September means debuts

The rosters expand to 40 every Sept. 1, which leads to teams who are out of the race (like the Indians) giving their young prospects a look against major-league competition.

Last night, that meant Carlos Carrasco making his major-league debut on the mound against the Tigers, and Michael Brantley making his major-league debut in left field. Brantley's debut went pretty well. Carrasco's was ... did I mention Brantley?

Carrasco, the first to debut of the four players the Tribe got for Cliff Lee, went just three innings and gave up six runs on nine hits, including three home runs. He walked three and struck out three. His career record is 0-1, and his career ERA stands at 18.00. That's obviously not going to get it done, but debuts can be that way. He's 22 years old, and he went 5-1 with a 3.19 ERA at Columbus after the trade. This kid's got potential, for sure.

Brantley had two hits. His first hit was a solid single the second of which was an infield single that he hustled to beat out. He was solid but not noteworthy in the field, though it should be said that in any individual game, most of the players don't do anything noteworthy on defense. Brantley's career average stands at .500. His on-base percentage is also .500, and his slugging average is .500 as well.

Andy Marte, who went nearly 60 at-bats before hitting his first home run of the season at the major-league level on Aug. 25, hit his fourth last night. Marte, like Carrasco and Brantley, spent most of the season in Columbus, but got called up after the Ryan Garko trade, and is finally starting to show the hitting talent he was reputed to have when they got him. Since Aug. 20, he's hitting .364 with the four dingers and 13 RBIs in 44 at-bats over 12 games. Obviously, we can't expect him to hit like that over the long term, but this is the first time he's produced anything like this, and it's great to see.