Marlins Part of Baseball Royalty?

As a Padres fan, I spend much of my life in envy of the lives other teams' fans lead. The average Yankees fan starts making hotel reservations for the postseason in April. Ditto, Braves fans.

Red Sox fans might not be guaranteed a playoff spot every season, but it's a surprise if they don't make it, and the words "mathematically eliminated" are seldom uttered before the final weekend in September.

To this list of baseball royalty, it's past time to add another name: the Florida Marlins.

You read it here first: it's good to be a Marlins fan.

First off, as the Miami Herald's Greg Cote quipped, "Marlins fans lead the majors in elbow room." Few stadiums in the league afford the sort of one-on-one relationships between vendors and fans available at Dolphin Stadium, and the possibilities for free seat upgrades are virtually limitless when you're watching the Fish.

Of course, Marlins fans may soon be racking up frequent flyer miles to see their team play in San Antonio, and consulting your program with every player introduction can get tiresome, but hey, when your payroll is less than $15 million, them's the breaks.

Lost in the punch lines and empty seats, however, is the fact that this organization actually seems to know what it's doing, and pledging your allegiance to the Marlins means having a legitimate shot at a World Series trophy every five or six years. Hey, Dodgers fans, what wouldn't you give?

Since the 1997 season, only the Yankees have won more championships (four) than the Fish (two), and no other team has won multiple titles during that span. Going out on a limb to assume the Marlins won't be winning the World Series in 2006, they will still have won championships in roughly 14 percent of their years as a team. That's the highest rate (again, aside from the Yankees) in the modern era.

Of course, if you take pennants as a more reliable indicator of consistent excellence (as I would tend to do), the calculations are much different, and the Braves, among other teams, come out looking quite a bit better.

However, if it's that world championship mountaintop experience that you're after and you don't live in the Bronx, it doesn't get much better than (gasp!) the Marlins.

And a quick look at this year's club suggests that owner Jeffrey Loria and general manager Larry Beinfest may be well on their way to shortening the interval between winning seasons.

Dontrelle Willis (24) is on the short list of the game's best young pitchers and is still cheap. How many top-of-the-rotation, annual Cy Young candidate-type pitchers play for less than $4.5 million these days? And the D-Train is Florida's most expensive player, by a long shot.

Behind Willis, the Marlins could supply multiple minor league systems with all the young pitching talent they have developed or imported. Jason Vargas (23) was solid in 2005, giving up just 71 hits in 74.2 innings and posting a 4.03 ERA. Scott Olsen's (22) entrance into the rotation gives Florida a pair of left-handed strikeout artists under 25 with Josh Johnson (22) and Ricky Nolasco (23) working out of the bullpen and poised to take on a starting role by mid-summer.

By July, the average age of Marlins starting pitchers could be 22.8, and every one of them has swing-and-miss stuff. And, oh yeah: 22-year-old Anibal Sanchez is throwing mid-90s heat at Double-A Carolina and could be ready for the big club in 2007.

In the field, things are even more encouraging. Miguel Cabrera (23) is one of the game's best power hitters, period, and still locked into his rookie contract. Hanley Ramirez (22) was one of the crown jewels of the Red Sox organization before the Marlins acquired him in the Josh Beckett trade, and already looks like the real deal.

He has blazing speed on the bases, and if his two bombs to center field against Eric Milton (okay, not the toughest test ever) are any indication, the Marlins could be sitting on one of the most complete shortstops in the National League in a year or two.

At first base, Mike Jacobs (25) is not only one of the few Marlins who can legally rent a car, but was also twice the Mets' organizational Player of the Year and has a great power stroke from the left side.

Of course, a look at the Marlins' future wouldn't be complete without a glance out to right field, where Jeremy Hermida (22) was the team's No. 1 prospect entering this season and arguably the top hitting prospect in all of baseball.

There aren't a lot of guys who project to hit 20-25 home runs and also walk more than they strike out. As a rookie, Hermida already has some of the best strike zone judgment in the majors, and his .457 on-base percentage at Double-A last season is downright Barry Bonds-like.

At 22, most feel he already has the skills to be an above-average major leaguer. If he continues to develop, the middle of that Marlins batting order (Cabrera, Hermida, Jacobs) could be one of the toughest in baseball and would cost the organization about what the Yankees pay Alex Rodriguez to take batting practice.

So buck up, Marlins fans. Sure, your stadium makes Tropicana Field look like a pleasant place to watch baseball. Sure, you really don't know the players without a program. And sure, the Fish are almost certain to lose more than 95 games this season.

But look on the bright side: by 2007, everybody is going to know who your players are, and you might even be able to pawn off some extra young talent to get some faces that you recognize.

In the meantime, yes, there are three seats available for tonight's game. This is Ted — he'll be your vendor this evening.