Matthew Silva - On Josh Satin and John Buck

Josh Satin and John Buck are trending in polar opposite directions. One is making a name for himself trying to keep his spot. The other has no one to threaten his position and is providing free air conditioning for anyone willing to attend a Mets baseball game. Last night was a perfect example of this. If you stayed up to watch, you saw the good from Satin and the downright ugly from Buck.

Satin is impressing with his strong batting eye and had a great game last night going 3-6 with two very clutch hits to help keep the Mets in the game and also to eventually win it in extra innings. He has a smooth swing to go along with a .511 OBP. He has 9 walks and 7 strikeouts. Satin has looked more comfortable after each at-bat. Basically, he is the anti-Ike Davis. There was an at-bat last night when Satin was being fed consecutive curveballs in the dirt and he just spit at both. I tried to think of the last time first basemen for the Mets even attempted that. You know Ike would have offered at both and Lucas Duda would have taken a swing on at least one of them.

 Satin on the other hand, has some pretty impressive discipline and isn’t afraid to work the ball to opposite field. His final hit, a double that would eventually make him the tying run was a beautiful level swing on an away pitch. A lot is going to be written about how Ike needs to come back and that he has shown some life in Las Vegas, but I don’t think we need him right now. We have a perfectly capable player at first right now who isn’t hurting the team with totally inefficient swings and countless strikeouts. Recently, Terry Collins mentioned that Ruben Tejada would have to earn his starting spot back by making it impossible not to bring him back. I hope Collins sticks to those same guns when it comes to Ike. Satin deserves the everyday spot until he really shows some deficiencies in his play. Let Ike stew in Vegas until after the All Star break and see if that really gets him going. It’s put up or shut up time for Ike Davis.

If anyone knows a thing or two about deficiencies in play, it’s John Buck. Buck’s terrible play seems to know no bounds. Last night, John Buck tried to advance to second on a wild pitch in a situation that implored him to stay on first. The important run, ironically being Josh Satin, was the only thing that mattered. He strolled into third and we were only a wild pitch or a single away from a win and Buck ruins it all with one stupid mistake. He was walked three times last night, but that means nothing considering two of them were intentional. I can’t even understand why you would walk Buck. He swings at everything. He had three strikeouts last night and one horrendous pop-up in a critical at-bat late in the game.

Remember in April when we all were salivating at the idea of shipping John Buck for a prospect? Yeah, neither can I. He has destroyed any chance of us producing anything of value from his play and he is destroying this team with his terrible play. Unfortunately, there is no one who can truly challenge his starting spot anywhere in the organization. Anthony Recker has been less than stellar during his starts and Buck must be thanking his lucky stars that Travis d’Arnaud hasn’t been around to kick him out of the lineup. For now, his spot on the team will remain until September when d’Arnaud would hopefully become fully healthy and ready to get some major league at-bats. The clock is ticking for John Buck and I hope he starts to realize that soon.