The black cloud that hovered over Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada in 2013 seems to have followed them to Port St. Lucie in 2014.
Davis and Tejada had miserable seasons for the Mets last year. The Mets were counting on them to anchor first base and shortstop, respectively, but they both took a huge step in the wrong direction, on and off the field.
I love stats. I’ve been a baseball stathead since I was a kid. I kept track of my own batting average in Little League as well as walks, extra base hits (those were easy – there weren’t many of them), and RBIs. I used to check the box scores in The Record every morning to see what the Mets’ updated stats looked like after the previous night’s game (Unless the game was on the west coast – ahhh, the dark ages), and I’ve continued that habit into the present day.
Over the past 10 years or so, I’ve been familiarizing myself with sabermetrics. I like them. I find them useful. Especially the ones I can understand. Advanced metrics have given me a whole new perspective on the careers of baseball players today, and a renewed appreciation of players from the past.
The one relatively new development I haven’t gotten on board with is the concept of statistical projections.
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Ike Davis must prove himself.
The Milwaukee Brewers reached a minor league agreement with Mark Reynolds this morning. Milwaukee has been searching for a first baseman all winter long, and it appears they’re looking towards Reynolds as their solution.
The Brewers have flirted with the Mets this offseason regarding a trade for Ike Davis. The Mets wanted RHP Tyler Thornburg, a top pitching prospect whom the Brewers have penciled into their fifth starting slot going into Spring Training. Milwaukee deemed that price too high.
The MLBPA compiled a full list of players who filed for free agency this offseason. Out of those, there are several possibilities that stood out to me as players I would consider signing if I were the GM of the Mets (assuming I had a moderate amount of money to spend). Mind you, I’m not saying the Mets should sign ALL of these players – that would be impossible. But this would be the pool of players from which I would choose.
We’ll break them down by position. In the last post, I looked at shortstops. In this post, I’ll take a look at…
First Basemen
The Mets enter the offseason with the thought that they can start next year with an in-house option (or options) at first base. While they don’t have a great first baseman under their control right now, if they improve at other positions, they can live with a guy like Lucas Duda or a Duda/Josh Satin or Wilmer Flores platoon. Before you laugh, they’ll at least give you a .350 or so OBP, and Duda is good for 15-20 homers if he stays healthy. They could even take a chance on a comeback season from Ike Davis, but rumor has it they’re trying to trade him.
If they fail to upgrade in the outfield or shortstop, they may look to upgrade at first base. If they do, here are few possibilities.
With the final road trip in the books (as it were), the Mets 2013 road record finishes at 41-40. This is significantly better than their home record, which stands at 32-45 with 4 games to play.
One obvious reason for this disparity would be park factor. While the Mets decided to shrink the dimensions of Citi Field prior to the 2012 season, it’s still not a band box. In fact, you can fit almost the entire field at Citizen’s Bank Park inside the fences of Citi Field:
Ike Davis is making another late-season surge.
Since his recall from Triple-A Las Vegas on July 5th, Davis is hitting .300 with a .467 on base percentage, but he still hasn’t hit for much power. He only has one home run in that span. His slugging percentage is on the rise, however, thanks to the 6 doubles he’s hit in his last 10 games.
After splitting a two-game series with the Chicago White Sox, the Mets will play a makeup game in Denver today against the Rockies. This is a makegood for one of the games that was snowed out back in April. Back then, the temperature was in the 20s. Today, it’s expected to reach the mid-90s. So, at least, another snowstorm looks unlikely.
However, the Mets will have to cool off Rox outfielder Michael Cuddyer, who’s riding a 23-game hitting streak.
Former Rockie Eric Young, Jr. returns to Colorado for the first time since being waived by his old club. He’s been a revalation since joining the Mets in a trade that sent RHP Collin McHugh to Colorado. In his first couple of weeks, he’s been the leadoff spark the Mets have missed at the top of the order since Jose Reyes departed.
Zack Wheeler had trouble putting ChiSox hitters away on Tuesday, and was apparently tipping his pitches, as pointed out by Ron Darling, among others.
Last night, Shaun Marcum picked up his first win of the season, tossing 8 scoreless innings (a feat he also accomplished in relief during the infamous 20-inning game with the Marlins earlier this year).
Pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero will appear in the MLB futures game at Citi Field over the All-Star break. Incidentally, Mookie Wilson will manage team USA, and Edgardo Alfonzo will manage the World team.
Check out the Kranepool Society’s podcast featuring special guest Howie Rose.
With Ike Davis apparently finding his swing in Las Vegas, what is his future in the Mets organization?
Keep following the daily drama that is New York Mets baseball here on Mets Today.
It’s time for our second annual “Should The Mets Demote Ike Davis?” discussion. Rumor has it, demotion is once again a possibility for the struggling first baseman, just as it was last year at this time. Davis somehow pulled it together in June of 2012 and kept himself in the majors, finishing the season with 32 home runs. If it’s possible, Ike looks even more lost this year, however. Davis has a microscopic .487 OPS through 40 games this year. After his 40th game last year, he had a .518 OPS (which is only slightly less awful).
Adding insult to injury, Davis made a boneheaded play that cost the Mets at least one run in the first inning of last night’s game.
Also, according to Andy Martino of the Daily News, Ruben Tejada and Jordany Valdespin may be on the same flight to Las Vegas in the near future.
Meanwhile, there’s a new Mets minor league blog in town, created by the good folks over at Mets Merized Online. Check out their story on RHP prospect Noah Syndergaard.
In the good news department, T-Shirt purveyor Darren Meenan has done a great job of organizing large groups of Mets fans to attend games at Citi Field. This past weekend, he got 505 Mets fans from all around the country (and from two other countries) to attend the three-game set at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
When all is said and done, isn’t that what baseball is about? People getting together to watch ballgames. Of course, it would be a lot more fun if the Mets were winning…
