Fernando Martinez

by Lunkwill Fook on Jul 23, 2008 11:59 AM EDT Comment 33 comments

In the aftermath of the Mets bullpen disaster against the Phillies last night, reports are saying the Mets management had a meeting today talking about the serious possibility of calling up Fernando Martinez. (This is as per Andrew Marchand on 1050 ESPN).

Now, is this idea:

A) Stupid

B) Insanely dumbfoundingly stupid

From my personal perspective, Fernando is doing well in AA but is nowhere NEAR ready to contribute on the major league level. What could he possibly add that a AAAA slugger couldn't do (Chris Aguila and Valentino Pascucci are currently mashing the ball in New Orleans, for instance)?

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ugh

Call up, nothing.
I’d imagine Omar Minaya is sitting in his office, wondering how much money he’ll have to line the insides of the F-Mart-Sized Box with before shipping it to Oakland for a prized reliever. Or, as we’ll soon call it, the Billy Taylor Redux.
Sigh. Please don’t, Omar.

by waka25 on Jul 23, 2008 12:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well

First of all, It’s B. Second of all: wtf did you expect from the Mets management?

If I was managing the team, I would call up Seattle and propose this deal

Carlos Delgado + Aaron Heilman + low minor leaguer or cash considerations

for

Raul Ibanez + Ryan Rowland-Smith

Assuming this deal was passed, I’d then call up Mike Carp who has been absolutely on fire in AA to play 1st. Leave F-Mart down in the minors and keep him there.

That’s just my call—I know you’ll probably say this is rediculous, but I can dream

by sagecoll on Jul 23, 2008 12:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

What?!

While I’d say B for the calling up of F-Mart, I would also give that trade a huge massive B. Have you noticed that Delgado has been practically carrying our offense for the month of July? Have you noticed that Mike Carp is hitting under .300 in AA for the first time since May (or recently was)? That deal is just asinine for the Mets. Heilman has turned things around and there is a preference for a righty OF bat than a lefty OF bat.

No, don’t call up F-Mart. We already have a prospect from AA in the majors who was hitting just as well at AA. If you are considering F-Mart, at least play Evans first.

by thudean on Jul 23, 2008 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Eh

Carp has had about 4-5 bad games recently (that’s all). He was the player of the month in June. And even through his slight struggles, he has an awesome k/bb ratio, which is what the Mets need badly. I agree with you, Delgado has been great. But I don’t see any other hitter or pitcher that we can deal to make anything work. Heilman has been awful, you can’t really argue against that. Turned it around?!—6 runs (all earned) in the last 10 innings (which is what he has pitched in July), is not a turn around. Sabrmetrics don’t agree either-he has an APR (Adjusted Runs Prevented from scoring.-a very good measure of a reliever’s performance) of 1.2!—which is 449/583 in all of baseball.

I don’t think it’d be a dumb move at all

by sagecoll on Jul 23, 2008 1:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Heilman

I know slightly off point, but if you are talking about Carp’s great June month, you have to say the same for heilman who let up 1 run the entirety of june in 14IP. Plus, considering he still has a .143 BAA for this month, I would say that the 6ER are more unusual considering the other peripherals. Yes, he was bad early, but he’s getting better, but there is no reason to trade him away for dreck.

Still don’t think this is advisable. You don’t need to make snap crazy trades or internal moves just because 1 game went bad (yes, it was horribly bad). You need small adjustments at this point of the year, not major overhauls. I could be entirely on board with trading away lots of pieces if the mets were out of it still, but they are not. There is no way we are possibly going to be better by throwing a rookie at 1B and getting Ibanez to play LF. Its just an extraordinarily unlikely situation to get better production.

And back on point, still, pushing F-Mart to the majors would be a bad move, irregardless of the other moves the Mets may make. Maybe a cup of coffee at the end of the year when rosters expand if he’s scorching AA, but nothing more… please

by thudean on Jul 23, 2008 1:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Heilman for Ruggiano and Player X!

by METSMETSMETS on Jul 23, 2008 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i like that move

I heard Tim Lincecum will win 1 Cy Young & 11 Tim Lincecums. Question is, how many Cole Hamels will he win?

by the pinstripes on Jul 23, 2008 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Delgado

struggled at the beginning of the year to due the hand surgery he had in October 2007. Those take a long time to recover from.

by METSMETSMETS on Jul 23, 2008 1:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Carp

has been slumping for over 2 weeks.

by Duece on Jul 23, 2008 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Whoa

From the M’s perspective, this makes no sense at all.

They need to rebuild, and this is the one trade that doesn’t help either in salary OR in age. They trade away a young potential starter for a 30 year old set-up man. They move a not-great contract on a decent hitter who can’t play D, but who’s contract’s done after this season for an EVEN OLDER guy who can’t play D. Oh, and they get the privilege of paying Delgado $55.5m through 2011.

If you’re this far into fantasy land, just throw in Felix Hernandez for Scott Schoeneweis

by marc w on Jul 23, 2008 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed...

I don’t know what picks Ibanez would be worth in compensation (assuming the M’s don’t pull a Guillen and fail to offer arbitration if they don’t re-sign him). But even without those considerations, his team has the option to remove his salary from the books after this year. That makes him a very valuable trade chit for any team needing a lefty bat. And, as disappointing as this season has been, I cannot see any reason not to give lots of AB to the younger players and see what they can do. I don’t view LaHair as a potential regular, but who knows? It sure beats running Sexson or Delgado out there. And Clement – who clearly has a good bat – isn’t going to develop as fast if he’s on the bench.

Right now, Delgado has to be viewed as a rather large “negative asset” (or liability), IMO. He’s a classy guy, and seems to have rebounded somewhat as a hitter, but if the Mets are going to trade him, they are going to need to be the team ponying up the extra talent – due to his high price tag and marginal level of productivity.

by BobbyMac on Jul 23, 2008 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Delgado Lala land

Right now he’s locked in, and in the last year of his contract with a team option at 12 million w/ 4 million buyout. So, wherever this 55.5 million came from, thats just wrong.

Plus, I’d imagine the Heilman part would be because someone would try and turn him back into a starter, which he stated he still wants to do.

I’ll agree that its a silly trade all around, but not for the reasons that you make it out to seem.

by thudean on Jul 23, 2008 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Delgado

Delgado is on the last year of a contract, wherein he’s making 16mil this year. But there’s a 4mil buyout to avoid having to pay him 16mil in 2009 (at least according to Cot’s). Exercising that buyout would prevent the team from collecting compensation picks (I believe that’s how it works, at least).

Ibanez is in the last year of a contract, where he’s making 5.5 mil this year.

So, swapping these two guys would mean that the Mariners would have to pay about 6mil for 2 months of Delgado. If he’s on a “hot streak”, then why would the Mets want to trade him? (answer: because, even after his “hot streak”, his season line still is bad for a 1b) Why would the Mariners care whether he’s on a “hot streak”? (answer: they shouldn’t – the season’s over for them)

Meanwhile, NOT swapping them would mean that they would be able to pay Ibanez ~2mil for the next 2 months, with no strings attached. That makes his contract easy to trade, and quite attractive to even lower-budget teams.

I stand by my assertions that those are viable reasons, and that Delgado is a negative asset now.

I do agree there are other reasons the trade suggestion is silly… I was just touching on one. The next silly reason (IMO) is that the Mets already have 3 lefties in the pen, so why would they swap Heilman for a lefty reliever?! Then, there’s the fact that Rowland-Smith is much further from being arb-eligible than Heilman, and hence under team control longer, so the M’s wouldn’t want to swap him for Heilman.

Anyway, other than the ”$55.5m through 2011” bit about Delgado, which seems contradicted by Cot’s, I think marc w’s reply is spot on, too. And claiming that Heilman would be acquired as a potential starting pitcher, when the Mets have continually had openings in their rotation through Heilman’s tenure there (and he hasn’t been used that way) seems to imply wild optimism (delusion?) on the part of another team.

by BobbyMac on Jul 23, 2008 8:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Good post.

But to answer your question, with as flawed as Elias Sports Bureau’s love with RBIs are, Ibanez should be an Type A FA. If our hopes and dreams of Chris Larson running the team and hiring Paul DePodesta as GM come true, we’ll actually let Raul walk for the draft picks and laugh our way all the way to the bank.

by elrey34 on Jul 24, 2008 7:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

what?

How do those two things coincide with each other? The Mets aren’t trading F-Mart. You want to call someone up from AA? Get me Eddie Kunz. 25 saves 3.09 ERA. He’s probably better than anyone the Mets have in the bullpen right now.

by Duece on Jul 23, 2008 2:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

That’s part of the total idiocy. The bullpen blows a lead late and the panic leads to calling up an outfielder? Makes little sense.

by Lunkwill Fook on Jul 23, 2008 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

BTW

Can I get a link? the last thing I read was that the Mets would not be calling up F-Mart this year.

by Duece on Jul 23, 2008 2:07 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Under the initial post...

Look at the Read Related Article…

"When Justin Upton faces Lincecum, I think Christ might appear in the heavens, and the world will end." -JakeFree

by JT12340 on Jul 23, 2008 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And I am an idiot...

it’s apparently not connected to the post correctly…

"When Justin Upton faces Lincecum, I think Christ might appear in the heavens, and the world will end." -JakeFree

by JT12340 on Jul 23, 2008 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry

I should have put this up with the post (I just did). It was via Andrew Marchand on 1050 ESPN. So, no link unfortunately.

by Lunkwill Fook on Jul 23, 2008 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Espn radio?

I’ve heard that ESPN radio is extremely unreliable in regards to actual sources, so until I actually hear this from a print source (or maybe 660), I would say its not true

by thudean on Jul 23, 2008 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Martinez is a year away

His power is starting to show up in games that I’ve attended.

by Bravesin07 on Jul 23, 2008 4:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

not ready

Dude’s only 19. Considering that, he’s doing well in AA. He’s not nearly ready. He has to cut down on his strikeouts, walk a little more, show a little more power. The Mets have a tendency to rush their prospects big-time.

I think this is Minaya trying to scare suitors into lowering the asking price on Bay, Nady, Blake, Ibanez or whoever, plus increasing the perceived value of Martinez.

As far as quick fixes go, they’d be better off calling up Pascucci or someone. Trot Nixon comes off the DL soon, right? And maybe Church? Hey, maybe that Bonds guy can help.

by El Duq of Hurl on Jul 24, 2008 12:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs