Posts tagged Victor Martinez at FanHouse

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Chaos Reigns in NL: The Brewers firing their manager with two weeks to go in the season and the wild-card lead says a lot about the state of their club. But it also says plenty about the wild and wacky National League. A dozen days remain in the regular season, and anyone who tells you they can sort the senior circuit out is plainly lying.

The Dodgers and Cubs are almost certainly bound for the playoffs. Three principle teams -- the Mets, Phillies and Brewers -- are battling for the two remaining spots, but the Astros are within striking distance, and the Marlins, who still have Houston, Philadelphia and New York left on the schedule, even have a sliver of a hope

For now, the Phillies appear to have the edge in the NL East after rallying past the Braves and into first place. For now, the Mets appear headed for another collapse, done in by a rickety bullpen and an offense that can't seem to scrape out a clutch hit. For now, the Brewers appeared destined to wilt, no matter who is managing them.

But the Phils still have a spotty back of the rotation, New York still has Johan Santana and David Wright and Carlos Delgado and Milwaukee still has CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder and it showed plenty of fight against the Cubs Tuesday night. If the Brewers and Mets win and Philadelphia loses Wednesday, we'll know even less than we do now.

None of these teams are great, but just based on the sheer unpredictability of the races, the NL is about as entertaining as it possibly could be.

The world was a lot different back on September 25th of 2007. The Cleveland Indians had already clinched the AL Central division, and teams like the White Sox and Rays were sitting at the bottom of their divisions. Outside of baseball, kids across the country were discovering the latest craze that was the Soulja Boy.

All in all, the world was a magical place where anything could happen. September 25th was also the day that Indians catcher Victor Martinez hit his 25th homer of the season. Little did he know at the time that it would be nearly a year before he hit his next one.

Victor Martinez hugged teammates and danced in the dugout as if he had just won the World Series.

It was a special moment for Cleveland's switch-hitter, who hit his first home run in nearly a year to help the Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 9-3 last night.

"It felt great to see one finally go out," Martinez said. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about (the drought)."

The return of Martinez's power was also a good sign for the Indians as they start to turn their eyes to the 2009 season. It's pretty safe to say that the cause of Martinez's power drought was the elbow injury that caused him to miss most of this season. Now that he's had surgery on the elbow to correct the problem, it appears as though he's getting his power back.

If you're a baseball fan who likes surprises, then the 2008 season has been a special treat. The Rays are the most notable team that has exceeded expectations, but the Twins, White Sox and Marlins are also surprise contenders.

Of course, those pleasant surprises have come at the expense of several clubs expected to be much better this season. Whether because of a big free-agent signing last winter, a deep October run last season or the (hint, hint) crushing burden of a massive payroll, the baseball landscape is littered with flops as August comes to a close.

The following is a countdown of the seven most disappointing teams this season.

7. Padres: Mired in last place in the abysmal NL West, it's easy to forget that this team won 89 games last year and was a (phantom?) Matt Holliday slide away from a playoff spot. Even when they were winning division titles, the Padres operated on a thin margin. Injuries and underperformance are at the root of their struggles.

Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Brian Giles are the only offensive regulars who have played more than 100 games. Ace Jake Peavy spent a month on the disabled list, while No. 2 starter Chris Young has made only 13 starts. Veteran closer Trevor Hoffman has also been extremely shaky.

Obviously the fantasy season is past the halfway point, but you gotta work with me here. There aren't any games that count for the next few days, so it's the perfect time to formulate these teams. Unlike the actual All-Star game, there are different parameters for judging who makes the fantasy All-Star team. Value matters. For example, Hanley Ramirez is obviously the best fantasy player in baseball. He was a high first round pick in every draft, though, so he's not really exceeding expectations.

There's a reason you make the fantasy All-Star team this way ... owners don't win leagues by drafting Hanley Ramirez first overall. You do, however, win your league by loading up on value picks like Josh Hamilton and Geovany Soto ... while you lose your league by taking some of the big names I'm going to list on the "bad" team.

I've named each team after their backstop. Why? I felt like it.

Let's have fun.

TEAM GEO (these are the fantasy All-Stars)

C - Geovany Soto -- You can convince me that you thought Geo was a top ten catcher and that he'd hit 20 home runs coming into the season. You can't convince me that you had him top three and on pace for almost 30.

Apparently the ghosts of deceased Native Americans finally decided to take matters into their own hands in regards to team names like "Braves" and "Indians" this baseball season. I'm not going to get into the whole discussion on the insensitivity of these names because that's neither my inclination nor my job.

Still, it's quite eerie they way these two franchises in particular have been plagued this year.

Both were expected to be contenders for the World Series, chock full of fantasy gems. Instead the disappointments and injuries are plentiful, and sometimes hand-in-hand.

The most recent casualty is Victor Martinez, and he already fit the bill as a bust. He's normally picked in the first five rounds (earlier many times). His owners have been treated with pathetic numbers this year relative to expectations (.277, 0 HR). And now he's on the DL with a bum wing (inflamed right elbow, if you must know ... but "bum wing" is so much more fun). The catcher could be out until the All-Star break, so this is a big blow to both the Tribe and your fantasy squad. Unfortunately, I believe you have to sit on him in fantasy, because he's liable to get hot when he does come back and no one will give you anything valuable for an injured bust in a trade.

More haunted individuals ...

The Cleveland Indians haven't been having much luck with elbows lately, as the team recently found out they've lost starter Jake Westbrook for the season with an elbow problem, and now elbow problems may rob them of Victor Martinez for some time.

While it initially seemed like Martinez had re-injured the hamstring that landed him on the disabled list earlier in the year when he had to leave Wednesday night's game after running out a ground ball to first, it turns out that Victor aggravated an elbow injury he's been dealing with for a while now.

''Victor has been having right elbow soreness and pain,'' manager Eric Wedge said, adding that Martinez aggravated the injury on a swing. ''It's something he has been battling all year. But Victor is a tough cookie, one of the toughest players I've seen.

''They'll [MRI] scan him [Thursday], and we'll go from there. So we don't know how it will play out.''

Martinez wasn't available for comment after the game yesterday, but Wedge said the elbow has been bothering for a while, which may help explain why he's only been hitting only .208 in his last 21 games, and has seen his average drop from .356 on May 1st to it's current .278. The elbow is also probably a factor in Victor's lack of power this season, as he's yet to hit a home run after averaging over 20 a season the last four years.

The problems that the Cleveland Indians are having on offense this season can't all be pinned on one player in particular. It's really been an entire team effort, as there are only two players on the team who started on Opening Day who are currently hitting over .255 on the season. They are Grady Sizemore (checking in at a robust .258) and Victor Martinez, who is hitting .292.

Of course, even though Martinez has the highest batting average of all the Indians regulars (Ben Francisco is hitting .304, but he's only played in 26 games) he still hasn't been as productive as Sizemore. Grady may only be hitting .258, but he's slugging .488 and has an OPS of .859. Martinez, on the other hand, is slugging .351 with an OPS of .685.

Victor's career marks are .465 and .836. Of his 49 hits this season, 39 of them have been singles. The only extra base hits he's had are his 10 doubles, as Martinez is yet to hit a home run this season. Why the drop off in power for the catcher who's averaged 21 homers and 99 RBI over the last four seasons?

His manager, Eric Wedge, thinks it has a lot to do with the hamstring injury Martinez suffered on Opening Day against the White Sox.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Chicago White Sox (25-20) vs. Cleveland Indians (22-24) - 8:11PM Est.

The White Sox offense has been struggling all season, but fortunately for them, they play in the AL Central where the pitching has been dominating hitters all season. Nobody in the division can hit. The highest scoring team in the Central is the Detroit Tigers, and look what's that gotten them.

Still, the Sox have been able to hang around the top of the division all season long because of their pitching, which has been fantastic. As a Sox fan I've often thought to myself this season "If we could only somehow manage to score four runs a game, we'd be dangerous."

Well, last week Ozzie Guillen finally shook up the offense by switching around the batting order. Jim Thome got dropped from third to fifth, Paul Konerko from fourth to sixth, and A.J. Pierzynski was moved up from sixth to second while Carlos Quentin was moved up to the third spot in the lineup.

Since then? The White Sox are 7-0, and looking to complete their second series sweep in a row tonight. This time against division rival Cleveland.