SNY: Berg: Shea is no place for a teenager

When I was barely thirteen...I was left flat at Shea by an older friend of mine and had to find my way back to Jersey. Turned out...he was a hardcore porn again member of 42st.

The most troubling suggestion is one that absolutely will not go away. You can tell me that Fernando Martinez can help the 2008 Mets, but I will tell you that you’re a fool. The Teenage Hurting Hitting Machine is batting .294 with a pedestrian .338 on-base percentage in Double-A. People have pointed to the midseason callups of David Wright and Jose Reyes, but there are very few similarities between those and F-Mart’s current situation.

Both players were older than Martinez when they joined the big-league club, and both had proven themselves at higher Minor League levels than Martinez has. Reyes hadn’t done a ton to earn his promotion, but he plays shortstop—a position at which less-than-stellar offensive production is justifiable. Left field, not so much. And neither Wright nor Reyes was thrust into an environment anything like the pressure-cooker the Mets are currently steaming in. If they absolutely must promote F-Mart, they should start by moving him to Triple-A and work from there.