Friday, Press and Sun Bullentin beat writer Lynn Worthy tweeted that the Mets had told RHP Collin McHugh, RHP Brandon Moore, OF Juan Lagares and 2B Reese Havens that they’ll be playing in the Arizona Fall League. The Arizona Fall League, a finishing school for top prospects features six teams and begins play on Tuesday, October 4, and runs through a championship game on Saturday, November 19.
All four players will have to exposed to the Rule Five draft if they are not added to the team’s 40-man roster before November 20.
There should be a few more players likely from St. Lucie also heading to the desert before Major League Baseball finalizes the AFL rosters, but lets take a look at the four Mets farmhands we know will be playing in October.
Havens
On the strength of a scorching .366/.452/.620 (!) line in 21 games in August, Havens is up to .298/.380/.468 for the year in 52 games in AA. He’s played just 52 games at AA this year and 70 total in AA in the last two years. He provides rare patience and power for a middle infielder and the priority is clearly on getting him at-bats. I’ve come around on the idea that the Mets should call up Havens, who will be 25 in October, and give him some big league at-bats in September before sending him to the AFL. Havens could well be starting at second for the big league team by summer 2012.
Lagares
Healthy for a full season for the first time, Lagares has been a revelation this year. The 22-year old rides a 17-game hitting streak at AA Binghamton while hitting .394/.418/.543 in 30 games as a B-Met. He’s a strong athlete with a good arm, who can play all three outfield positions. His line in Binghamton contains a 3.7% walk rate and a .457 BABIP, so at some point he’s due for some regression, but it’s also a reflection of his ability to make good, hard consistent contact as he’s fanned in only 15.6% of his AA plate appearances. He’s already played in a career-high 111 games in 2011.
How big a breakout has this been for Lagares? After a solid .300/.318/.459 showing for Savannah in the first half last year, he struggled to a .233/.248/.316 line in 33 games in the second half in St. Lucie before a nasty ankle injury ended his season early.
He certainly looks like a big leaguer, but to play everyday, he’ll need to walk a little and add a little power if he’s going to play on a corner. As good as he’s been this year, I can not bet against him.
McHugh
After getting off to a rough start this season in St. Lucie and then in Binghamton, McHugh has been lights out in the second half: 6-0, 1.53 ERA, 47 IP, 34 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 0 HR, 11 BB, 54 K.
Josh did a terrific job breaking down McHugh’s offerings here using pitch fx. As I see it, the intelligent and articulate McHugh has always a really good curveball and feel for what he was trying to accomplish, but he’s added velocity to his fastballs (both two and four-seamer) this year to the point where they are Major League Average pitches. That’s made a huge difference.
He wrote that he felt he “belonged” in the big leagues after performing well in the Futures Game at Fenway against the Red Sox AA affiliate. Now, he has a very real chance at pitching in the big leagues and sticking in a rotation.
Especially with a decent performance in the desert, McHugh now seems like a pretty good bet to be added to the 40-man roster in November.
Moore
The 25-year old Moore leads the B-Mets in innings pitched (126) while working to a 4.43 ERA with 148 hits allowed in 126 innings. A breaking ball specialist, he put up some gaudy strikeout numbers in the low minors including 11.1 K/9 in Savannah last year in the first half. In the past, his fastball lived in the upper 80s.
Moor has held right-handed hitters to a .253/.309/.363 line in 300 AB in AA this year, but lefties have battered him at a .336/.408/.505 clip in 214 AB.
Maybe he could stick in the big leagues as a middle reliever, but I’d be surprised to see him added to the 40-man roster this year.
