Over at ESPN, Andrew Marchand has a piece on Jesus Montero:
Right now, there is one thing Montero is certainly not: He is not ready to start, let alone star, in the big leagues.
“It is all in becoming a first-rate professional and he is still in the middle of that process,” said Mark Newman, the Yankees’ senior vice president of baseball operations, who heads up the team’s minor leagues.
…Monte — as everyone in Scranton calls him — is developing at beautiful, tree-lined PNC Field in front of crowds that average around 4,000 fans per game. When you walk into the stadium a sign greets you, saying the Bronx is 128 miles away. Sometimes, it seems, that is where Montero’s head is located, too.
“I just get the feeling that Monte is so blessed physically — and I hate to say it — he is almost bored here in Triple-A,” said Scranton hitting coach Butch Wynegar, a former Yankees catcher. “Maybe if he went to the big leagues tomorrow, this kid might just go off and he just might lock in.”
Somewhat informative, but analytically kind of weak. The lede is that Montero is not ready for the Bigs, and then his hitting coach is quoted as saying that he might be. Later, Marchand writes,
Missed a decimal place there?
Meanwhile, the Yankees have an all star starting catcher and large needs and rh dh and buc. If only they had someone to plug in...
What crap. "He's not ready to go to the big leagues because he wants to be in the big leagues right now and so he's not as focused as he should be." Hmmm . . . I wonder how you could possibly improve his focus, then?
If you were Montero, and you saw Cervelli's performance as back up catcher, and Posada's performance at DH, wouldn't you be looking, too?
I hate off days.
And yet SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than Frankie Cervelli.
I don't get this post. What are you saying? Ready? Not ready? Personally, I think to say "not ready" is to continue down the problematic road the Yankees have traveled for so long: They wait for guys to look like major league all-stars in AAA before calling them up, and because that never happens, they trade the kids for some "star" who makes $15 mil/year and is three years away from bifocals and prune juice. I'd rather lose with a kid like Montero in the lineup than finish second and lose in the first round with the roster they have now.
5) I didn't say anything in this post. I just linked to an article written by Andrew Marchand.
The Yankees have a great asset at catcher in Russell Martin. He is under their control and has shown when healthy he can play good defense, hit .235 and bounce into double plays. At the trading deadline he will be their best chip if they need an upgrade. He is the perfect NL receiver.
[7] With a .750 OPS, Martin in 12th out of 40 Catchers in MLB with 100 ABs. Top 1/3rd ain't bad.
My issue is Jesus should not be showing the Yankees how 'ready' he is for prime time by posting his current line of: .291 .337 .410 .748
[8] y fear with Martin is that, after a huge start, he has really slowed down. I suspect he is trending toward his performance of the last couple of years, and that's not too good. Meanwhile, Cervelli is simply awful by every measure (what is he good at?).
Right now, even a bad Montero is better than Cervelli at the least. There is no reason to let Jesus flounder any longer in AAA. Call him up or trade him.
[8] Montero had a pretty terrible May, and I think the idea that he is "bored" at AAA holds some weight. Any other team would have had the kid up to start the year, or called him up after his great April. Not the Yankees, who are committed to being a quasi-retirement community at the big league level. I would bet that he is somewhat impatient at the plate and swinging for the fences in hopes that it will get him called up, his decreased BB% and increased K% are the indicators I am looking at when saying that.
With Posada's splits showing him to be pretty terrible against LHP, why not bring up Montero to DH against lefties, catch a bit, and maybe play some 1B. God knows that most of the Yankees line-up needs regular rest.