Marlins’ improbable season gets even better
Team contending despite payroll lower than 16 players
There is overachieving, and then there are the Florida Marlins — for whom the word just doesn’t do justice.
Especially not after rookie Anibal Sanchez ended the longest no-hit drought in major-league history Wednesday. In only his 13th start after being promoted from Double-A Carolina in June, the 22-year-old right-hander blanked the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first no-hitter since Randy Johnson’s perfect game in May of 2004.
And the game’s most unlikely playoff contender ever has another improbable and historic moment to celebrate in a season full of them.
“This is the best moment in my life,’’ Sanchez said afterward. “You never think that’s going to happen.’’
But similar things have been happening all season for the Marlins, who sit in the midst of the National League wild-card race, one game above .500 with only 23 games left to play, and far above even the wildest expectations of a team with a $15-million payroll.
It’s just not supposed to happen this way — at least not this quickly. But it has. No, it’s just not supposed to happen this way — not when:
- A winter salary purge termed a “market correction” by team president David Samson led to the departures of Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnett, Todd Jones, Paul LoDuca, Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, Alex Gonzalez, Mike Lowell, Juan Pierre and Juan Encarnacion.
- Sixteen individual players on other teams are making more money than the entire Marlins’ 25-man roster — everybody from Alex Rodriguez to Barry Bonds to Chan Ho Park, for heaven’s sake.
- The number of Marlins making more than $1 million a year just reached three, as Joe Borowski met all of his appearance incentives to max out at $1.05 million, joining Brian Moehler ($1.5 million) and Dontrelle Willis ($4.35 million).
- 21 different rookies have appeared at some point this season, and 16 currently are on the roster, of which three-fifths were born in the 1980s.
- Four rookies are in the rotation, including Sanchez, who is 7-2 with a 2.89 ERA after he needed only 103 pitches to blow through the Diamondbacks in two hours and 13 minutes. The other three — Ricky Nolasco, Scott Olsen and Josh Johnson (the latter two products of the Marlins’ system) — have become the first trio of rookie teammates in 54 years to win at least 10 games apiece. The staff also is flirting with the all-time highest percentage of wins by rookies — about two-thirds.
- After 42 games, the Marlins stood at 11-31, and looked for certain as if they were headed for a 90-plus-loss season. But since then, they are 21 games over .500.
Fire sales and rebuilding plans are supposed to take five or so years. Sometimes, even that isn’t long enough. The Pittsburgh Pirates seem to be in perpetual rebuild mode. The Colorado Rockies did a similar but not as extreme cutback a few years ago, and they still aren’t close to posting a winning record.
The Marlins had to go through much the same thing after their 1997 World Series title, won 54 games the next season, and it took six years to get above .500 and back into the playoffs.
A very bad National League has to be held somewhat accountable for the Marlins’ unlikely rise to wild-card contention. But don’t short-change everything that has gone so right, so fast in South Florida despite a still nearly-non-existent fan base.
Even though he was forced to deal, general manager Larry Beinfest got quality talent in return for all that departed — proving the Marlins’ minor-league scouting system to be excellent evaluators. Look at the deals:
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Sanchez and shortstop Hanley Ramirez from Boston for Beckett and Lowell: Despite making the jump from Double-A, Ramirez, 22, is one of a handful of Marlins’ Rookie of the Year candidates, hitting in the .280s with 13 homers, 49 RBI, 104 runs scored and 44 stolen bases. Ramirez also made one of three outstanding defensive plays in the no-hitter.
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Ricky Nolasco, Renyel Pinto and Sergio Mitre from the Cubs for Pierre: Nolasco, 23, currently sidelined with a knee injury, has alternated between good and bad, but sits at 11-9. This could turn out to be the biggest steal if Pinto emerges.
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Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit from the Mets for Delgado: Jacobs, 25, has 18 homers and 72 RBI in his first full big-league season, and some feel Petit, 21, might have the highest ceiling of the Marlins’ young pitchers — and that’s saying something.
The Marlins also took a Rule 5 chance on second baseman Dan Uggla, and he ended up on the NL All-Star team, and is three short of tying Joe Gordon’s record for home runs by a rookie second baseman, as he and Josh Willingham both have topped the 20-homer mark in their rookie seasons.
Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
