The new car smell is long gone. The excitement of a new love has calmed to content. Or something like that. And Fernando Martinez comes to his third big league spring training.

For a change, timing couldn’t be any better for Martinez. Not only is he not supposed to make the club, the Mets don’t want him to. The departure of Tony Bernazard has allowed the Mets to put a more realistic spin and plan in place for their Latin prospects. One cannot discount the drama that surrounded the Mets since Bernazard’s ouster as over shadowing the slow progress and health concerns of the Mets’ top prospect.

But Martinez quietly went about having a very good winter and will arrive in Florida next week without either fanfare and questions about making the club. Let alone starting.

Maybe now Martinez gets to come to camp to just play. If his body is still maturing, we can hope that his injury troubles are behind him. Some things need to go well for Martinez, but he will be able to do so this spring without past expectations and fascination.

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Flores is considered to be one of the crown jewells of the Mets organization. According to this scouting service, his game has lots of holes. Could it be that Flores’ reputation came from the over hyping of latin prospects that came during the Tony Bernazard regime?

Met’s minor league prospect guru, Mack Ade, rates Flores at number three. Toby Hyde lists him 2nd.

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There’s no way anyone could have predicted the Mets were going to have so many injuries. Dumb luck is what I told Joe McDonald last week in an interview. And I still think that way as any club can go through a rash of injuries.

We just saw Gary Sheffield pull up after hitting a ball in the gap. He’s 40 and its a day game after a night game. Plus he was likley to be playing at less than 100% as it was.

The injury to Jon Niese looks the most serious. Anyone could tell that. There’s a chance it could be a Grade 3 tear and that will be it for Niese’s season.

At this point, like most fans, I’d just bite the bullett and start bringing up some of the prospects to see if they can play. Niese will obviously go to the DL. The club cannot have two field players in Luis Castillo and Gary Sheffield on a day-to-day status.

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I had thought and asked Toby Hyde, who produces the excellent Mets Minor League Blog I asked whether or not it would be fair to say the Mets had little power through its organization. Here are Toby’s comments to my inquiry:

AAA: 1B/LF Nick Evans: near MLB average pop, but doesn’t do anything else all that well
AA: 1B Ike Davis – The Mets drafted him 18th overall because they liked his power and he’s leading the organization in HR after a homerless professional debut in 2008. Almost all of his power is pullside. One of the Mets best prospects.
Lucas Duda – a big guy with plus raw power, he can get into one in BP, but hadn’t shown much ability to drive a ball in games until he hit four bombs in July. Has he turned a corner? Neither Duda nor Davis has learned to hit lefties yet.
A+: 1B Stefan Welch still has a projectable frame. 3B Zach Lutz and SS Reese Havens have fringy average MLB power
A: Sean Ratliff has MLB pop right now, but other enormous holes in his swing. SS Wilmer Flores hasn’t shown much power this year, but the Mets hope that as he grows into his body, he’ll start driving the ball, so his power is projection at this point.
When in the minors, I remember going to certain other camps – like the Reds – and noticed they always had big players. Here is why Toby’s use of the term , “projectable frame” is somewhat telling in terms of talent assessments. Perhaps the Mets need to look at drafted more players with these “projectable frames”.

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I was very impressed with Mayo yesterday while watching his commentary on the MLB Network.

The Mets have one RHP Jennry Mejia. I believe that Mejia is injured now having not pitched since June 23. Toby Hyde reports that its a problem with a finger on the pitching hand.

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I was glad to see Fred Wilpon at the ballpark yesterday having a sitdown with Omar Minaya. I hope that he and his son read a Human Resources report which documented numerous incidents involving Tony Bernazard and that they realize that they have to do some serious damage control throughout the organization.

I’m not sure if I necessarily agree the negative reports which indicate there is a lack of talent in the system. But the extremely poor showing of the AA and AAA clubs is astonishing and speaks more to a culture of dysfunction. To have successful clubs at these levels isn’t entirely dependent on having alot of prospects. Clubs win championships here because they have winning players many of whom never will put on a major league uniform.

Every organization knows they need this core group of players and they are both appreciated and treated with the same respect as are prospects. It seems that under Tony Bernazard players like these were likely to have been treated contemptuously.

That’s why the Wilpons need to make sure they take a road trip around the organization to reaffirm their appreciation for everything everybody does. They should emphasize new leadership and direction. This simple gesture will create positive energy and will go a long, long way.

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I know the Tigers needed a starter and got one in Washburn. He should do well in that big ballpark.
I still wonder what the Mariners are doing though by getting Jack Wilson and Ian Snell. They had to give up significant prospects for the two.

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For prospects. So much for the Mariners being sellers. They are 6.5 back in the wild card race. Why would the Mariners be looking to deal Jarrod Washburn if they think they’re in the hunt?

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Do so at Toby Hyde’s blog. Toby has listed the Binghampton AA roster and his useful rating of Mets’ prospects.

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