Home » Latest Mets News » Ezequiel Carrera Wins Batting Crown
3
September 8, 2009 Latest Mets News Joe Janish

Ezequiel Carrera Wins Batting Crown

Where They Are Now: Ezequiel Carrera

ezequiel-carreraThis afternoon I received an email from the Southern League announcing that Ezequiel Carrera of the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx had won the batting crown.

I’m thinking … “hey, that name sounds familiar!”. Of course it does — Carrera was one of the two dozen players traded by the Mets for Sean Green last winter.

The speedy centerfielder finished the year with a .337 AVG, and also led the league in on-base percentage with a .441 clip. The 22-year-old Venezuelan native also stole 27 bases.

Of course, the Mets are set in centerfield through 2011 with Carlos Beltran, so if the Mets held on to Carrera he wouldn’t have a shot to make the club until he was at least 24 years old. And even then, there’s a good chance Jose Reyes will still be around to man the leadoff spot.

Further, anything can happen between now and then. Carrera’s batting crown is for the Southern League, which is AA ball. Some players can make the jump from there to the bigs but Carrera will likely have to prove himself for at least another year — either by repeating AA or in AAA next season. And truth be told, Carrera is a slap hitter with speed and a good glove — along the lines of a Luis Castillo. In other words, not a potential superstar. Still, thought you’d be interested to see how a former property of the New York Mets performed this year.

Tags: , , , ,

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
Related Articles
  1. Taylor September 8, 2009 at 4:22 pm
    .441 is a very high OBP. I’ll take that even if there’s no power to go with it. Just because Reyes is batting leadoff doesn’t mean its not good to have another leadoff type hitter in the lineup. When he gets on base he’s still on base even if he didn’t lead off.

    I’m curious to see what his PECOTA projection will be. Most outlier performances are followed by regression to the mean. Still, .337 avg and .441 OBP are very impressive even at AA.

  2. Walnutz15 September 8, 2009 at 4:34 pm
    Literally, the first glimpse I got of ‘Zeke Carrera was during a ST game a couple of seasons ago…..where he entered the game, late — without a name on the back of his jersey.

    He leapt over the fence to rob a homer, and actually got a couple of hits throughout his stay in camp.

    Best of luck to this kid, and to Mike Carp in the future. I hope they get full-time gigs somewhere, eventually…they had no shot here.

    Instead, we’ll keep guys like Daniel Murphy because they can slap a shamrock on things to sell at Citi Field.

  3. isuzudude September 9, 2009 at 9:48 am
    You could have slapped a picture of a fish on a souvenier bat for Mike Carp, ‘nutz. Where’s your promotions savviness?