Miami Builds Winning Culture

Billy the Marlin eagerly awaits the 2012
Marlins to take the field.

Despite the overblown hype, the Marlins will be in the playoff hunt all season long


The Florida Marlins - er, Miami Marlins, as they're now known - have been a truly remarkable franchise for more than a decade now.  They haven't been 'remarkable' in the same context as most other 'remarkable' teams, however, in that they're not known for success nor failure.  Aside from their magical playoff run in 2003, the Marlins have practically represented the definition of mediocrity.  Since 2000, local fans have seen five winning seasons and seven losing ones, never winning or losing more than 91 games in a single season.  That's about to change.

Owner Jeffrey Loria finally committed to recruiting star power through free agency this winter with the highly-publicized signings of Mark Buehrle, Heath Bell, and Jose Reyes, three veterans who have impressive track records as all-stars and fan favorites.  The trio carry with them 11 combined All-Star appearances, which is just the kind of publicity Loria is looking for.  Loria wants to make his team a perennial threat in a tough NL East division where four of the teams could easily be above .500.  So far, his work should earn him some immediate rewards, like sellout crowds at the new stadium this season.

A superstar?  Check.  Fast?  Check.  In compliance with
team dress code?  Check.  Jose Reyes got his dreadlocks
cut off earlier this week, selling them online for $10,200
which will go to charity.

But there's also the other point of view; have they done enough to not only attract a formerly-dormant fan base, but to retain it?  Reyes, like the rest of the plagued New York Mets, has had plenty of injury trouble over the last three years, placing his last full season in 2008.  Bell, while superb in five seasons with San Diego, has a well-known large body type that could definitely worsen his aging process, which conventional wisdom would have taking effect soon seeing as he's already 34.  Buehrle has 161 career wins and honorary status with the White Sox, but he is 33 and a definite soft-tosser who, given an aging decline that would decrease the effectiveness of his breaking stuff, could simply get rocked.

I don't think any of those things should be of primary concern right now, though.  Perhaps this change of scenery for three guys who have been with the same team for at least the last half-decade will reinvigorate their baseball competitive juices.  Their actual contributions on the field will need to be of great quality for the Marlins to get far this season, but just being there will help the team enormously.  All three of these veterans come from winning teams as some point.  If you count the one-game NL West Tiebreaker in 2007 between the Padres and Rockies that Bell pitched in as the postseason, then all three of them have played in the playoffs.  That is a key factor for this team, seeing as none of the other core players, like Mike Stanton, Josh Johnson, or Hanley Ramirez, have ever gotten used to anything but playing in a cavernous football stadium where fans struggled to cover the lower deck.  The veterans will show the young guns how a team gets to the promised land known as the MLB Postseason.

Already on the best power hitters in the league, this season
should be a major learning experience for right fielder Mike
Stanton.

The three new arrivals join former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen in Miami, who was the first to hop aboard the Marlins' bandwagon when he abandoned ship on the Sox before the end of the regular season.  As fans know, Guillen's outspoken personality can surely fire up a team.  I believe this competitive fire is also a great fit for the team, and a great find by Loria.  For the first time ever, there is pressure on the Marlins to win something this season.  Even when they've had talented players recently (which they've had no shortage in) in Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Josh Willingham, Ricky Nolasco and Scott Olsen, the team overall has not had the overall discipline to get them anywhere.  Sure, the Marlins never had a great rotation, but committing far too many errors definitely didn't help their cause any, finishing in the bottom four in MLB in errors committed each year between 2006 and 2010.

In 2011, the Marlins earned a valuable lesson.  The team surprised the baseball world with an early 30-20 start, but then the baseball gods wreaked havoc.  They started the month of June 1-19, causing new-found manager Edwin Rodriguez to resign mysteriously.  Florida's chances at the postseason were shrunken beyond visibility, and the team wallowed back into their mediocre ways of old.  Had there been some winning blood on the team, that would not have happened so dramatically.

To say that the Marlins' roster before these upgrades was lacking "winning blood" is nothing personal; it's just that none of the core players on the team have ever been to the playoffs or come close to it.  With the additions of Reyes, Buehrle, Bell, and Guillen, the Marlins are in good shape.  Loria should be pleased with the return on his investments.  After all, he's already accomplished one of his goals; to get his team in the headlines.  With the correct moves he's made, his team should be in the winning column more often than not this summer.