A solid AAA campaign in 2010 could make Fernando a Mets starter in 2011

BY AARON YORKE
STACHE WRITER

It’s early February and most baseball fans have a few more weeks to wait until they see their team’s prospects in action. Mets fans are lucky. That’s right. We have the opportunity to follow Fernando Martinez’s progress in the Caribbean Series, the annual competition between the Winter League’s best teams.

Martinez is still considered by some to be Mets’ top prospect, but his hype machine definitely took a hit over the past year thanks to a disappointing major league debut. Was this warranted? It was if you thought that a 20 year old should come out of nowhere and light the big leagues on fire. The truly disappointing stat of Martinez’s 2009 was his less than 300 at bats between AAA and the majors. He needs to stay healthy to grow into a solid player.

This winter, Martinez has stayed healthy but went a miserable 9 for 47 with no homers in the regular Winter League season. However, the young outfielder has knocked it up a notch for the Caribbean Series. He’s finally homered and has five hits overall in just 15 at bats. I know it’s a very small sample, but it’s nice to see our boy, who has carried the hopes of Mets fans for a while now, have some success.

With the recent addition (subtraction by addition?) of Gary Matthews Jr., the Mets are unlikely to promote Martinez to the bigs anytime soon. That’s not really a problem though. If he can repeat his .290/.337/.540 that he hit with Buffalo in ‘09, only over more at bats this year, Martinez could consider 2010 a great success. A year like that and you could pencil him in as the starting right fielder in 2011. Poor Frenchy.

Tags: Fernando Martinez, New York Mets

Categories: Aaron Yorke , Fernando Martinez , MLB , Mets