Dispelling Some Myths About Damaso Marte

This morning, I saw the following from Pete Abe, and it just struck me as indicative of how most Yankees fans see Damaso Marte:

Failure to Launch divx (Meanwhile, did you ever notice that nobody — fans or media — ever asks about a bad player when he is injured? We quiz Joe Girardi every day on Wang, Posada, Jose Molina, Nady and A-Rod. Meanwhile Damaso Marte could be in an iron lung, wearing a full body cast and have a raging case of the Swine Flu for all we know.)

Damaso Marte is not a bad player. He has not been very good as a Yankee, but has had a very solid career. His track record is strong enough that I think it is a bit unfair for people to judge him based on 23.2 innings as a Yankee. I would like to dispel a few myths about him.

1) Damaso Marte is not a good pitcher: This is the one that many Yankee fans seem to believe, but the numbers just do not support it. Marte for his career has an ERA of 3.43, a WHIP of 1.26, and has allowed less than 1 HR while striking out almost 10 per 9 innings. He walks a few too many guys, but otherwise he has put together a very strong career. Furthermore, the last two seasons have brought some of his best work, with a FIP of 2.89 in 2007 and 3.24 in 2008.

2) Damaso Marte can only succeed in a small market, he does not have what it takes to pitch in NY: Marte pitched four seasons in Chicago for the White Sox, on a club that was at or better than .500 in all of those seasons and won a World Series. The World Series year happened to have been Marte’s worst, but his BABIP against that season was .351 compared to a .291 career average, and he actually won Game 3 of the World Series. His overall numbers in Chicago, not exactly a media backwater, were an ERA of 2.78, a WHIP of 1.21, and a K/9 of 9.8. Not too shabby for a guy who cannot make it in the big city.

3) Damaso Marte is a LOOGY: While he was used more like a LOOGY in Pittsburgh, he is certainly not limited to work against lefties. He has 526 appearances in his carer and 478 innings, which are not LOOGY numbers (Mike Myers had 883 appearances and 541 innings). While his numbers against lefties are stellar (.200/.297/.292), his stats against righties are not too bad either (.241/.329/.394). He can be used to pitch full innings regardless of the handedness of the hitters.

Damaso Marte has been a very good reliever for most of his career. He clearly was not right health wise this season, as he was allowing home runs at more than 5 times his normal rate and was generally allowing a significantly higher number of fly balls than in the past. It is too early to give up on Damaso Marte.

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