A few days ago, I profiled Mike Stanton’s brutal treatment of Southern League pitching and appealed to the baseball gods for his call-up. Stanton has a .452-7-16 line in his last 8 games with Jacksonville. He’s made a pretty compelling case, and the Marlins could still use his bat, but that’s neither here nor there. If they haven’t brought him up by now, it’s clear that they probably aren’t going to do so by June 1st.

Most fans would like to imagine ownership as preoccupied with the concept of winning. Cleveland owner Richard Jacobs once quipped, “We won’t make any money, but we’ll have a damn good team.” Yet, because all owners want to make money, it follows that there is a certain pragmatism to this – pragmatism about collateral markets, about endorsements, merchandising, media, etc. Sometimes, pragmatism mandates hiring the very best scouts and minds and paying for the right players in order to win. Sometimes, it equates winning with adding revenue. And then sometimes it just means pocketing all that extra dough rather than reinvesting it in the team. In that last sense, amid the ownerships of all thirty clubs, Florida owner Jeffrey Loria is among the most “pragmatic.”

Loria isn’t one given to the notion of nonpecuniary advantages. Not one like Tampa Bay owner Stuart Sternberg, who opened his own checkbook to build the very blueprint for success by a cost-conscious team. This approach has quintupled the value of the Rays’ franchise in Sternberg’s first five years as owner. Tampa’s payroll is roughly twice that of the Marlins, who sit at the bottom of the league, and they still field a very competitive team despite the fact that they play in an office building, and in the game’s toughest division. Heck, as a Red Sox fan, even I like the Rays enough to buy their stuff.

Nor has Loria, until recently, taken baseball’s revenue-sharing system as a lease on roster-building, or as anything more than a way to pay off his own debts. Too many potential franchise players – such as Josh Beckett, Miguel Cabrera and Derrek Lee – have been parted with because of Loria’s unwillingness, not his inability, to sign them to a decent contract. In fact, it is precisely because of owners like him this system faces a serious overhaul. Instead, the Marlins’ owner is a guy who – and look no further than this – tried to save money by cutting the mascot’s salary in half. So here’s some food for thought, Mr. Loria:

Put aside the fact that in 2008, your scouts nearly netted you Atlanta’s Jason Heyward in the first round (instead of Matt Dominguez) and still picked you Stanton in the second. Please take a brief moment to imagine both Stanton and Heyward in your farm system, and allow that to sink in. OK. OK. Now, let’s look at the effect which the divergent Heyward, in starting his season in the majors, has had on Atlanta’s bottom line.

This year, the Braves had the biggest opening day attendance of any team in baseball, their biggest opener in more than a decade. Moreover, Atlanta has drawn 44,440 more fans than they had through their first six home dates last year. This could be attributed to a few different factors, until you see that Heyward kid’s jerseys being snatched up as though they are already collector’s items. The Braves didn’t save themselves any in his coming arbitration, but they did recognize an appeal which fans literally can’t deny, and it bodes well with the bookkeepers.

Unlike Jason Heyward, Mike Stanton isn’t playing in his hometown, but there is no ambiguity about his talent. He’s an enormously exciting position player who hits home runs with casual violence. No matter what your ownership style, he’s a cant-miss combo of the right stuff. Pushing back his arbitration date reflects a kind of pragmatism. Adopting him as a franchise cornerstone and a darling of the turnstiles might reflect another sort, as well.