Marlins open spring training with frustration, uncertainty

MIAMI -- A.J. Burnett's 15-minute pitching workout last week at Pro Player Stadium began to unravel with a couple of wild fastballs and a curve that bounced five feet in front of the plate.

By the end of the session, Burnett found himself unable to throw a strike, so he angrily turned toward the stands, reared back and threw the ball over the upper deck.

Forgive the Florida Marlins for letting their frustration show.

Spring training starts today, but because of the pending sale of the team to Montreal Expos owner Jeffrey Loria, the team remains in leaderless limbo. The roster has effectively been frozen all winter, and aside from one minor trade, the only move by Marlins officials has been out the door.

Players have been left scratching their heads, wondering who'll be running the team.

"We would like to know," right-hander Brad Penny said. "But we can't control what's going on upstairs."

Manager Tony Perez quit after last season, president and general manager Dave Dombrowski left for the Detroit Tigers in November, and there has since been a steady stream of front-office defections. This week even the sod at Pro Player Stadium was gone, ripped out following a monster truck show.

But new grass was on the way, and there's other good news:

Major league owners are expected to approve the sale today in a conference call vote.

Last year's roster remains intact, which means the Marlins head into this season of transition with a real shot at a winning record, something achieved only once in franchise history, by the 1997 World Series champions.

Loria is expected to bring with him much of the Expos hierarchy, including Jeff Torborg, who will become the Marlins' third manager in nine months. The team he inherits will include a slugger coming off his best year in Cliff Floyd, a potential 40-40 player in Preston Wilson, an All-Star catcher in Charles Johnson and a young pitching staff that remains the envy of baseball.

The Marlins finished a disappointing 76-86 last season and failed to upgrade, while NL East rivals Atlanta and the New York Mets were active during the winter.

"Everybody is making moves, and we haven't done anything," Penny said. "Our division is going to be a lot tougher than last year, especially with the pickups the Mets and Braves made. We've got our work cut out for us."

Perhaps the biggest challenge will be to ignore speculation regarding the franchise's future. Last year, as the stalled campaign for a taxpayer-financed ballpark fueled talk of relocation, the season took a nosedive.

That's a coincidence, Wilson said. But he acknowledged the potential for distraction.

"You can drive yourself crazy if you try to figure out what-if and how," Wilson said. "You just prepare yourself the best you can for the job you have to do. Let the people who make those decisions have the sleepless nights."

At least the players know where to report for spring training. After weeks of discussion about swapping sites with the Expos and moving workouts to Jupiter, Fla., Loria agreed to keep the Marlins further north in Melbourne for at least one more year.

In four seasons since winning the World Series, the Marlins have lost 374 games, most of their fan base and tens of millions of dollars. It's unclear how Loria expects to revive the franchise, or why he would want to try. His stepson, David Samson, is expected to become the Marlins' top executive and acknowledges skepticism toward the new ownership.

"Time will prove to people what our horizon is," Samson said. "There's short-term pain sometimes. You don't fulfill expectations with words. You fulfill them with actions."

Loria apparently believes winning will make it easier to lobby for a ballpark, because he plans a payroll of about $45 million this season, a 29 percent increase over last year and by far the highest since the championship season.

That will allow the Marlins to keep Johnson, Floyd and ace right-hander Ryan Dempster, at least for now. Barring spring trades, the lineup that set club records for runs and home runs in 2001 returns intact, as does a pitching staff that lowered its ERA for the third consecutive season.

The biggest weakness remains the youth of the starting pitchers, with 27-year-old Matt Clement the elder statesman. Dempster and Burnett are 24, Penny is 23 and promising rookie Josh Beckett is 21.

"We're looking for those guys to step up and do the things they're capable of doing," Wilson said.

Few doubt the Marlins' potential. Everyone wonders whether they can win enough to make Loria's $158.5 million purchase pay off.

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