Despite The Captivating Performances, The Mets Shouldn't Rush Their Prospects In 2010

     Hello friends and welcome back once again! Well, even while stars Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are out nursing injuries rather than playing daily Grapefruit League games, spring training is nevertheless chugging along swimmingly. And as this spring training has progressed we've seen some pretty decent performances out of some guys, as well as some particularly forgettable ones too. And as I've followed the Mets this spring, if there's one thing I can say I have learned, it would be that the barrel containing the Mets prospects isn't quite as dry as us fans have been led to believe it is so often. Some of the club's best performers this spring are really making the Mets farm system look not so shabby.

     Three men have really stood out for the Mets this spring, and those men are outfielder Fernando Martinez, 1st baseman Ike Davis, and pitcher Jenrry Mejia. These three guys are all under the age of 23 (Ike'll be 23 on the 23rd of this month) and are really showing everybody around the league that the Mets farm system is totally capable of producing a jewel here and there. However, people have been making separate cases for each of these guys to head north with the Mets when they break camp. Now despite me being super impressed with what I've seen from these three prospects this spring, I'm sorry. I just don't believe that any of them are ready for the show quite yet. I've got my reasons why for each player, so let’s dive in.

     We all know Fernando Martinez (.538 BA, an eye-gouging 1.615 OPS, 3 HR. 10 RBI this spring) has the potential to be a great major leaguer. We've been hearing it for a while now. And if his spring training display is any kind of indication of things to come, good times are certainly on tap for Citi Field in the not-so-distant future! But, as we all know by now, Fernando has one mighty mighty weakness. Though he is only 21, the dude seems practically incapable of staying healthy. He's had a vast number of injuries, and his career is barely underway. This worries me to no end. The Mets can't put this kind of risk on the field day in and day out. Until F-Mart proves that he is capable of staying on the field for an entire season injury-free, I just can't buy into his enormous hype and his bloated spring statistics. He's got proving to do in the minors. Let's not forget last year how overmatched he looked in his cup of coffee with the big club. I say once Fernando is tearing up AAA on a regular basis without succumbing to injury, then I'll be cool with him making regular appearances at the major league level.

Is Contending In 2010 Insurmountable Now That Reyes Is Officially Hitting The Shelf?

     If you're a mobster, or a mafia movie fanatic like myself, the first thing you think of when you hear the words "This thing of ours" would be Cosa Nostra itself. However, if you're a Mets fan, the phrase "this thing of ours" refers to something else. The thing I'm referring to would be this horrible never-ending rash of injuries our beloved team just keeps on suffering. And this "thing" doesn't appear to be just a "2009 thing". A one and done fluke. No no. The plague has now dipped into 2010, claiming both Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes. No my friends, I'm beginning to fear that "this thing of ours" may wind up being a permanent unlucky fixture, much like the Chicago Cubs century and change of never winning the World Series.

More PR Confusion? Here We Go Again...

     Here is a little exercise I'd like you to do for me. Imagine you're reading a story regarding a baseball player getting injured. However in this particular story, the name of the player isn't revealed. It's blurred out, and you don't know the identity of the player, you just know that he's suffering from some sort of ailment. Now imagine that a few days later you read another story regarding the same player - still with his identity a mystery - and in this story the player is denying the original injury, claiming he never suffered from it, and instead has something totally different. Now knowing all of this, who would you suspect that player to be?

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