Fernando Martinez And Ruben Tejada To Be Called Up, Not Traded

Duda is probably getting lowballed because he finally grew into his body strengthwise this year. I think projection systems take into account the last couple years and than do a flat across the board adjustment based on age.

because if someone claimed we could have just let them have him and his contract -but we can now trade him and I think if we pay $2 to $2.5 million of his salary next year I think we can find a taker.

We don’t know that he’ll get zero at-bats against lefties. He will likely hit against a few lefty relievers. And I don’t worry too much about missing 3 weeks of hitting against crappy lefties in AAA who can’t even get promoted before late Septermber. Really, 3-4 weeks of extra time playing more than half the time in the majors is going to hamper him or retard his development? I think that’s a bit much. He will miss maybe 20-30 at-bats against AAA lefties between now and when he’d be called up anyway, and get maybe 6-7 at bats against lefties in the majors (just shot in the dark numbers). Not like the Mejia situation, and of course they are overall too aggressive with rushing the prospects, but this barely registers on the “oh noes, what are they doing?!”

Actually, he hasn’t been god-awful against lefties in his AAA career. He has struggled a bit this year, but we are talking only 71 plate appearances. Which is another reason why calling him up now to platoon isn’t a disaster of large or even small proportions. He just won’t be losing all that many at-bats called up now.

But F! now has 467 PA in his AAA career. Almost a full season by age 21.

In that time his slash line against lefties is .269/.327/.433. His overall slash line is .270/.328/.496. So he doesn’t have a huge platoon split. He does have considerably more power against righties. His iso against righties was .267 last year and .221 this year, with an overall AAA career ISO of .226.

Indeed, one would love to see progression instead of a slight regression, and especially more patience. He likely could use some more AAA time. More likely he could have used more A+ and AA time when younger. Or maybe more time will just reveal a guy who won’t ever get the plate discipline, but he seems like he could at least be a lefty Johhny Gomes.

In any event, as you can see, he gets about a quarter of his PAs in AAA against lefties. From now to September 1 call-ups he’d get maybe 20 games, 80-90 plate appearances, maybe 20-30 against lefties. Missing those for maybe 5 PA against major league lefties before September is not going to do anything in the vast scheme of Martinez’s rushed development.

Would it be better if Frenchy were gone or never here? Sure. Would it be better that Martinez had been given a full season at St. Lucie when he was 18 or 19, or repeat the SALLY like Flores did, and was just now being promoted to AAA? Even better that he not be injured so much? Yeah, but he now has almost a full season at AAA, and I don’t mind having him watch Frenchy win a game with a homer of Hamels, and miss a few at bats against my generic AAAA lefty, David Huff. I actually like Huff and he may be in Cleveland now anyway. Frenchy is here for now anyway, and he does have a wRC+ of 125 against lefties.

I suppose playing Duda in left, Beltran and pagan makes more sense, although I suspect F! playing in right would make for a better overall outfield d. And Duda is still mostly his 330 or so at-bats in AA-AAA this year at a more advanced age. So while calling him up may have made more sense, it doesn’t strike me as that much of a disaster to see if Martinez can help against righties.

major fail. Whoops. :)

There’s no time for this nonsense!

I’m pretty sure, nothing.