The Miami Marlins fan base has gone through a continuous roller coaster of emotions ranging from hate to jubilation since their inception into the league in 1993. They posted increasingly successful won-loss records in each of their first 5 years in the league, culminating in a 92-70 record and ultimately a World Series victory in 1997. Very impressive indeed, as those 92 wins stand to be the teams highest total in its history. However, the Marlins proceeded to trade off nearly every piece that helped them capture their success that very next off-season and finished the 1998 season with a record of 54-108 and a winning percentage of .333, which stands to be the worst in team history. This was the first, but not the last, time the Marlins would blow up a successful team and basically start from the ground up, breaking their poor fans' hearts in the process.
Shortly after their victory in '97, owner Wayne Huizenga declared the team was losing money, and needed to drop salary because the team could not afford it, citing issues such as poor attendance. So general manager Dave Dombrowski set to dismantling the Marlins, and sent away with virtually every piece that had contributed in any way to the Marlins success. Robb Nen, Moises Alou, Jeff Conine, Devon White, Al Leiter, Kevin Brown, and Edgar Renteria were all traded away for prospects and other players of minimal value. These victims of the Marlins' first fire sale combined in that '97 championship season for a total of 16.5 WAR. By comparison, the ENTIRE MARLINS TEAM in 1998 compiled a total of 12.0 WAR. Talk about pulling the plug. The Marlins toiled at the bottom of the NL East through the 2002 season, never posting a win total higher than 79.
After 6 losing seasons of prospect development, the Marlins seemed poised to compete coming into the 2003 season. Led by a starting rotation of young up and coming studs Brad Penny, Josh Beckett and rookie Dontrelle Willis, along with a steady bullpen and a solid lineup including 20 year old rookie Miguel Cabrera, the '03 Marlins were able to win 91 games under manager Jack McKeon and ultimately win their second World Series title in just their 11th season in the league. The Marlins front office, this time led by owner Jeffrey Loria, opted for the same route as Huizenga following the '97 season, and began to sell off pieces of the championship team. They attempted to keep the team somewhat competitive for the following 2 seasons, but after 2 consecutive 83-79 records in '04 and '05, the championship team from just 3 seasons ago was all but completely gone, with most of the players dealt stemming from deals done during the fire sale of '97. By the end of the 2005 offseason, Derreck Lee, Carl Pavano, Ivan Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, Juan Pierre, Beckett, Penny, Mike Lowell, Jeff Conine (again), and Juan Encarnacion were gone. They accounted for essentially 3/4 of the entire 2003 championship roster.
2006 and 2007 were poor seasons for the Marlins, and they hovered just above .500 from '08-'10 until they regressed in 2011. Something had to be done! They were set to move into a brand new stadium in 2012 (funded by taxpayers' money)! They were changing their name from the Florida Marlins to the Miami Marlins, with complete uniform and logo changes! They had a charismatic new manager in Ozzie Guillen! Loria had money in his pockets, so he blew it. He blew $194 million in player salaries, to be exact, on long term deals for top free agents Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Heath Bell. Along with their talented young core of Giancarlo Stanton, Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson, the all-of-a-sudden star studded Miami Marlins looked primed to get to their 3rd World Series of their 20 year existence. 2012 however, turned out to be a complete disaster.
The Marlins tanked in 2012. And they tanked hard. Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, and Omar Infante were traded mid-season. Closer Heath Bell, who had just signed a 3 year $27 million dollar contract, was terrible, and damn near got released. The Marlins finished 2012 at 69-93, posting their lowest winning percentage since 1999. Fans weren't showing up to the new stadium to see their team stink it up, and Loria once again decided to cut his losses and clean house, trading away Bell, Buehrle, Johnson, Reyes, Emilio Bonifacio and John Buck, on top of the players he already had dealt mid-season. This was the first Marlins fire sale that didn't occur after the Marlins had won a World Championship.
This brings us to the present day. The Marlins are set to start the 2013 season with literally 1 player (Stanton) of any relevancy whatsoever on their roster. They have acquired some intriguing prospects, but 2013 projects to be historically bad for Miami, with 100 losses certainly within reach for the second time in their history. While they have won the World Series twice in just over 20 years (the Cubs haven't won in 105 (!!!) years), Miami Marlins fans have been slapped in the face multiple times, and one can't help but feel bad for them as they embark on their latest climb from the very bottom.
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