Oh man it feels so good to be right about the Marlins. How some people didn't see the impending disaster in putting all of those personalities together is a mystery to me.
Well... take a look at all the talent they had.
LineupReyes - dynamite leadoff hitter
Ramirez - coming off a down year... but a top talent at his position
Stanton - premiere power hitter of his generation
Sanchez - coming off an All-Star season
Morrison - douche... but he has a lot of talent
Five players to build around in the lineup.
RotationJohnson - if healthy, certified ace
Buehrle - great career in the tougher AL... should have only been better in NL
Sanchez - solid mid-rotation starter... always good for a mid 3's ERA.
BullpenBell - stud with SD... no way to know his hit rate would go from 7.8/9 to 10.3/9 as he's been this year.
Dunn - tough lefty... who held LHB to .198 AVG in 2011.
Mujica - solid MR with a .99 WHIP in 2010-2011
Nunez (whatever his real name is) - after suspension... he'd give the fish another big pen arm.
You can say the personalities would never work (and in the end, they didn't).... but there certainly was enough talent on paper for people to be very scared of the 2012 Marlins. So, to say it was always a slam dunk, Knorr... I think that's a bit of an over simplification of the situation.