Marlins' Hanley Ramirez Proves His Value Despite Injury Woes and Struggles

How quickly the tables have turned on the Marlins after sweeping the San Francisco Giants a mere few weeks ago.

The Florida Marlins have gone 2-10 since that series, as it appears as though the losses of ace Josh Johnson and star Hanley Ramirez have caught up with the ballclub. 

While Josh Johnson was NL leader in the ERA department when he suffered the injury, the Marlins have been able to hold their own in the starts he was suppose to pitch, for the most part. The team has been 1-2 in what was suppose to be JJ starts, and recently lost a two-hitter against the Braves, despite a good performance by rookie pitcher Brad Hand—so it should be 2-1, but it's not. 

However, the Marlins are showing that they indeed miss shortstop Hanley Ramirez, despite the fact he was struggling in the lineup. Ramirez was hitting .210 with four home runs and 17 RBIs at time of the injury.

What's even more alarming about those numbers is that Ramirez's WAR, or wins above replacement, stands at minus 0.2. Mind you, the defensive WAR is minus 0.3, while the offensive WAR is a mere 0.1. 

Yet, that has proven to be enough for the Marlins to end up playing one of the worst baseball of the season. 

Step Up Time

At the beginning of the season, the Marlins' owner, Jeffrey Loria, put the pressure on Ramirez by saying he should step up and have an MVP season.

That hasn't quite worked out two months into the season, but believe it or not, if Ramirez comes back and plays at a high caliber vintage Hanley mode, then he could be back in the discussion. 

Right now, there is no clear cut frontrunner for the MVP award because there is no one "great" team in the National League. One could bring up the usual Albert Pujols and he will always garner a few votes, but the door remains open for not only Ramirez, but anybody to step up and deliver. 

It's clear though that if and when Hanley returns, he'll need to come out of his shell and emerge as the player some looked at (before the season) as a a top three player in baseball. 

His slump has caused many to shove him to the side—and with good reason. Ramirez has been slumping pretty much since last season, although this season its more evident because of the low average. He wasn't even among the top five in the NL All-star voting for shortstops, despite claiming a starting spot for the last few seasons. 

Looking further along the lines, ESPN's Franchise Player Draft, a fantasy draft done by 30 ESPN contributors to draft cornerstones of their franchises, had Hanley Ramirez drafted 20th. Those drafted ahead of him are two guys, who, despite having high praise (Bryce Harper and Mike Trout), have not been up in the major leagues yet; even Josh Johnson, who was picked sixth, was ahead of Hanley.

We can just hope Ramirez returns back to his old No. 3 slot in the lineup, where he has hit a career .308 over a horrendous .221, even though he has only hit there for 31 career games. 

We can just hope Ramirez can pull a Troy Tulowitzki and hit a bunch of home runs over a stretch of games and be legitimate threat once again. 

We can just hope Ramirez has had an epiphany and realizes that he is the MVP of the team in and out of the lineup, and that if he produces, this team will be the most potent lineup in all of baseball. 

Again, we can only hope that Hanley returns from the disabled list a changed man and has turned the page on his slump and begins anew for our sake.