Half-Empty: Infield Log-Jam (Part I - 3B)

We have all heard the cliché in sports, "You cannot have too much of a good thing." Often times, this is very true and can lead to a healthy dose of competition at the very least. Sometimes however, this is not necessarily the case.

In the case of the Cleveland Indians' infield and baseball in general, I would argue that sometimes, you can have too much, especially if:

• It is too much of an "average" thing.
• This applies to more than one position on the same infield.
• Minor League options are running thin.

This week we will examine the Cleveland Indians infield and ask ourselves if we have too much of a good thing, just a bunch of average joes, or just the right amount of quality and depth.

Lets start today by taking a look at Third Base: "Great, Good, Average, or Below Average?"

• Casey Blake would be a strong candidate for "Good" if he was being fully utilized to suit his primary strength-VERSATILITY. If he was playing some LF, RF, 3B, and 1B, then his numbers would put him in the top of the pack in comparison to utility players around the league. However, that is not the case as he became entrenched at 3B in 2007. In comparison to the rest of the AL, you will find Blake in the middle of the pack both offensively and defensively. In Blake's defense, he played a significant role in our success this year and provided tremendous stability at a position which was shaky at best early on. That said, Blake is a very streaky player, with a propensity to struggle in clutch situations and is "Average."
• Andy Marte is of course much harder to judge. We simply have not had a large enough body of work to judge him by accurately. Granted, injuries set him back a bit last season, but Marte simply has not been given a fair shot. MLB.com mentioned that it is time for Marte to follow in Jhonny's footsteps and "shape up or ship out", but the real question is, will he ever get the opportunity to do that in Cleveland? Brandon Phillips and Jeremy Guthrie were never afforded such an opportunity, and not only have they both performed admirably for their new teams, but Cleveland received next to nothing in return for their services. In limited duties, Marte has been "Below Average." Some scouts have suggested that he has the abilities to be "Above Average." We will land somewhere in the middle here and label him as "Average", but we must also acknowledge that for Marte, it is more about opportunity than judging talent at this point.
• Jhonny Peralta is obviously not our current 3B, but many have suggested his transition to 3B in order to give Cabrera an opportunity at SS. Oddly enough, Johnny's stats mirror Blakes across the board. They had identical .avg in 2007, and about the same number of HR and RBI. Some would argue that by moving to 3B, Jhonny could focus a bit more on his offense and thus would surpass Blake a little offensively. Defensively, I would hope that Jhonny would also be a slight upgrade. Overall however, I'm not convinced that Jhonny as a 3B would be a tremendous difference than having Blake over there. Of course, until given the opportunity full-time, it is difficult to make a judgement call on Jhonny at 3B. At SS, he is "Good" offensively and "Below Average" defensively. However at 3B, I'd have to settle for just plain "Average", with a slight advantage over Blake. If this move was made, it would obviously be more about improving SS defensively than improving 3B. Of course the wild card here, is that if we move Jhonny to 3B, then where does Blake fit in? We already have six outfielders fighting for positions out there, but that is another story (for next week).

Third Base Summary

It is clear by looking at our options at 3B in 2007, that we have too much of an "Average" thing, especially because our depth is out of options. And contrary to what Mark Shapiro says, this is not necessarily a good thing. Why? Because this can lead to young players with potential to be deprived of a fair shot to show what they can do. Because if Marte is the real deal, then we are on the verge of letting yet another young, talented, and hungry player go to another team for next to nothing. Is there any guarantee that Marte will pan out? Of course not. Is Mark Shapiro to blame? Not necessarily. He is human and gets paid the big bucks to make difficult decisions such as this. No one is perfect, but what is important is that we learn from our mistakes, and in the case of Phillips and Guthrie, we most certainly did make a mistake. Could they have been prevented? Perhaps. But only, if ample playing time was allotted so that an accurate judgement of talent could be ascertained. For Marte, this opportunity has not come about as of yet, and despite Shapiro's desire to not change much about his 95 win team, there still is much work to be done.

Of course the the new difficulty facing the Tribe is how they are able to manage their roster now that they "have arrived?" That is, now that Dolan and the fans will expect the Tribe to compete on a nightly basis, will there be the opportunities to go around for young players to get adjusted to the major leagues? Many of the Tribe players were given one, two, sometimes three seasons to prove their worth. Unfortunately, in 2008, youngsters will be lucky to be given one, two, sometimes three months to prove their value.

Tomorrow we will take a look at SS, in our attempt to see if the Infield Log-Jam is a good thing or a bad thing.

Until then, Goooooooooooooooooo Tribe!!!!

Cheers!