Florida Marlins 2006 Season and Off Season

The Florida Marlins 2006 season was not completely horrible. Since winning the World Series for the second time in their short history, Marlin fans have twice scene their time dismantled. Florida does seem to always have good young players coming up to the majors.

2006 saw the Marlins finish 19 games out of first place, and 6 games under the .500 mark. Many good things did happen for Florida Marlins and their fans. With a little more experience under them this team should show a lot of improvement.

Superstar third baseman Miguel Cabrera had his 3 straight good season. Cabrera hit .339, 50 doubles, 26 home runs, and 114 runs batted in. Josh Willingham played in first full season. Willingham played in 142 games batting .277, 26 home runs, and 74 runs batted in. Rookie shortstop Hanley Ramirez could not have played any better. He hit .292, 46 doubles, 11 triples, 17 home runs, 59 runs batted in, and 51 stolen bases. Rookie second baseman Dan Uggla played in 154 games batting .272, 26 doubles, 7 triples, 27 home runs, and 90 runs batted in. Another guy with not much major league experience was Mike Jacobs. He hit .262, 20 home runs, and 77 runs batted in.

The pitching staff was anchored by Dontrelle Willis. Dontrelle posted a 12 and 12 record in 223.1 innings and his era was 3.87. The only other starter with at least 30 starts was rookie Scott Olsen. Olsen had an era of 4.04 in 180.2 innings pitched and had a record of 12 and 10. Another rookie Josh Johnson he had a record of 12 and 7 in 24 games started and his era was 3.10. Anibal Sanchez made his major league debut and was an instance hit. He went 10 and 3 with an era of 2.83. He also threw a no-hitter during his rookie year.

During the off season Florida fired manager Joe Girardi after he had done a good job managing. He also had some run-ins with the Marlins front office. Fredi Gonzalez was hired as the new manager. They acquired reliever Kevin Gregg from the Angels to help in the bullpen. Aaron Boone signed a one-year contract. Catcher Miguel Olivo re-signed, he had bounced around the last year or two.

With the team remaining intact, the 2007 season should see the Marlins continue to be competitive. The first year players all have experience under their belts and they should show improvement. With some many young players on their team the fans should be happy that so many players will be under the team's control for several years. Marlin fans should expect good things in the 2007 season.