Former Mets minor league hitting coach Mike Hart joined me on last night’s show. Mike spent two years in the Mets system (2007-08) as the hitting coach for both Savannah and Port St. Lucie.

We talked about four of the young players under his tutelage: Josh Thole, Ruben Tejada, Shawn Bowman and Francisco Pena. I also picked his brain about hitting philosophy and the Mets direction about focusing on opposite field hitting throughout their system.

One of the interesting tidbits Hart told me is that hitters need somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000 plate appearances to prepare for big league baseball. This, of course, can change if a player spent time in college at a solid program or happens to be a special talent. Take a look at the two hitters who have impressed the most this spring and their plate appearance totals:

Fernando Martinez: 1,304 (including his stint in the big leagues)

Ike Davis: 1,212 (including time at Arizona State)

Both are starting to near that “magic number” where they become the hitters they were meant to be. One caveat with Davis is his performance in college was with an aluminum bat. Transitioning to wood is not always easy and he talked about that earlier this spring. So far he has a little over 700 plate appearances in his minor league career.

For Martinez, health has always been the biggest question in my mind. Can he put up a health and full productive season? He has yet to do that in his professional career.

This theory makes a ton of sense to me since hitting is all about making adjustments at the plate. Let’s not be fooled by huge springs from these kids and give them time to play every day in Buffalo. Better yet, why not give them the season, or at least half of it, at AAA? The outfield is crowded at Citi Field already, and Mike Jacobs/Daniel Murphy should be able to hold down the fort at first base- at least for the first few months of the season.

The interesting part is we may see Davis sooner than Martinez because there is a higher likelihood he would get to play every day at first base? Who is F-Mart going to supplant in the outfield?

Interesting stuff from a baseball professional. Listen more from Mike as he tells us why he is high on Tejada, Bowman and Thole, plus his reservations with Francisco Pena both offensively and defensively.

To download the segment where I talk development with Mike Hart you can click here.

Tags: Fernando Martinez, Francisco Pena, Ike Davis, Josh Thole, Mike Hart, New York Mets, Ruben Tejada, Shawn Bowman