With Wednesday’s trade of Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera to Detroit, Florida has now lost every member of the 2003 World Series championship squad. While Hot Shit College Student asks the musical question, “how much art can Jeffrey Loria take?”, the Palm Beach Post’s David George insists that even if new acquisitions Camron Maybin and Andrew Miller shine in their Marlins debut campaigns, it really doesn’t matter.

The Marlins were a 91-loss team last season and figure to be worse hereafter minus the last two remnants from the 2003 world title team.That means Miller, a left-handed pitcher, could win seven straight starts, as Willis did during his debut season, and the feat would be more of a curiosity than a key to genuine contention.

Maybin, likewise, could pound the ball like Cabrera did from the start and fix Florida’s lingering problem in center field but, really, how do you get emotionally involved in the development of another Marlins miracle who, just like Hanley Ramirez, is only passing through?

Miller and Maybin, you see, are coming along at exactly the wrong time, along with four other Tigers prospects thrown in with the deal.

They’re coming to the Marlins while the franchise is forfeiting whatever remains of its identity, unless Jeff Conine is willing to come back in return for a free cot in the clubhouse and all the bubble gum he can chew.

They’re coming while the team’s owner is willing to donate a reported $20 million to build the Jeffrey Loria Center for the History of Art at Yale University, his alma mater, but draws the line at spending $20 million to keep Willis and Cabrera around.

HSCS helpfully supplies the following quote from the Loria Center’s press release,

Loria said that when he first came to Yale, he was set on being a pre-med student. Then he discovered art history. œI give a tremendous amount of credit to the University for guiding me in life and the passions that I have had about art. The courses that I took, whether with Vincent Scully in art and architecture or with George Hamilton in modern art, inspired me, he said. œThey opened my eyes to things I had never seen. The major in Art History was the foundation for my career.

While you’re all getting over the notion of Vin Scully and George Hamilton being members of the Yale faculty, consider this : if an institution as prestigious as Yale will name a building after a public figure as widely despised as Loria, which University will start construction of the James Dolan School For The Performing Arts?