Zach McAllister pitched a gem, allowing 2 runs (both earned) in 7.1 innings and the Indians offense overcame a to-of-the-ninth-inning meltdown from closer Chris Perez in the bottom of the innning with a bases-loaded fielders’ choice by Mark Reynolds. Seattle shortstop Brendan Ryan went home with the throw, but catcher Jesus Montero appeared to not touch the plate and Tribe second baseman Jason Kipnis was ruled safe with the winning run. (more…)

• If you’ve been reading Deep Left Field for any length of time, you should know my fondness for now former Indians.com beat writer Anthony Castrovince’s work, and how I prefer it to any of the local fishwraps. I’m thankful for Castrovince and the job he did over the past five years. It made my work at DLF so much easier (not to mention enjoyable). Although I’m happy to see an excellent journalist get a promotion, I’ll miss Castrovince’s in-game tweets (@Castrovince) and the regular updates at CastroTurf. Still, I’m thankful for the time we had and hopefully new Indians.com beat writer Jordan Bastian will keep up the good work.
• As a blogger, I often look to um, interesting, areas for ideas and news. Twitter has been a great source for that, and inevitably there are going to be Twitter personalities. The Indians have a couple, but none is better than @PureRage_Perez, closer Chris Perez’s alter ego (which is not run by the real Perez). His tweets are hilarious, and further enforce the whole badass persona that the real Chris Perez is developing. Humor makes a bad season easier.
• I suppose I should actually mention a player, and for that, I’d like to say how thankful I am for the 150 ABs that Carlos Santana had in the big leagues this year, because he was a joy to watch. He’s exactly the type of exciting player the Indians desperately need, and I will be infinitely more thankful if he’s not permanently ruined by the freakish leg injury he suffered (damn you Ryan Kalish!!!). I’m also really thankful the Indians traded Casey F-in Blake for Santana. I really hated Blake.
• Speaking of players I hated, I’m really thankful Russell Branyan and Kerry Wood are no longer Cleveland Indians (although Branyan may come back … he always seems to find his way back here somehow).
• I’m not ready to dub Tim Belcher the next Leo Mazzone, but the Indians pitching coach has to be given some credit. I’m thankful for his re-inventing of Fausto Carmona, turning Fausto back into a usable pitcher, as well as the progress he made with Justin Masterson as the season went on. Progress is always better than regression.
• I hated the hiring at first, but Manny Acta has really grown on me as a manager and I’m thankful for his candidness and personality. After watching Eric Wedge for the past 6 years (when the only thing interesting about the guy is whether or not he’d have a mustache that day), Acta has been a welcome gust of super crisp air blasted in my face. I really hope he’s as good at developing talent as he is at schmoozing.
• Finally, I’m thankful for all of you who take time to read DLF. You guys are what drives this site, and I’d love to hear more from you. Leave a comment on the site, hit me up via Twitter (@DeepLeftField), or discuss Tribe on the Facebook site. Thank you, from both Marc and I, for your readership, and for sharing in the misery with us. Hope your holiday is lovely.

I’m not dumb. I knew this day was coming. You could see it from a mile away. Hell, I’m surprised it took this long.

Andy Marte was removed from the 40-man roster today, making him a free agent.

Of course, this means nothing. Marte is El Gato – he has nine lives. He’s been designated for assignment before, and no team claimed him. There’s a chance we could still see Marte in the organization next year.

But for all intents and purposes, we’ve seen the end of the Andy Marte era (which spanned five years – FIVE!). For the sake of Marte’s career, I hope he doesn’t end up in the Indians organization again. He had used up his chances, fair or unfair, and was simply dead man walking.

S0 why am I still writing about this?

Marte was an utter failure as a top prospect (yeah… that didn’t work out). But if you’ve been a reader of Deep Left Field  you should recall that I feel the Indians’ treatment of Marte has been ridiculous. No prospect could develop the way the Indians handled Marte. Some players just don’t perform without consistent playing time and not every player can be like Carlos Santana and provide an impact right away. People jump all over Eric Wedge for running Brandon Phillips out of town, but he did the same injustice to Marte. I find it hilarious that Wedge is taking over another young team in Seattle, because he’s the reason Phillips is in Cincinnati and Marte sucks.

The difference between Marte and Phillips (besides that whole production thing)? Marte stayed. And let it get to his head. He was a wreck this season, .298 OBP in 170 ABs. The guy who scouts said would hit 25 home runs a year in the majors hit only 20 in five years with the Indians. His defense went to the crapper as well. It was clear the damage was done.

But it didn’t have to be this way.

Look, Marte was probably never the uber-prospect he was thought to be. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t have been a serviceable player if he was simply handled better. I will defend this position until the day I die. I actually hope Marte latches on somewhere and proves me right.

But whether I’m right or wrong, Marte is the face of the failures of this Indians organization since 2005. The guy was traded for fan favorite Coco Crisp, and Marte flopped, much like the Indians themselves. We may never know whether I’m right and he was just mishandled, or whether pretty much everyone else was right and the Indians just made a gross misjudgment on talent. But we do know Marte is a poster child for these teams: all projection, no production.

The Marte Par-tay is over. And like everything Indians lately, it ends in disappointment. It didn’t have to be this way, but this is the way that it is.

For my own closure, I’d like to write the epitaph on the tombstone for his Cleveland Indians career:

“Hell of a relief pitcher. Too bad he was a third baseman.”