Marlins on course for historically bad season

    ATLANTA -- As the bottom continues to fall out on their season, the Marlins could be headed toward one of the very worst won-loss records in franchise history.

     Having lost five straight and seven of their last eight, the Marlins now sit at 66-88 with eight games remaining. Even if they manage to go 4-4, they'll finish up with a record that is worse than last year's 72-90 mark despite spending gobs of money on free agents to improve the team.

     And a 92-loss season would rank as the team's fourth-worst:

     1998 -- 54-108

     1999 -- 64-98

     1993 -- 64-98

     2007 -- 71-91

     2011 -- 72-90

     As one can see, the three worst Marlins records belong to the 1993 expansion club and the '98 and '99 post-dismantling outfits -- teams, in other words, that were supposed to struggle.

     David Samson has long said that the 2005 team (83-79) was the most disappointing one in his tenure as team president, only because most everyone in the organization felt that unit was the one best-equipped to reach the postseason. It didn't.

     The 2012 team will not be going, either, making it nine straight seasons that the Marlins have failed to reach the playoffs.

      Of all the bad Marlins teams, where does this one rank in your book?