MLB All-Star Game: Miami Marlins All-Time All-Star Team

There’s no time like All-Star Game time to reflect back on the greatness of baseball. And you’d better believe a team of Marlins greats would have done some serious damage.

As the calendar turns to July and first half winds down, the minds of every red, white, and blue blooded baseball fan are turning to the MLB All-Star Game. This year’s Midsummer Classic will be a special one for the Miami Marlins. For the first time ever, it will be taking place in their home ballpark.

Baseball is driven by its history. The annual ASG is as much about parading around the game’s former greats as it is honoring this year’s current ones. The history of the Miami Marlins franchise in particular is a case study in absurdity.

Twenty-five seasons. Two postseasons. Two World Series championships.

Firesale. Firesale. Firesale. Jeffrey Loria.

The extremes are crazy. The Marlins have had as many no-hitters, six, as they have had winning seasons. Which is one less than the number of managers they’ve had since 2006. Roster turnover has reigned supreme, with the only thing more constant being the nearly twenty years of frustration with whoever owned the team.

The feeling that has reached fever pitch over the last decade of the Loria era.

All that instability hasn’t kept some of the most talented players in baseball call themselves Miami Marlins.

Prodigious levels of talent. Only twenty-five seasons, but one that has featured plenty of faces deserving of Cooperstown. Players that were or are joys to watch, and not just for Marlins fans.

The MLB All-Star Game, debatably but I think charmingly, requires that every MLB team contribute at least one player. This has admittedly led to some befuddling appearances when it comes to stat lines, particularly post 2002 when the game started “counting.”

Meet the Miami Marlins All-Stars

In fact, if you were to assemble an All-Time All-Star roster of Miami Marlins, you’d easily be talking about a team that could win multiple championships.

Granted, just keeping the 1997 and 2003 teams completely together probably would have done that as well.

But let’s have some fun and imagine the possibilities of such a super squad. So for your tantalizing consideration, we’ll be moving around the horn of the ultimate Marlins team, right up to the big game.

And actually, it will be two rosters. One based on all-time awesomeness, and the other based on the single season performance that made that Marlin an All-Star in the first place. There are some distinct differences in that last case, and not just because that technically allows for repeat candidates.

Care to speculate who will be cracking the list? Well before you start Googling away, consider this primer below.

Number of Miami Marlins All-Star appearances by position

C: 3

1B: 1

2B: 6

3B: 5

SS: 5

OF: 12

SP: 12

RP: 4

That’s the total number of Marlins All-Star appearances heading into Selection Sunday. So, keeping in mind that the minimum possible would have been 24 participants, the fact that the Miami Marlins have doubled that amount is striking.

They’ve had someone at every spot on the diamond, and what’s more, have had two different players make the All-Star Game at two different positions.

And that lone first base appearance…it’s not the world’s worst trivia question to try out over the next couple weeks.

In terms of distinct individuals named to the Midsummer Classic, not counting repeat appearances, Miami Marlins starting pitching enjoys an 8 to 7 edge in the participant count over the outfield. No reliever has ever been tabbed to participate twice, making that the next closest position grouping. Second base, shortstop, and third enjoy a three-way tie at 3.

Next: Three Brewers stories to watch

The individual record holder for appearances? I’ll just go ahead and tell you it’s the one and only Miguel Cabrera. Giancarlo Stanton has a chance to tie him though this weekend. And should Marcell Ozuna keep the starting spot he held at the start of the week, he’d be one of two Miami Marlins to get that honor in consecutive years.

Hope that managed to stoke some All-Star excitement. The series gets rolling Saturday with catcher.