F-Mart Cracks Keith Law's Top 100 Prospects #16

When Keith Law speaks, all of baseball listens!

Let not your heart be troubled, no if ands or buts about it, Fernando Martinez is an elite MLB prospect. The Mets are extremely fortunate to have F-Mart as part of their organization. Please keep in mind he's only 20 yrs old and still growing physically and in baseball awareness. Keith points out, F-Marts inability to stay on the field/healthy is his biggest issue.

There was a time when another young Met phenom shared the same fate, where the injury bug would constantly find him...His name is Jose Reyes. My have times changed.

Here's Keith Law's evaluation of F-Mart: To view the top 25 prospects click on link to the left.

Martinez's big issue is staying healthy; he has yet to reach 400 plate appearances or play in 100 games during any of his pro seasons, excluding winter ball. This is a shame, because Martinez has a special bat and the injuries plus some aggressive promotions have obscured it. Martinez offers huge power potential, putting on a display in BP, but it has only briefly started to emerge in games. He has very quick and strong wrists, letting the ball travel on him before exploding quickly and making solid, hard contact. In the field, he's looking more likely to end up in right field; the Mets have one of the game's best center fielders in the big leagues and don't need to groom Martinez for that position. His pitch recognition, while good for his age, hasn't progressed over the last two years, and the more he's pushed up the system the less likely it is that the skill will develop. Martinez has now played the equivalent of a full season in Double-A before his 20th birthday, and the Mets are faced with the difficult decision of whether to promote him to Triple-A because he has "graduated" from the lower level or return him to the Eastern League for the third consecutive year so he can work on his plate discipline and, maybe, catch his breath.