A+
On the surface, Jefry Marte had a disappointing regular season, hitting .248/.313/.346 in 131 games for St. Lucie after spending the previous two years in Savannah.  On the other hand, the mitigating factors for Marte are his age – he turned 20 in June, and the league – the FSL hit .262/.331/.386.  Marte got off to a hot start in April (.321/.396/.524 – 5 2B, 4 HR), producing the most extra-base hits of any month in 2011 in his first try.  However, as the summer wore on, he wore down, hitting just .210/.263/.284 in the second half.

One reason for optimism about Marte’s offensive game: his 2011 strikeout rate of 16% was his lowest in his three years of full-season baseball, a full 6% lower than his 22% whiff rate in 2009 with Savannah.   A second reason for optimism: his strong Arizona Fall League performance, in which he had an equal number of walks and strikeouts (12 in 22 games) or 12.8% of plate appearances.  That kind of strike zone control is a very large step forward.

I saw him only very briefly in 2011, but I thought he was moving better at third base than when I saw him in 2010.   I should point out that he started playing first base in Arizona, and it was while playing first, that he broke his wrist.  There’s no good time to break a wrist, but the fall, when he should have a full three and a half months to heal the bone and strengthen the muscles before spring training seems like one of the less bad scenarios.  If you’d asked me in August, where Marte would rate on my list of Mets prospects, I’d tell you he would be way down from his pre-season rank at #31.  Now, I think he’s more “holding.”

A
Lets make this simple: Aderlin Rodriguez, who turns 20 today, has plus power.  His 17 homeruns were the most by a Gnat as a Mets affiliate (exceeding Sean Ratliff’s 15 in 2009), and the most by any Gnat since Luke Montz hit 19 in 2005.  He was just the fourth Gnat as a Mets affiliate (since 2007) to hit double-figures home runs.

Everything else in his game needs work.  He hit just .221/.265/.372 overall.  Sure, some of that was hurt by his .245 BABIP, but that BABIP is also a product of lot of weak contact, especially popups.

He committed 44 errors at third.  His arm, to my eyes is stronger than Marte’s.  His footwork was at least ast good.  However, his hands aren’t as good.  It’s very possible that he will have to slide across the diamond to first base eventually.

The radius is one of two bones in the arm, and distal simply refers to the wrist end as opposed to the elbow end.

This past season, Albert Pujols suffered a distal radial fracture, and faced with a diagnosis that he would miss 4-6 weeks, (some experts suggested he would need more time), returned to the field in a mere two and a half.  The man is a machine.

In other mortals, wrist injuries tend to linger and sap a player’s power.  There’s never really a good time to break a wrist, but Marte should have plenty of time for a full recovery coming off a statistically impressive showing in the Fall League.

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.

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.

The big news, and I missed this last week, is that Marte’s started playing first basebase.  Marte had committed 121 errors in 361 games at third in the minor leagues, but was better in 2011 with just 28 in 131 games.   The odd thing was that I thought he’d improved defensively this year.  I saw him for only one game, but he made a slick spinning play after a short-hop pick that was at least as good, and probably better, than any I’d seen from him in 2010.

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.

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.

The FSL Mets fell down 0-2 in the best-of-five game championship series with Saturday’s loss to the Cubs.

Scott Moviel just didn’t have it: 3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

3B Jefry Marte had the best night offensively, going 2-4 with a homer.

St. Lucie’s starting OF and DH spots: LF – Pedro Zapata, CF – Cesar Puello, RF – Gilbert Gomez, DH – Travis Ozga.  Yeah, no Cory Vaughn.  Including his 2-for-15 in the FSL playoffs, he’s hit .163/.267/.349 in his last 89 AB in the Florida State League since August 1 with a .159 BABIP and strikeouts in 21% of his plate appearances.

John Church is in line to throw game three, with Zack Wheeler and Darin Gorski lined up for games four and five if the Mets can extend the series that far.

With two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, 3B Jefry Marte lined a single to right-center field to score Travis Ozga with the winning run and send St. Lucie to the Florida State League Championship Series.

The Mets trailed 2-1 going to the bottom of the sixth when LF Pedro Zapata ripped a solo home run to tie the score at 2-2.  Zapata, who hit .292/.333/.389 during the regular season, was 3-5.  After three home runs during the regular season, his long ball was his first since August 3.

After the Marauders picked up a run in the top of the eighth inning, the Mets tied it in the bottom half when Zapata singled, stole second and scored on SS Wilmer Flores’ RBI Single.

Greg Peavey was really good (7 IP, 6 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K).  Josh Edgin (0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) was not, but Jeff Kaplan recorded the final outs to give St. Lucie a chance to win the game.

Armando Rodriguez will take the ball for St. Lucie in game one on Friday night.