Keith Olbermann says Giancarlo Stanton's contract is a scam

In no uncertain terms, ESPN commentator and noted baseball fan Keith Olbermann gave us his opinion on Giancarlo Stanton's new $325 million mega contract with the Miami Marlins. It's another of Olbermann's scathing sports rants, which are always fun, and this time he's throwing haymakers at one of baseball's top punching bags — Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.

There's no shortage of skepticism about Loria and the Marlins, given their history of promising better days ahead and then fire-selling at the first glimpse of trouble. Yahoo Sports' Tim Brown and Jeff Passan have each written columns in the past week wary of Stanton's commitment to the Marlins. Brown says the contract is a one-man trust fall. Passan writes that Stanton's playing a dangerous game by trusting Loria.

There are good things about the contract, as we've pointed out previously — Stanton has an opt-out after the 2020 season, so he can flee if the Marlins haven't delivered on their promises of change. The Marlins are getting a deal in the early going, because Stanton is taking only $30 million in the first three years of his heavily backloaded contract. That gives the Marlins money to build around him, they say.

Some people — Olbermann included — don't believe that. The Marlins are long-skilled at the art of "seeming to spend money," Olbermann says, leveraging PR into profits and winning a little before dismantling the team. In all, Stanton is getting $107 million in six years before his opt-out clause kicks in, so it's not really a $325 million contract, it's potentially a $325 million contract. Getting Stanton for six years at $107 million is actually a bargain for the Marlins.

That leads to another theory floating around, one Olbermann didn't include in his rant. Some people in South Florida (and some people in my inbox) believe that Loria is setting up a future sale of the Marlins. Stanton's backloaded deal helps Loria and the Marlins make money in the immediate future. And starting next year, Loria could sell the team without having to give any of the profits back to the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County. Had he sold in 2009, for instance, 18 percent of the profits would have gone to the government. Some fans theorize that Loria could enjoy the cheaper years of Stanton, then sell the team before Stanton's opt-out date and not care about what happens to the Marlins and/or Stanton after that.

The common theme in all of this — even if you want to believe the best in Loria and the Marlins, like Stanton does — is that the club has an image problem to combat. Hope as they might, a big shiny contract isn't going to make people trust Loria or the Marlins. Certainly not in a week's time.