The Mount Rushmore of the Florida Marlins |

Josh Johnson / Presswire

Here’s another toughie, as most of the great players for this franchise didn’t stick around for more than a few years. I’m calling them the Florida Marlins since that’s how they were known for virtually their entire existence.

Here are the top 15 batters by cumulative WAR with the team:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	From	To
1	Hanley Ramirez	25.3	2006	2012
2	Luis Castillo	20.8	1996	2005
3	Miguel Cabrera	17.2	2003	2007
4	Cliff Floyd	15.8	1997	2002
5	Dan Uggla	14.7	2006	2010
6	Mike Lowell	12.1	1999	2005
7	Gary Sheffield	12.1	1993	1998
8	Jeff Conine	12.0	1993	2005
9	Charles Johnson	11.0	1994	2002
10	Cody Ross	8.7	2006	2010
11	Derrek Lee	8.4	1998	2003
12	Juan Pierre	7.3	2003	2005
13	Giancarlo Stanton	7.3	2010	2012
14	Kevin Millar	6.9	1998	2002
15	Mark Kotsay	6.1	1997	2000

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/15/2012.

Almost to a man, these guys are better known for playing with other teams. Hanley Ramirez should arguably be the face of the franchise but his career has been riddled with attitude-related problems.

The names on this list also comprise all of the entries in the top 15 single-season WAR totals, save Ivan Rodriguez, who had the 11th-best season with his 4.2 showing in 2003. If you associate him with the Marlins, you’re also in the minority.

The story is the same with the pitchers:

Rk	Player	WAR	From	To
1	Josh Johnson	20.8	2005	2012
2	Dontrelle Willis	16.1	2003	2007
3	Kevin Brown	14.4	1996	1997
4	Anibal Sanchez	12.8	2006	2012
5	A.J. Burnett	10.9	1999	2005
6	Josh Beckett	10.1	2001	2005
7	Brad Penny	7.8	2000	2004
8	Carl Pavano	7.3	2002	2004
9	Ricky Nolasco	7.1	2006	2012
10	Alex Fernandez	6.9	1997	2000
11	Pat Rapp	5.5	1993	1997
12	Al Leiter	5.2	1996	2005
13	Robb Nen	4.8	1993	1997
14	Chris Volstad	4.1	2008	2011
15	Ryan Dempster	4.0	1998	2002

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/15/2012.

I mean—seriously. When you think of Kevin Brown, A.J. Burnett, Josh Beckett, Alex Fernandez, Al Leiter…do you think of the Marlins first? If so, you must be a Marlins fan. The list of individual WAR seasons reveals another such guy– Bryan Harvey who came in at #10 with his 1993 season.

One highly notable name that’s missing altogether is Livan Hernandez. He ended up pitching for the Marlins for only parts of 4 seasons, but he played a huge role in the team’s 1997 playoff run and was ultimately the MVP of the World Series that year.

Darren Daulton also played there for a short time but was a big part of the 1997 championship team. Other notable names you don’t see above are Moises Alou, Edgar Renteria, Antonio Alfonseca, and Devon White.

From the 2003 championship team, a few names we don’t see above are Alex Gonzalez, the aforementioned I-Rod, and Ugueth Urbina.

My oh my, this team has had a lot of great players but so few that have stuck around for long.

Anyway, vote for 4 in the poll below:

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Christopher

12 years ago

“Hanley Ramirez should arguably be the face of the franchise but his career has been riddled with attitude-related problems.” And why wouldn’t a player with attitude problems be the perfect face for this franchise? 🙂

I accept that it may be a quirk of my mind, but I still associate Uggla with the Marlins. Even when I saw him this year, my first thought was “Oh, that’s right. He’s no longer with the Marlins.”

brp

No Juan Pierre? Who’s Timmy going to vote for?

mosc

I am seeing too many regular season votes. The marlins history is about two major playoff runs and the guys who were instrumental there come to mind first. Their stars were mostly traded away too, not even leaving for more money, only because their team didn’t want them at anywhere near market value. I remember Beckett and Willis.

Lawrence Azrin

Reply to mosc

I have to disagree somewhat; one of the cool things about selecting a “Mt. Rushmore” is that there are no absolute rules, and it’s based more on whom we “feel” are the most important people (yes I include non-players) to a particular franchise. If someone who followed the Marlins from the very beginning feels that Jeff Conine and Charles Johnson are the face of the franchise (because these two players were also there from the beginning), well, I can’t argue too much, even if they are not in the Top-10 in career WAR for the team. I’d choose Beckett, Lowell,… Read more »

kds

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I voted for Conine as the only one on both WS winners. Apparently many other voters thought along the same lines.

Tmckelv

Jeff Conine (face of early Marlins)
Hanley Ramirez (face of recent Marlins)
Livan Hernandez (face of 1997 Championship Marlins)
Dontrelle Willis (face of 2003 Championship Marlins)

Josh Johnson just missed out.

Author

Andy

Reply to Tmckelv

Tough to argue with this logic.

Voomo Zanzibar

Beckett.
23, throws a shutout in Yankee Stadium to win the title.
Doesn’t get more epic than that.

Editor

John Autin

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Beckett would also well represent the “fits-and-starts” nature of their history. In his 4 full years, there were glimpses and stretches of brilliance, but he never had 30 starts or 180 IP in a season.

Sheffield — Team’s first star player, spent 5 seasons there (4 full and 2 partial) with a 156 OPS+, played a big role in the ’97 postseason (1.061 OPS).

Cabrera — Best player they ever developed.

HanRam — Owns the two best position-player WAR years in club history and its only batting title.

Dontrelle — The team’s only 20-game winner, and charisma nudges him ahead of K.Brown.

Hartvig

I don’t have enough of a “feel” for the Marlin’s and their history to really have an opinion as to who belongs on their monument. The 1997 team seemed to mercenary for my tastes and when the 2003 team came along there was already talk of how soon they would be traded away- which is really too bad for their fans. I think Tmckelv’s list is more valid than any that I would pick.

I really do hope that Dontrelle Willis can somehow find his old magic again. He was so much fun to watch.

Brent

Conine for sure. HanRam for sure. And I would do 2 pitchers, which probably would be Livian and Dontrelle. But I could go for Beckett too. Or even Robb Nen (going off the board for him, but he was a big part of that 1997 team)

Kirk

When I think of Marlin greats I think of when my local single A team the Kane County Cougars were in the Marlins system. got to see young Cabrera, Johnson Castillo, Willis, Burnett Beckett et al. Based on their impact there I have to go with Cabrera, Johnson Willis and Burnett.

bstar

I’d go with Conine, Hanley, Miguel Cabrera, and Eric Gregg, without whom the Marlins may not have even reached the ’97 World Series. If you’ve forgotten how unbelievably unprofessional Gregg’s call of the strike zone was in game 5 of LCS against Atlanta was or if you thought those calls against Brett Lawrie were bad last night, here’s a clip of a few of Gregg’s choice calls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR3eK5gCChM Livan, who’s only struck out more than 10 batters three times in his career with a high of 11, struck out 15 that day with only 7 swinging strikeouts. But hey, I’m… Read more »

Doc_Irysch

This team doesn’t have a Mt. Rushmore.

Jimbo

lol at Eric Greg and Livan getting 15 strikeouts against patient hitters like Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, and Kenny Lofton.

Susan Dugal

Whats up this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if
you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!