Part three, on players 26-30 is here, part two on players 31-35 is?here,?part one, on players #36-41 is?here.

I'm surprised that we have not seen this lineup more. While he's still learning both positions,?I think Flores has a better chance to play third than second in the big leagues. The same range issues that forced him off short will be a problem at second. He has the hands and arm for third, as long as he can handle the quick reactions. I like Flores' hands and arm at third better than Marte's.

The reason to keep Marte at third as long as possible is simply that I'm not sure that Marte's bat (.255/.326/.375 - 117 games) can support a move to first. It certainly can't support a move to first hitting like that. Sure, he's only 21 in AA, and he's always been young for his level, but at some point, he'll have to produce. Still, I figured it would make sense to get him a little more exposure to first.

Tovar's easy. He plays short, as he did Thursday through Saturday before he got a day off Sunday in favor of back up Sean Kazmar.

And everyone else?

Things that make the 32-year old Rottino an attractive fit on the May 2012 Mets roster:

• He's on the 40-man roster.
• He bats right-handed.
• He can hit. He's after a three-homer game Saturday, he's up to .307/.361/.479 in 36 games in Buffalo in 2012. That's no small-sample size?aberration; he's a career .294/.360/.436 hitter in seven seasons in AAA.
• He abuses lefties. He was hitting .333/.361/.606 in 33 AB vs. lefties in the Internal League this year. Last year, in 119 AB it was .353/.394/.454 for New Orleans. In 2010 in AA he smoked 'em at a .323/.428/.511 clip in 133 AB.
• He owns lots of different baseball gloves. Here are his minor league games played by position: C - 303, 1B - 164, LF - 197, RF - 87, OF - 70, 3B - 223, SS - 3, 2B - 1, P - 1. Versatility is a good thing.
• Can he really catch? Right now, he's the Mets' third catcher. Can he be a backup? The most he ever worked behind the plate were the 2007 and 2008 seasons in AAA with Nashville when he caught 57 and 101 games respectively and threw out 35% and 28% of attempted thieves against him, two of his four best three career marks. He nailed 33% of runners against him in New Orleans in 2011 in 39 games.

On a bullpen day for both teams, former Marlin Rick VandenHurk and two Indians held the Bisons to just two singles all day.

2B Jordany Valdespin, who hit a pinch-hit home run in his return to AAA Saturday had a rough Sunday: 0-for-3 with two errors.

Zack Wheeler yielded a two-run homer in the first inning, but it was quickly buried by a nine-run second inning from the B-Mets' offense and Wheeler's own solid work over the subsequent six innings. His final line: 7 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K. He threw 66% of his pitches (62 of 93) for strikes. I'm a broken record on this, but Wheeler's control is the thing keeping him from AAA. He's working with a plus fastball and a plus slider, but as the four walks Thursday illustrate, his location can come and go. He's walked 12% of the batters he's seen (4.5 BB/9).

Lots of hitting stars in this one as seven different B-Mets had at least two hits.

CF Matt den Dekker led off the bottom of the ninth in a 0-0 game with a double, and then after Josh Rodriguez bunted for a base hit and Reese Havens walked to load the bases, 3B Jefry Marte delivered a line drive into right field to bring home den Dekker with the winning run. Den Dekker now is part of a three-way tie for first place in the Eastern League with 13 doubles and is alone in first with 21 extra-base hits while bopping .293/.355/.524 in 36 games. Perhaps even more importantly, he's trimmed his strikeout rate from 29% in AA in 2011 to 23.6% in 106 PA April to 18% in 61 PA in May.

Despite the walk in the ninth inning, Reese Havens was 0-for-2. He's hitless in his last four games and is sitting at .146/.255/.250 (7-for-48) with seven walks in 14 games thus far.

3B Jefry Marte broke a 5-5 tie with a two-run homerun in the seventh to put the B-Mets up two. It was his first homerun of the year, and his first extra-base ?hit in a dozen games. After a hot April (.358/.421/.478 - 19 games) the 20-year old cooled down considerably in May (.256/.304/.326 - 11 games) and committed a pair of costly errors this week. He's still hitting .318/.377/.418 overall.

CF Matt den Dekker was 2-for-5 with a two-run double and a solo home run. Now hitting .295/.361/.525, 19 of the 24-year old's 41 hits have gone for extra-bases which helps explain his .356 BABIP. Even with 36 strikeouts in 34 games, he's trimmed his strikeout rate from 29% in AA in 2011 to 22.6% in 2012. ?He's abused righties at a .324/.377/.602 rate in 108 AB while hitting .194/.306/.258 against lefties in 31 AB. The Mets' current lefty-heavy lineup and outfield now present an interesting problem for den Dekker.

I just wrote about this game.?Tuesday,?Jefry Marte's error led to three unearned runs off Robert Carson in the ninth. Wednesday, Marte's eighth inning error led to four unearned runs off Erik Turgeon. As was the case with Carson Tuesday, Turgeon was not effective Wednesday.?The Rock Cats eighth: error, fly out, strikeout, double, walk, double, single, double, strikeout.

The eighth inning meltdown wasted another nice start from Collin McHugh: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HBP. He threw 67 of his 100 pitches for strikes. With the win, he lowered in 2012 ERA to 2.40. Since the 2011 AA All-Star Break, McHugh has a 1.85 ERA in 97.1 IP with a 3.7 K/BB ratio (101 K/27 BB) and an opponents' batting average of .201 (71 H/353 AB). Barring an injury, my guess is that McHugh will make at least a few more double-A starts. The AAA rotation is currently: RHP Matt Harvey, RHP Jeurys Familia, RHP Jeremy Hefner, RHP Chris Schwinen and LHP Garrett Olson with Jenrry Mejia coming soon.

The Bisons overcame a short, wild start from Jeurys Familia thanks to homers from C Lucas May and SS Omar Quintanilla. Familia: 3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 BB, 3 K. He threw just 39 of his 80 pitches for strikes in a start when he tied his career-high for walks.. For the year, he's walked 22 batters in 21.2 innings pitched. That's bad. Hey, at least he's whiffed 26. Still, his control is a wreck right now.

Jack Egbert followed Familia and settled things down with three scoreless innings. Egbert's 1.88 ERA is deceivingly good; half of the six runs he's allowed have been unearned.

Darin Gorski did not have a good night, but the offense pounded out 14 hits to pick him up.

Gorski: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 2 WP.

The B-Mets trailed 1-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth, when they tied the game, and then pulled away with three in the sixth and two in the eighth.

3B Jefry Marte was 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 10 straight games. Overall, in his first 11 games in AA, the 20-year old is hitting .405/.463/.568 with four walks and four strikeouts. It's an impressive few weeks for Marte. Jeff astutely pointed out in the comment section yesterday, that Marte enjoyed a hot April last year for St. Lucie when he hit .321/.396/.524.

In the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin, Jefry Marte says he got tired at the end of last year and to prepare for this year, "?tried to do a little bit more work."

Also, the Bisons are playing another day game.

Matt Harvey's line on a miserable day for baseball in Rochester: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. It was about 43 and overcast at first pitch. By the fifth inning, it was colder and pouring rain.

Strangely, in the fifth, when the weather was the worst, I saw Harvey snap off some of his best curveballs of the game. His fastball was lively all day, and he touched 95, but he had trouble commanding it, especially early when he gave up a walk and a couple of singles that led to a run. At times, he was able to get hitters off balance with his change-up. He'll be fine. Remember: it was 1. his second AAA start and 2. it was weather better suited to hanging out on the couch watching a movie than playing a baseball game outside.

Height/Weight: 6?1?, 190

Acquired: NDFA (7/2/07)

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.

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.

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:

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:

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.

St. Lucie overcame a 2-0 deficit heading to the sixth to win an important game one on the road.

Darin Gorski was solid: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, but left down 2-1.

Note that Marte and Whitenton are already on the official Peoria Javelinas roster. Centeno and Carson are not, but Adam Rubin reported that they will both head to the desert.

CarsonMichael covered Carson at some length earlier this week. He's a hard-throwing lefty for whom the results do not yet match the good fastball. He'll need to tighten up his slider, which in Mike's opinion was his best breaking ball. Getting him more innings, and more at-bats against high-level competition is a good thing.

Saturday: Zack Wheeler: 5 IP, 3 H 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K.

Since joining the Mets: 2.16 ERA, 25 IP, 23 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 26 K. ?Yeah, that's right. ?He's rolling with a 5.2K/BB in a month's worth of work in advanced-A. ?See you in AA in 2012.

A Jefry Marte (1-5, RBI) single plated Cesar Puello (2-6, 3 runs, SB(15)) in the top of the 12th with the eventual game-winning run.

Darin Gorski gave up four runs over his six innings of work. He struck out four and walked none. ?This was the fifth straight start in which Gorski (pictured) has given up multiple earned runs.

This David Wright character is pretty good: 2-2, 2 BB. ?He's scheduled to have Thursday off and rejoin the Mets in Miami on Friday. ?In six games in the FSL, he hit .476/.593/.619 with three doubles, six walks and three strikeouts. ?That does not suck.

3B Jefry Marte was 2-4 with a double to run his hitting streak to seven straight games and push his season line to .278/.341/.388. ?His walk last Saturday was his 31st of the year, a new career high for the 20-year old.

With the US up 6-4, he entered to face the Padres' Reymond Fuentes and threw: a fastball low at 94, a fastball outside at 95 and a fastball down at 93 that produced a 3-1 groundout to end the game. ?That's it.

The 20-year Fuentes?was one of the major pieces in the Red Sox deal with the Padres for Adrian Gonzalez. ?He's a burner hitting .287/.359/.349 with 34 steals in 44 chances in the California League. ?More on Fuentes here at Scoutingthesally.com.

A+

Part 1 on players 36-41 is here.

Two Mets were selected to play in the game: RHP Matt Harvey (U.S.) and 3B Jefry Marte (World).

Here are the Baseball America excerpts?on Harvey and Marte:

OverallThe Mets at 26-18 are tied for first place with the Fort Myers Miracle.? After a crazy hot start (19-5 in April)? the Mets have lost six of their last seven games and are just 7-13 in May.

The true strength of the team has been the offense.? The Mets lead the FSL in batting average (.280) and are second in runs scored (221), slugging (.409) and are sixth in OBP (.333).

AA: Erie Seawolves 9, @ Binghamton Mets 3

Here are the excerpts from Baseball America:

Holt: 2 GS, 0-0, 1.29 ERA, 13 IP, 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 er, 3 bb, 11 k, 19:4 (GB:AO).

Quick Overview: The St. Lucie Mets have won nine in a row on the strength of a pitching staff, led by Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia that is leading the league in ERA.? St. Lucie, with a team ERA of 1.98 is nearly a full run better than Daytona at 2.89.? The team is sixth in strikeouts but the stingiest in giving up hits, having yielded just 77 hits in 100 innings.

The offense is hitting .258/.328/.350 and has scored the 10th most runs in the 12-team league.

Yuck.? Eight of the nine Paw Sox had hits.? The Bisons had six hits and four errors.? Casey Fossum: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

Dylan Owen (promoted to AAA on Monday): 1.1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Height/Weight: 6?1?/190 lbs

Acquired: NDFA 7/2/07

- James Schroeder was promoted from Brooklyn to Savannah.? Schroeder, last year's 33rd round pick out of Southern Arkansas was hitting .280/.345/.400 with six doubles in 50 AB over 20 games for the Cyclones.

- OF Javier Rodriguez (.325/.360/.523) left last night's K-Mets game early.? Word is he was hit on hand by a pitch.

Good grief.? Jeurys Familia (2-6, 6.38): 5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP.? That's 58 (!) walks, 20 wild pitches and 71 strikeouts in 73.1 innings for Familia.? He's walked 7.1 batters per nine.

CF Juan Lagares was 2-4 and is now up to .317/.333/.512 in his last ten games.? Lagares is some plate discipline from becoming a guy I could be very excited about.? Seriously.? The 21-year old has drawn 2 walks in 110 AB over 27 games in St. Lucie.

Suspended with one out in the bottom of the first.? Can't anyone read a radar around clearwater?? Jeez.

A: Greenville Drive 8, @ Savannah Sand Gnats 4The Drive took advantage of Jimmy Fuller and some sloppy Gnats defense in a five-run second inning, but both Cesar Puello (2-4, 2B) and Jefry Marte (3-5) each had big nights.? The 19-year olds either drove in or scored every one of the Savannah's four runs.

#11 SS Ruben Tejada

What Happened: Hitting almost .300 in AAA at age 20 is pretty nice.? Since, he?s hit .217/.298/.261 in 31 games in for the Mets while playing impressive defense. The glove is ahead of the bat, and his eventual ceiling is still hazy because of questions about his bat.

Stock: Pretty similar, actually.

SS Wilmer Flores extended his hitting streak to 15 straight games with a 1-4 Saturday night with a double.? He's 31-67 (.463) with five doubles and a homer in the streak.? Oh, and he's just 18.? Kid can hit.

Robert Carson (7-5, 4.17) was pretty good: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR.? That's 12 strikeouts and two walks for Carson in his last 13 innings.

Height/Weight: 6?1?/187 lbs

Acquired: NDFA (7/2/07)