owner Jeffrey Loria. Those fans say they were kicked out.

“We’re Marlins fans,” 25-year-old Dan Barton, one of the fans who was ejected, said. “We’ve been there since 1993. We’ve been through only two winning seasons. We’re tired of it. I’m just over it. Free the Marlins.”

“It’s just sheer selfishness. Now you have this guy coming in. False promises, false hopes. I’m tired of it. We’re tired of the ownership. We’re tired of Jeffrey Loria.”

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Does anything exemplify the mess that is the Miami Marlins better than this graphic? The New York Mets played a three-game series with the Marlins over the weekend, winning two of the games. Their TV broadcaster, SNY, shared the amazing graphic seen above.

SNY says the Marlins’ home run sculpture cost more money to build than nearly everyone on the team’s roster is being paid this season.

Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Marlins’ opening day payroll is $50,526,900. Pitcher Ricky Nolasco is the highest-paid player on the team at $11.5 million this season. Placido Polanco is earning $2.75 million. Those are the only players on the roster making more than the $2.5 million figure. Shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria is making $1.75 million, but he’s up to $2.75 million if you add in one million from his $4 million signing bonus signed in 2010. The Marlins are paying $4 million this season for Heath Bell to stink for the Arizona Diamondbacks, so they do have that going for them.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is NOT how to build an MLB team. But, hey, they do have an awesome sculpture to show for it:

Photo via Yardbarker on Facebook

Retired MLB manager Lou Piniella signed a deal to work as a commentator for the YES Network this year. The regular season has yet to begin, but on Wednesday we got a taste of why someone who is a little rough around the edges like Piniella may be better off in the dugout than the broadcaster’s booth.

During the third inning of a spring training game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, the subject of how much the Toronto Blue Jays improved over the offseason came up. Like most of us, Piniella feels that the Blue Jays got the best of the blockbuster deal that brought them Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle. Lou just needs to learn how to appropriately express himself.

“Well they just, I don’t want to use the word ‘raped,’ but they basically took a lot of talent from the Miami Marlins,” Piniella said. “Toronto will probably be picked to win the (AL East) by a lot of people.”

Yikes. It was smart of Piniella to not want to use the word “raped,” but the not using it part is more important than the thought itself. If “Talladega Nights” taught us anything, it’s that you can’t just whatever you want simply because you lead into by saying “with all due respect.”

We love you, Lou. We loved your managing style and your uncanny ability to fly off the handle. But the next time your instinct tells you not to say something, it’s probably best to just bite your tongue.

For audio of Piniella’s slip-up, click here.

If you thought the Miami Marlins had trouble putting fans in the stands in years past, wait until you get a load of what they are doing this year. Now that the team has decided to fire Ozzie Guillen and trade Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle to the Toronto Blue Jays, interest in the upcoming season seems lower than ever. Aside from Giancarlo Stanton, there isn’t much that is going to inspire Marlins fans (if there are any) to attend a game.

However, we have some good news for those Marlins fans who actually enjoy attending games at the brand new ballpark the team just built in Miami. If you purchase a ticket to the Marlins home opener against the Atlanta Braves on April 8th, you will receive a ticket to any other game of your choice — on the house.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Marlins ran a promotion last year where fans who purchased a season-ticket package would be entered into a lottery for a chance to score a ticket to the first ever game at the new Marlins Park. Now that the park is a full year old, the team can’t even give tickets away.

Marlins president David Samson season ticket sales have fallen to under 5,000 this season from 12,000 last year. The home opener on April 8 still isn’t sold out. The Marlins are a Major League Baseball team, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time before they’re shooting human beings out of cannons in an attempt to get people to come to the ballpark.

H/T Big League Stew

When Jose Reyes makes his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays this season, he will be playing for his third team in as many years. Bouncing around from team-to-team can be challenging, but such is the life of a professional athlete. However, Reyes insists Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria tried to make life more difficult for him than it had to be.

In addition to assuring Reyes that the Marlins would never trade him, the shortstop says Loria was telling him to buy himself a nice house in Miami right up until two days before he was traded to Toronto.

“He always told me to get a nice house in Miami,” Reyes said, via Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com. “I was at a dinner with him in New York, and he was still talking about the house.

“Two days later, I got traded.”

Reyes said he was so stunned by the news that he had been traded after the discussion he and Loria had at dinner that he thought someone was playing a prank on him. He quickly realized it was the real deal, and he said he has not spoken to Loria or any of Miami’s management since.

As for the Marlins themselves, Reyes said he feels badly for the city and its fans.

“I feel sorry for the fan base in Miami,” he said.

Why does that sound so familiar? Maybe because he said the exact same thing about the New York Mets last season. Luckily, Reyes said he did not purchase a home in Miami and is not planning to buy one in Toronto. With the way he has been shipped from place to place over the past several seasons, that’s probably a wise decision.

Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Mike Redmond will make his MLB managing debut with the Miami Marlins in 2013, so it would be understandable if the casual fan has never heard of him. The former catcher spent 13 seasons in the majors and won a World Series with the Marlins in 2003, but that was before Miami prospect Jose Fernandez’s time.

Fernandez, the top pitching prospect in the Marlins system according to Baseball America, was asked a general question about Redmond on Tuesday and it caught him off guard. Simply put, he had no idea what Miami’s new manager’s name was.

“Can you talk about how Mike Redmond was here today?” Local 10′s Alyana Cristal asked Fernandez on Tuesday.

“Who?” the puzzled youngster replied.

Video of the humorous exchange can be seen here. Someone then informed Fernandez that Redmond is now the manager of the MLB club that he aspires to pitch for one day.

“Oh, okay. I don’t know his name, I just met him,” Fernandez said. “I just met him a bit ago. We had a meeting so he passed by at the meeting and introduced himself. He’s pretty nice.”

Clearly he didn’t make a fantastic impression. Redmond obviously isn’t as famous or as big a personality as Ozzie Guillen was, but one would think the top prospect in a minor league system would know the name of the highest-ranking manager in the organization. If Fernandez still doesn’t know who Redmond is by April, then we can start worrying.