After the megadeal between the Marlins and Blue Jays that saw Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Josh Johnson all shipped out of Miami, many Marlins fans vented their displeasure with team owner Jeffrey Loria. A poll of 400 MLB fans in South Florida revealed just how high the level of disdain had grown to.
In the poll, of which 90% of respondents called themselves Marlins fans, just 23 (or around 6%) had a favorable impression of Loria and 83% had an unfavorable impression of him. Among the people surveyed, a third of them said they personally knew Loria, which helps kill a little bit of the narrative that he really has a heart of gold once you get to know him. To put that 6% in contrast, the approval rating in Southern Florida for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is generally around 1%.
Other responses from the poll included 87% of Marlins fans feeling "furious and betrayed" by the trade, 61% of season ticket holders polled supporting a boycott of the team in 2013 if it would result in Loria selling the team, 85% of Marlins fans thinking the trade helps the Blue Jays more than the Marlins in the future, 89% of fans thinking Loria has the obligation to put a contending team on the field after the taxpayers paid for Marlins park, and finally, 95% of the fans thinking that the trade was a fire sale.
I know a 400 person sample isn't very significant, but the poll numbers are shocking for Loria and the Marlins front office staff. While the prospects acquired in the trade may help them in the future, the ramifications might hurt the team a lot more in the short-term than they can help in the long-term.
