MVN - Most Valuable Network

Lou to the Bigs? It should be elementary

“Ground ball to short, flip to second for one, back to first for the double play.” That’s a line we’ve heard all too often this season when Carlos Ruiz has been at the plate. Be it a grounder to third, second, short, or first, Ruiz has grounded into nine double plays. Of course, we know we can’t just judge a player based on the amount of the double plays he’s grounded into. So we’ll also judge Ruiz on his poor OPS, which is .601, and the fact that his slightly above average defensive skills do not nearly mask his lackluster abilities at the plate.

Last year, Ruiz posted a .259/.340/.396 campaign and was lauded, as he should have been. Ruiz was everything we could have expected him to be in his 115 games played last year. He truly emerged as the best catcher on the team, after the Phillies realized that Rod Barajas was a mistake. Any thoughts about Ruiz being able to handle the tough load of a full season were put to rest, and Ruiz was set to get the majority of the playing time in 2008 with Chris Coste playing his tandem partner.

However, through 80 games, we’ve learned a few things. Pedro Feliz and Geoff Jenkins have been major disappointments. The starting pitching has been decent, and the bullpen has been fantastic. Ruiz has not. The fact of the matter is, while guys like Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard have all struggled of late, they carried this team for parts of the season. Ruiz has never been asked to carry the team, but he hasn’t been even bearable at any point of the season. No hot streaks, no reaching-base streaks, and just four multi-hit games in the 56 he has appeared in.

Already at 29 years of age, Ruiz isn’t helping himself. There’s talent in the minor leagues. Jason Jaramillo, a relative disappointment in his own right, would be a better option than Ruiz. The right man for the job, however? It’s Lou Marson. The Phillies’ 4th round pick in 2004 his hitting .328 with two homeruns and 37 RBI for Double-A Reading. He has posted an on-base percentage of .449. And at this point, the choice needs to be clear for Phillies management. Marson needs to be promoted to the Majors as fast as possible, and the team needs to find a way to end the Carlos Ruiz experiment.

Coste has been a superb “backup” this season for the Phillies. It’s a term that should be used lightly considering the fact that Coste has been infinitely better than Ruiz in every way this year. Not only has he had a .315/.375/.531 season in his 130 at bats, he’s thrown out 10 of 33 base-runners. Ruiz has thrown out 13 of 50. Coste should start seeing more playing time, and he should do it while having Marson as his partner. Enough is enough. It’s time to say goodbye to Carlos.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.