Nickels and Dimes in Miami

Teams and coaches part ways every year, and you figure that there are plenty of reasons for departures. Performance. Personality clashes. Other opportunities. It's just like any other job. Money is probably a common point of dispute as well, but rarely do you actually hear about that publicly because, let's face it, teams that pay backups seven figure salaries aren't often going to go to the mattresses over a few thousand up or down for a coach, and even if they are, they aren't going to take that fight to the newspapers.

Not so for the Florida Marlins:

Pitching coach Rick Kranitz has left the Marlins because of what sources described as a dispute over his salary for next season . . .[Fredi] Gonzalez had said Sunday that he expected the entire staff to return. Beinfest said Kranitz last week was offered a contract and raise for 2008, but would not elaborate. Kranitz's current salary is not publicly known, but a source said the Marlins offered him a $5,000 raise. Kranitz thought he deserved more, the source said. Another source said at least one other coach wasn't happy with his raise but was not angry enough to leave.

Look, if you're a pitching coach and your pitching staff goes from fifth best in the NL to dead last in one season you should count your blessings that you're not getting canned, and making a fuss over a bubkis raise may be inadvisable. That said, it reflects pretty poorly on the Marlins as an organization that they are so publicly nickeling-and-diming coaches. Unless of course they are simply broke in which case maybe they should consider a move to a better market.

Oh wait . . .