Looking Forward to 2008: Florida Marlins

The Florida Marlins will report to Spring Training with 2 familiar faces missing from previous years.

During the Winter Meetings, the Florida Marlins pulled the trigger on a trade that sent left-hander Dontrelle Willis and 3rd baseman Miguel Cabrera to the Detroit Tigers. Willis was the last remaining member from the Marlins World Championship team in 2003. Another missing face from 2007 will be catcher Miguel Olivo, who was signed by the Kansas City Royals during the offseason.

Though the trade has been talked about on Detroit's side because of the players they received in Willis and Cabrera, the players the Marlins received in return aren't too shabby either. Top outfield prospect Cameron Maybin, who was among the players sent to Florida, should make an immediate impact in 2008.

Arrivals:

OF Maybin

LHP Miller

C Rabelo

RHP Eulogio De La Cruz

RHP Dallas Trahern

RHP Burke Badenhop

Departures:

LHP Willis

3B Cabrera

C Miguel Olivo

INF Aaron Boone

RHP Byung-Hyun Kim

Another piece that was sent to the Marlins from Detroit was left-hander Andrew Miller, who should be able to step right into the Marlins' rotation when they open the 2008 season. Joining him in the rotation from 2007 will be right-handers Scott Olson, Sergio Mitre and Ricky Nolasco, but let's not forget about the addition of veteran Mark Hendrickson as well as highly touted left-hander Taylor Tankersley who finished 2007 with a 6-1 record and a 3.99 ERA in 47.1 IP.

On the offensive end of things, this will be one of, if not the youngest team in major league baseball. That's not to say, however, that this team isn't going to surprise people because when you have young talent such as outfielder Cameron Maybin, 2nd baseman Dan Uggla, outfielder Josh Willingham, shortstop Hanley Ramirez and 1st baseman Mike Jacobs, you're going to put up runs. The question becomes, how is this rotation going to do when they're given run support? Will their bullpen be able to hold leads in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings?

Prediction Time:

Yes the offense will put up runs, but they're going to lose a lot more games than they're going to win, especially playing in the same division with the Atlanta Braves and NY Mets.

Marlins - 65-97