Indians Top 100 Prospects: #70 Todd Martin

70. Todd Martin - First Baseman
Born: 06/25/1983 - Height: 6'3" - Weight: 230 - Bats: Left - Throws: Left

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2006	23	Gary	IND	5	14	3	2	0	0	0	0	1	6	0	.143	.250	.143	.393
2006	23	GCL Indians	R	11	23	4	5	2	0	0	2	3	10	0	.217	.308	.304	.612
2007	24	Mahoning Vy	A-	54	197	27	71	8	1	8	40	23	40	0	.360	.423	.533	.956
2008	25	GCL Indians	R	5	15	1	6	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	.400	.438	.400	.838
	25	Lake County	A	10	36	4	12	3	0	3	9	1	13	0	.333	.342	.667	1.009
	25	Kinston	A+	21	67	6	14	4	0	0	6	11	12	0	.209	.321	.269	.590
		Career		106	352	45	110	17	1	11	58	39	83	0	.313	.382	.460	.842

History: Martin signed as an undrafted free agent out of Middle Tennessee State in July of 2006. In his first year of extended action in the organization in 2007 he hit .360 at short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley which won him the NY-Penn League batting title. He also set a Mahoning Valley record for the highest single-season batting average in franchise history, which surpassed Ben Francisco's league leading .349 batting average in 2002. He also set franchise records for on-base percentage (.423) and slugging percentage (.533) in a season.

Strengths & Opportunities: The Indians like Martin's powerful bat and approach at the plate, and he is a mechanically sound hitter with a great swing. His success is directly tied to him being such an advanced, disciplined hitter at the plate where he rarely swings at a bad pitch, and he does a good job of spraying the ball around the field. At times, he has a tendency to get too anxious at the plate, which results in too much of an uppercut in his swing. He also needs to become more consistent with his swing and maintaining a downward plane to get backspin on the ball. He can play both first base and the outfield, so he has some versatility there.

The knock on Martin is in his one good season he dominated the NY-Penn League at an advanced age whereas most prospects his age are typically in Double-A or above. Also, he has had a hard time staying healthy since signing with the Indians. He missed a few games in 2007 with an arm injury and eventually had his season cut short with a sprained knee. He went out to the Hawaii Winter League in 2007, but again his time was cut short after being sidelined with a wrist injury. The health issues cropped back up again last season in May when he tore the meniscus in his knee and had to undergo surgery. After a two month layoff to recover from the surgery, he finally got back into game action late in the season but was never himself and he continued to have setbacks with the knee to where he had to have another surgery this offseason because it was just not healing properly.

Outlook: Because of his age and injury history this upcoming season is going to be a big one for Martin to re-establish himself. Fortunately for him, outside of Beau Mills, the Indians lack any high level first base prospect slotted for first base and designated hitter to start the season at Double-A Akron or advanced Single-A Kinston. It is not known where he will start the season, but he has a good chance of being pushed up to Akron to start the season and serve mostly as the designated hitter there.

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr

Todd Martin MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page

Todd Martin Baseball-Reference page

Todd Martin MinorLeagueSplits.com page

Todd Martin videos:

Posted in: Todd Martin