Coleman's Corner: Mets' Position Players Shining In Arizona Sun
By Ed Coleman
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As the 2011 World Series winds down to its conclusion, let's take a look out west and see how some of the Mets' prospects are faring in the Arizona Fall League. They're about half-way through the AFL season, and the Mets have 8 players on the Peoria Javelinas team, managed by St. Lucie skipper Pedro Lopez.
Thus far, the position players have performed very well, the pitchers - not so much.
We'll start with Juan Lagares, a gap hitter and likely corner outfielder. Lagares split time between Single A St. Lucie and Double AA Binghamton this past season. At St. Lucie he hit .338 - which led the Florida State League when he was promoted - with 7 HR and 49 RBI in 82 games, but at Binghamton he performed even better - in 38 games, Lagares batted .370 with 2 HR and 22 RBI while also stealing 10 bases.
His combined average of .349 was the 4th best overall in the entire minor leagues. And Lagares has not disappointed thus far in Arizona. He's hitting .393 with 2 HR and 9 RBI and an OPS of 1.128. Last Saturday, he went 3-5 with a HR, triple and 4 RBI. That extended his hitting streak to 6 games and his RBI streak to 4 games. Lagares also has 4 multi-hit games out of 6 games and ironically, a righty hitter, he's batting .500 (11-22) vs. righthanders and is 0-6 vs. lefties.
The other three position players are all hitting over .300 as well. 3B Jefry Marte has been impressive. He's homered in 3 straight games, and went 2-4 with an RBI and 2 runs on Monday. Marte is hitting .333 with an OPS of 1.046 and has been very productive - 13 RBI in 13 games.
Second baseman Wilfredo Tovar is batting .311 and had his second 3-hit game on Monday, going 2-4 with an RBI.
And lefty-hitting catcher Juan Centeno has two straight multi-hit games, going 3-4 with 2 runs in the latest, and is hitting .318 overall.
Meanwhile, the pitching has not stacked up quite as well. Right-handed starter Collin McHugh is the arm to watch. He surprised many people in the organization this year after a slow start. He has a low 90's fastball, a good slider, as well as a curve, cutter and a changeup which is not great.
At St. Lucie, McHugh pitched in 9 games, making 6 starts. He went 1-2 with a 6.31 ERA while the league hit .318 against him. Not great. He was then bumped to Double AA Binghamton and again started slow.
At the All-Star break, he was again 1-2 with a 5.06 ERA, giving up 39 hits in 37 innings with a 2:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. But manager Wally Backman saw something he liked in McHugh, worked with him, and he took off from there. After the Double AA All-Star break, McHugh was undefeated - 7-0 with a 1.53 ERA - yielding just 34 hits over 47 innings, with a 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (54K's-11BB). But McHugh has had his problems in Arizona. He's 1-2 again in 3 starts and 1 relief appearance - but this time with a hefty 8.18 ERA, surrendering 18 hits in 11 innings.
Then there's left-hander Robert Carson. Or as he refers to himself on his Facebook page - Robert "I'mdestinedforgreatness" Carson. Whoa, big fella, dial that one back just a little bit. At Double AA Binghamton this season, Carson went 4-11 with a 5.05 ERA in 24 starts and one relief appearance.
He gave up a whopping 154 hits in 128 innings, striking out 91 but walking 55. Not pretty. In Arizona, he's still giving up too many hits - 10 in 9 1/3 innings - but the numbers are better - a 2.89 ERA in 5 relief appearances.
The other two pitchers are righthanders Erik Turgeon and Taylor Whitenton. Turgeon was at Binghamton this year and has a 3.00 ERA in 7 relief appearances thus far in the AFL. Whitenton pitched at Savannah in 2011 and is 1-1 with a 4.00 ERA in 5 relief appearances in Arizona. He has 12 strikeouts but 7 walks in 9 innings of work.
A couple of World Series notes as we leave:
Josh Hamilton may be the best player on the Texas roster, Mike Napoli may very well be the MVP if the Rangers go on to win, and Nelson Cruz can bomb the ball out of any park in baseball, but the truly indispensable Ranger is Michael Young. There's heart and soul. Texas doesn't win without Young, numbers be damned.
And we go back to St. Louis for games 6 and maybe 7. A wild card team - a team which failed to win one of 3 divisions in its league - holds home-field advantage because its league won the All-Star game back in July? Are you kidding? Good thinking, Bud. Nice job.
That's baseball, Suzyn. What a screwed up, messed up sport.
C U soon
Eddie C.
Which prospect in the AFL has the best chance for success in Flushing? Sound off in the comments below...
