Respecting Hector Luna

Most baseball organizations have one or two: quintessential AAAA guys, the ones at the head of the AAA class who are those last guys cut in spring training. Your Jack Custs, your Roberto Petegines, your Brian Lawrences, your Hector Lunas.

The 2010 PCL AAA All-Star roster was announced Thursday and Hector Luna is the lone Zephyr representative (LoMo is in the Future's Game). Luna has been excellent offensively in his first season for the Zs; he leads the team in HRs and RBIs, he's hitting .300, he gets on base (.379 OBP), and he can play all over the field. None of this should be surprising. He hit .349 for Albuquerque last year with a .414 OBP and 17 bombs. His numbers have improved for several years running, culminating in 94 MVP-like games last year for the Dodgers AAA affiliate. Hector Luna has figured out the minor leagues.

Why is this not good enough for the next level? Well, Luna is... "big-bodied" and probably an unrealistic candidate to play any major league position but third base, a strike against someone whose role is likely to be the utility one. Luna is a little like the Dodgers' Ronnie Belliard, who he was actually traded for in 2006. And he strikes out more than you wish he did -- 53 this year in 267 ABs.

All this said, Luna's power numbers this year put him on a pace to shatter last year's. If he follows up this first half with a more or less equal second, you could easily argue that the Zs 30-year-old All Star has found the one thing that has eluded him in his minor league career -- power -- and that somehow, somewhere, Hector Luna deserves one more chance in the show.