Sunday, July 27, 2008 | By Alex Eisenberg

Trade Review: the Impact of Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte

With seven straight wins coming out of the All-Star Break and just 2.5 games back of first place in the AL East and one games back in the race for the Wild Card spot in the American League, the New York Yankees decided to take things up a notch by trading for Pittsburgh Pirate right fielder Xavier Nady and left handed reliever Damaso Marte.

Going to Pittsburgh is talented, but enigmatic prospect Jose Tabata, and three right handed pitchers in Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, and Dan McCutchen. For breakdowns of these four players, please click here.

Let's break down the players involved.

Xavier Nady | OF/DH/1b | Age - 29

By the Numbers

Over his career, Nady has been a capable player, whether it be at first base, right field, left field, or even a brief period in center. However, he's never had a season of more than 431 ABs and that is due to a combination of injuries and his role as a platoon player.

The reason for platooning Nady was because he hit left handers extremely well (.881 OPS from 05 - 07) and while he held his own against right handers, his OPS wasn't very good overall (.753 OPS from 05 - 07).

However, Nady has seen his overall numbers trend upwards for what is now the 6th consecutive year:

03 - .712 OPS
04 - .717
05 - .760
06 - .790
07 - .805
08 - .919

As his OPS has increased, so has his power, going from a .124 ISO-power in 2003 to a .178 ISO in 2005 to a .205 ISO in 2008.

Why the huge jump in OPS from 07 to 08? You could mostly say luck. His BABIP this year is .367, 44 points higher than his previous high. This has allowed him to hit for a .330 average thus far in 2008.

Nady doesn't possess great plate discipline as he doesn't walk much and has a K:BB ratio of about 1:3.

The Swing

Xavier Nady Xavier Nady's swing

Nady has a high leg kick as he strides into foot plant. Just before planting, his knee twists open a bit, which can cause him to occasionally open up too soon. He also plants his front foot more in the direction of the pitcher. Usually I like hitters to plant more in a 45-degree angle because it's easier to keep the hips closed and rotate firmly on a front leg. However, Nady compensates for the way he plants by rotating to the point where he is rolling over his front foot, so he is still getting the hip rotation he needs.

Nady generates pretty good bat speed, and has a swing plane more suited more for fliner type batted balls--a cross between a line drive and fly ball.

Nady's Impact on the Yankees

With Hideki Matsui out for the year and Jorge Posada's health this season in doubt, the Yankees' lack of depth has been exposed recently. Brett Gardner, Wilson Betemit, Richie Sexson, Shelley Duncan...all have been have been used as options and not one has worked out (though to be fair, Sexson has only had 5 ABs).

However, in Nady, the Yankees get a player that can move all over the field. He can start out at first base with Jason Giambi moving permanently to DH or shift to left field as Damon moves over to center to give the Yankees line-up a bit more potency. If there is a particularly tough lefty that Bobby Abreu can't handle, Nady could be shifted over to right field to take his place for the day.

Nady isn't a big-name player, but he fits well with what the Yankees need.

Demaso Marte | LHP | Age - 33

Marte has been a rock-solid reliever for seven years now, posting ERAs usually in the mid-3s.

Marte has always been a high strikeout pitcher, usually sporting a K-rate between 9 and 10. He's able to maintain such high K-rates because of a very formidable fastball/slider combo:

Damaso Marte's slider Damaso-Marte

His fastball is thrown between 91 and 94 mph with great life. It's a little sneaky and kinda jumps on you just before hitting home plate. One way to create a deceptive fastball is to have a great breaking ball.

The goal of a slider is to make it look like the fastball, which Marte does extremely well. Each pitch comes in on a similar plane and his mechanics look the same no matter what pitch he is throwing.

In addition, he releases each pitch from the same arm slot. When he's got both pitches working, he's extremely difficult to hit.

While Marte has always had high K-rates, the same cannot be said about his control. The last couple of years, Marte has demonstrated much improved control, lowering his BB-rate in each of the last four years:

2005 - 6.55 BB/9
2006 - 4.78
2007 - 3.57
2008 - 3.09

How did this change in occur? First take a look at the graphic below. Marte in 2005 is on the left; Marte in 2008 is on the right. I want you to focus on Marte's glove:

Damaso-Marte-2005 Damaso-Marte-Control

I'm not a big fan of Marte's front-side mechanics because he leaves his lead arm down by his side instead of out in front of his chest, but he does a much better job of firming his glove up in 2008 to prevent his front shoulder from flying open. The video of him in 2005 is a clear case of Marte flying open.

Other Notes

In addition to his improved his control, his HR-rates have dropped the past couple years, but much of that is due to moving from the AL to NL after the 2006 season.

Also improved is Marte's performance against right handed hitters. He gradually improved his performance from 2005 to 2007, but this year he is actually performing better against righties than lefties. Marte is throwing his change-up more, almost exclusively to right handers, so that could be one reason for the improvement.

Marte's Impact on the Yankees

Marte fills a major gap in the bridge to Mariano Rivera by becoming the first major league quality lefty to be placed in the Yankee bullpen this year. The Yankees already have some nice parts in their bullpen--Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, and yes, Kyle Farnsworth have all done well in middle relief. The Yankees also found what looks to be a keeper in David Robertson and Dan Giese is certainly a capable long-reliever type.

There really is just one weak link in that Yankee bullpen (I'm looking at you LaTroy Hawkins) and Marte turns that weakness into a strength.

Trade Impact on the Yankees' Post Season Hopes

When you look at this trade from the Yankee perspective as a whole, you'll see they filled a couple medium-sized holes and turned each hole into relative strengths. But there are still questions to answer about the state of their starting rotation, specifically the back-end. This issue has been lingering for the Yankees ever since Chien-Ming Wang went down to injury.

Can Rasner and Ponson hold up? Rasner, maybe--but he hasn't pitched past five innings since June 6 and he's constantly walking on egg shells...he's been just getting by for a while and we know implosion is right around the corner for a pitcher in his situation. Ponson's case is self explanatory.

In reality, it doesn't matter who--Kennedy, Rasner, Ponson, Hughes, a pitcher via trade (Washburn maybe?)--somebody needs to step up and fill the void at the back end of the rotation because that is what the Yankees' playoff hopes ultimately hinge on.

Next time, we will look at this trade from the Pittsburgh Pirate perspective and breakdown the impact of this trade on their future.