1998 Florida Marlins
LeagueNational League
DivisionEast
BallparkPro Player Stadium
CityMiami Gardens, Florida
Record54–108 (.333)
Divisional place5th
OwnersWayne Huizenga
General managersDave Dombrowski
ManagersJim Leyland
TelevisionSports Channel Florida
WBFS-TV
(Joe Angel, Dave O'Brien, Tommy Hutton, Jay Randolph)
RadioWQAM
(Joe Angel, Dave O'Brien, Jon Sciambi)
WQBA (Spanish)
(Felo Ramírez, Manolo Alvarez)
← 1997 Seasons 1999 →

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 and the first to lose 100 games. To make matters worse, the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who also finished last in their own division (the AL East), were nine games better than the Marlins, at 63–99.

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 to finish winless against three separate opponents.

Offseason

Regular season

Opening Day starters

15 Cliff Floyd LF
16 Edgar Renteria SS
3 Ryan Jackson 1B
10 Gary Sheffield RF
7 Mark Kotsay CF
23 Charles Johnson C
30 Craig Counsell 2B
2 Josh Booty 3B
61 Livan Hernandez P

Season standings

NL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Atlanta Braves 106 56 0.654 — 56–25 50–31
New York Mets 88 74 0.543 18 47–34 41–40
Philadelphia Phillies 75 87 0.463 31 40–41 35–46
Montreal Expos 65 97 0.401 41 39–42 26–55
Florida Marlins 54 108 0.333 52 31–50 23–58

Record vs. opponents

1998 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Team AZ ATL CHC CIN COL FLA HOU LA MIL MTL NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL AL
Arizona — 1–8 5–7 4–5 6–6 6–2 4–5 4–8 6–3 2–7 4–5 2–7 6–3 3–9 5–7 2–7 5–8
Atlanta 8–1 — 3–6 7–2 5–3 7–5 4–5 8–1 7–2 6–6 9–3 8–4 7–2 5–4 7–2 6–3 9–7
Chicago 7–5 6–3 — 6–5 7–2 7–2 4–7 4–5 6–6 7–2 4–5 3–6 8–3 5–4 7–3 4–7 5–8
Cincinnati 5–4 2–7 5–6 — 4–5 9–0 3–8 5–4 6–5 8–1 3–6 4–5 5–7 1–11 2–7 8–3 7-6
Colorado 6–6 3–5 2–7 5–4 — 6–3 6–5 6–6 4–7 7–2 3–6 5–4 5–4 5–7 7–5 3–6 4–8
Florida 2–6 5–7 2–7 0–9 3–6 — 3–6 4–5 0–9 5–7 5–7 6–6 3–6 4–5 0–9 4–5 8–8
Houston 5–4 5–4 7–4 8–3 5–6 6-3 — 3–6 9–2 7–2 5–4 7–2 9–2 5–4 6–3 5–7 10–4
Los Angeles 8–4 1–8 5–4 4–5 6–6 5–4 6–3 — 5–4 5–4 3–5 5–4 7–5 5–7 6–6 4–5 8–5
Milwaukee 3–6 2–7 6–6 5–6 7–4 9–0 2–9 4–5 — 6–3 1–8 4–5 6–5 3–6 5–4 3–8 8–6
Montreal 7–2 6–6 2–7 1–8 2–7 7–5 2–7 4–5 3–6 — 8–4 5–7 2–7 4–4 3–6 3–6 6–10
New York 5–4 3–9 5–4 6–3 6–3 7–5 4–5 5–3 8–1 4–8 — 8–4 4–5 4–5 4–5 6–3 9–7
Philadelphia 7-2 4–8 6–3 5–4 4–5 6–6 2–7 4–5 5–4 7–5 4–8 — 8–1 1–8 2–6 3–6 7–9
Pittsburgh 3–6 2–7 3–8 7–5 4–5 6–3 2–9 5–7 5–6 7–2 5–4 1–8 — 5–4 2–7 6–5 6–7
San Diego 9–3 4–5 4–5 11–1 7–5 5–4 4–5 7–5 6–3 4–4 5–4 8–1 4–5 — 8–4 6–3 6–7
San Francisco 7–5 2–7 3–7 7–2 5–7 9–0 3–6 6–6 4–5 6–3 5–4 6–2 7–2 4–8 — 7–5 8–5
St. Louis 7–2 3–6 7–4 3–8 6–3 5-4 7–5 5–4 8–3 6–3 3–6 6–3 5–6 3–6 5–7 — 4–9


Notable transactions

The Mike Piazza trades

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]

Roster

1998 Florida Marlins
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Pos Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. SB
C Gregg Zaun 106 298 19 56 5 29 .188 5
1B Derrek Lee 141 454 62 106 17 74 .233 5
2B Craig Counsell 107 335 43 84 4 40 .251 3
3B Todd Zeile 66 234 37 68 6 39 .291 2
SS Édgar Rentería 133 517 79 146 3 31 .282 41
LF Cliff Floyd 153 588 85 166 22 90 .282 27
CF Todd Dunwoody 116 434 53 109 5 28 .251 5
RF Mark Kotsay 154 578 72 161 11 68 .279 10

[8]

Other batters

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

Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. SB
Dave Berg 81 182 18 57 2 21 .313 3
Bobby Bonilla 28 97 11 27 4 15 .278 0
Josh Booty 7 19 0 3 0 3 .158 0
John Cangelosi 104 171 19 43 1 10 .251 2
Luis Castillo 44 153 21 31 1 10 .203 3
Brian Daubach 10 15 0 3 0 3 .200 0
Jim Eisenreich 30 64 9 16 1 7 .250 2
Alex Gonzalez 25 86 11 13 3 7 .151 0
Ryan Jackson 111 260 26 65 5 31 .250 1
Charles Johnson 31 113 13 25 7 23 .221 0
Randy Knorr 15 49 4 10 2 11 .204 0
Kevin Millar 2 2 1 1 0 0 .500 0
Kevin Orie 48 175 23 46 6 17 .263 1
Mike Piazza 5 18 1 5 0 5 .278 0
Mike Redmond 37 118 10 39 2 12 .331 0
John Roskos 10 10 1 1 0 0 .100 0
Gary Sheffield 40 136 21 37 6 28 .272 4
John Wehner 53 88 10 20 0 5 .227 1
Preston Wilson 14 31 4 2 1 1 .065 0

[8]

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Liván Hernández 33 234.1 10 12 4.72 162
Brian Meadows 31 174.1 11 13 5.21 88
Jesús Sánchez 35 173.0 7 9 4.47 137
Andy Larkin 17 74.2 3 8 9.64 43
Rafael Medina 12 67.1 2 6 6.01 49
Joe Fontenot 8 42.2 0 7 6.33 24
Chris Hammond 3 13.2 0 2 6.59 8

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts; SV = Saves

Player G IP W L ERA SO SV
Antonio Alfonseca 58 70.2 4 6 4.08 46 8
Vic Darensbourg 59 71.0 0 7 3.68 74 1
Brian Edmondson 43 59.1 4 3 3.79 32 0
Oscar Henriquez 15 20.0 0 0 8.55 19 0
Felix Heredia 41 41.0 0 3 5.49 38 2
Matt Mantei 42 54.2 3 4 2.96 63 9
Donn Pall 23 33.1 0 1 5.13 26 0
Jay Powell 33 36.1 4 4 4.21 24 3
Justin Speier 18 19.1 0 3 8.38 15 0
Rob Stanifer 38 48.0 2 4 5.63 30 1
Manuel Barrios 2 2.2 0 0 3.38 1 0
Gabe Gonzalez 3 1.0 0 0 9.00 0 0

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts; SV = Saves

Player G IP W L ERA SO SV
Kirt Ojala 41 125.0 2 7 4.25 75 0
Ryan Dempster 14 54.2 1 5 7.08 35 0
Eric Ludwick 13 32.2 1 4 7.44 27 0

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. ^ "Derrek Lee Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  4. ^ "Kevin Millar Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  5. ^ Jacob Brumfield Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  6. ^ Bobby Bonilla Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  7. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Monday, June 22, 1998 at Tropicana Field".
  8. ^ a b "1998 Florida Marlins Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  9. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007

External links

1998 MLB season by team
Miami Marlins
Categories