The 1993 season was the inaugural season for the Marlins as the National League expanded and added two franchises. The other franchise added was the Colorado Rockies. The manager was Rene Lachemann and this team had a wide assortment of players that included veterans and young players. The team only scored 581 runs which amounts to 3.5 runs per game. This team will struggle to score runs. The only hope is that they can score enough runs and turn the ball over to their bullpen which was the strength of the team.
Hitting: There was not a single player on the team that hit .300 for the season. That is very disheartening. ORESTES DESTRADE before he joined baseball tonight was the team leader and senior starter at age 31. He led the team with 20 homeruns and 87 rbi's. However he batted .255 and he will bat cleanup. The next best hitter was Jeff Conine and he played in every single game that season. He hit 12 homers and drove in 79 while hitting .292. A very young Gary Sheffield at age 24 played in limited duty hitting 10 homers with 37 rbi's. Bret Barberie and Walt Weiss played up the middle and were effective starters. The super sub will be Dave Magadan and hopefully he can come off the bench and provide some key hits. Chuck Carr will try to ignite the offense as he stole 58 bases and he will bat leadoff. It will be interesting to see how many runs this team can score.
Pitching: CHARLIE HOUGH at age 45 will be penciled in as the number 1 starter. We hope the knuckleball still has some life in it. Jack Armstrong will be next with an era of 4.49 but he led the team in losses with 17. Chris Hammond and Ryan Bowen round out the rotation. The fifth spot will go to either Pat Rapp or Luis Aquino. Aquino has the edge as his era was a respectable 3.42. Bryan Harvey is the closer as he posted 45 saves with a remarkable 1.70 era. The setup men will be Luis Aquino, Richie Lewis, and Matt Turner. Turner will be the main setup man as he posted a 2.91 era in 68 innings. Cris Carpenter not to be confused with the other Chris Carpenter pitched well in relief with a 2.89 era in 37 innings. Trevor Hoffman who began his career with the Marlins recorded 2 saves in his quest towards 600 saves. He was later traded in 1993 to the San Diego Padres. Bob McClure closed out his career with the Marlins after 19 seasons with 7 teams.
Intangibles: As mentioned before the team will scratch and claw for runs. The Marlins will play small ball as they don't have a lot of power hitters. If the team has the lead after 5 innings, hopefully the bullpen can hold on and close out the game. The team did draw 3,064,847 fans for the season which isn't bad for a poor team.
Ballpark: JOE ROBBIE STADIUM - This stadium has lots of room and tends to be a pitcher's park which will hopefully give the Marlins an added homefield advantage.
--submitted by Frank Aluzzi--
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