Miami Marlins All-Time Team

 Let's head a little further south to festive Miami, Florida for our next All-Time roster reveal.

Imagine a team that could roll out this starting lineup:

1. LF Tim Raines
2. CF Ichiro Suzuki
3. 1B Miguel Cabrera
4. DH Mike Piazza
5. RF Giancarlo Stanton
6. 3B Gary Sheffield
7. SS Hanley Ramirez
8. C Ivan Rodriguez
9. 2B Dan Uggla

With bench options like: 

J.T. Realmuto, Darren Daulton, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, Mike Lowell, Bobby Bonilla
Luis Gonzalez, Andre Dawson, Christian Yelich, Moises Alou, Cliff Floyd, Preston Wilson

Their pitching staff wouldn't blow anyone away:

Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Jose Fernandez
Josh Beckett, Mark Beuhrle, Josh Johnson

But they could build a bullpen out of:

Fernando Rodney, Armando Benitez, Brad Ziegler
Todd Jones, Heath Bell, Bryan Harvey, Sergio Romo
Andrew Miller, Robb Nen, Trevor Hoffman

That's the type of talent that has passed through the Marlins organization. If this were an alumni series, that would be a formidable roster. [No, I'm not doing an alumni series.] But how many of these players qualify for the Miami/Florida Marlins' All-Time Team?

Jack McKeon is the only manager in Marlins history with a record above .500. He led the team to their second World Series title in 2003. Florida won their first World Series in 1997, under Jim Leyland.

Let's see what McKeon has to work with.

Oof. Christian Yelich is as much a Milwaukee Brewer as he is a Marlin. J.T. Realmuto is almost at that point with the Phillies. Heck, Giancarlo Stanton is entering his sixth season as a Yankee.

Perhaps the bench can be upgraded along the margins?

Luis Castillo is in danger of losing his spot. Charles Johnson is safe; career backup Mike Redmond is the only other qualifying catcher.

Current players who have now qualified for Miami's All-Time roster include Brian Anderson and.. Garrett Cooper. Miguel Rojas and Martin Prado are also infield options, I suppose.
 

	Marlins stats	WAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	*Luis Castillo	22.4	0.293	0.370	0.356	0.726	94
	Brian Anderson	9.5	0.256	0.341	0.410	0.750	105
	Garrett Cooper	4.1	0.272	0.347	0.439	0.786	114
	Martin Prado	5.7	0.278	0.325	0.374	0.699	92
	Miguel Rojas	12.0	0.265	0.318	0.366	0.684	87

McKeon can't cut the franchise's career leader in games played and hits. Castillo stays.

The Marlins have a golden opportunity to boost their All-Time rotation. Is the National League's reigning Cy Young Award winner ready to claim a starting spot?

	Marlins stats	WAR	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*Josh Johnson	25.8	3.15	133	2.70	1.233
	*Josh Beckett	10.7	3.46	118	2.72	1.235
	Sandy Alcantara	17.3	3.07	137	2.83	1.127
	*A.J. Burnett	12.0	3.73	111	2.00	1.284
	*Dontrelle Willis	17.2	3.78	111	2.20	1.388
	*Ricky Nolasco	10.6	4.44	94	3.51	1.295

Sandy Alcantara is already second among Fish pitchers in WAR and leads the franchise in both ERA and WHIP. He should probably be the ace, but Josh Johnson has the experience to anchor the staff. Regardless, Ricky Nolasco is the odd man out despite his franchise-leading strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Miami's bullpen could use an upgrade as well, but Jack McKeon has far fewer options here:

	Marlins stats	SV	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*Antonio Alfonseca	102	3.86	109	1.71	1.483
	Reynel Pinto	2	3.62	120	1.46	1.463
	Kyle Barraclough	11	3.21	122	2.08	1.299

Pinto and Barraclough pitched the minimum four years in Miami, while Alfonseca ranks in the team's top-4 all-time in appearances and saves. He'll keep his spot for now.

Looking ahead, Luis Arraez has the talent to push for a spot on this All-Time roster, but he probably won't stay in South Florida long enough. MLB The Show cover subject Jazz Chisholm Jr. will qualify next year, but he's a long shot at this point. The one current Marlin who could make this team in the near future is... reliever Dylan Floro. Topps, that's your cue to include him in a card set.

TL; DR: One change from the original roster. Nolasco out, Alcantara in.

Come back tomorrow for our next All-Time roster, the New York Mets. 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

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All-Time Teams: Marlins

Today we'll look at a franchise that has never lost a playoff series. Here's the All-Time Team for the Miami Marlins:

Since the Marlins aren't exactly the most popular baseball team, I thought I'd use this post to give you an inside look at how these All-Time Teams are assembled. 

The starting point for every post is Baseball-reference.com. Before building the 25-man roster I check the franchise page for a manager.

Not much to choose from here. Jack McKeon is the only skipper with a winning record. He's tied for the team lead in years managed, and he won a World Series. He's our guy.

Choosing a ballpark for each All-Time Team to call home is usually a simple task. I try to pick the park the team played in the longest, or failing that, the park in which they had the most success. For the Marlins, that's this multi-purpose/multi-name stadium:

With the basics out of the way, it's time for the fun part: roster construction. I open the team history page and scroll through the Top 50 Career Leaders. Let's focus on position players first.

The first thing I consider is qualification: does this player have more years with another team? Right away that would eliminate Miguel Cabrera (Tigers) and Derrek Lee (Cubs). However, Lee could be re-considered if necessary. Dee Gordon and Brian Anderson don't qualify, either - they played less than four seasons with this franchise.


Next I want to find the best qualifying players at each position. At this point I'm looking at one stat: OPS+. This will tell me if each player was league average (100) or better. 

We've got two qualifying catchers: J.T. Realmuto (110 OPS+) and Charles Johnson (96). Done.

We've got two qualifying first basemen: Jeff Conine (114) and Kevin Millar (127). Millar's production is a surprise to me. Conine is Mr. Marlin so he's going on this roster somehow. Let's come back to this.

We've got two qualifying second basemen: Luis Castillo (94) and Dan Uggla (117). OPS+ is not the be-all and end-all stat, but it's looking like Uggla should start. Done.

We've got two qualifying shortstops: Hanley Ramirez (129) and Miguel Rojas (87). Han-Ram is an easy choice. Done.

 We've got one qualifying third baseman: Mike Lowell. Done.

In the outfield, we've got six qualifying players. Giancarlo Stanton is a lock. Christian Yelich has been far better as a Brewer but he doesn't qualify for Milwaukee. Cliff Floyd will compete with Yelich for the left field spot, while Marcell Ozuna (115 OPS+) should be the the starting center fielder over Juan Pierre (91).

Gary Sheffield has to start, but Stanton is blocking him in right. Luckily there's a DH spot on these All-Time rosters for this exact purpose. But which one goes where?

At this point my Marlins roster looks like this:

C - Realmuto, Johnson
1B - Conine (Millar?)
2B - Uggla (Castillo?)
SS - Ramirez
3B - Lowell
LF - Yelich (Floyd?)
CF - Ozuna
RF - Sheffield/Stanton
DH - Stanton/Sheffield

Each team's bench consists of one catcher, two infielders, and two outfielders. I've got to fill one more spot and solidify the other two.

This is where I take a deeper dive into other statistical categories to find some players to compete with our incumbents. Here's how that competition shakes out:

• 1st Base - Justin Bour/Kevin Millar/Derrek Lee
• Infield - Derek Dietrich/Luis Castillo

Justin Bour and Kevin Millar both played five seasons in Florida. Derrek Lee played six seasons. Here are their stat lines:

.262/.346/.470  83 HR  272 RBI  123 OPS+
.296/.367/.504  59 HR  251 RBI  127 OPS+
.264/.353/.469 129 HR 417 RBI  115 OPS+

Millar has the numbers but Lee played 344 more games as a Marlin. He's our guy.




 
Luis Castillo isn't great, but his 10 years with the team is a huge advantage. Is it enough to hold off Derek Dietrich?

.254/.335/.422  60 HR  204 RBI  108 OPS+
.293/.370/.356  20 HR  271 RBI  94 OPS+

Dietrich's power and versatility aren't enough to kick Castillo off the roster.


We have a three-way competition for the final position player spot:

• Outfield - Josh Willingham/Preston Wilson/Juan Pierre

The Willinghammer only played 416 games for Florida, or roughly five half-seasons. Wilson and Pierre played about the same amount of games - just shy of 600. 

.262/.333/.473  991 total bases 109 OPS+
.295/.345/.368  851 total bases  91 OPS+

With Luis Castillo on the bench the Marlins don't need another Punch and Judy hitter. Preston Wilson claims the fifth outfield spot. 


Now let's build a rotation and bullpen for the Marlins.

Oh dear God. Kevin Brown will start for an All-Time Team but it's not this one. Beckett played longer in Boston, but I'll keep him in the mix for now. Pavano, Alex Fernandez, Leiter, Dempster, and Buehrle don't qualify for Florida. 

Let's take the remaining starters and see who has an ERA+ of 100(league average) or higher:

Oh dear God. This is why I didn't want to discard Beckett - he appears to be the Marlins' #2 starter. Josh Johnson is the "ace" of this staff. Jose Fernandez posted an ERA+ of 150 in his far too short career, but he's not listed here because his 471 1/3 innings pitched weren't enough to qualify. 

A.J. Burnett edges out Dontrelle Willis for the #3 spot:

3.73 ERA  3.71 FIP  111 ERA+  1.284 WHIP  2.00 K:BB
3.78 ERA  3.98 FIP  111 ERA+  1.359 WHIP  2.20 K:BB

The D-Train will take the 4th starter spot. That leaves Sanchez, Penny, Rapp, and Nolasco as fifth starter options. Nolasco is the franchise leader in wins and starts, and he has an impressive K:BB ratio. I'll go with him, since none of the other guys stand out. 

Finally we have the bullpen. The two categories to consider are games played (relief appearances) and saves:

Let's start with the closers. Nen qualifies for the Marlins and the Giants. Guess which team needs him more? Cishek and Ramos are quality options. Alfonseca and Looper are.. fine. Oviedo and Gregg don't qualify. Dunn is good enough to earn the last spot in the 'pen.

The 25-man roster is complete. All that's left is assembling the order. And here it is:

Leading off.. the Shortstop.. Hanley Ramirez
Batting second.. the Left Fielder.. Christian Yelich
Batting third.. the Right Fielder.. Gary Sheffield
Batting fourth.. the Designated Hitter.. Giancarlo Stanton
Batting fifth.. the Second Baseman.. Dan Uggla
Batting sixth.. the Third Baseman.. Mike Lowell
Batting seventh.. the Center Fielder.. Marcell Ozuna
Batting eighth.. the Catcher.. J. T. Realmuto
Batting ninth.. the First Baseman.. Jeff Conine

The starting pitcher for the Marlins.. Josh Johnson


Here's the Marlins' bench and bullpen:

Catcher - Charles Johnson
1st Base - Derrek Lee
Infield - Luis Castillo
Outfield - Cliff Floyd
Outfield - Preston Wilson

#2 Starter - Josh Beckett
#3 Starter - A. J. Burnett
#4 Starter - Dontrelle Willis
#5 Starter - Ricky Nolasco

RH Reliever - Braden Looper
RH Reliever - Antonio Alfonseca
LH Reliever - Mike Dunn
RH Reliever - Steve Cishek
RH Reliever - AJ Ramos
RH Reliever - Robb Nen 


Once the rosters are complete the next step is to write the blurb for each starter and bench group. I skipped this step for today's post but every other team will have text. Then it's time to add some cards. Now that my entire collection is cataloged on TCDB I can see which cards I have for each player.

    stock photo                                            my card     

My first choice is a card from my own collection. If I have time to scan them I will, otherwise I use the TCDB scan. If the card is not scanned I'll scan it myself. If I don't have a card of a specific player on the team in question, I'll choose a card from TCDB.

After that, I link up each player page and fight with Blogger's HTML coding for about an hour. I try to make sure the paragraphs are spaced evenly but sometimes Blogger just doesn't cooperate. 


 
I hope you enjoyed this inside look at the process of putting together an All-Time Team post. The Milwaukee Brewers are up next. 


Thanks for reading!


 
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Sports Card Tour 2018 - Miami

The Collector's Sports Card Tour is spending Mother's Day weekend in South Florida. Today we're in Miami.

Miami has three pro sports teams - the Marlins, the Dolphins, and the Heat. Both the Dolphins and Heat have won back-to-back championships (the Heat have three total) and the Dolphins' first of two Super Bowl wins capped off their perfect season in 1972. 

The Marlins have never lost a playoff series in their 25 year history. In their two championship seasons of 1997 and 2003 they broke the hearts of long-suffering fans in Cleveland, Chicago, and New York. Since 2001 the Marlins have won exactly as many World Series titles as the Yankees - and more than the Dodgers, Mets, and Tigers. So there's that.

Giancarlo Stanton's 59 home runs in 2017 were the most of any non-Yankee who wasn't popping PEDs (allegedly). In his first official act as Marlins CEO, Derek Jeter (or some no-name who is actually running the team) virtually forced Stanton to waive his no-trade clause, declaring that the Fish would undergo another rebuilding phase with or without him. 

To no one's surprise, Big Mike was traded to Jeter's old team - the Yankees. He's had some trouble adjusting to Yankee Stadium, with its smaller dimensions and thousands of fans.

The incomparable Ichiro Suzuki went the other way, signing with Miami in 2015 after leaving the Bronx. He recorded his 3,000th MLB hit in a Marlins uniform. (Question for all you Ichiro fans: do you think his HOF plaque will say Suzuki on it, or just "Ichiro"?) I rarely buy logoless cards, but I had to snatch up that Optic parallel when I saw it on COMC.

The late Jose Fernandez was a fan favorite in South Florida, particularly among the Cuban population. Attendance at Marlins Park spiked significantly for his starts. Shortly after his tragic death in 2016 the Marlins retired his number 16.

Two of the greatest catchers in recent memory squatted behind the Fish dish. Ivan Rodriguez played one year in South Florida; Mike Piazza played one week. I was at my friend Brandon's house when the blockbuster trade was announced. We were both puzzled.

Last year I wrote a post about my Trevor Williams PC. You can click here to read all about it if you're so inclined. I didn't want to copy myself here, but I thought it deserved a mention.

My best Marlins cards include a Fernandez manu-patch and a Luis Castillo real-patch that probably cost less than the logo relic. The Stanton Scouting Report was pulled from a retail box. The Yelich was an impulse buy on COMC ($3.25 or so) which was less than the Miggy black refractor (about $3.75). I do have a Cabrera Chrome RC - three actually - but they're all in sealed factory sets. Has Austin Dean made it to the show yet? (checking... nope)


As I've mentioned on this blog at pretty much every tour stop, I've officially rebooted my basketball card collection. During the playoffs I've been sorting each star base/insert card by team to see what holes I need to fill. If you have any spare basketball cards to trade, let me know!

My Heat collection could sure use a boost. I only have a dozen in my star player box. Nearly all of them are the "banana boat" boys, also known as The Heatles.

Assuming LeBron and DWade were the John/Paul of the group..does that mean Chris Bosh was Ringo? And if so, who was the George? (I don't think Juwan Howard qualifies.)

"Superintendent" sighting. The Chalmers and Mourning refractor are my only Heat inserts. I didn't even get any in my two boxes of 2015-16 Donruss.

Assorted base commons of note. Thanks to Pardon The Interruption I learned that Rony Seikaly is a Miami-area DJ and hosts a podcast. Some of the early Skybox backgrounds were a little wild for me, but these stripes really frame Glen Rice nicely. Harold Miner lived up to his "baby Jordan" nickname in one way at least. And I included Manute Bol just because. 

About three weeks ago I received a surprise package in the mail from Dennis (TMV/TMM) who revived my dormant Dan Marino PC. I have about 40 Marino cards in my collection; the 1990 Pro Set and 1993 SP Marino issues are two of my all-time favorite football cards.

The Dolphins colors and team name appealed to me as a kid - because I liked dolphins. One I learned a bit about the game and discovered that Dan Marino threw the ball better than anybody, I became a fan.

My mom bought me this pennant at a state fair in either 1989 or 1990. At some point I wrote "Marino 13" at the bottom.

I don't have many Marino cards compared to my Brett Favre collection; it's more quality over quantity.

It seems like the lists of "Greatest Players Who Never Won a Championship" are topped with some of my all-time faves. Ted Williams in baseball (and Ernie Banks, Ken Griffey, Jr., Tony Gwynn, etc..) Alex Ovechkin in hockey, and Dan Marino in football.

I was in Florida visiting my sister when Ricky Williams was traded to the Dolphins (I might have even saved the sports page from that day's newspaper.) McFarlane made a 12" figure of Ricky in the Dolphins orange alternate jersey. I liked it so much I paid $30 for it - but I can't remember what I did with it.

The rest of my decent Dolphins cards. My sister's husband told me he was going to play golf with Chris Chambers and asked if I wanted his autograph. It just so happened that I pulled a Chambers card out of a pack that day so I passed it on to Ron and got it back signed.

The Florida Panthers began their NHL existence in Miami but have since moved to Sunrise (where my sister used to live) The Panthers missed the playoffs by one win in their inaugural season of 1993-94 and reached the Stanley Cup finals in their third NHL season - which doesn't sound quite as impressive with the Vegas Golden Knights around.

I don't quite remember the 1993 Expansion draft, but I do remember thinking How are the Rangers going to choose between Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck? The Rangers made the right choice - but Beezer was fantastic for Florida in their early years.

If hockey players were identified with one team on their Hall of fame plaque, Roberto Luongo would be the first player inducted as a Florida Panther. Cats fans have seen some legends pass through including Ed Belfour, Joe Nieuwendyk, Igor Larionov, and these guys:

Can you imagine how much damage Jaromir Jagr and Pavel Bure would have done if they played together in Florida (or anywhere else?) I have an overabundance of Bure cards because I bought a flat rate box filled with Florida Panthers cards about eight years ago.

It seems like the Panthers always miss out on franchise players when they have a high draft pick. In between years where Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid were available, Florida selected Aaron Ekblad 1st overall in 2014. They traded down from first to third and selected Jay Bouwmeester in 2002, acquiring absolutely nothing in return.

Some more notable Panthers, including a Kevin Weekes RC and one of my favorite recent hockey cards - P.K. Subban posing as Jagr in the All-Star shootout. (I should have used that as a "favorite card of the year") I pulled an Olli Jokinen Letter Marks auto out of a pack of SP Game Used that UD sent me as either an NPN or a redemption replacement.

Sometime very soon (perhaps during my week off?) I'll find the time to write an entire post about my Peter Worrell PC. For now, here's a sampling of my collection, including a pair of 1/1 nameplates.

I've omitted the "cards I'd like to own" segment whenever a post runs long like this, but here's one card I definitely wish I had:

The guys at Sports Card Forum alerted me of this card when it hit eBay - but someone named Enforcersonly bought it for about $330. Too rich for my blood.


Favorite Marlins player: Justin Bour

Favorite Dolphins player: Jersey guy and Rutgers alum Leonte Carroo

Favorite Heat player: none yet

Favorite Panthers player: Aaron Ekblad or Roberto Luongo

Next tour stop: Milwaukee


Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

 
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