You Are The GM…..For Ryan Garko
WFNY readers have been playing GM for the Cavaliers since the playoffs ended. Well Tribe fans, the ‘off-season’ has come early for this year’s team. So we want your help. We will take a look at the Indians roster and determine who we should try and trade, who deserves an extension, and who we should simply ‘let it ride’. Up first is Ryan Garko…
Ryan Garko. Jim Rome’s buddy. Lakers fan. Stanford grad. Currently occupying first base for the Indians.
Contract Information-
Signed through 2008 for $420,100. Garko should be eligible for arbitration for the ‘09 season.
Stats-
|
Year |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
TB |
BB |
SO |
SB |
OBP |
SLG |
AVG |
| 2006 | 50 | 185 | 28 | 54 | 12 | 0 | 7 | 45 | 87 | 14 | 37 | 0 | .359 | .470 | .292 |
| 2007 | 138 | 484 | 62 | 140 | 29 | 1 | 21 | 61 | 234 | 34 | 94 | 0 | .359 | .483 | .289 |
| 2008 | 80 | 275 | 32 | 67 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 40 | 94 | 25 | 44 | 0 | .324 | .342 | .244 |
Ryan Garko was supposed to be an important piece to the championship puzzle. Though streaky, he has the potential to be a solid contributor on a championship level team. If the Indians could count on him for .290/25/65 I don’t think that there would be any doubt that he is a keeper, and should be extended. This year’s regression is troubling. I looked at some other first basemen to see who else might have had trouble during their second full year of work. Kevin Millar had a rough time in his second year, hitting only .259 with 14 home runs. The next season he bounced back to the tune of .314/20/85. Derrick Lee was terrible in 1999, but had a solid 2000 campaign hitting .281/28/70. (Oddly enough, both of those players were on the same Florida team, as Millar was playing third base at the time.)
Waiting in the Wings-
Who might the Indians have that could replace Garko? Jordan Brown and Michael Aubrey are at Buffalo. Aubrey got his first taste of the big leagues this year, and hit a home run in his first at-bat. Aubrey hit .185 in his brief time with the club. Neither seem ready to take over at 1B in ‘09. Matt LaPorta could be moved to first base, but if that is the case it would seem unlikely that he would be ready to be an everyday first baseman next season. Victor Martinez has seen time at first, and the Tribe seemed interested at one time in moving him there in order to extend his career. Do you think the Indians will be able to sign Martinez to another deal? His contract is up after 2010, and by then he certainly could be the premier catcher in the league, and a free agent. I say keep him behind the dish, let his next team worry about his longevity.
So let’s hear it Cleveland fans. Do you think this season is a bad dream and Ryan will bounce back? Should we try to lock Garko up long term now? Should we see what value he has in the trade market? Should we bring him back for one more year on the cheap? You make the call- Trade, Extend, or Let it Ride…
July 8th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I said let it ride. He’s 27, so waiting is a gamble; but I would hate to see his 2007 season numbers for 175 games on another team…
July 8th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I’ve been saying for a while now that we need to wait it out. Maybe some minor tweaks in the roster, but look what the Chicago White Sox did this past offseason. Made a couple trades and now they’re 15 games over .500. Even Ozzie Guillen made remarks about how talented the roster is, baseball is a funny sport. You go from being on top one year, to the bottom the next, and vice versa. We caught the injury bug this year, I do not want to see a firesale. Maybe move a few players, we just got rid of our ace, so I do not want to see much more. We have a good nucleus with Grady, Victor and so on. Let’s see if we can’t make it happen again in 2009.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Early votes- Extend Him 4, Trade Him 3, Let it Ride 2
July 8th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Let it ride for sure.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
No more waiting, we’ve been waiting for Hafner for 2 years now. We all know that his slump started when he got married. HAHA
July 8th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Let it ride, see what happens. Anyone have an idea of how arbitration decides how much he should get?
July 8th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Something to consider: BABIP.
For last season and the year before, Garkos BA for Balls in Play was over .300, showing that he was getting a bit lucky. This year, he’s under .270, showing that he’s been incredibly unlucky.
Numbers should vear back up towards .300, raising his average closer to .270 or so by the end of the season. “Should.”
July 8th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
That’s kind of my thinking. When you look at what he did his first 2 seasons in the majors, it’s hard to believe that what we’re seeing this year is the true Ryan Garko.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I said let it ride, lets let him play the rest of this year and see if he can improve. This should be the prime of his career and maybe he can get his average to around .270 like Scott said, although only 6 HRs at this juncture is just awful for a 1B
July 8th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Ricky – we compensate with 20+ from the leadoff spot!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I think Hafner’s slump started when regular testing for HGH started up.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Let it Ride-19
Extend Him-12
Trade Him-9
July 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
On the arbitration question-
A player may not make less than the league minimum of $200,000.
Players with one or two years of service time and players between two and three years of service time (except for the 17% with the most service time) can have their contracts renewed automatically by the team if they cannot come to an agreement. When renewing a contract, a team cannot reduce a player’s pay by more than 20% from the prior year or 30% from the year before that.
Players with 3, 4, or 5 years of service time and the top 17% of the 2 year players may opt for arbitration in order to come to a contract.
The club’ proposal may not be less than 80% of the player’s salary the previous year. The exception here is that if a player won an arbitration award the prior year that resulted in a 50% or greater salary increase, there is no maximum paycut allowed in the proposal.
Arguments that are not allowed in an arbitration hearing include the state of the team’s finances, previous offers made during salary negotiations between the player and the team, any press comments or testimonials with the exception of media-supported awards like the MVP Award or salaries in other sports or occupations.
A player with a non-guaranteed contract or an arbitration award may be released up until the 15th day of spring training with 30 days’ pay or from the 16th day of spring training until the opening of the season with 45 days’ pay.
When a player is claimed on waivers, the new team takes on the contract. When a player is released in the middle of a guaranteed contract, the new team only has to pay league minimum with the old team footing the rest of the bill.
That’s off the top of my head. (No, not really.)
July 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Scott – ugh, don’t remind me
July 8th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Let it Ride-38
Extend Him-14
Trade Him-13
July 8th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I say let it ride for at least the season. My big thing would be pick a lineup and let it ride for a bit also. Many of our players bat in different spots of the lineup (well other than Grady who simply continues to bat where he shouldn’t IMO), and I don’t feel they have a real chance to get into any type of groove. I’d like to see Wedge pick a lineup and let it run for about twenty games, and only juggle if someone different is playing. What’s the worst that can happen? We score one run instead of two?
July 8th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Let it Ride-53
Extend Him-21
Trade Him-20
Those who said Extend, speak up. What about him makes you think he is worth a long term deal?
July 8th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
If the Tribe brass decides LaPorta’s best position is 1B in Cleveland, then I definitely don’t want to see Garko standing in the way. At 27, the guy is who he is…a below average hitting/horiffic fielding first basemen.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Let it ride. We have no definite replacement for next year. And, if he ends up going somewhere else and turning into the Garko of last year, we’ll be complaining again.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Looks like the fans have spoken, and want to see Garko back for at least one more season.
Let it Ride- 55.4% (67 votes)
Trade Him- 22.3% (27 votes)
Extend Him- 22.3% (27 votes)
July 10th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
After meeting Ryan towards the beginning of last year, I got to meet him a few more times in the off season. It was then that I actually began to pay attention to how he was doing. One thing I know for sure, is that he is a class guy off the field, and he worked hard last off season to improve. The season is obviously lost for the Indians, so why not keep him in there to get used to the grind, and hopefully build his confidence, batting average, and defensive skills. Based on what I know of him, he will work harder this off season to return to the form that got him there to begin with.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am
The fans have spoken loud and clear…Ryan gets another chance to prove himself.
Let it Ride- 79 votes
Extend Him- 34 votes
Trade Him- 31 votes
July 14th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
@Mike, Garko actually isn’t a horrific-fielding first baseman. He’s right in the middle of MLB first-basemen as far as fielding percentage and errors are concerned, and I’ve seen him turn some excellent plays this year. I think you let it ride because he’ll be really cheap next season and he still has potential. You won’t get a thing for him in a trade right now, so that’s obviously not the answer. Let’s not forget that Brandon Phillips looked like crap for two years and then turned into an all-star the second we let him go to Cincinatti. I’d hate to see that with Garko, whose swing tells you that he’s capable of hitting better than he’s hitting right now.