Why F-Mart is Too Young To be a Bust

As I first read about in this morning in an article on Metsblog.com, Jose Arangure posted Friday on ESPN.com insider an interesting article regarding Mets OF prospect Fernando Martinez.

In the article Arangure quotes Omar regarding Martinez, and takes a look into whether or not this kid will turn into anything. Arangure even goes as far as to put a lot of stock into what happens this year in as a turning point to determine, "whether Martinez is destined to be a superstar, or perhaps simply an average, or above average player."

Given Martinez's injury history, I'm more prone to give him a chance to succeed than I feel others looking to give him the bust label are. I think a lot of the problem with people willing to call him a bust were the people expecting the second-coming of Darryl Strawberry, and they still might get that. But the bottomline is we don't know yet, he's young and hasn' been healthy enough to show us a lot. Although Martinez has yet to stay healthy enough to really prove anyting to the fanbase, he is only 21 and there are definitely other examples of stud prospects who were late bloomers. These are the guys that didn't succeed with their organizations because they weren't given enough time to blossom, a great example of this is Brandon Phillips.

Phillips was a very highly touted farmhand in the Expos system, and was eventually used as part of the 6 player deal to land Bartolo Colon, by then Expos GM, OMar Minaya. He played a few years in Cleveland, and didn't do much of anything until 2006, when he was traded to Cincinnati (for a player to be named later). Then in Cincinnati he became the player we know today, but that didn't happen until he turned 24.

Sometimes it takes players longer to mature than fans, and even GM's, have the patience to wait and find out. And it's because of that, and his injuries that I feel it's WAY too early to give Martinez the "bust" tag. When he turns into Alex Escobar, then we can talk bust. But for now, let's hold out on tagging the guy, and just hope he becomes what every Mets fan wishes, Strawberry 2.0.