Miami Marlins Opening Day 2012 Preview

The start of a new era in South Florida baseball is about to commence, as the Miami Marlins Open Day 2012 is just around the corner. The team formerly known as the Florida Marlins will begin a new season, in a new city, under a new head coach, a supped-up roster and with a new stadium that’s expected to draw lots of attention to the new “Sin City”.

In 2009, owner Jeffrey Loria and team president, David Samson decided it was the right time to persuade Miami-Dade Country into building of a new, state of the art baseball facility where the old Miami Orange Bowl once stood. In 2012, that project is a reality, as Marlins Park is set to open its doors on the following dates:

• March 6-7, 2012 for High School baseball games
• April 1-2, 2012 for 2 MLB exhibition games vs NY Yankees
• And finally the grand opening of the 2012 MLB regular season on April 4, when the Marlins take on the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.

But the inauguration of a new stadium comes with more bills and many more financial challenges. The Marlins organization has gone out and gotten a list of big-name talents to help fill their new retractable-domed stadium masterpiece. The first thing they did was getting a manager that can restore order and bring some personality to this dying franchise… and boy did they get just that!

The Marlins went out and got a familiar face in the South Florida community, as two-time World Series champ and Venezuelan-born, Ozzie Guillen became the new Miami Marlins’ skipper for the next four years ($10 million deal). With him, Guillen will have the following coaching staff to depend on:

• 28 Joey Cora (bench)
• 35 Reid Cornelius (bullpen)
• 4 Joey Espada (third base)
• 25 Gary Thurman (first base)
• 30 Eduardo Pérez (hitting)
• 51 Randy St. Claire (pitching)
• 75 Jeff Urgelles (bullpen catcher)

“My biggest satisfaction in this game is rings. My goal is to have more money,” Guillen said shortly after being introduced as the new Marlins manager. “My goal is when fans leave the ballpark, they want to come back and watch the ballclub. As soon as they get out [they say], ‘I’m going to bring my kids out to watch those guys play because they’ve got energy, they play hard.’”

Of course, then it was time to go out and get some big-name players to keep the momentum going. After almost a complete makeover, the 2012 Marlins’ 40-man roster goes as follows:

Pitchers:

• 21 Heath Bell
• 77 Ramón Benjamín
• 56 Mark Buehrle
• 72 Arquimedes Caminero
• 50 José Ceda
• 36 Randy Choate
• 31 Steve Cishek
• 40 Michael Dunn
• 52 Brad Hand
• 39 Chris Hatcher
• 76 Dan Jennings
• 55 Josh Johnson
• 68 Tom Koehler
• 23 Wade LeBlanc
• 34 Edward Mujica
• 47 Ricky Nolasco
• 70 Omar Poveda
• 71 Evan Reed
• 53 Sandy Rosario
• 59 Alex Sanabia
• 19 Aníbal Sánchez
• 58 Ryan Webb
• 45 Sean West
• 38 Carlos Zambrano

“Like I’ve said, I don’t consider myself a vocal leader. I come in and take care of my business getting ready,” Mark Buehrle said about the type of leadership he brings to this pitching rotation. “If guys want to pay attention to that, and see how I get ready and learn something from that, good. If they’ve got questions, I’ll answer them. I’m not the type of guy who is going to get in somebody’s face and try to direct them or point them in the right way. I never did that with the White Sox.”

Catchers:

• 14 John Buck
• 9 Brett Hayes

Infielders:

• 1 Emilio Bonifacio
• 29 Greg Dobbs
• 54 Matt Dominguez
• 12 Omar Infante
• 22 Donnie Murphy
• 2 Hanley Ramírez
• 7 José Reyes
• 15 Gaby Sánchez

“They haven’t seen me play here yet,” said a clean-cut Jose Reyes. “When they see me play, they’re going to fall in love with me, because I’m a guy who gives 100 percent every day.”

Outfielders:

• 8 Chris Coghlan
• 6 Scott Cousins
• 78 Kevin Mattison
• 5 Logan Morrison
• 11 Bryan Petersen
• 27 Mike Stanton

Finally, the Marlins Spring Training Non-Roster invitees will be:

Pitchers:

• 82 Jose Alvarez
• 66 Rob Delaney
• 57 Chad Gaudin
• 49 Gary Glover
• 80 Chad James
• 64 Beau Jones
• 85 Corey Madden
• 61 J. D. Martin
• 86 Alejandro Ramos
• 81 Rob Rasmussen
• 60 Robert Ray
• 37 Elih Villanueva

Catchers:

• 83 Jake Jefferies
• 62 Luke Montz
• 48 Clint Sammons
• 74 Kyle Skipworth

Infielders:

• 3 Nick Green
• 73 Donovan Solano
• 65 Terry Tiffee
• 63 Gil Velazquez

Outfielders:

• 84 Kyle Jensen
• 26 Austin Kearns
• 33 Aaron Rowand

“Welcome to a new era in Marlins baseball!” said Loria. “We needed more energy here and going into our new ballpark. Everything is about timing, and it just happened to all work.”