Bargain, Far From Basement

With Lowest Payroll in Majors, Marlins Have Been One of Most Surprising Teams

MIAMI -- When Florida Marlins Manager Joe Girardi stood before his team on one of the first days of spring training, only the most passionate of baseball enthusiasts would have recognized the players surrounding him. Fifty-three of the 59 invitees to camp had spent at least part of the 2005 season in the minor leagues. Thirty-eight had less than a season of major league experience and among those 38, 20 had none.

The Marlins had shipped off most of their veterans in order to slash payroll and were widely projected to be the worst team in baseball. But Girardi, a rookie manager, had other ideas.

"I don't expect to lose," he announced as he looked around the locker room in Viera, Fla., according to several players and Girardi. "I expect to go out and win the World Series."

The reaction, rookie pitcher Scott Olsen said, was telling.

"I think the room went dead silent," said Olsen, who has won 12 games. "We all kind of looked around and said, ' All right . If that's the attitude he's going to have, that's the attitude we're going to have.' . . . We knew we weren't as bad as everybody said."

The Marlins haven't been merely not bad, they've been one of the most surprising stories in baseball in years. Girardi has played 22 rookies so far, yet the team's winning percentage has hovered around .600 since May 21 and the Marlins are contending for a playoff spot, 3 1/2 games behind the Padres in the NL wild-card race entering Friday night. They are a walking advertisement for being thoughtfully cheap and the perfect foil to anyone who claims to be a serious seamhead.

Can anyone name the Marlins' other four starting pitchers --outside of Dontrelle Willis, the only pitcher remaining from the team's 2003 World Series winning team?

"As long as we all know other--and it sure took some introducing in spring training," Olsen said. "We're all in good shape."

And in good company. Anonymous starters Olsen, Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez and Ricky Nolasco have combined for 43 of the team's 48 victories from rookie pitchers--the most since 1952, when Los Angeles Dodgers rookies collected 51. And Sanchez, called up from Class AA on June 25, added a no-hitter along the way. The starting staff has the lowest ERA in the National League.

Other milestones include five Marlins rookies hitting more than 10 home runs, matched only by the 1958 San Francisco Giants, and second baseman Dan Uggla hitting his 24th homer Monday to tie the rookie record for second basemen set in 1938 by the New York Yankees' Joe Gordon.

It's almost a side note that 23-year old third baseman Miguel Cabrera is fighting for the NL batting title.

All this with a major league low payroll just short of $15 million, the result of a salary clearinghouse set off after yet another plan for a new ballpark collapsed in the state legislature.

"I never looked at it as a fire sale," Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said in the clubhouse Tuesday. "You've got to get younger sometimes in order to move ahead."

Marlins General Manager Larry Beinfest said the Marlins have progressed according to plan--albeit on fast-forward. "I don't know if it was a two-, three- or five-year plan," Beinfest said. "I think it's fair to say things have been accelerated."

Loria, who had a run-in with Girardi midway through the season, omitted mention of Girardi when asked about the team's rise and declined to discuss whether Girardi--a manager of the year candidate--would return. The players, however, pushed the kudos Girardi's way.

They said Girardi kept his cool even when they fell to 11-31 in May. They said they were so focused on small but significant baseball matters that they never got overwhelmed with the losing. Girardi said the Marlins' often nearly empty home stadium has provided the perfect classroom for his kids. Since they weren't in the spotlight or outmanned by veterans, they immediately felt comfortable. And their youth brought a worldly innocence, too, he noted. Few have to tangle with common sources of mid-life stress: marriages, kids, aging parents.

And there was this: Nearly all of the Marlins' best minor leaguers were on the Opening Day roster. Players didn't fear getting sent back down because there was virtually nobody left to bring up, Girardi said. They knew they didn't have to prove themselves in one inning or one outing.

"It's unbelievably fun every day I come to the ballpark," Nolasco said. "What else could you ask for?"