It won’t take the sting away from yesterday’s LeCharles Bentley injury, but at least the Indians are finally turning the page on the Aaron Boone era by calling up Andy Marte today:
Third-base prospect Andy Marte was promoted to the Indians from Triple-A Buffalo on Friday, with utility infielder Ramon Vazquez optioned back to the Bisons.
Marte, acquired along with reliever Guillermo Mota and catcher Kelly Shoppach in the trade that sent Crisp, David Riske and Josh Bard to Boston, has been generally regarded as the Tribe’s third baseman for ‘07. At the time of the trade, the club said he’d need some more Triple-A seasoning before he’d be big-league ready, and he proved as much with a slump at the plate at the outset of ‘06.
In recent weeks, though, Marte has been as productive as they come. He earned International League Player of the Month honors in June by batting .304 with 10 homers and 22 RBIs. Earlier this month, he took home the Home Run Derby crown at the Triple-A All-Star Game in Toledo.
For the season, Marte has hit .261 with 15 homers and 46 RBIs. He’s made 19 errors in the field.
Boone is still around, but the Tribe isn’t calling Marte up to sit on the bench. He may not be the everyday starter at third initially, but he will be when the team either trades or, if there is in fact no market for him, cuts Boone. Until then, I imagine Marte will still get the bulk of the starts at third.
Good news for Tribe fans. Now, I wonder if Marte can play center….
Finally
The Boone signing will go down as one of Shapiro’s biggest blunders. We let Vizquel go because we used that money to sign Boone. If we had just decent production out of thrid base last season this team probably makes the playoffs. Peralta could easily have been switched to third base.
I was a big fan of the Boone signing. Let’s not forget that he was coming off a season in which he hit 24 homers and stole 23 bases, and the year before he hit 26 homers and stole 32 bases. Granted, he never hit for a high average but he also played a solid defensive third base and took the Yanks to the World Series with that shot off Tim Wakefield in the ALCS.
In hindsight the Boone signing was a mistake, but at the time it was a very good risk to take, especially considering the discounted price Shapiro got him for coming off the injury. It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but I want my GM to take risks like that on occasion.
We could’ve spent $ on Vizquel instead of Boone & used it on Howry instead of J.Johnson!!! Shapiro needs to use his $$$ wisely & with better judgement!!
Come on. Johnson was a fallback option when all the other starters Shapiro wanted went elsewhere. That was a timing issue — by the time Shapiro turned to Johnson, Howry had signed with the Cubs. It’s not as cut and dry as you make it out to be. Besides, check out Howry’s numbers and tell me how much of a difference he would’ve made this season. Look at the Cubs’ record. People who think losing Howry led to this season’s collapse are delusional. I’ve never seen a city pine for a decent middle reliever like this. St. Howry, our savior.
And sure, the money Shapiro used on Boone could’ve been thrown Omar’s way, but at the time Boone was younger and cheaper, and they had a guy in the minors that they wanted to take a look at. It’s so easy to criticize, especially after the fact, but let’s not lose sight of what Shapiro has accomplished. He rebuilt the Indians several years faster than anybody thought possible, after inheriting a team with way too many bloated salaries and inflated egos. No GM is going to hit on every one of his decisions. I still say signing Boone was a good risk to take, even though it didn’t turn out well.
OK bud, are you Shapiro’s cousin or something? I don’t know how you could ever justify signing a career losing pitcher to be a starter after winning 93 games the year before & just missing the playoffs!! Aren’t you alittle tired of us taking chances on guys coming off major injuries instead of signing a healthy proven player!! Put it this way, we win 93 games last year & we did NOTHING to improve that team! In fact we took 2 steps back!! The Chicago White Sox win the World Series & go out & get Jim Thome!
I have to agree with JEC. Granted some of the blame has to fall on Shapiro’s lap but look at what is hurting the tribe more than anything this season: Defense and base running. Aside from Michaels replacing Crisp our defense is the same as last season and it is horrible this year. Do you Peralta has more errors at this time last season than he does this year, in less chances? Shapiro is the reigning executive of the year and is responsible for the team that won 93 games a year ago. If we were to let him go, who would we replace him with? Every team in the big leagues would love to have him on their staff. Does he make mistakes? YES. But what GM doesn’t. If we would have known the team was going to be this bad, I am sure Shapiro would have made different moves this past off season. Hind sight is 20/20. Maybe this team was not as good as they were last year and everyone had a career year.
Actually, we’re brothers.
Shapiro certainly deserves his share of the blame for this season’s mess, but not as much as you and many other fans are giving him. Jason Johnson was probably plan X, when all the other starters Shapiro was looking for to fill his rotation chose to go elsewhere. He was brought on as a FIFTH STARTER. How many team’s fifth starters are truly assets? Fine, Johnson didn’t work out, but they didn’t invest much money or time in him anyway, and they didn’t have many remaining options. Would it have been easier to just give the fifth slot to Sowers out of Spring Training? Again, in hindsight it may be tempting to say yes, but watch the kid pitch now and it’s obvious he needs even more seasoning. Handing him a job in the spring would’ve been disastrous. Should we have re-signed Scott Elarton? Ugh.
And you act like Shapiro sat on his hands and watched everyone leave without trying to improve the team. He went hard after guys like Brian Giles, Trevor Hoffman and Nomar Garciaparra, and the only reason he didn’t bring Millwood and Howry back was because the Rangers and Cubs GROSSLY OVERPAID for them. Is it Shapiro’s fault that Giles, Hoffman, Nomar, Millwood and Howry chose to take more money from other teams instead of coming to Cleveland? No. If anything, it’s Dolan’s fault.
No, I’m not related to Shapiro but I think he’s one of the best GMs in baseball. Many analysts who know way more about the game than any of us schmucks do, including Peter Gammons, would back that up. Sure, he swung and missed on Boone, but he also brought in Hafner and Grady and Cliff Lee and Belliard, and who do you think drafted most of the guys who make up one of the strongest farm systems in baseball? No GM in the game has a spotless track record; they all screw up at some point. Laying this season on Shapiro’s shoulders is a mistake, and it’s lazy. How can you sign better players when your owner doesn’t give you the money necessary to sign those players? When you’re working with a reduced payroll, you take chances on guys like Boone, you’re forced to sign guys like Jason Johnson because you don’t have any other options, and you can’t afford to overpay for decent talent (Millwood, Howry, Omar) no matter how badly the fans want you to. The Rangers gave Millwood a BAD DEAL. The Cubs gave Howry a BAD DEAL. Would I have preferred both guys stayed here? Absolutely, all things being equal. But this is baseball, and all things aren’t equal, which means I’m relieved we’re not paying Millwood $12 million a year for the next four years. That’s insane.
If you want to blame someone for this season, the franchise collectively deserves it, not one person.
there are still two huge issues which haven’t even been mentioned on this page yet regarding the tribe this season, and these are the two things that get at the root of the problem:
1) until the structure of mlb/players union changes and there is a salry cap in baseball, we’re always going to be on the short end, and we’re going to need some luck to get into the playoffs/world series
2) the 2005 pitching staff was unfrickin-believably-awesome, the best seen in cleveland for many many decades, which really gave everyone false hope for this seasonn and was the ‘luck’ i mentioned above
regarding shapiro, he has made some poor choices i believe, but i think those poor choices were made because of financial restrictions. additionally for what he has to work with he has made some really good choice. although i really have to wonder when i see florida win it twice in 11 years and……
finally, we are getting EXACTLY WHAT WE PAIR FOR, last time i looked (a week ago) we had the SIXTH LOWEST PAYROLL, AND SIXTH WORST RECORD.
bada-boom. there is no arguing the standings.
As far back as I can remember, (I’m only 26), the Indians never went after the big name free agents. When Pedro was on the market, the Indians chose to pass. ARod, the Indians walked on by. They didn’t keep Millwood, or Howry, or Manny, or Thome, or Bell for that manner. Vizquel, the face of the franchise, gone. Robbie and Sandy Alomar, bye. Traded away Bartolo, Sexton, Giles, Coco, ‘Slim’ Wickman, and Casey. Gave up on Brandon Phillips. Signed guys like ‘Black Jack’ McDowell, Jason Johnson, and John Rocker. Is a wonder why guys don’t want to come to Cleveland. This team is the revolving door of MLB.
We need, excuse me NEEEEED, an owner that will open up his wallet and spend what it takes to build a winning team here in Cleveland. Then there wont be a problem of losing money. The Jake sold out for damn near 5 years straight. Mid-market my ass. No more excuses Dolan, put up or shut up. If you can’t handle this, then sale the team to someone who can. Maybe Dan Gilbert is an Indians fan!