Hello Tribe fans everywhere!

One of the more gratifying aspects of spring training 2007 has been Andy Marte's skill at blending in and maintaining a low profile. Of course, if Marte was hitting like Grady Sizemore (a little over a buck, although I'm not worried), you'd hear wailing from Winter Haven to Cleveland.

Happily, Marte is batting .278 with a couple of homers and handful of ribbies. After two sloppy days of fielding at third base early in camp, Eric Wedge huddled with Marte, and he's fielded much more competently since then.

Casey Blake has taken enough turns at the hot corner, so that he'll be able to step in for a game or two should Marte suffer through an 0-for-25 skid.

So far, things seem to be going about as well as they could. Marte, 23, is not a disciplined hitter, and he still fishes for outside curveballs. But his athletic ability appears true, and he's shown an easy grace around the bag.

Actually, if he can field the position as well as he did last September, and hit .250 with occasional bursts of power, he'll be a big step up from Aaron Boone. The most surprising aspect of Boone's decline last year was his wooden demeanor at third. He simply couldn't move anymore.

Marte's defense was considered a liability upon his promotion to Cleveland, but he was clearly a superior fielder to Boone -- at least at that stage of Boonie's career.

The Indians seem to have handled Marte's situation well. They've encouraged his low profile and plan to bat him deep in the order. You know that Tribe GM Mark Shapiro is eager for Marte to perform well -- Shapiro took so much heat last year after shipping fan favorite Coco Crisp to Boston for the kid.

But Cleveland doesn't need a lot of offense from Marte at this point. As long as some others can pick up the slack, he should be able to bat about .230 until mid-June. Then, he'll need to pick it up.

I'm pleased that Marte is not striking out as much as he was, which shows that he might be learning some disicipline at the plate. On the other hand, it's still only spring training, and he's yet to face the best of A.L. hurlers under game conditions.

Should worse come to worse, and Marte finds himself completely overmatched, Blake could probably return to third base -- especially because it appears Victor Martinez is going to see a lot more action at first than originally predicted.

It should be fun to watch Marte's progress. Check back in a month for further updates.

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The answer to yesterday's quickie quiz: Charlie Spikes' real name is Leslie.

Today's quiz: Name the Indians pitcher of the 1960's whose nickname was Ding-Dong.

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-- Kevin Cuneo