Indians Designate Jason Michaels

The Pirates are sitting with at least 3 vacancies on their 40 man roster...I wouldnt be shocked to see Huntington to pick up Marte if he hits the wires...

Good point...its not like the Pirates could get much worse after dropping 3/4 to the Nats...worth a flyer even if it costs a C prospect from AA...

No news about Rich Hill being sent to the minors? I remember hearing how he was as good as Bedard all offseason and now he isn't even good enough to be on the Cubs roster. Oh well.

Trade Marte to the Orioles for a player to be named later. I'll call PTBNL as B. Fahey.

I think its michaels, as he's the logical choice (OF for OF) and I think Shapiro doesn't want to do a Brandon Phillips part Deux.

Everyone thinks that they were foolish to dump Phillips, but remember back then, Phillips looked a lot like Marte does now. Once hyped phenom prospect who had had several chances to break in with the club and just couldn't do it, looked totally lost at the plate, and was unhappy about it. Phillips probably couldn't have become what he is now had he stayed in cleveland.

but, you have to think that the Phillips deal still burns Shapiro, and i think he'll be reluctant to just dump Marte for that reason.

Really I would have sworn I read about Longoria and Liriano call up stuff here.

“Once hyped phenom prospect who had had several chances to break in with the club and just couldn't do it, looked totally lost at the plate, and was unhappy about it.”

…That’s the difficult thing though ~ how many of those “chances” were “real chances”? A guy who gets a week or so worth of a look, struggles, then finds himself on the bench with the “possibility” of working his way back into the job ~ well, that’s not getting a “real chance”. The chances Marte and Phillips have gotten have really been pretty weak, and the team has seemed rather quick to pull the plug on the moves ~ how do they expect to find an answer when they don’t allow the question to be looked into?

Now, with the team in an offensive funk, I understand it. But when the team starts hitting again, and if Michaels isnt around after today; well I think a couple weeks from now they should just give him the 3B job fairly full-time and move Blake into a roving OF/3B/1B backup. Just bite the bullet, get it over with already and see if he is going to be the longterm 3B now instead of losing him without ever knowing. Team breakdown would end up looking something like:
Grady/FrankieG/DavidD/Hafner ~ with Blake as 4th OF
Garko/Cabrera/Peralta/Marte/V-Mart ~ with Shoppach/Carroll
…and callup either AndyGonzalez as another utility-type (as he can fill-in anywhere from 2B/SS/3B to the OF), or Ben Francisco sticks around and Blake is the Infield/OF depth.

“The issue with Marte is that even his AAA numbers shouldn't play on a contender like Cleveland. Although given that Casey Blake is the other option ...”

…Dont forget that Phillips (although not quite as bad) didn’t necessarily tearup AAA himself most of the time when he was sent down to “figure it out”. Blake is a fine fill-in/stop-gap type, but he isnt hitting so Marte might as well get his shot. The confidence shown to him by handing him the job outright instead of just as an injury replacement might turn his play around ~ worst-case he doesn’t hit and its kind of like what the teams been getting from Blake/Michaels anyway.

I'd expect Jason Michaels to end up back with the Phillies after he clears waivers. He was popular in Philly and raked LHP. The Phils have been awful against LHP, to the tune of .231/.311/.433, and have had such luminaries as So Taguchi and T.J. Bohn as outfield backups. Even if he doesn't return to his former self, he'd be an upgrade as a 5th OF.

Quite possible ColonelTom. Taguchi's not getting it done against lefties and Michaels does hit them well.