Miami Marlins: 2003 or 2008, two ways season can play out
How 2020 Miami Marlins could play out like the 2003 Florida Marlins.
All Miami Marlins fans know the story. Most baseball fans do, thanks to a certain Cubs fan. After a 16-22 start to the season, Jeff Torborg was fired and the aged Jack McKeon was brought in to manage the eventual 2003 World Champions.
As terrible as that first half started for the 2003 Miami Marlins, it’s easy to forget that season had a second half. After the All-Star Break, the Marlins were 42-25. The season could just as easily started the way that it finished.
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How It Could Not
Well, a 16-22 start is a 16-22 start. The slide actually hit 19-29 before the turnaround really began in earnest, and the Marlins were 27-33 at the sixty game point. So obviously, that kind of start would be quite the nonstarter for postseason play.
However, that’s only part of the problem. Between that septuagenarian manager, Steve Bartman’s antics in left field, and the cash strapped roster, baseball fans often treat this team historically like some team that stumbled into the playoffs with a losing record and lucked out. Again, they were 42-25 in the second half. From the end of May onwards, they had the best record in the majors. They were the best team in baseball by multiple measures, for over 100 regular-season games.
That is…unlikely to be true of the 2020 Miami Marlins roster. The 2003 Miami Marlins were also the culmination of a homegrown core, a handful of key free agents, and two white-hot prospects all catching fire at once. Only one of those three factors is a possibility for the 2020 Marlins.