Marlins’ Decade Top Ten Seasons: 2008 Hanley Ramirez

Finally, the time has come! Today, the time has come to reveal the #1 individual player season for the Florida Marlins this decade. Who is it, and when was his season? Let’s first recap out list so far:

10. 2003 Luis Castillo

9. 2004 Carl Pavano

8. 2006 Hanley Ramirez

7. 2009 Josh Johnson

6. 2007 Hanley Ramirez

5. 2005 Dontrelle Willis

T-3. 2001 Cliff Floyd

T-3. 2006 Miguel Cabrera

2. 2009 Hanley Ramirez

By this point it should be fairly obvious, but in case you did not recognize it, I’d like to point you in the direction of one shortstop Hanley Ramirez. For our #1 top season this decade, in terms of WAR, Ramirez’ 2008 campaign was the best choice.

Hanley Ramirez (2008)

The 2008 season for Ramirez was the most impressive offensive campaign that I witnessed in recent memory. Ramirez yet again put up a dominant offensive campaign, batting .301/.400/.540 on the season, good for a .405 wOBA. Ramirez showed his most impressive display of power and patience in 2008. He posted a very strong 13.5% walk rate for the Marlins that season, which held extra value because of his role as the team’s leadoff man. But the power display for that season was even more impressive. Ramirez belted a career high 33 home runs, along with 34 doubles and four triples, for an adjusted ISO of .233, the best of his career.

Those two qualities combined for one amazing offensive effort, but perhaps the best sign for Ramirez and his improvement was the the evaluation of his defense. Each of the available defensive metrics approved of his defense at shortstop in comparison to his 2007 effort. In 2007, Ramirez was widely panned as a poor shortstop by the metrics. Rally’s TotalZone metric put him at -14 runs that season, while UZR was harsher at -19 runs. The calls for moving to center field or third base began immediately after 2007. However, in 2008, Ramirez improved both in the eyes of the Fans and the metrics. TotalZone had him at three runs better than average, while UZR had him at essentially an average defender. This 11-run improvement in TotalZone’s measurements made up much of the difference between Ramirez’ 2007 and 2008 seasons.

Despite the excellent 2008 season, Ramirez placed 11th in the NL in the MVP voting. Perhaps a large part of that was Ramirez’ lack of RBI’s. Despite the 33 home runs, he had only 67 RBI’s. This was quite a low total, even for a leadoff man. In fact, no position player above Ramirez in the MVP voting had less RBI’s than Ramirez.

There you go, those are your top ten individual seasons by Florida Marlins this decade. Now that we know the best seasons, we’ll check out the Marlins All-Decade team, coming later today. Stay tuned.