This isn't like the Cabrera injury last year where his time in Buffalo was limited to the rehab stint - the Indians have an option year on Marte. The Indians can keep him there the rest of the year if they had to.

But if he comes back, he takes PT over someone, probably Ryan Garko. Casey Blake would be best utilized as an outfielder, but that's not happening if Nixon and Dellucci remain healthy.

I no longer know how I feel about him.

I'll be interested to see if he stays in Buffalo and sulks, like Garko did, if he gets the same free pass. Marte's 2005 was very comparable to Garko's and Marte was much younger.

The thing about the quote that surprises me is that Wedge is so pro-Garko, which obviously runs against the (overstated) Wedge-Blake connection. It also implies that it's perhaps Shapiro who wants Marte down. It's hard to read much of anything into it, though-it's not as if stashing Marte in AAA is giving up on him.

Either way, I want Marte close to Derek Shelton.  So I say keep him up.

I don't think Marte will be traumatized by not coming up immediately.  Blake is no threat to take over his job and I'm pretty certain Marte will be our 3B by fall.  It's just a matter of time before Nixon or someone will go DL, then we can bring up Marte.

I think this is the perfect opportunity to help groom our 3rd baseman of the future.  I think it would be a mistake to keep him in AAA.  We've got the options to give him a day or two off each week, as people mentioned above.  I'd rather have him get adjusted now than later in the fall when we might be in a close race and there's more pressure for him to be hitting.  

It is a difficult situation, but as some have already mentioned, Marte wasn't hitting all that well up here and really isn't hitting that well down there either.  I'd say to let him figure out some things down there, start producing again, let him get some confidence back, then reevaluate at that point.  By then, something else may have happened regarding 3B, 1B, the OF, etc.

Garko has been pretty solid at 1B and currently, he's one of the hottest bats in the Indians' lineup; I don't see how you can remove him.  Blake has also been pretty solid at 3B and is also one of our hotter bats.  That's another reason why I think it's better to leave Marte down at AAA Buffalo - this offense still isn't clicking like it should; you can't afford to add an almost automatic out to the lineup right now, not with Grady and Pronk struggling as they are and Victor and Trot going on "down" cycles.  

And, despite Marte's high status as a prospect, he hasn't shown the ability to hit consistently at the ML level yet - I don't see how the offense will improve by adding him to the lineup right now; his hitting a HR once every week or two, along with the occasional double, isn't likely going to help this offense out enough to justify bringing him up now, especially if we want to stay in contention.

I'd rather consider using someone like Gutierrez/Michaels/Choo/Francisco and platoon them with Nixon and/or Dellucci in the OF, rather than have Blake rejoin the OF and bring Marte up now.  

Just my 2 cents.  :-)

I'm all for leaving Marte down in Buffalo for as long as he can legally on a rehab assignment if it helps him fix his swing, but any time longer than that becomes counterproductive.

I can understand your point about Marte, but right now, Blake and Garko have solidified the IF defense and both are hitting well, so I really see no reason to bring up Marte anytime soon unless Marte really demonstrates that he is crushing AAA pitching (moreso than .143 (3-21)) and/or Blake and/or Garko falter offensively and/or defensively.  

I don't think we can really say that Marte would be an improvement offensively over what those two are giving us, and defensively, Blake has probably been as good as Marte was, as Marte had some early season struggles.  Combine that with the fact we've got Grady and Pronk struggling and Victor and Trot on current downslides, I just don't think the Indians can afford to have two guys down at the bottom of the order trying to figure out the MLs at this time (Barfield being the other, and he has made progress, but is still inconsistent with good days like Saturday -2 3Bs - and bad days like Sunday - chasing bad pitches out of the zone.)

Therefore, if Marte has to remain down there longer than his rehab to really force his way back up here, I have no problem with that, and in the long run, it might enable Marte to better hit ML pitching, since he never really hit for a high AVG at AAA in the first place - he can now work on that more definitively at AAA so that he can be more consistent when he gets back up here, at least enough to hit .250 or better here.  

You would hope Marte could do that once he gets established up here, but at the rate he was going and at the rate he seems to be going right now at AAA, .250 seems like a longshot to me - Barfield isn't close to .250 even now after his over .300 AVG of late, and he had more ML experience to draw on, so leaving Marte down at AAA for an extended period to work on some things wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to him in my opinion.

Just my 2 cents.  :-)