Inarguably, Cody Ross‘ five seasons with the Marlins were the best he had to offer major league baseball. During his 12-season big-league career, he earned a total WAR of 13.6. He earned 9.4 of that with the Marlins.
Ross was a five-foot-11, 195 lb. outfielder from Portales, NM, population 12,280 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Born on this date in 1980, Ross was chosen out of Carlsbad High School by the Detroit Tigers in the fourth round of the 1999 MLB Amateur Entry Draft, with the 117th overall pick. Growing up, however, Ross had other goals in mind, according to SI Live:
In the back of my mind I knew what I wanted to do when I got older and as a career.