I have been bred to irrationally despise the Marlins as a Braves fan. They just bother me. Thus, their collapse into a really bad 2011 season made me smile a little bit. Chaos seems to reign around this team, with Edwin Rodriguez stepping down as manager midseason, Logan Morrison being demoted to AAA and the rumors that swirled around what happened there, and a ton of hoopla about the new logo and center field decorations at the new Miami stadium. But there were some bright spots in the final year at Joe Robbie/Pro Player/whatever the hell it’s called Park.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Mike Stanton’s second MLB season was a pleasure to watch, as the 21 year old had an .893 OPS and homered a team-high 34 times. Emilio Bonifacio, a much maligned figure in the sabermetric community, actually contributed a lot to the team this year, OPSing .753 with 40 stolen bases. Anibal Sanchez had a great year on the mound for the Fish, with a 3.67 ERA and his second straight year of 195 innings. Javier Vazquez had an awful first half, but finished strong, and his overall line was impressive: a 3.69 ERA with the peripherals to back it up is always welcome in a rotation.
WHAT WENT WRONG
We can start with one guy: Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez battled injuries all year, and played in just 92 games. He wasn’t even good when healthy, OPSing .712 with just ten homers. Morrison was demoted to AAA because of his “low batting average”, but the drama behind his demotion was the real issue, because his .798 OPS was pretty damn good. Former Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan OPSed .664 in 298 plate appearances, and lost his job. On the mound, ace pitcher Josh Johnson made just nine starts and threw only 60 1/3 innings. They were 60 1/3 awesome innings: a 1.64 ERA and 56 strikeouts. But I’m sure the Marlins would have rather had 20 more starts and 120 or so more innings out of him.
SURPRISES
Bonifacio’s solid season was pretty surprising to me, as a guy who never had an OPS in his career above .650. The team getting any positive value out of Vazquez has to be a plus when you look at how bad he was for the Yankees in 2010. Aside from those guys, no one on the Marlins really exceeded my expectations for them in 2011.
DISAPPOINTMENTS
In addition to Ramirez’s bad year, I’ll give a nod to Ricky Nolasco, the king of outperforming his peripherals. Despite a 3.54 FIP, Nolasco’s ERA was 4.67. His strikeout rate has fallen three years in a row, to the point now where it’s average. I don’t know what the Marlins expected out of Omar Infante, replacing a bona fide masher in Dan Uggla, but I don’t think a .697 OPS is what they had in mind. Speaking of disappointments, how about John Buck and his .683 OPS behind the plate? He’s uh, still under contract for the next two years.
2012 CHANGES
In typical Marlins fashion, they’ve only got a couple of free agents on their team: Vazquez and Greg Dobbs. Dobbs could be brought back, but he absolutely shouldn’t be starting at third again after his awful 2011. There are rumors that Vazquez will be retiring, and the Marlins could use one of their internal candidates to fill his rotation spot.
POSITION BATTLES
There really aren’t any battles in Florida. Will Logan Morrison retain his starting job? Well, he should at least. Third base will be interesting, as top prospect Matt Dominguez can’t hit, but is a great fielder. Coghlan could be in contention for that spot too. For Vazquez’s rotation spot, we could be looking at guys like Brad Hand, Clay Hensley, and others to fill the spot. Considering the relative strength of Florida’s rotation with a healthy Johnson, Sanchez, and Nolasco, they could live with a lower level option at the back end of things.
