Our C/1B Situation

Hello ManchildinBeantown, welcome if you're new. :-)

I think that is a realistic solution to being able to incorporate Martinez, Shoppach, and Garko into the future Indians' lineup.  Otherwise, it looks like you either have to keep playing Victor at catcher most of the time, which exploits his lack of arm strength and bad throwing mechanics, plus keeps Shoppach from developing any consistent groove at the plate, as well as preventing his better throwing abilities from keeping the fast teams from stealing a ton of bases.

Granted, Garko's playing time will get cut down, but he'd probably still be playing 4-5 times a week, which might not be bad for a rookie player so that he can ease more into playing every day at the ML level.

Just my 2 cents. :-)

Before you dismiss Victor Martinez at 1B as "just another 1B commodity", think about the fact that Victor at 1b would be playing a significantly less strenuous position defensively.  He would probably improve somewhat at the plate because he would not be facing the daily grind of catching.  I guesstimate that a Victor Martinez playing exclusively at 1B would hit 5 to 10 additional HRs per season.

My guess is that Victor's throwing is not any worse than it was last year, and it was not that major of a problem then. It only became a problem with pitchers who are poor at holding runners on (Johnson, Byrd). Maybe Victor should get a rest when Byrd is pitching rather than when a leftie starts.

I'm not too fond of the 1B experiment. You have a player who is having defensive problems, so you give him a new position to learn?  

As I see it, the idea behind the VMart/Shoppach/Garko rotation is too maximize Martinez' value.  No, he doesn't have a Pudge-in-his-prime arm behind the plate, and I can live with that.  A little creative management puts Shoppach behind the plate in games where his arm is an asset, and having Vic play these games at 1B keeps his bat in the lineup at a less physically taxing position, possibly making him more effective towards the end of the season (and his career).

As an aside, I don't know that Vic's defense is necessarily as much of a problem as we think it is.  Given all the uncertainties surrounding defensive evaluation (e.g. the value of throwing out a higher percentage of baserunners) and other factors (is it the fault of the pitchers?), perhaps his plus offense as a catcher outweighs another catcher's plus defense/average bat.

I'm mostly concerned with keeping Martinez' bat in the lineup while maintaining his potency as a hitter.

Heh heh, heh heh, I just talked about "his potency."  Heh heh.

Sorry.  Little bit of a lapse there.  I'll grow back up now.

I guess this is one of those problems GM's love to have.  Shoppach would probably be one of the best backup catchers in the league if he was put in that position (meaning he should probably be starting somewhere) and Garko has voiced in the past that he prefers catching and would like to do so again.  I really don't want to see a platoon situation at first next year, that shouldn't be the long term solution at 1b.  I think Martinez is untouchable and I agree that his all-around game would probably improve if he played 1b full-time.  Shoppach or Garko would probably get a lot of value in a trade, but I'm not sure which would be the best one to keep.  Either seems a good choice at this point.