JUPITER, Fla.—The Marlins have the No. 2 farm system in baseball, thanks in large part to the strength of their hitting prospects.

Florida’s one-two-three punch of Cameron Maybin, Mike Stanton and Logan Morrison might be the best trio of hitting prospects in any organization, while first baseman Gaby Sanchez and second baseman Chris Coghlan are polished, disciplined hitters on the verge of helping the big league club. And that’s all without yet mentioning the team’s last two first-round picks—catcher Kyle Skipworth (sixth overall, 2008) and third baseman Matt Dominguez (12th overall, 2007), or toolsy 19-year-old outfielder Isaac Galloway.

Marlins hitting coordinator John Mallee sat down to talk about some of the talented hitters in the organization. We talked plenty about Stanton, but we’ll have more on him in the coming weeks.

On 3B Matt Dominguez: “He doesn’t let things bother him, first of all. Mentally, you wouldn’t know if he hit a home run or if he struck out. He’s mature that way. He’s got a unique ability to put the barrel of the bat on the ball. He can manipulate the barrel late in his swing to get to better pitches; that’s a gift that he has. As a hitter, if you’ve got great hands and you can control the barrel of the bat, you’re going to hit. When he first signed, he didn’t stay behind the ball, he didn’t use his lower half correctly and he’s worked real hard on doing that. Once he did that and his swing got in sequence, his power showed up. If a guy’s lower half is out of order, it kills his power; he doesn’t stay behind the ball. Because of his hands, he’s always going to hit, but when we put his lower half and got it in sequence, I think that’s when the power showed up. And he had raw power when he came in, so we really didn’t make many adjustments with him—he’s a pure hitter.”

On 1B Logan Morrison: “His determination, his work ethic is second to none. He wants to be the best and he’s not going to settle for anything less. That’s his way and he’s very professional. He’s not arrogant, but he’s very confident and he works. His swing plane, he’s short to the ball, he stays through the ball very well, his ability to go the other way. The reason he had success here (at high Class A Jupiter in 2008)—other than that he’s a great hitter—is he didn’t try to hit home runs, he tried to hit line drives in the gap. That kept him hitting for average, and as he grows older, the power numbers are really going to come.”

On C Kyle Skipworth: “Kyle is a pure hitter. He struggled when he first got here. It’s tough for a kid with all those accolades coming out of high school, going to the ESPYs and there’s a lot of expectations. Kyle has a great swing, just learning the professional game and learning the strike zone, and when he gets that I think he’s going to be really, really special.”

On CF Cameron Maybin: “Cameron is a special athlete. If you look at our scouting department, they just keep bringing us great athletes. It’s a lot easier to develop a player who’s a great athlete, and they keep bringing us guys with baseball sense, good makeup and good athleticism. And they all have bat speed; you know bat speed’s important. Cameron’s swing was a little bit long; sometimes guys get caught up because he has power, and then during the season he did a great job with his hitting coach Theron Todd shortening his swing up, using the other side of the field. His approach has improved; he has a very good idea of the strike zone, even though he strikes out, but he gets a lot of walks as well. I think as his career goes, the more at-bats he gets, the more repetitions, the more pitches he sees—and he’s worked really hard to shorten his swing up and be more direct to the ball—I think the sky’s the limit for him, I think he’s going to be an impact player in the big leagues.”

On 2B Chris Coghlan: “In our offensive program here, we stress being selective yet aggressive, getting a pitch in the strike zone. We have an approach that we use during the course of the game to increase the pitches seen by a hitter without taking the bat out of their hands, but when you look at a guy like Coghlan, Gaby Sanchez, those type of guys, Matty Dominguez, that’s something that they had when they came in, that’s not something that we developed. They had that recognition, they had that good strike-zone discipline, and Coghlan’s definitely one of those guys. Coghlan’s strengths are that he can use the whole field and he stays in the strike zone, and he handles lefties very, very well, which is tough left on left—he hits lefties as good as he hits righties. Because he’s able to go the other way, and when the ball’s running away from him on a lefty, he stays on top inside and stays through the ball, and can use the opposite-field gap with anybody."

On 1B Gaby Sanchez: “Gaby’s always been able to hit. He hit .350 in Jamestown in rookie ball when he came in. He stays in the strike zone—he sometimes walks more than he strikes out like Coghlan does—and he can hit, he can manipulate the barrel as well. So when you can hit and you swing at strikes, you’re going to create some damage. He’s got some serious power. He’s a guy that tries to hit first and then hit for power later. He’ll try to use both gaps. He loves doubles, he loves driving ball down the line and in both gaps, and that keeps his swing short, and when he catches it just right, he hits a home run.”