Marlins Were Historically Bad In 1st Half
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Marlins will begin anew Friday as the second half of the Major League Baseball regular season gets underway. Needless to say, the Fish hope they can muster something better than their first half of the season.
The Marlins finished the first half of the year with a 41-44 record, which was the third straight season the team has finished under .500 at the All-Star break. Still, the record was the tenth best at the All-Star break in team history.
Much of the blame for the horrid first half of the season can be laid at the feet of the batting order.
The Marlins stumbled to a team average of just .242 through the first 85 games of the year. That was the lowest mid-season team batting average in the Marlins' history, breaking last year's mark. Not surprisingly, the team had the lowest OBP in its history at .310.
The Fish finished the first-half with the third fewest runs in team history at the All-Star break with 334. The Team also had the fewest hits at the All-Star break in team history.
The Marlins' pitching staff gave up the fifth fewest home runs at the break in team history while giving up 355 earned runs. Overall, the Marlins' pitchers finished the first half with an ERA of 4.17.
Only one starting pitcher for the Marlins finished the first half with a winning record, Ricky Nolasco, who was 8-6. Both Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle finished at .500 with records of 5-5 and 8-8 respetively.
The Marlins are on pace to draw just fewer than 2.5 million fans to the new Marlins Park. The Marlins are averaging 28,330 fans per game in 2012.
Still, the Marlins are about to encounter stiff competition from the Miami Dolphins, Miami Hurricanes, Florida International, and Florida Atlantic University football teams. If the Marlins continue to falter in August, then by September the stadium could be a ghost town as football season gets underway.
