A Quick Chat with Mets Minor Leaguer IF Josh Satin

For those unfamiliar with Satin, he spent 2010 between Hi-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton and as has been the trend with him, he just kept on hitting at each new level. After posting an .865 OPS in 58 games with St. Lucie, Satin topped that effort with an .867 OPS in 79 games with the B-Mets. Long-term, Satin profiles a lot like a righty-batting Daniel Murphy; not super quick nor does he have a ton of pop but he's a strong hitter who takes a good amount of walks, lots of doubles with good pull-side power and he plays lots of positions, though none of them really well.

Overall, we had a really interesting chat. Of everyone I spoke to on the minor league side, Satin may have been the most comfortable speaking to the media and gave some very good answers to my questions. He really gave an interesting perspective into the mind of a minor leaguer I felt. Specifically, we spoke about his experiences in the AFL, playing multiple positions, knocking on the door of the bigs and a whole lot more; click on the 'Play' button below to listen in.

Click past the break for a full transcript of our chat:

Rob: It sounds like everybody just got here in the last couple days; how was your offseason?

Satin: It was fantastic. You know, it was a little short because I played in the (Arizona) Fall League. So I just had to get right down to business, no time off, and try to get ready for the season really as soon as possible.

Rob: Now you mentioned you played in the Fall League; you had a really good Fall League. I mean you started on the Taxi Squad but I think you ended up making the full-time team. What was it like out there because that's a pretty talented league?

Satin: Yeah, it was great to be there. Terry Collins and Adam Wogan were...it was great of them to reward me. They said it was a reward for when I went to instructs and the hard work we put in there. It was just a great experience for me playing against the best in minor league baseball really. And just showing what I can do and working my way through the Taxi Squad and being a guy that was playing a lot toward the end and showing that I can play at that level.

Rob: Now looking back towards 2010 a little bit, you had success at pretty much every level you played. And you moved around the field quite a bit defensively; is that something that was planned? Is that something you're going to be doing a lot looking into the future or it just kind of broke that way?

Satin: I don't know if it was planned, but once I got to Double-A there was guys at every position so in order to get at-bat's evcery game I kind of had to work my way around the field. Which was cool because the more versatile you are, the better chance you have of breaking with the big league team one day because you never know what they need. So I'm all in favor of playing wherever I can and getting as much experience at position because you never know who's going to get hurt at the big league level and what they're gonna need when your time comes.

Rob: And that's something that current major leaguer Dan Murphy has actually done a lot of; he's fit in wherever he could and it's gotten him to the bigs even quicker. Now as far as comfort, is there a position that you like best or it just kind of whatever?

Satin: Not really, I'm very comfortable everywhere. I spent the whole intstructional league working at first and third and second, trying to get as comfortable as I can everywhere. I've probably played the most games at second for the Mets but you know in college and otherwise I've played the other two almost as much. So I feel just as confident everywhere and the more I play at each spot the more confident I'll be.

Rob: You kind of talked about your time in college, you played at UCLA...no, i'm sorry it was Cal-Berkeley right? I'm sorry, mixed them up a little bit. (laughs) Just keeping you on your toes right now! So obviously that's a big-time program, a lot of pros come through there; what was that like for you?

Satin: It was a great experience. I had a lot of ups and downs there; I had a major (shoulder) injury that cost me about two years. But the coaches and the people around there, they really got me through it, stayed confident in me even when I couldn't even play and you know really, I think, prepared me for pro ball because I had a small taste of failure in college whereas a lot of guys don't. So now I know it's not the end of the world when you got 0-for-10 or 0-for-20 or 2-for-30. You find out how to bounce back from that; I found out how to bounce back from that in college and I think that's really benefited me here to not get too high when I'm doing well or too low when I'm doing poorly.

Rob: Looking forward to 2011, do you have any expectations or goals that you're setting for yourself coming into the season?

Satin: No, i mean just like every year I just want to become the best player I can and get better and better every day. The ultimate goal is reaching the big leagues as soon as possible; I don't know when that's gonna be but I'm hoping I can strive towards doing that in the next year or two. And keep continuing to work on my defensive game and offensively just keep doing what I'm doing and get a little better, a little smarter every game.

Rob: One more I gotta ask you, you're getting pretty close, you're almost knocking on the door now to the big leagues; what does that feel like? Do you let yourself think about that?

Satin: It's definitely more exciting knowing you're coming into this season with a small chance of maybe -- if things break right -- making the big leagues. Whereas prior seasons it's like 'All right, I'm in Low-A. I got no shot this year.' So it's definitely exciting and you know, getting the opportunity to be in this early camp and maybe getting in some big league games is gonna be huge just to get a taste of what it's like and see what you need to work on in order to be successful at that level.