Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Time To End The Experiment

A while back I wrote that I had seen enough. No. Really. I have SEEN ENOUGH! Andy Marte cannot play third base every day for a major league franchise and gosh dang-it, it is time to take a big bite out of this reality burger and spit Marte out into the Tribe trash.

The young third sacker is hitting 187. ONE EIGHTY FREAKING SEVEN! He ranks 269th in the AL in hitting, counting guys that do not qualify in terms of number of at-bats. 269th. Wow. The Braves said sayonara and sent him to the Red Sox and Theo even discarded him to the Wahoos. If Andy could play, wouldn't he still be in the ATL or in Beantown? Now, in his defense, he was behind Larry Jones (Chipper) in Atlanta and Boston has always been chock full of third baseman (Billy Mueller, Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell to name a few).

But Andy cannot cut the mustard. If Coach Wayne Hissler told him to rub some dirt on it and get back out there, it wouldn't matter ("Johnny Be Good" trademark). Donnie Murphy and Jason Smith, two dogs with fleas, are hitting for a higher average. Marte has 40 strikeouts and 10 RBI. Heck, Mike Mussina and Jeremy Guthrie, two pitchers, even have a higher BA. Marte hit 224 in July and maybe was finally starting to show a tad bit of promise; but in August he is back being Andy with a 205 BA and no home runs (zero.. point ZERO...).

Time to cut the cord.

Marte does have some value because his glove at third base has been very solid and he is only 24. There is still time. Maybe. Just not here. Move Jhonny Peralta to third base now and let him man the hot corner for September. See how he does. Why not? Andy seems like a nice kid, but let him give it a try someplace else. The Tribe needs better players and he aint better.

1 comment:

Bresci has a posse said...

"If Andy could play, wouldn't he still be in the ATL or in Beantown?"

i don't think we should reject a player merely because he has been traded before. if Brandon Phillips could play, wouldn't he still be in Cleveland or Montreal/DC? if Shoppach could play, wouldn't he still be with Boston?

especially when there are other great reasons to reject him. like the fact that we'd be better off using the DH for his position and letting the pitchers bat.