Minors: Niese and F-Mart on BA’s List
According to Baseball America, Fernando Martinez and Jon Niese were among the Top 20 Prospects in the International League in 2009.
In the report, Josh Levanthal says of Martinez:
“Staying healthy continues to be Martinez’s biggest obstacle… Martinez flashed his five-tool potential while in Buffalo, particularly the ability to hit with power to all fields… He can get overly aggressive at the plate, a weakness major league pitchers exploited during his time in New York.”
To learn more about Niese, and why he turned his season around, check out Toby Hyde’s post for Mets Minor League Blog.
…i can’t help and feel badly for these guys… the truth is, not every minor leaguer is a ‘prospect,’ most of them are just minor leaguers, and only a small, elite group should be considered ‘prospects,’ who can be every-day, useful players in the big leagues… but, there is also a small window of opportunity for these prospects to jump through and get to the major leagues, and, sometimes, for all sorts of reasons, that window can shut too soon, be it because of injury, a shift in talent or because he gets blocked at big-level by another prospect or by a newly acquired player… i am for home-grown players, so i hope fernando and niese can get better and jump through that window, which is open, but it will not be open forever…
