Florida Marlins from expansion

[statman]

With my first attempt at posting a dynasty, please feel free to give some feedback, I’m sure I’ll need it. I am also going to mix in a little “real” Marlin’s history along the way, so if you notice it. So here goes…..

October 26, 1992
I am appointed GM of the expansion Florida Marlins by owner H. Wayne Huizenga. I announce the hiring of Rene Lachemann as the manager.

October 28, 1992
Florida and Colorado hold expansion draft, each team will select 35 players from a pool of players from the other 26 Major League teams.

Florida selections in selection order

1. SP Tom Glavine
2. SS Jeff Huson
3. SP Orel Hershhiser
4. C Joe Girardi
5. CL Rob Dibble
6. 3B Gary Gaetti
7. RF Cecil Espy
8. RF Turner Ward
9. CF John Cangelosi
10. 1B George Brett
11. 2B Jeff Treadway
12. SS Craig Shipley
13. MR Mike Perez
14. MR Bruce Ruffin
15. SP Frank Viola
16. SP Mike Morgan
17. MR Doug Simmons
18. MR Dennis Cook
19. 1B Ricky Jordan
20. 2B Mariano Duncan
21. LF Dave Henderson
22. LF Eric Davis
23. 2B Juan Samuel
24. C Damon Berryhill
25. 1B Kevin Maas
26. 2B Randy Ready
27. SS Chipper Jones
28. RF Shawn Green
29. LF Carl Everett
30. C Tom Pagnozzi
31. CF Billy Hatcher
32. SS Billy Spiers
33. LF Henry Cotto
34. C Brian Harper
35. LF Glenn Braggs


Draft Recap
With a team budget of just under $37 Mil I tried to keep spending to a minimum, allowing for some money to be spent in the free agent market.

Glavine at $3.4 mil was the highest paid, with only 6 others topping $1 mil a year.

13-Time All-Star George Brett at 39 was more of a pick to put butts in the seats, although he did hit .323 the previous year but was on the DL 3 different times.

The Rockies went after pitching early and I didn’t, that was a mistake as the pool dried up quick and I only wound up with 9 pitchers and one of them wouldn’t resign with me. Looks to be some decent arms in the free agent pool though.

I snagged 3 players that had no Major League experience, Chipper Jones, Shawn Green and Carl Everett, their ratings don’t look good, but they just sound like good names don’t they.

Overall not much to get excited about, but hopefully I can convince a few free agents to try their luck in sunny Florida. Free agent signings start in just 3 weeks and only $12 mil to spend, could be a long season under the sun.

Up next…..Free agents signed

[kev24fan]

This is will be a good read.

[AZTarHeel]

I like dynasties like this -- good luck ...

I'm a big Jeff Huson fan, as I know some of his family ... In real life, I believe I remember that he was on the field for Cal RIpken's milestone game as well as a Nolan Ryan no-hitter. I think that's right ... anyways, good luck with the Marlins, the first team I ever took over when I bought OOTP4 back in the day...

[statman]

The dynasty continues with free agency results, all feed back or questions are welcome.

Feb. 10, 1993
The bigger names in the free agent market proved to be a more than the Marlins organization wanted to spend. Owner Huizenga made it clear that our time would come to spend the big money in free agency, but not just yet. Before I get into the players we signed lets take a look at some of the free agents who became some of baseball’s highest paid players.

DH Brian Downing (2 year deal worth $15.16 Mil) to Seattle
LF Rickey Henderson (2 year deal worth $20.2 Mil) to Oakland
1B Paul Monitor (2 year deal worth $19.8 Mil) to Milwaukee
RF Dave Clark (4 years, $46.3 Mil) to the Mets
RF Danny Tartabull (5 years, $64.1 Mil) to the Mets
3B Gregg Jeffries (3 years, $43.3 Mil) to Kansas City
3B Edgar Martinez (3 years, $40.6 Mil) to the Reds
LF John Kruk (4 years, $56.5) to Oakland

The richest deal went to Jay Buhner as he signed a deal with the expansion Rockies for 7 years, $75.8 Million.

Lou Whitaker became the leagues highest paid player as he was not resigned by Detroit after playing 16 years there, but Detroit had second thoughts and brought him back for 2 years, $30.37 Mil, Whitaker is 35.

Ok, on to the Marlin signings….
Pitching was an obvious need, so we added 2 veteran starters and 4 good veteran arms out of the pen. With now 4 pitchers (including Dibble) all looking to be the closer, it should give us a lot of options. Caminiti is coming into his prime so he should be a great addition at 3B. The 32 year old Carter had 22 HR’s last year and Chris Gywnn hit over .300 in 477 AB’s. Johnson hit .297 with 59 steals and he will join a Marlin team that already has speedsters Eric Davis, John Cangelosi and Juan Samuel. All 10 players added just over $15 million to the 1993 payroll.

SP Ron Darling
SP Bob Ojeda
MR Bob McClure
MR Lee Smith
MR Jeff Montgomery
MR Randy Myers

3B Ken Caminiti
CF Joe Carter
CF Lance “One Dog” Johnson
LF Chris Gwynn

Some notable players that retired at the end of the 1992 season
Nolan Ryan
Carlton Fisk
Willie Randolph
Gary Carter
Charlie Hough (actually threw the first pitch in Marlins history)
Rick Dempsey
Jack Clark

On a sad note on Dec. 9th, Marlins President Carl Berger collapsed during an owners winter meeting in Louisville, KY and died a few hours later due to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Finishing touches are being put on Joe Robbe stadium in prepararion for opening day.

Next up, Spring Training

[Vris]

Are you using Lahman's? And the expansion feature in the game? If so, I'm a little weary of the engine due to the names you drafted. It's a wonder that those teams would let those players go unprotected in an expansion draft.

[PerfectMisnomer]

I completely forgot I could do this with expansion, so thanks for idea! I used to try and do it manually with headaches involved. I'll be reading.

[kev24fan]

I am tring to do a dynasty with Tampa Bay but I set it up wrong cause I did not get the expansion draft. What year did you set for the expansion draft to work? I set mine to start in 1994 thinking the expansion draft would start the next year but no go. I am in 1997 and still no Tampa Bay in the MLB. Would love to hear how you set it up.

[statman]

Originally Posted by Vris

Are you using Lahman's? And the expansion feature in the game? If so, I'm a little weary of the engine due to the names you drafted. It's a wonder that those teams would let those players go unprotected in an expansion draft.

Yes I am using Lahman's 5.4. And to answer both expansion questions. The only way I could figure out how to actually pick the players in the expansion draft was the following. I started with historical league in the year before the Rockies and Marlins were brought into the league. The expansion draft begins just a few days after the World Series ends, so you can't wait until 1993 to do that. I just quickly simmed 1992 and watched for the expansion date. The Marlins were available to take over right after the WS ended. Hope that answers your questions.

Is there a problem with Lahman's database when using it as I did? Just curious if anyone knows. I'm also going to try to use Gambo's in the same scenery to see what happens, glad you brought that up, made me curiuos.

Spring Training results will be posted later tonight, thanks for the feedback to all.

[statman]

One more thing, Tampa Bay did not join the league until 1998.

[statman]

April 1, 1993

Marlins players entered spring training with a feeling like none other, playing for a new organization with few players they have ever played with before. The coaching staff agreed they were not going to set the world on fire so fundamentals and finding the right mix would be a good place to start.

As spring training came to an end there were some pleasant surprises, but they knew there was much work to be done. The team finished with a 7-17, the worst record in the NL.

The starting pitchers Hershiser, Morgan and Ojeda were both roughed up a bit, but Glavine and Viola looked ready to go. The bullpen which should be a strong part of this team for the most part were successful. The closer role is still open at this point, but with leading candidate Rob Dibble putting up good spring numbers, he still looks to be the front runner.

Offensively the Marlins looked pretty good, with the best performances coming from Maas and Caminiti. The biggest scare came when LF Glenn Braggs was beaned in a March 18th game vs St. Louis, Braggs suffered a fructured skull and expected to miss the remainder of the season.

With 9 cuts remaining to get down to the 25 man roster, 1B George Brett will be playing in his 21st season. Brett needs just 92 hits to reach 3000.

[cibl commish]

Looking forward to following this one.

[statman]

My plan is to give you a game by game recap. Sometimes it will just be a score, other times if something noteworthy happens I will post that as well. Games that would rate as “highlight worthy” will get more coverage. If any significant changes are made to the lineups that will also be noted on the day it occurs. At the end of each month there will be a recap, and any awards that might have been one will be highlighted. My goal is to make this interesting to read, if you want to see something specific, let me know, also if you would like to see some stats from another player in the league, I will post them at the end of each article.

April 5, 1993
The Marlins open up the season with a 3 game series against Cincinnati with a 7-6 victory. 1B Kevin Maas hits the first HR in Marlins history a 2-run shot in the 6th and 2B Juan Samuel also hits one in the same 5-run inning. Eric Davis steals 2 bases and Glavine goes 7 innings for the victory. Dibble has a rough 9th, but gets the save.

April 6, 1993
Another win, another Maas HR. Orel Hershiser goes 7 in the 7-4 victory and he hits one out too! After a brutal spring training Hershiser allowed just 3 runs on 4 hits, struck out 6 and walked nobody. His 3rd inning homer was his first career dinger in 547 Major League at-bats. Maas and Joe Girardi each get 3 hits and Dibble gets save #2.

April 7, 1993
Third straight victory! The Marlins once again beat the Reds, this time behind a complete game shutout by Frank Viola, 4-0. Viola allowed just 5 hits during his 17th career shutout. Yes, Kevin Maas went deep again and had 3 hits. Joe Carter and Jeff Huson also had 3 hits. Huson also had 3 stolen bases.

April 8, 1993
An off day light workout in the new Joe Robbe Stadium as the team prepares for tomorrows home opener.

April 9, 1993
A historic day in any organization as the 3-0 expansion Marlins expect a huge opening day crowd. The sellout crowd of 41,762 see the Marlins score 3 in the 1st, but the magic runs out as they go down with their first lost of the season 7-4 to the NY Mets. SP Ron Darling was not sharp nor was Myers in relief. Caminiti had 3 hits and Maas had 2, but both stayed in the park.

April 10, 1993
Ouch, a tough loss and manager Rene Lachemann receives his first criticism in the press. Heading into the 9th the Marlins led the Mets 9-3 and Glavine was cruisin’. Glavine’s pitch count was low, but ran into trouble in the ninth and after Vince Coleman’s 2-run triple off of closer Rob Dibble with 1 out made the score 10-9, it completed a 7 run inning. Many think that allowing Glavine to give up the first 4 runs in the 9th was an error in judgment by Lachemann. Caminiti and Craig Shipley each had 3 hits, with Shipley hitting his 1st HR of the year.

April 11, 1993
The Marlins get back on track and win the final game of the series against the Mets by a score of 9-2. Hershiser turns in another good performance going 7 and allowing 1 run on 7 hits, Jeff Montogomery pitched the final 2 innings. The big story was once again Kevin Maas as he blasted 2 HR’s and drove in 7 of the 9 Marlin runs, more on him later. Caminiti also went deep for the first time this year and Joe Girardi had he first 4-hit game in Marlins history going 4-4. Just over 125,000 fans witnessed the first series on the teams history.

The team went 4-2 in their first week and sit 1 game back in the NL east. Kevin Maas was selected as the NL’s player of the week.

[Jestor]

Looks like getting out of the pressure with the Yankees has helped Maas out considerably

[Dagrims]

Originally Posted by Vris

It's a wonder that those teams would let those players go unprotected in an expansion draft.

I'm quoting this part of his message because I'm not sure if you answered it in your response. Did you manually determine which players were left unprotected, or did the game?

Vris, it's possible that guys like Chipper Jones, Carl Everett and Shawn Green imported with less-than-stellar potential ratings, which is why they were left unprotected. As for guys like Glavine and Hershiser, the OP did state that he simmed 1992 before the draft, so maybe Glavine had a horrible simmed season and Hershiser was injury-riddled as he had been in RL in 1990 and 1991. I'm definitely interested in seeing who the game leaves unprotected at various times, based on the different databases.

Good luck with your dynasty, statman. I became a Marlins fan before they took the field for the first time, thanks to my move to Florida in 1991. I remember watching Opening Day with Charlie Hough on the mound.

[statman]

Originally Posted by Dagrims

I'm quoting this part of his message because I'm not sure if you answered it in your response. Did you manually determine which players were left unprotected, or did the game?

I did let the game manually determine the unprotected players. I also tested this exact same process with the Gambo DB and results were very similar. Many unprotected (very young) stars and a few pretty decent ML players but like this draft also some pretty average players.

[statman]

We start week 2 after a successful week one going 4-2. This week continues with 3 at home against Houston and then on to NY for 3 vs the Mets.

April 12, 1993
After a complete game shutout by Frank Viola in his first start he comes back with another great performance. Marlins win this one 3-0 over Houston, Viola goes 7 allowing 0 runs on just 6 hits, Dibble gets the save. Joe Girardi goes 3-4, giving him 7 hits in his last 8 AB’s.

April 13, 1993
The ‘Stros score 2 in the 7th and 2 in the 8th and win 6-3. George Brett gets his first start for the Marlins and goes 2-4 and Girardi gets 2 more hits.

April 14, 1993
The fish score solo runs in the 7thand 8th and a 2 out double by Joe Carter and single by Jeff Huson in the bottom of the 9th give the Marlins their first walk off victory. Jeff Montgomery gets the win.

April 15, 1993
Off day travel to NY.

April 16, 1993
Glavine throws just 88 pitches, gives up just 1 run on 4 hits in 7 innings, but is out-dueled by Brett Saberhagen and the Mets get a 1-0 victory.

April 17, 1993
Marlins win 5-3 as Ken Caminiti goes yard and Hershiser goes 6 innings. Randy Myers gets the win in relief and Dibble his 4th save. Three more Marlins stolen base bring their league leading total to 19.

April 18, 1993
Another great pitchers duel, with the Mets coming out on top 3-0. Viola pitches his 2nd complete game, but gives up his first runs of the season. The Mets Dwight Gooden allows just 4 hits in 7 and strikes out 9, he lowers his league leading ERA to 0.42 as Viola sits in 2nd at 0.75.

The Marlins go 3-3 for the week and their 7-5 record puts them in 3rd place, 2 games back of the 2 division leaders, the Mets and the Cardinals.

[zukes]

A good read thus far.

[Ric915]

Great Read I'm really enjoying this uni

[statman]

April 19, 1993
An off day has the fish traveling to the West Coast to play the Giants and Dodgers.

April 20, 1993
SP Darling is roughed up for the 3 straight outing, giving up 7 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks and 2 hits batsmen, all in just one inning of work. The Marlins lose 9-4 to SF, Eric Davis hits his 1st of the year.

April 21, 1993
Marlins get back on track with a 5-4 victory at Candlestick Park. Glavine wasn’t sharp, but held the Giants in check through 6, Montgomery got the win in relief. Lance Johnson went 3-4.

April 22, 1993
Hershiser has nothing as he gives up 4 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks in 2 innings of work. Mike Perez makes his 1st appearance out of the pen in 2 weeks and it shows, giving up 5 runs in the 8th to take the loss, the big blow a grand slam by Stan Javier for another Giants win 9-4. Maas goes 3-4 and Davis hits his 2nd HR of the week.

April 23, 1993
Must be the West Coast air as another starter can’t make it out of the 2nd inning. This time reliable Frank Viola gets knocked around for 8 runs before retiring anyone in the 2nd. The bullpen also struggles as the Marlins lose to LA 14-4. Girardi goes 3-4 to raise his average to .397.

April 24, 1993
With a tired pen, SP Mike Morgan struggles into the 8th allowing 5 runs and 11 hits. The offense also struggles and drops another one to the Dodgers 8-2.

April 25, 1993
Manager Rene Lachemann hesitantly hands the ball to SP Ron Darling and his 12.66 ERA. But, Darling pitches a gem throwing a complete game allowing just 1 run on 7 hits. Unfortunately the 1 run a solo shot by Ron Gant in the 5th was all the Dodgers need as they win 1-0. 21 year old Pedro Martinez pitches 7 shutout innings for his 7th Major League victory.

The Marlins end the week losing 5 in a row and fall into a tie for last place in the West with an 8-10 record. Next week it’s on to Atlanta for 2 and then back home to face LA and SF.

Tomorrow I will post next weeks results along with the league leaders after the first month. If you would like to see how another player in the league might be doing let me know and I’ll post his card.

Below is the Marlins minor league player of the month.

[Dagrims]

Heh, Kentland Ferrets.

Nice read, keep it up. 8-10 isn't bad at all for this team.