Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 4: Alfredo Amezaga

If the answer here were any other Miami Marlins player, I would have been supremely disappointed.

Fortunately, Alfredo Amezaga carried the day, as he did so often during his scrappy career as one of the Marlins best super utility finds.

Before there was Javier Sanoja, there was Amezaga. Much like the last player featured in Marlin Maniac's Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series, Miami was able to turn a cheap free agent find into a long-term asset. Amezaga ended up producing 4.2 points worth of Marlins WAR with No. 4 on his back, with a -0.6 WAR return to the team in 2011 not counting thanks to his choosing to wear No. 6 instead for that forgettable stretch that put bow on his MLB career.

That MLB qualifier is important by the way. Had I just said "professional", I'd be guilty of overlooking the eight further years he spent playing in the Mexican leagues afterwards, or his stint as a manager at that same level a few years later. All of which just goes to show what an absolute gamer he was, making the most of every opportunity.

He was a speedy but defense first role player- he played every position but catcher and pitcher in a Marlins uniform in both 2006 and 2007 before limiting himself to just four lineup spots his final two years. Consequently, it'd he hard to point to a particularly scintillating stat line or performance- he was just fun to watch, plain and simple. Not unlike Miami's current super utility stud in Sanoja.

For honorable mentions, there's really only a few names worth diving into, starting with a nod to a player very recently covered in this series. Mark Kotsay wore No. 4 for the 1997 Marlins...and for part of his breakout 1998 season. Last week the editorial decision was made to fold all of Kotsay's goodness into his work in the No. 7 jersey. But if you disagreed with that call, then Kotsay was a very close second place indeed at 3.9 WAR, just a 0.3 gap. In other words, slightly more than the Marlins WAR produced by Nick Fortes when he wore the No. 4 jersey, and exactly what he produced for Tampa after being dealt there last summer.

But if you disqualify Kotsay and choose not to pour one out for Fortes, then that just leaves Greg Colbrunn- Miami's starting first baseman from 1994-1996. Worth 3.3 WAR points for his Marlins career, Colbrunn had the first 7-RBI game in team history in 1995 and hit 45 home runs during his time here. Not to pick on the middle class of Marlins first basemen, but that's the same as Jesus Aguilar and more than Jake Burger, Logan Morrison, or Gaby Sanchez. A sneaky answer among top Marlins power hitters to be sure. The fact that most of his Marlins career was during two strike shortened seasons probably didn't do him any favors either.

That...and he didn't have Tommy Hutton and Rich Waltz rattling off his "amazing" praises.

So Amezaga takes it here at No. 4. It's a name most Marlins diehards probably saw coming, but also enough of a throwback that it might have taken some by surprise. Something the final three entries in this series are unlikely to do.

Which just makes them all the more fun to reflect on! Catch you next time.