New Location, New Team, New Identity

The Florida Marlins are no longer, say hello and welcome the new and improved Miami Marlins.  Made official on November 11, 2011, the Florida moved on and became the Miami Marlins after introducing a new logo, uniform and color scheme.  Also coming with those changes include some new faces including team manager Ozzie Guillen is back coaching the Marlins yet again since their 2003 world series run.  Not to mention the $515 million dollar stadium they recently built in Little Havana, Miami, Florida where the Miami Orange Bowl once was.

What will the new Miami Marlins logo do to Billy The Marlin mascot?

Ozzie Guillen returned to the Marlins at the end of last season (September 28th) hoping to return them to the playoffs and possibly a few more championships.  With a new market and increased revenue scheme, the Marlins intend to do what their counterpart, Miami Heat did by buying contracts of the league's biggest named players.  The fish wasted no time in acquiring all-star shortstop Jose Reyes for a 6 year, $106 million dollar contract.  Adding all-star closer Heath Bell (3 year, $27 million) and starting pitcher Mark Buehrle (4 year, $58 million) have given a nice 1-2 punch given the fact Josh Johnson will return from his injury he suffered last season at the top of the rotation. 

   

The main concern, personel wise, is what will they do with another all-star shortstop in Hanley Ramirez.  Hanley has become one of the best hitting shortstops in the league but has had attitude problems the past few seasons. When first asked if he would change positions if the Marlins acquired Reyes, Ramirez said thirdbase wouldn't be a major change for him.  Well, after acquiring Reyes, Ramirez wants no part of thirdbase and although the management believe Hanley will come around and him staying in a Marlins uniform is still up in the air.  Reyes is a better built shortstop in my opinion but this has been Hanley's team for the last few seasons. 

Miami has a young squad with unbelievable future talent especially with the best young slugger in the game, Mike Stanton playing outfield.  Stanton led the team with 34 homers but only 87 RBI's last year and hopes to receive more RBI opportunities especially with Reyes at the top of their line-up.  Stanton should be expected to hit in the clean-up spot behind Ramirez.  Ozzie Guillen hopes to turn this team around and hopefully receive the fan support this team deserves, which has been a problem in previous years.  They averaged just above 19,000 fans last season which was the third worst in the league (Tampa Bay and Oakland).  For a new stadium that seats approximately 37,000 fans need to pick up the pace with attendance.

The inside/outside look at the new Marlins Ballpark in Miami, Florida.

In franchise history, the Marlins have only made in the postseason twice ('97 and '03) and in both of those trips as NL wild-card winners, they won the world series.  Guillen is in a position to add a few more players this off-season to the already powerful offense and surprising pitching staff that can start turning heads this year.  If you haven't seen the "different" logo and color scheme for the Marlins, you better go check all their styles out.  Love it or hate it, the Miami Marlins are hoping to overtake the NL East this season and win their first ever division championship, better yet, win the World Series.

Article Written by Kevin Kline