The Florida/Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays are two of the youngest franchises in baseball, both arriving in the 1990s to bring full-season big-league baseball to a place that was known more for spring training.
But these two teams' histories are quite different, even though both have losing records all-time. The Marlins were built to be great in short bursts, which they were in 1997 and 2003, winning the World Series each year. The Rays were bottom-feeders in their first 10 years before becoming a model franchise in the last five.
Those philosophies should create a clear winner in this All-Time Lineups matchup. Remember, however, that this is the best player at each position in any one season, not a career record. Click through to check out the full lineups, rotations and arguments for the Marlins and Rays. And we'll give the Marlins a DH to be fair, even though they probably would do just fine without one.
- SS Hanley Ramirez (.342, 24 HR, 106 RBI, 27 SB)
- CF Juan Pierre (2004, .326-3-49-45 SB)
- 1B Carlos Delgado (2005, .301-33-115)
- RF Gary Sheffield (1996, .314-42-120)
- 3B Miguel Cabrera (2006, .339-26-114)
- LF Cliff Floyd (2001, .317-31-103)
- 2B Dan Uggla (2010, .287-33-105)
- DH Jeff Conine (1995, .302-25-105)
- C Ivan Rodriguez (2003, .297-16-85)
Pitcher: Kevin Brown (1996, 17-6, 1.89 ERA)
- LF Carl Crawford (.307-19-90-47 SB)
- 2B Ben Zobrist (2009, .296-27-91)
- 3B Evan Longoria (2010, .294-22-104)
- 1B Carlos Pena (2007, .282-46-121)
- RF Aubrey Huff (2003, .311-34-107)
- CF B.J. Upton (2007, .300-24-82)
- DH Jose Canseco (1999, .279-34-95)
- SS Jason Bartlett (2009, .320-14-66)
- C Dioner Navarro (2008, .295-7-54)
Pitcher: David Price (2010, 19-6, 2.72 ERA)
Previous All-Time Lineups matchups:
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