The Indians clearly did not think as highly of Ryan Garko as many of the media did. The general consensus with Garko from whatever estate we've become now was that he was a pretty good run producer when given the chance to play regularly. He did a good job two years ago, then last season had a "bad" year and led the team in RBI. This season, as Sheldon Ocker has pointed out several times, Garko produced when given regular at-bats.
His trade for Class A pitcher Scott Barnes is not an overwhelming acquisition. GM Mark Shapiro described Barnes this way: "We think he has the makings of a potential starting left-handed pitcher." Barnes, 21, has 99 strikeouts in 98 innings pitched, with a 2.25 ERA.
Combine him with Connor Graham, the guy acquired for Rafael Betancourt, and the Indians are amassing an impressive list of A-ball pitchers. Unfortunately it's a long jump from A ball to the majors. But the Indians needed to replenish their pitching throughout the team, in the majors and minors, and that's what Shapiro is trying to do; their last three trades have brought four pitchers: Chris Perez, Jess Todd (who completed the Mark DeRosa trade this week), Graham and Barnes.
Todd, incidentally, is pretty well respected (thanks to letsgotribe.com for the link). His addition came quietly, but he could be the most signifcant of the four pitchers Shapiro acquired.
There are financial considerations involved in the latest trade. Garko would be eligible for arbitration next season, and the Indians might not be a team that can afford arbitration. Or even to give a guy like Garko a raise from his $446,000 salary.
But the trade is also about opening up a spot for Matt LaPorta, who is playing first base in AAA. Andy Marte will come up and get some at-bats, but LaPorta should be the Indians first baseman of the future. That is if they were right in acquiring him for CC Sabathia. If Marte hits this season, it's very possible that he could be next year's third baseman with LaPorta at first.
The Indians are doing a lot of shuffling of players. They are sending a lot of players out, and bringing a lot of minor leaguers in. It may prove beneficial in the long run, but in the short run it's just not very exciting.
Which is pretty much why it better work out in the long run.
What are the chances that the braintrust will be under the delusion that they've fixed what has ailed them this season and not address the lack of quality coaching and development throughout the organization?
You've got a lot of bodies throughout this organization that have been tossed aside who have been decent and shown potential in the past. What's to say this is just another cycle of futility and in two years we'll be mentioning Hector Rondon in the same breath as Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis – guys who were forced through the ranks in one season and hit the wall with little or no assistance from the coaches or management to address the issues. As near as I can tell, demoting our players to Columbus is just a roster move – nothing is being done to actually correct or address the situations that resulted in their demotions.
I also find it humorous that the Indians basically building the future of the franchise around a guy who has yet to play a full season at AAA, didn't make the AAA All-Star team (but three of his teammates – including a guy who shares 1B duties with him did) and is a Scott Boras client. Are the Indians going to be coming into a big chunk of money sometime soon, other than the chump change they've recovered by dealing Garko and Betencourt that they'll be able to sign LaPorta long term, even though he hasn't proven bupkis?
Best of luck to Garko – another good player who they almost completely ruined. I wonder what would've happened if they would've left him as a catcher sometimes…
I'm ambivalent about this trade, although I'm fairly certain Garko will go have a productive career. The problem with Ryan is, his bat was basically non-existent for the first three months of most seasons. Sure, he'd rally later in the years, even having wild spurts of success like the past two weeks, to amass RBIs and a respectable batting average. But he was maddeningly inconsistent.
Problem is…so is MOST of our team. It does seem Ryan was singled out more often than most, besides Peralta. But maybe that's because so much more was expected of him. He has such great potential, but never seemed to live up to it on a daily basis.
I agree with the inconsistency, but like Sheldon said, and Patrick pointed out in this posting, you can't become consistent if you're not getting regular playing time.
I have to say, with all the mismanagement of this team – at the field and organizational levels alike – I still don't understand what the objectives were? Maybe if they had been realistic about Hafner from the start, a three-headed monster of Garko/Martinez/Shoppach in the line-up everyday, rotating them around the three positions (DH/1B/C) might have solved a lot of the problems. But they were counting on Hafner – which if you knew you'd only have him for three days a week – how does that put you in a good position to win?
And I agree with you Jason – Ryan did "wear it" a lot for this team, more than anyone I can think of.
But hey, they saved some money, I mean made a space for Marte, I mean cleared the way for LaPorta…
A "three-headed monster?" Please. That's like calling Danny Ferry and Zydrunas Ilgauskas a "four-eyed lumberjack." All I know for sure is after I learned about the Garko trade, I played with the alphabet and giggled when I discovered that Eric Wedge is an anagram for Wig Recede.
Almost every analysis I have read is rather minimal. When you look at a team, and make up a lineup, you need to look at many different factors. It is true that Garko has consistently produced when he has played regularly. Similarly, he has not done as well when played sporadically. This is true of almost every baseball player. A further look at the statistics shows that he consistently batted better than Victor against left-handed pitchers. Late last year, he not only played regularly, but he batted in a position where it was more likely that runners were on base. This has not been true this year. Even if both Garko and Victor would play regularly, Wedgie should have adjusted the line up to position the batters where they would be of most help. Wedgie's failure to do this has contributed to ineffective team play much of this year.
In regards to Sowers and Jensen Lewis, mismanagement is primary in their problems. If Sowers consistently provides five good innings, but often has problems in the sixth or seventh innings, then a quality manager has relievers ready starting in the sixth and has Sowers ready to be replaced. A quality manager does not leave him out there in a position to fail repeatedly. Use the quality players for what they can provide, not what you wish them to provide. Last year Lewis showed that he has the mentality of a closer. Even this year, he almost always showed that he could provide one excellent inning. Sometimes two, and rarely three. No matter how much Shapiro and Wedgie want Woods to be the ideal closer, he does not seem to have just the right stuff mentally. Feel free to use Lewis every day for one inning, but he will fail you if you try for too much. Again, quality management knows what their staff can provide and uses them to be individually successful and successful as a team.
The management has used their players poorly, and the result is that the team has performed poorly.