He may or may not hit for average, but Wladimir Balentien has prodigious power.

Welcome one and all to this week’s edition of Treasure Hunting, where we look for the undervalued treasures, the recently called up prospects, or suddenly transformed players that have begun making headlines or having a major impact on their team’s fortunes. Your usual master of ceremonies, Mark Allen Haverty, tossed the keys to me this week, and I promised him I wouldn’t treat it like a rental, so I’ll get right down to brass tacks with a couple of highly touted recent arrivals to The Show.

Max Scherzer – Pitcher – Arizona Diamondbacks – In baseball, as in all businesses, the rich keep getting richer. Except in this case, it’s the product of good scouting and player development as opposed to money spent. The Diamondbacks arguable have the deepest stockpile of pitching in the majors. It is on full display in the starting pitching rotation, where Randy Johnson is the number 4 or 5 starter. It can also be seen in their bullpen, which as a unit has held opponents to a batting average of .193, best in the National League. Finally, it is also apparent in their minor league system, which is stocked with numerous pitching prospects, several of whom project to be superstars down the road.

For Max Scherzer, the future is now, as he has been called up to join the big club, for an as yet undefined role. Initially, manager Bob Melvin said that Scherzer would work solely out of the bullpen, and that it was not clear how long he would stay in the majors. After his first outing this past Tuesday, in which he pitched four and a third innings of no-hit baseball against the Astros in relief of Edgar Gonzales, Melvin immediately announced that Scherzer would get his first major league start on Monday, May 5^th against the Philadelphia Phillies. Scherzer was absolutely dominant in his debut, retiring all 13 batters he faced, 7 of them by strikeout. He consistently threw between 95-97 MPH, and occasionally hit 98 MPH on the radar gun.

Scherzer is a member of the draft class of 2006, along with such notable players as Luke Hochevar, Andrew Miller, Tim Lincecum, Joba Chamberlain, and Evan Longoria. He spent 2007 pitching in Class A and Double A ball, where he made a total of 17 starts and compiled a record of 6-4 with an ERA of 3.28 and a 1.22 WHIP. The Diamondbacks moved him to the Tuscon Sidewinders of the Pacific Coast League, their Triple A affiliate this spring, where Scherzer has worked a total of 23 innings, striking out 38 batters…yes, you read that right…38 batters, against only three walks. His ERA is 1.17 and he has a microscopic WHIP of 0.65.

Scouting reports on Scherzer describe his pitching mechanics as maximum effort; cite his overall pitching motion as difficult for him to repeat. While normally one would expect control problems from a pitcher with that profile, that does not appear to be the case with Scherzer so far. He is somewhat unrefined as a pitcher in that he does not change speeds smoothly, and relies on his heater to blow hitters away. However, his fastball does have significant movement, the best of which is a wicked sink when he really has it working. He also as a hard breaking slider that he uses to set up his fastball, but has not yet developed a change up or off speed pitch. For that reason, most projections have him ending up in the bullpen. Primarily due to concerns about his stamina over the long haul of a game.

For now though, Scherzer is set to get that big start, and it appears that if he is effective, he could remain in the starting rotation in place of Edgar Gonzales, who has been less than effective thus far. Or, it is entirely possible that he is moved back into the bullpen. Either way, it appears he is in the major leagues to stay. As far as his fantasy impact, he will be a great source of strikeouts, whichever role he ends up in, along with solid ratios. If he stays in the rotation, you can add in wins too, as the Snakes have already shown that their lineup will provide more than ample run support.

Wladimir Balentien – Outfielder – Seattle Mariners – The Mariners made a big splash in the trade market this past winter, acquiring Erik Bedard to bolster their starting rotation in the hopes of making a run at the playoffs this season. Things have not worked out so well for Seattle thus far, as their big pitching acquisition has had some injury issues. But even more troubling is the fact that the lineup is simply not providing the run support needed to win ballgames. Instead of waiting for things to turn themselves around, the Mariners decided to take a proactive approach to right the ship. They released outfielder Brad Wilkerson, and brought up two of their hottest hitting prospects, catcher Jeff Clement, and outfielder Wladimir Balentien.

Balentien, 23 years old, has been in the Mariners organization for almost five years already, moving through their developmental leagues until 2006, when he spent the season in Double A. Scouting reports from that 2006 season look somewhat bleak, as he struck out 140 times in 444 at-bats while mashing 22 home runs and batting just .230. In 2007 he was promoted to Triple A, where he appears to have found some discipline at the plate, cutting down his strikeout total to just 105 in 477 at-bats, and subsequently raising his average to .291. More importantly, he did not suffer a power loss as he bashed 24 more home runs.

In Spring Training this year, he batted .318 with three home runs, and played some pretty good defense for the Mariners. Many folks were quite surprised when he did not make the team at the end of camp. Seattle opted to send him back to Triple A, where he batted .254 with six home runs and 20 RBI in his first 17 games. With the Mariners needing to jump start their offense, and Brad Wilkerson batting just .232 over the month of April, the front office in Seattle decided it was time to let Balentien play with the big club. In his first game, he announced his arrival with a three run home run, off of Cliff Lee no less.

The Mariners intend to allow Balentien to be their every day right fielder, so he will get ample playing time. The only question will be whether or not he is able to hit for a decent average and continue to work on improving his plate discipline. The power is obviously very real, with some describing him having strength on a par with Wily Mo Pena. Let’s just hope he doesn’t strike out like Pena though. Balentien should be picked up in all AL only leagues for certain. Mixed leaguers should keep an eye out to see if he can maintain a decent average, though his power upside is awfully tempting. If a bench spot is available, mixed leaguers could grab him and stash him.

Last Week Revisited

Justin Masterson and Brian Fuentes were the subjects of last week’s Treasure Hunting, so let’s take a look to see how things went for those two gems.

As expected, Masterson returned to the Double A Portland Sea Dogs to continue working on polishing his delivery and mechanics. Masterson got roughed up in his first outing back with the Sea Dogs, giving up 4 runs on 5 hits, with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings. That must have been somewhat humbling for the young pitcher, after such a great performance for the Red Sox. No worries though, as Masterson is still destined to be a strong player in the major leagues, sometime in the future.

Fuentes notched his second save with a scoreless inning of work against the Giants. He walked one and struck out one in his only action of the past week. It appears that the closers job is his to lose for the foreseeable future, as his main competitor for the job, Manny Corpas, is still struggling with his control.

That’s all for this week. Mark will be back with next week’s Treasure Hunting.