Jefry Marte - The 20-year old was removed from the Peoria Javelinas roster on Friday, the 11th after sustaining an injury in the 8th inning of the game on Thursday, the 10th.  I do not know the severity, nor the specific injury, yet.  (EDIT: Marte was involved in a collision at first.)  In 22 games, he hit .333/.436/.538 with four doubles and four homers.  That’s nice, but the most impressive thing is that he drew 12 walks and fanned just 12 times.  His K/BB this past season for St. Lucie was 2.1 (86/41), the best of his his career, and a mark that’s steadily improved over time.  Note too that Marte played as much first base as he played third base in Arizona.

Juan Lagares – Apparently, the 22-year old Lagares was moved from the Taxi Squad to the regular roster as he played Wednesday, Friday and Saturday last week and of course picked up two hits both Friday and Saturday.  He’s now sitting at .364/.407/.582 overall in 55 AB in 12 games.    He’s played mostly centerfield and a few games in right.

In the AFL, Whitenton is 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA in 12 innings.  He’s allowed 11 hits, but has walked nine, while fanning 15.  His 15 strikeouts are tied for tenth in the AFL, while his nine walks are tied for 12th.

The 23-year old is a three-pitch guy with a fastball, a change-up and a slider.  He’s been sitting 91-93 with his fastball and touching 94 in short appearances in the AFL.  He trusts his change-up, which often had a little cutting action, as his second pitch over  the slider.

The major issue for Whitenton is simply throwing strikes, and throwing quality strikes.  In the AFL, he’s thrown strikes on 58.6% of his pitches (140 of 239), a little below the MLB average of 62%.

Juan Lagares, who is currently hitting a whopping .432/.462/.730 with six extra-base hits, including two homeruns in eight games, is not eligible to play in the Rising Stars Game because he is technically a member of the Peoria Javelinas “taxi-squad” and only plays Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Overall

• Collin McHugh: 8.79 ERA, 14.1 IP, 26 H, 15 R, 14 ER, 1 HR 6 BB, 12 K
• Robert Carson: 2.38 ERA, 11.1 IP, 13 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 HR, 6 BB, 7 K
• Taylor Whitenton: 3.27 ERA, 11 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 HR, 8 BB, 14 K
• Erik Turgeon: 4.22 ERA, 10.2 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 3 HR, 3 BB, 2 K

This Week

• McHugh: 1 GS, 3.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.  McHugh started on eight days rest Saturday.  More importantly, he was our guest on the Mostly Mets Podcast last week.
• Carson: 1 G, 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Juan Lagares committed an error in right that led to both runs being unearned.  However, Carson invited trouble by issuing a leadoff walk and then a one-out double.
• Whitenton: 1 G, 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
• Turgeon: 2 G, 2.2 IP, 3 solo homeruns, 0 BB, 0 K

We start in the Arizona Fall League where the hitters are enjoying themselves.

Overall:

• Juan Lagares: .432/.462/.730 (16-for-37), 6 XBH – 8 games
• Juan Centeno: .355/.429/.452 (11-for-31), 3 2B, 4 BB, 2 K – 9 games
• Jefry Marte: .308/.431/.558 (16-for-52), 4 2B, 3 HR, 10 BB, 8 K – 15 G
• Wilfredo Tovar: .315/.351/.481 (17-for-54) 7 2B, 1 3B, 3 BB, 3 K – 14 G

Here’s the Lopez quote that caught my eye.  After answering a question about Marte’s plate discipline, which remains a work in progress, he answered a question about Lagares’ big 2011:

You talk about Marte having that plate discipline, [but] Lagares has been that guy [who] used to swing at a lot of pitches outside the strike zone. Even last year in Savannah, in 2010 he had a good year for me … before he went up to St. Lucie, but he was still swinging too much out of the strike zone.  This year he was able to do a better job managing the strike zone and it’s paid off for him.

Robert Carson:

• Last outing: Friday – 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.   – This was one of his best two outings of the AFL

Taylor Whitenton: 4.00 ERA, 5 G, 9 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 7 BB, 12 K

• Last outing: Saturday – 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Notes:

• Lagares was 3-for-5 Saturday with a triple and four RBI while playing centerfield. At this point, he’s a no-brainer add to the 40-man roster.
• Centeno doesn’t play much but when he’s played he’s done exactly what he did with St. Lucie in 2011: hit singles and control the strikezone.
• Tovar left Friday’s game with what is described in the play-by-play as a “leg injury.”
• Marte is 11th in the AFL in OPS. Marte drew 41 walks in 131 games in St. Lucie in 2011 as part of a .248/.313/.346 line. However, just as he’s done in the AFL, he got off to a quick start in the Florida State League. After 14 games for St. Lucie, he was hitting .340/.433/.560 with eight walks against 13 strikeouts. What’s it mean? He’s off to a nice start in the desert, but 12 games is a painfully small number for any serious analysis.

By the way, the AFL as a whole is hitting .280/.364/.450 and scoring 6.13 runs per team per game. Yeah, it’s hitter friendly.

Peoria hitting coach, Alonzo Powell (a former big league outfielder) had some good things to say about Marte and Lagares: (via MLB.com)

Powell on Marte:

He’s a young kid with a lot of potential with pretty good strength and good bat speed.  He got a 1-0 fastball up in the zone and he put a good swing on it to left-center field.  I see a kid that has got really good bat speed and gap-to-gap power. He just needs to be more confident.

In 8 games for Peoria Marte is hitting .259/.364/.407, HR, 7 RBI, 4 BB, 6 K (27 AB).

Powell on Lagares:

Juan came through with two strikes.  He got a fastball up in the zone, too, and hit it into the bullpen. He is a five-tool type of player and he plays a real good center field. He has a lot of potential.  We make sure we try to get him in there on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He’s done a good job and he’s been working hard.

Powell is referring to Lagares being on the Peoria taxi squad, which allows him to play two games per week.

Lagares has made the most of his opportunity so far, hitting .389/.421/.778, 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, BB, 3K in 4 games (18 AB) for Peoria.  What I am most impressed with is the fact that Lagares has been playing center-field and hitting third in the lineup, comprised of higher end prospects.

I got a chance to watch Lagares play in Binghamton this season, and I was impressed with his ability.  Here is my scouting report on Lagares.

Pitchers
RHP Taylor Whitenton: 0.00 ERA, 2 G, 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K
LHP Robert Carson: 3.38 ERA, 3 G, 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
RHP Erik Turgeon: 4.50 ERA, 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
RHP Collin McHugh: 13.50 ERA, 4 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Notes
Whitenton fanned three without walking a batter in two innings last Saturday. He’s whiffed five of the 14 batters he’s faced. It’s just 3.1 innings, but it’s a promising start.
Carson by contrast has fanned just two of the 24 batters he’s seen. With his velocity, he should be missing more bats.

Batters
C Juan Centeno: 1-for-8, 1 BB, 0 K
OF Juan Lagares: 5-for-14 (.357/.400/.643), 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 BB, 3 K.
3B Jefry Marte: 6-for-20 (.300/.400/.350), 1 2B, 3 BB, 5 K
2B Wilfredo Tovar: 3-for-18 (.167/.250/.222), 1 2B, 2 BB, 1 K

Notes
Lagares has played two of his three games in centerfield, and one in right. Also, two extra-base hits and a walk in his first three games, is a nice start.
Marte’s three walks in six games is a nice sign as well.

3B Marte (pictured) was 1-for-3 with two walks, and a strikeout.  Marte was significantly better in the first half of the 2011 season when he hit .283/.357/.402 than in the second when he slipped to .210/.263/.284.  It’s not all batting average: his first half isolated slugging percentage was .119 while it slipped to .074 in the second half.  Also, he walked at a 9.4% clip in the first half and 5.6% in the second half.  He had eight multi-walk games in 2011, but just one in the second half.  What happened?  Can he regain his first-half form in the AFL?

You know, the way he hit in the first half moves him closer to double-A readiness than I thought.