Florida Marlins Go from Spoiled Fish to Big-Game Hunters

We keep waiting for the Marlins to fade away in the wild-card race. How many times have we written them off this season?

Yet with one week to go, the Marlins trail the Rockies by four games in that race heading to the weekend. It's still a large deficit with a week to go, but the Marlins are playing for something unlike most teams.

It's been awhile since the Marlins participate in this type of setting. After a fantastic 2003 season, the Marlins underachieved in 2004 and 2005, which resulted to a fire sale that set the stage for another rebuilding process for the next two years.

The Marlins broke through last season by winning 84 games, and now, they can match last year's win total this weekend.

The team set out a goal to play meaningful games in September this season, and they did just that.

Whether the Marlins make the playoffs or not, Larry Beinfest and Fredi Gonzalez like what they saw out of their squad this year. How could they not?

The team established a starting rotation that should be awesome next year with Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, and Sean West.

The bullpen converted from being a question mark to a sure thing now that the Marlins filled roles for middle relief, setup man and closer.

Their defense showed improvement from last year.

The lineup is good, with the emergence of Chris Coghlan and the progress of Cameron Maybin. We know Hanley Ramirez will continue to play like a star.

Look for more young talent to come in from the minors in an attempt to make a lineup even better than what we saw this summer.

Gonzalez shows improvement every year as a manager. He knows which pinch-hitter to use, and he figures out when to take a pitch out of the game.

After dealing with growing pains on the job in his first two years, the Marlins manager now knows how to make the right moves in games.

Many baseball writers ripped the Marlins for firing Joe Girardi after one year, but truth is Gonzalez is a better manager than Girardi right now for the Marlins.

It's a credit to the fourth-year manager that the Marlins keep winning despite their situation in the wild-card race. In Girardi's first and final year, the Marlins quit once they knew they were not going to make the playoffs.

It's something Gonzalez doesn't have to say about those same players Girardi worked with.

Expect the Marlins to make it interesting next week with the Cardinals playing the Rockies at Coors Field while the Marlins play a sorry Mets team.

The Rockies lost seven of 11 after losing the series with the Padres, and it will not get easy with the best team in baseball coming to Denver for a three-game set so the Marlins should not feel they are out of it.

Look for the Cardinals take the series and the Marlins sweeping a team that quit several weeks ago.

By then, the Marlins would be two games out of the wild-card race heading to Atlanta for a series that dictates their playoff hopes. The Braves are quietly making a run themselves, as they are four games out in the wild-card race.

This is progress. The last two years, the Marlins played the role of a spoiler, and they did a great job of doing that.

While it's not a bad thing for a team to play spoiler, players don't appreciate that role. They want to play in October for a chance to win a championship.

The Marlins witness something different now.

They get to do scoreboard watching while making a playoff run.

It's a good thing, and it will get better for the next few years.