Indians Ride Gutierrez Blast To Victory
May 28, 2008Playing A Little “What If”
May 28, 2008My feelings towards what Brandon Phillips has done since his departure down Route 71 couldn’t be more apparent over the course of the last several weeks. For the last few years, I’ve sat back and hoped that the kid that never seemed to progress in Cleveland was just a fluke in Cincinnati. I mean, he was once one of the top prospects in the bigs and was the key compensation in the trade of Bartolo Colon – you know, the one that also brought along Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore? Yes, that one.
But Phillips, how could he do so well in Triple-A but not at the next level? In 2004, Phillips hit .303 with 34 doubles, and eight home runs while stealing 14 bases. But when he came up to Cleveland for the end of the season, we barely saw an average over .200 with six total home runs in three separate stints. He obviously wasn’t going to mature into the player everyone had assumed.
Or perhaps we were expecting a little much out of a kid who debuted at the age of 21? It’s near common knowledge that players enter their prime at about the age of 26, while their prime seasons are 27 through 30. We traded Phillips away when he was 24 years old.
A quick recap of what he’s been able to do since:
2006 (Age 25): .276/.324/.427, 17 HR, 25 SB
2007 (26): .288/.331/.485, 30 HR, 32 SB
2008 (27, through 197 AB): .299/.344/.538, 9 HR, 9 SB
Now is the time when I should tell you something that you may or may not know. Though it seems like he’s been in Cleveland for ages, Andy Marte – our struggling-to-make-it-big third baseman – is currently 24 years old. Does he project out to be anything like what we couldhave had in Phillips? Not at all. Marte looks like he’ll be a guy that could hit 25 or 30 home runs a season (given 500 ABs), and will most likely cap out at about .275 in terms of batting average.
He’ll strike out at times, and will remind people of a Jeromy Burnitz-type, swinging for the fence perhaps a bit to often. But in his early 20s, there is another player that projected to be the same type. And he also played third base. His name is James Howard Thome.
Many forget that long before Thome was belting 50 home runs in a season, he was a young lefty looking to find his swing. In fact, check out some of his numbers from the minors:
1990 (Age 19, A+): 235 AB, 16 HR
1991 (20, AA): 294 AB, 5 HR
1991 (20, AAA): 151 AB, 2 HR
1992 (21, AA): 107 AB, 1 HR
1992 (21, AAA): 48 AB, 2 HR
1993 (22, AAA): 418 AB, 25 HR
Now, turn to Marte’s minor league numbers at (ironically) the same age:
2003 (19, A+): 463 AB, 16 HR
2004 (20, AA): 387 AB, 23 HR
2005 (21, AAA): 389 AB, 20 HR
2006 (22, AAA): 357 AB, 15 HR
2006 (22, CLE): 164 AB, 5 HR
I realize that Thome was consistently a .300 hitter in the minors, making his numbers project better in to the major league levels. But something else Thome had once he came into the league in 1994 was consistent playing time. We endured the rough patches, the frequent inability to hit left-handed pitching, and the inevitable move across the diamond. But we continued to give him at-bats.
Phillips started off hot back in 2003, but once hit hit a funk it was almost as if we gave up on his potential regardless of how well he was doing in the minors. Now given the injury to Travis Hafner, Marte is getting his shot….once again.
Buried in the excellent recap of last night’s win by the Indians was the fact that a once familiar name actually got to play an entire game at third base: Andy Marte. The Andy Marte that we’ve been hoping would evolve into our everyday third baseman, simply hasn’t adjusted to major league pitching as well as he has to those of the minor circuits.
By now, you know that Marte went 1-for-3 in last night’s contest, driving a double off of the wall in left-center as well as laying down a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning that moved Ryan Garko to third, and Franklin Gutierrez to second. This play was what set up the triple steal after the White Sox walked Grady Sizemore to load the bases as Garko would score on an error and David Dellucci was entered to pinch run for “Gut,” who then found himself crossing home to cap off the three-run inning.
The question then remains, do we want to keep giving an aged Casey Blake and his .221 average the continued at-bats playing third base, or can we finally allocate the time to Marte – a player who is still entering his prime. Don’t confuse the use of Thome’s numbers above as a way of us trying to say that Marte will pan out to be the same guy that continues to haunt us to this day with his home run swing. Heck, if Andy Marte would ever reach 20 shots in a season, I think we could call it a collective success given the lack thereof that we’ve seen from Coco Crisp in Boston. However, what I was showing is that not every player will be a Justin Upton, hitting the cover off of the ball at 19 and 20-years of age regardless of what the prospects think of him in High-A ball.
But given consistent at-bats, some confidence from a manager, and even more exposure in front of some fans that may not exactly know who he is, I think that Marte could develop into a solid option at third base. You know, one that could actually drive in some runs, hit for some power, and turn perhaps even help resuscitate this offense. At the very least, an upgrade over what we have now.
Of course, we could always give him an at-bat here and there, knock his self-esteem down a few notches, send him back down to the minors and then trade him away to someone that could use his services.
But at the still-young age of 24, I would hate to see another Brandon Phillips. That is, unless he’s wearing an Indians jersey at the time.
6 Comments
Even though this line up is an utter mess, I do want to see Marte get an extended look. I don’t know why some in the local media are starting to drum up the J-Barf campaign. I mean, the guy as a sub .300 obp in AAA.
At least with Marte getting a look, they’ll have a better assessment before cutting the chord with the guy. However, I do believe we won’t see his real swing until he drops some weight. Take a look at Andruw Jones…the extra beef really does affect bat speed.
Good stuff. At this point, why not give Marte time? The Indians aren’t winning with Casey Blake at 3rd anyway, so lets give the kid some playing time and see what he can do.
That being said, when I watch Marte bat, I find myself asking, “How on earth did any scout ever watch this guy take an at bat and think he can actually play major league baseball, let alone be a star?”
He just had a very nice snag of a Konerko shot down the line… Oh, and is 1-for-2 with a stolen base. We can’t say he isn’t trying!
I don’t frequently the comments (never) but I have yet to hear anyone suggest a change at hitting coach might jump start the offense the same way their was a spike when Shelton replaced Eddie Murray. Maybe the guys have zoned him out.
I was saying this last month on the “Hello, Is Travis There?” article post. I want to know why the seem to have given up on Barfield, given the season he had with the Padres before we got him.
# 10 cbus Says:
April 30th, 2008 at 9:40 am
The whole Phillips issue is why they need to be patient with Marte, considering they’ve never give him over 170 at bats in a given season at the major league level, which, is 200 less than they gave Phillips……….
Free Andy Marte! And about Josh Barfield – until he stops striking out so much, shortens up his swing and starts using his speed, he’s going to stay at AAA because he’s a butcher at 2b and Asdrubal Cabrera is not.