Fernando Martinez. They call him F-Mart, I'll call him K-Mart.
F-Mart (or K-Mart as I will be calling him the rest of the year) is clearly in a situation he's not ready for.
He can play the outfield just fine and dandy, and he did manage an RBI double during tonight's game against the Yankees. But in two key situations facing lefty Phil Coke and righty Brian Bruney, he not only struck out, but swung at pitches that were at the level of his neck or even higher up.
But it's not just these two ABs that have shown just how overmatched K-Mart is at the MLB level. He may very well be the next big thing in the Mets organization, but now that we've seen him play, it's clear that it won't be until 2010 at the earliest as to when he's truly ready for the bigs. It may even be longer than that.
Unfortunately, with no Carlos Beltran to play CF and the Mets organization refuses to believe Jeremy Reed is capable of being a full-time fill-in centerfielder, they're stuck with K-Mart until further notice.
I understand that Jerry Manuel doesn't want to overuse Gary Sheffield in the OF, and Ryan Church runs hot and cold, mostly cold against lefty pitching. And Fernando Tatis is on pace to win this season's "GO THE HELL AWAY" award after winning "Comeback Player" award last season, and Nick Evans has yet to prove he's any better than K-Mart, what can an MLB manager do with such unenviable options?
The NY Times article speaks of K-Mart's inexperience and youth working against him, but perhaps it's simply that his hitting skills have not fully developed at a level necessary when playing Major League Baseball. While he made a fantastic sliding catch in centerfield off a sinking liner from Chien-Ming Wang in today's 4-2 loss, he makes too many unnecessary one-handed catches, and doesn't consistently position himself properly on sac fly balls.
The Mets have hyped up Fernando Martinez as THE guy as the future of the franchise, but so far, the future looks bleak.
