Mets Game 148: Win Over Marlins
Mets 3 Marlins 1
Win one, lose one, win one …
Mets Game Notes
Lucky for the Mets, the Marlins are struggling nearly as much to score runs. Kind of evens the playing field, if you pardon the pun.
Who would’ve believed Daisuke Matsuzaka could put together two consecutive solid starts after his first two disasters? Certainly not me. Once again, he pitched off the curveball, throwing it 31 times. Add in 10 change-ups, and his off-speed offerings exactly matched his fastball count (41). Dice-K kept the Fish at bay through seven strong innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk.
Also lucky for the Mets that Miami shut down Jose Fernandez just prior to the series. Though I suppose it could be argued that the Fish were lucky that Matt Harvey went on the DL. It’s just that the former was an active decision of control, while the latter was uncontrollable.
Don’t look now, but Lucas Duda is muddying the waters at first base. He’s red-hot, and blasted another homerun — his 14th of the year in only 333 plate appearances; project that over a full season and he’s finishing with close to 30 homers. Of course, Duda’s doing what he’s doing in September, so many people will take his performance with a grain of salt. But he’s looked a lot more comfortable at the plate when he’s playing 1B — as opposed to the outfield — and though he’s currently “in the zone,” from what I’ve seen of him over the past few years, his cold streaks are not as useless and painful as Ike Davis‘ cold spells. Defensively, I’m not sure Duda is as slick as Davis, but I’m not sure it matters — it’s not like Ike has been a Gold Glove candidate the past two years. The Duda-Davis situation, ironically, is not unlike what the Marlins went through with Logan Morrison and Gaby Sanchez in 2011-2012. Ultimately Miami decided on Morrison, and though he’s been a disappointment, Sanchez hasn’t lit the world on fire, either, in Pittsburgh. It wouldn’t surprise me if this Duda-Davis situation had a similar outcome, but, at this moment, if I had to make a choice, I’m taking my chances with Duda.
Next Mets Game
The next Mets game has already begun as of the publishing of this post — Dillon Gee dealing against Tom Koehler.
It is garbage time, true enough, but there are still games to play. Nice to see Harang, Torres and even Dice-K manage to stay professional and give them some innings. I reckon they can continue the rest of the way, though the Reds — the only team left really with something to play for — won’t handle them that nicely.
The biggest hole I see in Duda’s offensive game is that he doesn’t square the ball up all that often. He takes good cuts at hittable pitches and somehow fouls them off or hits weak fly balls to RF. Maybe it’s a result of too much head movement or diving in toward the plate, or maybe he just isn’t good at tracking pitches’ movement. I dunno. But unlike the rest of the Mets, I look at his size and his swing and his strike zone discipline and see someone who at least looks like he should be a good hitter.
On the other hand, he never really seems to put up the kind of red hot stretch Davis can, and he’s toast on sliders from lefties. I would foresee a high ceiling if he were about to turn 25, but he’s about to turn 28. So I really don’t know.
I think Duda’s 2012 line — .239 / .329 / .389 — is probably his floor, which is miles better than the kind of disaster Davis can be. But Davis probably has a higher ceiling due to age and to a slightly better track record of hitting mistakes over the wall when he’s going well.
On a team that’s good elsewhere and simply needs 1B to not be a black hole, I’d use Duda, possibly in a platoon, and trade Davis. On this desperate Mets team, though, it may be necessary to keep Davis around on the slim chance he becomes a real asset. AAA, perhaps?