2013 Marlins Season Review: Hitters report card

The Miami Marlins got very few, if any, strong performances from their position players in 2013. We here at Fish Stripes have reviewed all the relevant players in the 2013 Marlins Season Review series, and now it is time to wrap up the Major League portion of the review series with an overall review of each side with some brief comments and a report card summary complete with a grade.

Keep in mind that the grades combine aspects of performance and expectations, so that players who do well but are expected to do well grade worse than those who do well and fail to meed expectations. Similarly, players who are expected to be terrible and are less than that are "graded on a curve" to an extent as well. Generally, grades of "B" or "C" imply players more or less met expectations.

Rob Brantly (Review)

Brantly failed to meet expectations based on last year's strong start, but he did so in a spectacular fashion. Most people figured he would not hit .290/.372/.460, but to hit as close as he did to his backup's numbers is a thorough embarrassment. Grade: F

Jeff Mathis (Review)

Of course, his backup was expected to be bad and even failed to do that at a passable clip. Mathis doubled up on the bad by earning a strong reputation and appearing to be highly respected in clubhouse, thus leading to more playing time than he probably deserved. Mathis underperformed even his meager offensive expectations, and when you're the worst hitter in the Majors over the last 10 years, that is saying something. Grade: F

Logan Morrison (Review)

Morrison came back at what we can only expect was his healthiest in years after his second knee surgery, and he still struggled at the plate. The walks returned, but his bat was anemic in terms of power. On the defensive side, he looked like a statue after years of trying to play the outfield seemingly ate up his limited athleticism. Grade: D

Greg Dobbs (Review)

On the one hand, Greg Dobbs was a terrible hitter. I'm not sure how he could hit .228/.303/.300 and still be considered "good" by the broadcast team. Then again, the #MostInterestingManInBaseball is at least an enjoyable character for the team's veteran terrible player. If you're going to be awful, at least have a Ron Swanson-type persona like he has here at Fish Stripes. Grade: D

Donovan Solano (Review)

Solano started the season poorly (.278/.333/.324 before his injury) and ended it the same way (.237/.293/.312 after returning), but he was perennially considered important because of his positional flexibility and the fact that he had a strong batting average with runners in scoring position. That oddity gave him enough capital to hang out on the roster, and unlike Dobbs, he had no cool alternate persona to hang his hat on. Grade: F

Derek Dietrich (Review)

Dietrich was a replacement-level player this season, but when you were not expected to make it to the majors until September, you get a little more leeway. He showed off good power, which was expected, but the Fish still would like to see more contact and a better plate approach. Grade: C+

Placido Polanco (Review)

The zombie once known as Polanco brought nothing positive in the 2013 season. Can you believe the Marlins opened the season with him batting cleanup? CLEANUP! Grade: F

Ed Lucas (Review)

Lucas was a career minor leaguer out of an Ivy League school who was never supposed to make the majors. Just getting a call-up, even from a talent-starved club like Miami, is deserving of a decent grade. The fact that he hit predictably poorly does not put a damper on his mediocre grade. Grade: C

Adeiny Hechavarria (Review)

Hechavarria, like Mathis before him, somehow outdid his own low expectations at the plate. He only complicated matters further by not playing top notch defense, at least according to the defensive metrics of this year. It is possible that Hechavarria was still good at shortstop, but the poor metrics do cast a shadow on the rosy experiment from the start of the year. Did I mention that he was terrible at the plate? Grade: F

Christian Yelich (Review)

The Marlins got a pleasant surprise out of Yelich when he was promoted surprisingly early this season. Yelich came in and immediately started hitting, and while the hits may have come from more fortunate sources and lacked power, there was still plenty to like from him. His patience is a virtue, but he needs to improve his contact more than anything else. Grade: B+

Justin Ruggiano (Review)

Ruggiano was cruising along just fine until he ran into a month-long, 42-at-bat streak featuring no hits. Were it not for the streak, we may be looking at his season as classic stuff from a borderline starting outfielder or a weaker second-division player, but as it stands, he rates just a bit lower than that. Grade: C-

Marcell Ozuna (Review)

The Marlins went to Ozuna way too early in the 2013 season, and it showed after the initial BABIP burst. He struck out a lot, did not walk at all, and the scariest part was the lack of power that he displayed this season. Ozuna's defense was his saving grace. Grade: C-

Giancarlo Stanton (Review)

Stanton's grade reflects what happened this season in terms of play and expectations. His year was a major disappointment, and he failed to meet expectations in a big way. At the same time, you cannot grade the team's clear best position player too far down, especially he was the team's only good hitter for much of the year. Disappointing, yes, but the Marlins will take it over having another empty slot in their roster. Grade: C+

Chris Coghlan (Review)

Coghlan somehow ended up with a passable batting line before his back injury. When he returned, he had a classic Chris Coghlan run of bad hitting that has been plaguing him since 2010. The fact that he was able to play third base for a little bit was at least encouraging. Grade: D+