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!


 
~