The 3 greatest Miami Marlins pitching performances by WAR

1. SP KEVIN BROWN IN 1996

The then Florida Marlins were a year away from winning the World Series. The greatest pitching performance in Miami Marlins history came in that 1996 season. Brown was worth 7.9 WAR, the highest single season pitching WAR in Fish history. As you can see it's only slightly higher than Sandy's, but it was still the highest.

You might be stunned when you see just how good Kevin Brown was for The Fish. Brown produced a 1.89 ERA/2.88 FIP, with 6.1 K/9 and 1.3 BB/9. He also had a 17-11 W-L record. The strikeout rate may not have been impressive, but the control was great and the ERA was absolutely amazing. There was no doubt that he was an elite ace.

Surprisingly, Kevin Brown didn't win the National League Cy Young award that year. He actually finished second in the voting, as the winner was John Smoltz from the Atlanta Braves. Smoltz had a 24-8 W-L record, with a 2.94 ERA/2.64 FIP, with 9.8 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. Smoltz had a better record, but a significantly worse RA. The strikeout rate was significantly higher as well. He was worth 7.4 WAR, so he technically was indeed worse than Brown.

It's going to be hard for any pitcher to do better than Kevin Brown in 1996. I'm glad to add that he did win the World Series with the then Florida Marlins the following season in 1997.