69-93, 5^th in the NL East

Man, it was a bad year to be a Marlins fan. Your ownership and front office lay out a bunch of cash to sign big free agents and your city builds you a new stadium, but then, everything collapses underneath you like the trap door in front of Mr. Burns’ desk at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

Ozzie Guillen said he respected Fidel Castro. The stadium has the ugliest centerfield statue that anyone could imagine. (Read: I literally couldn’t come up with a bigger eyesore if it was my job to design it) The team played bad. The owners traded everyone who made any sort of money for a less than inspiring haul and Giancarlo Stanton has no one to play catch with this year.

Stanton had a great year (5.8 WAR, .290/.361/.608, good defense), and a couple other guys contributed nicely led by Jose Reyes (4.5 WAR and now a Blue Jay), Justin Ruggiano (2.8 WAR, still a Marlin!), and Omar Infante (2.4 WAR, now a Tiger). Everyone else either got traded before they could cross the 2.0 threshold or didn’t produce that much.

Hanley Ramirez, Mark Buehrle, Josh Joshson, Emilio Bonifacio, Infante, Reyes, Heath Bell, Anibal Sanchez, Gaby Sanchez. These were all members of the Marlins core on Opening Day who have been traded since.

A lot of people liked the Marlins to be a contender this year. I didn’t because I saw the Nationals, Braves, and Phillies being too good to overcome, but I didn’t expect the Marlins to only win 69 games. That’s fewer games than the Mets. The Mets!

Josh Johnson had a good year (3.8). Ricky Nolasco (2.7) and Mark Buehrle (2.1) were respectable. Anibal Sanchez (2.3 before the trade) was also very good. The staff was probably good enough. The bullpen probably wasn’t.

The team was just bad. The owners were worse. The fans are the victims. A team on the way up sputtered and the pilots hit the eject button. The 2013 Marlins will be Giancarlo Stanton and a lot of people you’ve never heard of. The statue will still be there.

But there’s no Ozzie, so that’s something.

2012 Grade: What’s worse than an F?

Early 2013 Projection: 66-96