Martin has 353 career games in CF

I guess Wally is comfortable enough with Rottino's defense behind the plate that he's unwilling to take the offensive hit that comes with playing Blaquiere over him.

Interesting re: Martin. His bat is nothing special but its probably enough to make him at least a solid depth guy if he brings anything to the table in CF.

Anyway, Reyes is just one of those guys who passes the eye test, but the offensive numbers just don't seem to be enough to get him serious consideration for any sort of actual status other than org-filler. He's flat out smooth in CF, though.

Well, for all the supposed Rottino = versatile talk, he's played 1 position, and poorly, all season.

If he ever is going to be a bench option, like Rubin thinks he is, he's got to do more than hit a relatively-empty .300 and play a ghastly LF.

You wonder also if this is at all related to Nickeas looking pretty much as bad as everyone expected him to, Johnson being hurt and May being pretty bad himself behind the plate and Rob Deer-lite at the dish through one month.

I was fine with Nickeas to start the year and he obviously hasn't been given enough run to really determine much, but he really has not had a great defensive start to his career, just by controlling a running game (6/23 for his career) and balls in dirt (5 PBs, 10 Wild Pitches throw in his 30 career games back there - those are not numbers that would look very pretty over a full slate of games).

Of course, I REALLY doubt they would ever go Rottino as the sole backup C. Doesn't hurt to look I guess, though, considering he is hitting, something that only Thole can say too as far as catchers in the entire organization.

I wonder if Reyes can unseat Zapata as the Binghamton LF.

den Dekker and Lagares are set in stone in RF and I'm sure Havens will DH his fair share of games while he's healthy. I'd have to think Campbell will get most of the run at 1B with Dykstra done for the foreseeable future.

Almost positive Reyes will be a starter in Bingo. Zapata = non prospect, completely. He's the Cory Sullivan of lower-level minor leagues - no power, no walks, way too many K's. Short of him being the best defensive outfielder in the system, any playing time he gets is just keeping a seat warm for the next guy.

And on the infield stuff, the buzz in the preseason was that Havens would be exposed to all IF positions, so I could see him getting some 1B too. Probably play some 2B, some 1B, some DH and liberal off-days there too. Not sure if they'll abandon the 3B exposure with young Marte raking (and playing pretty much error-free ball, which has been impressive), but if he gets time over there, Marte probably shifts to 1B for the day, too.

Buffalo should keep scoring runs, that's a nice lineup (AAA wise, obviously).

Keep Mike Harrington happy.

Josh Rodriguez has experience all over the diamond (2B, 3B, SS and some LF and CF too), so finding a way to keep his hot bat in the lineup while also getting Havens looks around different infield positions shouldn't be a huge issue, particularly with guys like Navarro and Campbell manning SS and 1B, respectively.

The Binghamton lineup could actually be pretty interesting from a prospect standpoint if Havens can stay healthy and Vaughn is promoted.

C - Centeno...IMO, not a complete non-prospect. Just 22.
1B - Campbell...filler
2B - Havens...JUST STAY HEALTHY
3B - Marte...may be the best bat/position prospect in the system if he keeps it up
SS - Rodriguez...potential bench guy
LF - Lagares...improved eye, nice second tier prospect
CF - Den Dekker...if he could just cut down on the Ks, still a possible platoon/4th outfielder
RF - Vaughn...handling FSL pitching fairly well, showing good power. Can he do it in Bing once he is promoted?

Anyone who thinks anything of Albert Cordero (and there were an awful lot of people who did this offseason) should probably start thinking about liking Juan Centeno, considering his age and level assignment. He's all of 2 months older than Cordero, and he's 2 full levels above him right now.

Never really been given much run, but has thrown out about 40% of baserunners for his career and has performed in very small samples the last 2 years at the dish. And now he's hitting a tiny little bit in Bingo, but his performance thus far has been the best, without any legit competition, in the system as far as catchers go.

One thing impressive about Vaughn's good early season numbers is that he's continuing to not be too whiff prone. His strikeout rate sits at 21.6% for his entire FSL tenure, which is pretty much in line with what he did in Brooklyn and Savannah.

Obviously the true test will be in AA and AAA against superior pitching, but it's at least a positive sign to see that his presupposed major contact issues have not arose in pro ball just yet.

It's also nice to see his power showing more; last year he had an ISO of just .147 (thanks in large part to Savannah) and a homerun per plate appearance rate of 2.4%. This year, he has a .263 ISO and homerun per plate appearance rate of 5.7%. Those power rates won't continue, but it's still nice to see he's back to showing really good power after getting out of the SAL.

So what's up with Ad-Rod? I saw on MetsMinorLeagueBlog that his BABIP is .235 this year and last year it was .245...that's crazy low, especially since the D is likely not all that great in Low-A.

Does he hit almost everything in the air? Is his contact on balls not going over the fence really THAT bad? His LD% is 20%, which I believe is pretty good, no?