The Combustible Marlins

The Marlins spent money last off-season in a way that they haven’t done
since the days of Wayne Huizenga owning the franchise in the mid 90s.
The Marlins signed Ozzie Guillien as their new manager. The Marlins also
signed a trio of All-Stars in shortstop Jose Reyes, starting pitcher
Mark Buehrle, and closer Heath Bell. The idea behind Marlins general
manager Michael Hill’s spending was to give the people of South Florida
thoughts of another World Series team, but instead The Marlins have been
a sub .500 team for the majority of the season as only The Philadelphia
Phillies have a worse record than them in The National League East.

With the mix of their free agent signings, Guillen, and a cast of
homegrown talent that includes the likes of All-Stars in third baseman
Hanley Ramirez, starting pitcher Josh Johnson, and right fielder
Giancarlo Stanton, The Marlins were expected to be the team to knock The
Phillies off the throne in The NL East. While The Phillies have been
mired in last place, The Marlins have seen The Washington Nationals put a
stronghold on first place while The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets
are both in contention for Wild Card spots. At this point last season,
The Marlins were 13.5 games behind Philadelphia as they would go on to
lose 90 games. Entering play on Friday they are 10 games behind
Washington with a record of 44-48.

This season optimism was high, but The Marlins finished April with a
record of 8-14. By the end of May, The Marlins were 29-22 and seemed
poised to take control of The NL East since The Phillies were dealing
with injuries.

Instead The Marlins are 14th in The National League in team batting
average at .242 while they are 13th in runs scored at 352. This is a far
cry from a team that expected to have a better season in those
categories with the addition of Reyes. Reyes leads the team in hits with
97, but his .264 batting average is nothing close to his .337 batting
average last season when he led The NL in the category as a member of
The Mets.

Bell was supposed to be the lights out guy for Miami in the ninth
inning, but he has kept the lights going for opponents with a 6.21
earned run average and six blown saves. Bell already has given up 26
earned runs this season and he is on pace to surpass his career high of
31 earned runs in a season.

Guillen has always been a lightning rod of controversy and that was on
full display in April as a result of his praise for former Cuban
President Fidel Castro. Guillen was subsequently suspended by The
Marlins for five games. Guillen was brought in by The Marlins to make
headlines and he did for all the wrong reasons. He was also brought in
to make an impact in the large Hispanic community of South Florida and
he almost go run out of town before the ink dried on his contract.

I expected this team to struggle early as they had to come together with
so many new parts, but at this point I expected them to make a surge in
the division. The Marlins are only 14-15 against The NL East, but they
might be first in prima donnas. Ramirez protested about moving to third
base in order to make room for Reyes at shortstop until Marlins brass
told him this was the way that it was going to be. Outfielder Logan
Morrison was sent down to the minors last season after former manager
Jack McKeon felt that he needed to grow up. Guillen and starting pitcher
Carlos Zambrano came from The Windy City of Chicago where Guillen
managed The Cubs and Zambrano played for The Cubs. Both were known to
throw tantrums and they wore out their welcomes. The problem is that the
three teams in front of them in the standings have better team
chemistry and subsequently they play better as a unit. The Nats are a
young group of players with a manager in the form of Davey Johnson who
is a player’s manager. The Braves are a team that just flies under the
radar while The Mets have the mentality of an underdog. The Marlins are
playing with a right of entitlement and the results are clear on the
field. This was also evident as only one Marlin in Stanton was selected
for The All-Star Game and once he was put on the disabled list several
days prior to the game, The Marlins would not have a representative at
the game while every other team in The NL East had at least two
participants.