Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series, No. 33: John Burkett

The battle for who wins the honor of being the best to wear No. 33 for the Miami Marlins sure was tough.

The technicality answer would have gone to Brad Penny, who sported No. 33 in his brief return to the franchise in 2014. Top 5 in wins, Top 11 in WAR and strikeouts...he'd be a shoo-in if the point of writing this article series was to be the kind of person you rolled your eyes at from the back of the classroom.

However, as explained in the A.J. Burnett article that kicked off Marlin Maniac's Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Number Series, technicalities aren't the objective here. This is to the greatest extent possible about the best cumulative, career effort sporting the jersey number for Miami, hopefully giving some love to a few forgotten Fish along the way as the 34th Opening Day in franchise history approaches. So, no dice for Penny.

Ironically, the second place finish here goes to an excellent and frequently overlooked Marlins closer that was eventually traded for a young prospect named...Brad Penny. That'd be Matt Mantei, the Ice Man. Knowledge of his existence and role in the trade that brought Brad Penny to Miami may or may not have won some excellent tickets once upon a time for the author of this article. He's certainly the most memorable of the non-Penny names to wear No. 33 with Miami.

If you mixed the above two approaches, the win would actually go to two-time Marlins World Series champion Rick Helling, by a 0.1 WAR margin. Unfortunately for Rick, and I'm certain he's reading this and is acutely aware of the slight, he changed jersey numbers for his 0.9 WAR return to the franchise in 2003. So, he lost, but it seemed important to remind folks that it isn't just Jeff Conine and Luis Castillo that have Marlins World Series rings plural in their trophy case.

That leaves John Burkett as the last man standing, and the proud winner of the No. 33 belt.

For the first two years of their existence, no Marlins starting pitcher that would have been identified as a regular member of the starting rotation had achieved the feat of double-digit wins and a non-losing record. No one who had tallied 100 IP or more had managed to avoid a losing record. Chris Hammond pulled off an 11-12 finish in 1993, but did so with a 4.66 ERA that was the worst among Miami's starting five.

John Burkett, along with Patt Rapp (sadly ineligble for nine more years on this list), changed that with 14 win seasons in the strike shortened 1995 campaign. Burkett only broke even with a 14-14 record, a far cry from his 22-7 record with the Giants in 1993, but did lead the Marlins with 188.1 IP. The fact that the strike cost him anywhere from three to four starts makes that tally even more impressive, and was certainly a level of innings eating that had been sorely lacking for Miami.

Burkett fell back to Earth a bit in the win-loss department the next year, though still racked up 154.0 IP for the Marlins in 1996 before being dealt at the deadline. One of the names coming back in that deal was actually the aforementioned Helling, so that's one less mystery to be solved for any readers who were wondering how the number became available. The other player acquired? Ryan Dempster, another Marlins innings-eater, albeit with far more strikeout upside than Burkett.

Burkett might never have won a title, or even surpassed 200 innings or 200 strikeouts, but at least turned in a lot more value than Eric Wagaman, the reigning No. 33 with the organization.

So both in terms of what he provided in the early days in the franchise and what he helped bring to the franchise with his departure, Marlins fans owe a debt of gratitude to John Burkett.