Preview: FLORIDA MARLINS

By Chris Perkins

Be encouraged, Florida Marlins fans. Another winning season, which would be the third consecutive, seems to be on the way for 2010. As for the playoffs, however, that might be just out of reach. Well, unless the team abides by its public admonishment by Major League Baseball and the player’s union and spends more money to get better players.

But that’s wait-and-see. In the meantime, Marlins fans, hope for a small miracle such as rapid maturation for a promising young pitching staff. “If our pitching stays healthy, I'm not going to say we are going to go out and win the division or anything,” Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said during baseball’s winter meetings. “But it should be interesting.”

Ah, the scrappy, plucky, can-do Marlins. They open the season April 5th in New York against the Mets. The home opener is April 9th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Marlins once again project to be a low-budget bunch. Last year’s $36 million payroll was the lowest among Major League Baseball’s 30 teams.

But they get you excited. They get you pulling for the underdog in the annual battle they wage against the big-city, big-budget teams -- the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies.

And just when you get really, really wrapped up in the Marlins, the bubble bursts. They don’t want to spend money to improve the team late in the season so they fall harmlessly out of the playoff race.

Last year the Marlins finished second in their division to the Phillies, who went to the World Series, where they eventually lost to the New York Yankees. Florida finished the season with an 87-75 record, the third-best in the 17-year franchise history, and the Marlins might have won the division if it just could have made a trade to acquire a pitcher. But this year might be different, Marlins fans.

During a January press conference the Marlins were one of eight teams identified as using money from baseball’s revenue sharing pool -- basically, the equivalent of corporate welfare -- to line their pockets instead of improving the product on the field, which is the intended use of the funds. No one can force the Marlins to increase their payroll and get better players, but they’ve been urged very strongly and very publicly to do so. And why wouldn’t they? This is now a team that has millions of dollars coming its way. It’s almost guaranteed.

In July the Marlins broke ground on a brand new $515 million stadium ($360 million financed by taxpayers) that will feature a retractable roof. The stadium, which brings with it a name change -- Miami Marlins, no longer the Florida Marlins -- opens in 2012 in Little Havana at the site where the old Orange Bowl resided. Teams always
make millions the first year a new stadium opens. The question is whether Florida will spend that future money this season in serious pursuit of the National League East division title over the Phillies. The answer is, they might. The Marlins started the spending by signing pitcher Josh Johnson to a four-year, $39 million, contract in mid-January.

“You would think that by the experience (of being together another season) you could get a little closer to them, but I think those guys put a pretty good product out on the field, the Phillies do, and they know how to play the game,” Gonzalez said. “For us, we are going to have to play injury-free baseball next year, nobody can get hurt, and maybe get some help player-wise to catch them. Or, if they have some injuries on their team and maybe we could catch them. It's a pretty good ball club they run out there.”

This year the Marlins will have some of baseball’s most truly gifted players. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who finished second in voting for the National League MVP (Most Valuable Player), is among the 10 best players in Major League Baseball. The 26-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, perhaps the most baseball-rich area of the world, is a superstar on the rise. He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2006, and has made the All-Star team in two of his four major league seasons. Last year Ramirez won the National League batting title, hitting .342, and also had 24 home runs and 106 RBI (runs batted in). Johnson, who signed a new contract, is a 26-yearold, fireball-throwing 6-foot-7 right-hander, established himself as one of baseball’s top
youngsters by making the National League All-Star team and finishing with a 15-5 record and 3.23 ERA (earned run average). Left fielder Chris Coghland won the National League Rookie of the Year award last season. The 24-year-old hit .321, the highest batting average for a rookie in Marlins history. He finished sixth overall in the National League in batting average.

But the team needs help, just as they did a year ago. “We never make an excuse about payroll or any of that kind of stuff,” said Gonzalez, the Marlins’ fourth-year manager whose bottom-line attitude is not a façade. “You want to win ballgames and our owner, Mr. (Jeff) Loria, expressed that he expects us to win, which is fine, no problem.”