Upon hearing the news that third baseman Cody Asche had been optioned to AAA Lehigh Valley to work on becoming an outfielder, many fans were confused by the move. The move cleared the way for prospect Maikel Franco to permanently claim the position later this week. The Phillies simply determined that Franco was the better third baseman.
Ruben Amaro Jr. said this morning on 94 WIP (via Corey Seidman of CSN Philly.com) that Asche at third base was just "average":
"We viewed him as an average third baseman," Amaro told Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Show on Tuesday. "We view Maikel Franco as a better third baseman. And so, it was a good problem to have, it’s a problem that we’re solving by moving [Asche] to a different position, and I think that’s going to bode well for the organization."
Some Phillies fans responded to the news by calling for Asche to return to his "natural position" of second base.
Asche is not a "natural" second baseman. Asche spent his college career at Nebraska at third base, not second base, before the Phillies drafted him in 2011. In fact, the only reason the Phillies started Asche out at second base during his first professional season at Class A Williamsport is because the team had other third basemen: someone named Harold Martinez and another guy named Maikel Franco.
Asche was not good at second base. In fact, Asche's 15 errors in 64 games project to be just about 40 errors in a full 162-game season. Asche's range was also considered very poor by talent evaluators in the Phillies organization. After the poor defensive 2011 season, Asche expected to move to the outfield or first base as he told Bob Ford in 2012:
"Coming into spring training, I thought I was going to either be a leftfielder or a first baseman, and then I got told to go take some balls at third and see what happens," Asche said. "That's where I played in college, so I jumped right into that. It's a position I played for three years."
Those three years were his college years at Nebraska.
The reason the Phillies liked him back in 2011 in the draft was his bat. Not that the Phillies have ruled out Asche as a third baseman, his bat must come to life in order to prove that he belongs in a corner outfield spot, usually reserved for an offensively-oriented player. After hitting .069 in the Month of May before his demotion, Asche will have to show at AAA that his bat is still what the Phillies thought it was when they drafted him.
Cody Asche was not supposed to be a third baseman in the Phillies organization at all, so "average" is not all that bad. Now let's see how he responds in the outfield.
