Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series, No. 34: A.J. Burnett

Well, if Marlin Maniac decides to run back this Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number series for season No. 43, the real ones reading this will know what player is coming.

However, for the vast majority of his Marlins career, A.J. Burnett sported No. 34, making him the obvious choice for kicking off this jersey themed countdown towards the 34th Opening Day in Miami Marlins franchise history.

A quick word on the rules for this series. This list will be based on the best cumulative Miami Marlins career wearing the number on their jersey for the player in question. WAR will be the principal measurement, though Marlin Maniac reserves the right to zag for dramatic content purposes. No technicalities for a brief cameo before a number change, though in the interest of entertainment, every effort will be made to point out cases where that happened. For instance, Luis Castillo could actually have started this list here at No. 34, thanks to his 1996 season. And if you wanted to be really technical, a whole roster full of Marlins players wore No. 16 for a game once. At any rate, the hope is that list spotlights some players you've forgotten, along with plenty of favorites.

Back to Burnett then at No. 34, one of the more accomplished and popular players in franchise history. Burnett features prominently on just about every franchise Top 10 list, if not Top 5. Most notable among those numbers would be a 12.0 WAR (7th), 753 strikeouts (5th), 49 wins (6th), complete games (2nd), and shutouts (tied for first). It's really those last two that standout, as the 14 complete games and 8 shutouts are unicorn type numbers that most pitchers just don't even come close to achieving these days.

Well, unless your name is Sandy Alcantara anyway, though it remains to be seen if he'll allowed to move any higher up those leaderboards now that he's a full year removed from Tommy John surgery. Burnett himself, if you'll remember, went under the knife for Tommy John after leading the majors in shutouts in 2002. If Miami opts to continue to be cautious with Sandy, Burnett will likely never be unseated from those spots.

Of course, his most famous Marlins moment came in 2001, when he threw the third no-hitter in franchise history. Spoiler alert by the way. Throw a no-hitter, and you're probably gonna make this list. That no-no was hardly a thing of beauty, but remains a personal favorite Marlins moment. Burnett walked nine and hit a guy, but was somehow still allowed to finish the task in his tribute to being effectively wild.

Burnett was the clear choice amidst a very pitching heavy field. Twelve Marlins players wore the number, with pitchers leading hitters by a count of 8 to 4. Honorable mentions here include Bryan Harvey, Scott Olsen, Tom Koehler, and current Marlins player Liam Hicks. Harvey was the runner up, thanks to his otherworldly 1993 season where he racked up a 4.0 WAR along with a 1.70 ERA, .84 WHIP, and 45 saves. Yet the temptation was there to go with Koehler too- he's flat out one of the most underrated players in franchise history.

For today though, here's to you A.J. Stay wild.