Enter Santana

Holy crap, the Cleveland Indians have called up Carlos Santana!



Oh, not that Carlos Santana. This Carlos Santana

So this year must be the year of the phenom. We have Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals, obviously. But then we have Mike Stanton of the Marlins, Jake Arrieta on the Orioles, and now the 24-year old Santana. Santana, a catcher, is the top prospect in the Cleveland organization. In AAA Columbus, Mr. Santana hit a robust .316 with 13 home runs and 51 RBIs already. In his career in the minors, he 1.044 OPS (which I alwasys thought was a stupid stat, but people seem to like it). Like all prospects, it's unsure whether all this will translate to the big leagues. It certainly did for Strasburg in his debut. Switch-hitting catchers with power are always a valuable commodity for teams. We've all seen what catchers like Jorge Posada and Victor Martinez have done. Of course, the Indians saw that first hand with Martinez, who was their catcher/first baseman before they traded him to Boston last year. They certainly hope Santana can bring that kind of power to a struggling (despite dropping 11 runs on Boston Wednesday, and 8 last night) offense.

Unlike Strasburg, I'm not sure there is too much pressure riding on Santana. They are certainly expecting a lot for him, but I don't think he is expected to be the Jesus of the franchise like Strasburg is. Now if he can hit home runs and play the guitar like the other Santana, he might actually be Jesus.