1998 Florida Marlins season

The Florida Marlins' 1998 season was the sixth season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in the National League. It would begin with the team attempting to defend their World Series Champion title, having won the title in 1997. Their manager was Jim Leyland. They played home games at Pro Player Stadium, and finished with a record of 54–108, the worst record in all of baseball. The team is notable for having arguably the biggest fire sale in sports history, auctioning off nearly all of their most notable players. The 1998 Marlins were the first defending World Series champions to finish last in their division.

1998 Florida Marlins
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record54–108 (.333)
Divisional place5th
Other information
Owner(s)Wayne Huizenga
General manager(s)Dave Dombrowski
Manager(s)Jim Leyland
Local televisionSports Channel Florida
WBFS-TV
(Joe Angel, Dave O'Brien, Tommy Hutton, Jay Randolph)
Local radioWQAM
(Joe Angel, Dave O'Brien, Jon Sciambi)
WQBA (Spanish)
(Felo Ramírez, Manolo Alvarez)
< Previous season     Next season >

The Marlins won on opening day against the Chicago Cubs, but it would be the only time they were over .500 all season. They promptly lost 11 straight, the most consecutive losses by a reigning champion. By the end of May, they were 17-38, 21 games under .500, and their season was all but over. The Marlins would finish 0–9 against three teams: Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. The 1998 Marlins are the most recent team in baseball history to finish winless against three separate opponents.

Offseason
  • November 18, 1997: Devon White was traded by the Florida Marlins to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Jesus Martinez (minors).[1]
  • December 15, 1997: Scott Podsednik was drafted by the Texas Rangers from the Florida Marlins in the 1997 rule 5 draft.[2]
  • December 15, 1997: Derrek Lee was traded by the San Diego Padres with Steve Hoff (minors) and Rafael Medina to the Florida Marlins for Kevin Brown.[3]
  • December 21, 1997: Kevin Millar was signed as a Free Agent with the Florida Marlins.[4]

Regular season

Opening Day starters
15Cliff FloydLF
16Edgar RenteriaSS
3Ryan Jackson1B
10Gary SheffieldRF
7Mark KotsayCF
23Charles JohnsonC
30Craig Counsell2B
2Josh Booty3B
61Livan HernandezP

Season standings
NL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Atlanta Braves 10656 0.654 — 56–25 50–31
New York Mets 8874 0.543 18 47–34 41–40
Philadelphia Phillies 7587 0.463 31 40–41 35–46
Montreal Expos 6597 0.401 41 39–42 26–55
Florida Marlins 54108 0.333 52 31–50 23–58

Record vs. opponents
1998 National League Records

Sources:
Team ARI ATL CHC CIN COL FLA HOU LAD MIL MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL AL
Arizona —1–85–74–56–66–24–54–86–32–74–52–76–33–95–72–75–8
Atlanta 8–1—3–67–25–37–54–58–17–26–69–38–47–25–47–26–39–7
Chicago 7–56–3—6–57–27–24–74–56–67–24–53–68–35–47–34–75–8
Cincinnati 5–42–75–6—4–59–03–85–46–58–13–64–55–71–112–78–37-6
Colorado 6–63–52–75–4—6–36–56–64–77–23–65–45–45–77–53–64–8
Florida 2–65–72–70–93–6—3–64–50–95–75–76–63–64–50–94–58–8
Houston 5–45–47–48–35–66-3—3–69–27–25–47–29–25–46–35–710–4
Los Angeles 8–41–85–44–56–65–46–3—5–45–43–55–47–55–76–64–58–5
Milwaukee 3–62–76–65–67–49–02–94–5—6–31–84–56–53–65–43–88–6
Montreal 7–26–62–71–82–77–52–74–53–6—8–45–72–74–43–63–66–10
New York 5–43–95–46–36–37–54–55–38–14–8—8–44–54–54–56–39–7
Philadelphia 7-24–86–35–44–56–62–74–55–47–54–8—8–11–82–63–67–9
Pittsburgh 3–62–73–87–54–56–32–95–75–67–25–41–8—5–42–76–56–7
San Diego 9–34–54–511–17–55–44–57–56–34–45–48–14–5—8–46–36–7
San Francisco 7–52–73–77–25–79–03–66–64–56–35–46–27–24–8—7–58–5
St. Louis 7–23–67–43–86–35-47–55–48–36–33–66–35–63–65–7—4–9

Notable transactions

The Mike Piazza trades

Major League debuts
  • Batters:
    • Bubba Carpenter (May 13)
    • Adam Melhuse (June 16)
    • Elvis Pena (September 2)
    • Juan Pierre (August 7)
  • Pitchers:
    • Craig House (August 6)
    • David Moraga (June 11)

Citrus Series

The first interleague game between the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays took place at Tropicana Field. The rivalry would be known as the Citrus Series. The Marlins won the game in twelve innings by a score of 3–2 and would go on to win the season series 3 games to 1.[7]

  • June 22 - Marlins @ Devil Rays: 3 – 2
  • June 23 - Marlins @ Devil Rays: 4 – 6
  • June 24 - Marlins vs Devil Rays: 8 – 4
  • June 25 - Marlins vs Devil Rays: 5 – 1

Roster
1998 Florida Marlins
Roster
Pitchers
  • 41 Oscar Henríquez
 Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats
= Indicates team leader

Starters by position

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. SB
CGregg Zaun1062981956529.1885
1BDerrek Lee141454621061774.2335
2BCraig Counsell1073354384440.2513
3BTodd Zeile662343768639.2912
SSÉdgar Rentería13351779146331.28241
LFCliff Floyd153588851662290.28227
CFTodd Dunwoody11643453109528.2515
RFMark Kotsay154578721611168.27910

[8]

Other batters
Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. SB
Dave Berg811821857221.3133
Bobby Bonilla28971127415.2780
Josh Booty7190303.1580
John Cangelosi1041711943110.2512
Luis Castillo441532131110.2033
Brian Daubach10150303.2000
Jim Eisenreich306491617.2502
Alex Gonzalez2586111337.1510
Ryan Jackson1112602665531.2501
Charles Johnson311131325723.2210
Randy Knorr1549410211.2040
Kevin Orie481752346617.2631
Mike Piazza5181505.2780
Mike Redmond371181039212.3310
Gary Sheffield401362137628.2724
John Wehner5388102005.2271
Preston Wilson14314211.0650

[8]

Starting pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Livan Hernandez33234.110124.72162
Brian Meadows31174.111135.2188
Jesus Sanchez35173.0794.47137
Andy Larkin1774.2389.6443
Rafael Medina1267.1266.0149

Relief pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO Sv
Antonio Alfonseca5870.2464.08468
Vic Darensbourg5971.0073.68741
Brian Edmondson4359.1433.79320
Oscar Henriquez1520.0008.55190
Felix Heredia4141.0035.49382
Matt Mantei4254.2342.96639
Kirt Ojala41125.0274.25750
Donn Pall2333.1015.13260
Jay Powell3336.1444.21243
Justin Speier1819.1038.38150
Rob Stanifer3848.0245.63301

Other pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO Sv
Manuel Barrios22.2003.3810
Ryan Dempster1454.2157.08350
Joe Fontenot842.2076.33240
Gabe Gonzalez31.0009.0000
Chris Hammond313.2026.5980
Eric Ludwick1332.2147.44270

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Charlotte Knights International League Fredi González
AA Portland Sea Dogs Eastern League Lynn Jones
A Brevard County Manatees Florida State League Rick Renteria
A Kane County Cougars Midwest League Juan Bustabad
A-Short Season Utica Blue Sox New York–Penn League Ken Joyce
Rookie GCL Marlins Gulf Coast League Jon Deeble

[9]

References
  1. Devon White Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  2. Scott Podsednik Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/leede02.shtml
  4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/millake01.shtml
  5. Jacob Brumfield Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  6. Bobby Bonilla Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  7. http://baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=199806220TBA
  8. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/FLA/1998.shtml
  9. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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