Beinfest continues to work magic for Marlins

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It's OK to despise the Florida Marlins owner, who cares so little about the team's fans that he openly insults them with the smallest payroll in baseball.Not that being cheap is the only reason to dislike Jeffrey Loria.Just ask Joe Girardi.Truth is, Loria has a better team than he deserves -- a team that is playing better baseball than anyone had a right to expect.He has a team that went to the ballpark Wednesday night sitting atop the National League East with a stunning 12-8 record, despite a payroll that rivals Derek Jeter's salary.And for that, you've got to love Larry Beinfest, the Marlins president of baseball operations and the architect of any success the team has enjoyed since he joined the front office in 2002.He put together the low-budget team that knocked off the high-priced New York Yankees to win the 2003 World Series. He fired Jeff Torborg and brought in Jack McKeon, who turned a losing clubhouse into a room filled with champions. He has kept the Marlins competitive with payrolls that paled in comparison to most of their National League rivals.Even after Loria instructed him to severely cut payroll in 2006, Beinfest's Marlins won 78 games in a season when everyone expected them to lose more than 100.Girardi, the manager Loria foolishly fired over petty personal differences, gets plenty of credit for that. He taught a young, unproven team how to compete.But Beinfest was the mastermind. He put the pieces in place.Now, he's at it again, winning with another roster filled with off-Broadway names. More impressive, he's doing it with a $21 million payroll.Let's put that into perspective:-- The Marlins are paying their players less than half the money being spent by the Tampa Bay Rays, who have the second-smallest payroll in baseball.-- The Yankees, whose $209 million payroll is the biggest in baseball, have two players -- Alex Rodriguez ($28 million) and Jason Giambi ($23 million) -- whose salaries are more than all of the Marlins combined.-- The Marlins are in first place in a feisty division in which they're being significantly outspent by the New York Mets ($138 million), Atlanta Braves ($103 million), Philadelphia Phillies ($98 million) and Washington Nationals ($55 million).Loria ought to be embarrassed.But he has Beinfest.And Beinfest's genius.Whether it's through the draft or what he gets in return in trades, Beinfest keeps finding young talent and bringing it to South Florida at bargain basement prices.Be honest: Would you recognize Dan Uggla if he walked into your neighborhood sports pub? How about Josh Willingham? Or Jeremy Hermida? Or Jorge Cantu? All of them, though, are helping the Marlins win when nobody thought they could.The Marlins entered Wednesday night's game in Atlanta with a 5-3 record on the road, where they've hit 17 home runs. They were 5-1 in one-run games, 12-1 in games in which they had scored at least four runs, and they had come from behind in eight of their 12 victories.They're playing good baseball.But against lousy teams.Nine of the Marlins' wins had come against teams with three of the worst records in the league -- Houston, Pittsburgh and Washington. The only winning team they've faced was the Mets, who beat them twice in three games.So we still don't know how good these Marlins really are. We still don't know, three weeks in, how long the winning will last.Maybe this is another Beinfest masterpiece, similar to what we saw in 2003.Maybe it's just an April tease.Either way, it's already better than Marlins fans expected. And it's far more than Loria deserves.E-mail Ray McNulty at ray.mcnulty(at)scripps.com. McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. On the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)