[Previous entry: "Time to Ban the Cancer Sticks ..."] [Next entry: "I Don't Understand the British"]

06/29/2006: "What Might Have Been ..."

There's no question that my beloved Florida Marlins are playing far above expectation, and that the Fish Fans are able to enjoy baseball in a way none of us expected to do this season. But that does little to erase the memory of the offseason dismantling that forced us to play so many rookies in the first place. One need only look at how the past Marlins are playing to get a sense of where we might have been this season:

- Josh Beckett - An 8-3 record and 82 strikeouts for the Red Sox; having the blister-free Cy Young season we knew he had in him.

- Mike Lowell - Batting .307 with 9 home runs and only 4 errors for the Red Sox; far from the ballast weight the Marlins considered him to be.

- Carlos Delgado - 22 home runs for the Mets; part of a new "Murder's Row".

- Paul LoDuca - Only 5 errors behind the plate for the Mets; on his way to the All-Star game.

I could go on, but you get the point. Now there's nothing to say that any of these guys could have performed like this for the Marlins this year; nothing inspires a player like getting traded (except for a contract year). But they were thisclose to the playoffs last year, and with the Braves imploding this season there'd have been no one else in the East to challenge them (don't even say the Mets - they're riding the backs of a bunch of ex-Fish!).

Oh well ... at least we got the kids!