The Florida Marlins weathered a bumpy storm of transitions and upheaval in 2006 baseball betting season, but survived admirably and created some buzz about the future
Only two years removed from winning the baseball betting World Series from the powerhouse New York Yankees, owner Jeffery Loria, decided to conduct a fire-sale of players leaving a roster of players barely old enough to shave and with as much combined major league experience as most AA baseball gambling clubs.
However, after bidding farewell to a number of high priced and high profile players the Marlins beat the baseball betting odds and were in contention for the playoffs right down until the very end of the baseball betting season.
Before the 2006 baseball betting season began the club traded just about every player of value it had including Carlos Delgado, Josh Becket, AJ Burnett, Paul Lo Duca and many others. In return they received a bundle of prospects with very little Major League experience among them. Baseball betting fans were horrified at the prospect of starting the baseball betting season with only two veterans on the roster, Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera, neither of who was over 23 years old. But the Marlin front office showed some serious skill in bringing in the class of prospects that they did. When it was all said and done the Marlins finished in third place in the baseball betting division 13 games back from the NL leading Mets, but they were actually in the playoff hunt until about the second to last week of the baseball betting season. They had a terrible finish and were even leading the baseball gambling wild card race with a month left in the baseball betting season.
In the field the starting roster was completely worked over. The only returning player was Cabrera who was moved to third base. In the first part of the baseball betting season it proved to be a disastrous move as he racked up error after error and for a while actually had more errors by him, than many baseball gambling team had through the first months of the baseball betting season. But Miggy settled in and had yet another tremendous baseball betting year. He was in a tight race for the batting crown right down to the very end and put up fantastic all around numbers, finishing in the top three in the MVP. His power was slightly down but his batting average was up, and with no cover in the lineup he was seeing a lot of garbage pitches.
Joining him in the infield was Hanley Ramirez at shortstop, Dan Uggla at Second and a platoon of players at first base including Jeremy Hermida when healthy. Ramirez dazzled at short with his glove but slumped at the plate. The Marlins have shown great patience with him though and it would be a very strange scenario if he were to be benched for his hitting woes. Uggla was very impressive in the first half of the baseball betting season batting over .300 and on pace for 30 homers and 30 doubles. He slowed down in the second half and didn’t quite achieve these goals but he still set the baseball betting record for homers for his position by a rookie and won rookie of the year award as well as making the all-star baseball gambling team. Look for Uggla to have a big baseball betting year and get his power numbers up a bit.
Baseball gambling fans know that the outfield was something of a disaster for the fish with the spots being played by committee. The Marlins never did find a true central fielder and ended up with utility player extraordinaire Carlos Amenazaga playing most of the baseball betting games there down the stretch. Mike Jacobs was a huge prospect with very high hopes but slumped at the plate and injuries prevented other players from living up to their potential as well and most Marlin watchers expect the outfield to be improved this baseball betting season with a little bit more experience and perhaps better health under their belts.
But the group that kept this ball club in the thick of the wild car race for most of the baseball betting year was the pitching staff. And surprisingly, the staff ace, Dontrelle Willis had a pretty awful baseball betting season by his standards. He managed to 12-12 with an ERA just fewer than 4.00. However, the rest of the staff, which comprised of four rookies hung tough and each won 10 or more baseball betting games as well. There was even a no hitter thrown in just for fun. Starters Scott Olson, Ricky Nolasco, Josh Johnson and Anibel Sanchez all showed great promise on the mound and if they can avoid the sophomore slump could have a very effective starting rotation that could easily win 75 baseball gambling games especially if Dontrelle can return to his 22 win baseball betting season form from a year ago.