2007 Florida Marlins season

MLB yearly infobox
name = Florida Marlins
season = 2007
misc =

current league = National League
y1 = 1993
division = Eastern Division
y2 = 1993
Uniform
ballpark = Dolphin Stadium
y4 = 1993
city = Miami Gardens, Florida
y5 = 1993
owners = Jeffrey Loria
managers = Fredi Gonzalez
television = FSN Florida
Sun Sports
radio = WQAM
WQBA (Spanish)|

The Florida Marlins' 2007 season began with the team with the league's lowest payroll trying to improve on their promising 78-84 record in 2006. Despite the success of the team under manager Joe Girardi, he was fired and replaced with Fredi Gonzalez.

Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest said that the team's goal from the start of the season was to compete in the playoffs. cite web | title=The Official Site of the Florida Marlins | work=GM: Closer, center to come from within | accessyear=2007 | accessdate=February 8 | url=http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070206&content_id=1796226&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla]

The Marlins had two goals to address during the 2006 offseason: they needed a new closer because '06 closer Joe Borowski signed with the Cleveland Indians as a free agent, and the Marlins saw the need for a new center fielder. They had platooned Eric Reed, Reggie Abercrombie, Chris Aguila, Cody Ross, and Alfredo Amézaga in the position in 2006, with backup shortstop Amézaga making most of the starts at that position later in the season. The Marlins had added some new relief pitchers since 2006, trading Chris Resop to the Los Angeles Angels for Kevin Gregg and shipping prospects Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick to the New York Mets for Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom. Lindstrom has been a closer during his time in the minors and has a fastball that reached 100 mph on radar guns in winter league play during the 2006 offseason. The Marlins saw much competition for their closer role, with Ricky Nolasco, Renyel Pinto, Mike Koplove, Gregg, Lindstrom, and Owens all candidates for the job. In April, newly-acquired Jorge Julio was named closer, but on May 13, he was traded to the Colorado Rockies for Byung-Hyun Kim.

The Marlins signed center fielder Alex Sanchez to a minor league deal in the offseason, who competed for the Marlins' center field job with Reed, Abercrombie, Ross, and Amézaga. Beinfest said that the Marlins tried to trade for a proven center fielder but were asked for too much in order to get one. However, Sánchez was released at the end of spring training and the starting role was handed to rookie Alejandro De Aza.

Regular season

eason standings

Game log

Roster

Draft

"This is a partial list. For the full draft, see here."

Players Selected

References

*Game Logs::1st Half: [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/schedule?team=fla&season=2007&seasonType=2&half=1 Florida Marlins Game Log] on ESPN.com:2nd Half: [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/schedule?team=fla&season=2007&seasonType=2&half=2 Florida Marlins Game Log] on ESPN.com
*Batting Statistics: [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/stats?team=fla Florida Marlins Batting Stats] on ESPN.com
*Pitching Statistics: [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/pitching?team=fla Florida Marlins Pitching Stats] on ESPN.com