The Marlins have had some promising talent for a long time now. They drafted Miguel Cabrera, Christian Yelich, and Giancarlo Stanton. However, the ownership has broken up World Series champion teams twice. They built a new stadium and made a serious effort to rebuild the team. This didn’t pan out, and since then the Marlins just haven’t been able to quite contend in the NL East. Other teams have risen to prominence in the meantime, and they haven’t been quite able to rise to meet the level of competition. They have to deal with the tragedy of losing their star pitcher, and 2017 will show the level of this team’s resolve.
Derek Jeter is part of a group currently trying to buy the Marlins.
1st Story: If Derek Jeter buys the Marlins, what does that mean?
A group led by Jeb Bush and Derek Jeter won the bid to purchase the Marlins. Jeff Loria has owned the team since 2003, which is the year they came back against the Cubs (the Bartman series), then swept the Yankees to win the World Series. Soon after that, Loria broke apart a very good team and began a rebuilding effort before any players were really due bigger contracts.
The Marlins have a small history of making trades that hurt the team. After their 2003 World Series run, they traded Adrian Gonzalez and Derek Lee, and in 2007 they traded away Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers. None of the players from the trade stayed with the Marlins, nor had measurable success for the Marlins.
Needless to say, Loria leaving the Marlins may be one of the better things to happen to the franchise in a long time. Derek Jeter was one of the winningest baseball players in history. His time as part of the Yankees dynasty proved many that he could lead a team from the shortstop position. He was even named their official Captain.
That level of winning can infuse the Marlins clubhouse with a different perspective. It’s easy to think that Jeb Bush will succeed as an owner. The Bush family are no strangers to owning a baseball team, as George W. Bush was heavily involved with the Texas Rangers. The Marlins are looking to be on an upward trajectory.
2nd Story: How will Giancarlo Stanton be remembered?
It’s a question that just taunts baseball lovers around the world. This man has quite possibly the highest raw power rating out of anyone who’s ever graced the major leagues. However, freak injuries and more wear and tear injuries have prevented Stanton from reaching what many would deem his full potential.
In the games that Stanton has been able to play, he’s been able to hit 216 HR in 852 G. This averages out to be about 40 HR per 162 game season. So, accounting for rest days that are common and necessary for, assume that a healthy season for Stanton would be his highest season total, 150. If we use that as the average, Stanton’s HR average would be right around 37 HR for a 150 game season. If Stanton had been able to perform at that level for 15 years, he would end his career around 550 HR. Definitely something considerable. However, Stanton started when he was 20, and he’s likely to play for around 18-20 years. Assuming some regression, and ideally some higher peaks, it’s fairly safe to keep 37 HR as the season average.
If Stanton is able to keep up this sort of power consistency and play for 20 years, he’ll end up around 740 HRs for his career. Granted, that’s using a lot of assumptions:
– That Stanton can reach 150 games in his career, which he’s only done once, and only gotten over 140 one other time.
– That Stanton’s frame transitions to old age well. It seems that some players age gracefully, and are able to be productive, while others… not so much. Time will tell.
– It’s likely that Stanton will not continue to provide this sort of power threat that he does currently, and if he cannot capitalize on his prime, he will likely fall off of that pace quickly.
2017 could be a telling year, but it’s likely to be that Stanton finishes his career as a player who wasn’t able to quite capitalize on an ability to hit the ball a mile. He’ll be that player our generation tells stories of to our kids, of how hard he hit the ball, how he just couldn’t stay healthy, and he’ll provide an example of how health is crucial to long-term success.
3rd Story: Will Christian Yelich take the next step and become the Marlins best player?
Yelich debuted in 2013 as a 21-year-old polished player. He hit a slash line of .288/.370/.396. The first were really pretty phenomenal for a rookie who only played 62 games. Ideally, as his body was able to put on more muscle, he’d hit for more power. His lowest slash line came the following year, where he hit .284/.362/.402. He doubled his 2B total, as well as hit 6 3B.
Last season, the power bat finally showed up, and Yelich was able to hit 21 HR. In addition, he hit .298 and was still able to maintain a .378 OBP. It appears that Yelich was able to pick out good pitches to hit hard out of the ballpark, while not getting greedy and chasing more pitches. In addition, he played in the most games of his young career so far.
Yelich is primed to have another breakout year in 2017. Look out National League, the National League East is stacked with outfielders.
