 |
| Rooting for Ike Davis and a better 2014! |
“Could Ike Davis just have had a bad
2013?”
We all know last season was an absolute
nightmare for New York Mets First Baseman Ike Davis. So much so,
plenty of Mets fans wanted him out of the organization completely. Of
course, guys like you and me aren't the professionals that deal with
these matters, there is a lot more behind it than what we all think.
Scouts, coaches, and player personnel know the ins and outs of
players who develop into the kind of slump that Davis fell into last
season and believe they can bounce back the following year. From what
I've gathered, he could very well come back to the Mets in 2014
looking like the Davis of old and continue being the main starter at
first base. Before that though, going into the Winter Meetings and
all, there were a TON of trade talks involving Davis.
A few months ago, the Milwaukee Brewers
were the only team to really peak an interest in acquiring Davis to
fix their own first base issues. The Mets played it calm, cool, and
collective in all talks since they wanted a top pitching prospect
from their system. Rumors circulated that they wanted to get one of
their top pitching prospects in Starting Pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. I
knew a trade like that would never go down since with Davis, there is
that chance he could have had a similar situation for a consecutive
year. I doubt the Brewers want to risk history repeating itself by
bringing in someone with that risk and shipping out a potential
future ace to another team.
As of the time of this writing though,
the Brewers decided against all that. They're not going after Davis
anymore since they brought in Mark Reynolds and Lyle Overbay to fill
their needs. Davis also in that time frame agreed on a new one-year
settlement with the Mets to avoid arbitration. Since he'll earn about
$3.5 million this upcoming season and with the Brewers addressing
their problems, it's more than likely he will be sticking with the
Mets afterall. He'll definitely be in competition with others to
secure the starting spot at first base though. That of which mainly
includes Lucas Duda, but a part of me thinks Davis will emerge the
starter out of Spring Training, let me tell you why.
Perhaps the 2013 MLB season was just a
fluke. I remember when Davis was gathering a lot of potential his
first few years in the majors since he was playing extremely well. He
hit a lot, scored some runs, and had a solid glove on defense. I'm
going to give him the benefit of the doubt and truly hope that during
the offseason, all these trade talks fueled him to step up and
improve his game. I haven't heard of him attending Spring Training
early or doing some personal workouts at Citi Field, but it would be
great for him to come back stronger than last season. Most
importantly, more mentally focused when it comes to the fundamentals
of this sport we love so much. I know he can do it since he did in
the past, but it all starts with the basics.
Whenever I have a bad day, one common
practice I always do is leave everything that happened that day at
the stroke of midnight. After midnight, a new day begins and what
happened the day before is forgotten. It's over. It's done. You can't
go back and change anything, just have to accept it and move on to
the next one. Perhaps Davis will take a page out of my book and just
let that 2013 MLB season be forgotten and move on to a season to
remember in 2014. I'm truly hoping that last season was just a bad
one and this time around, he comes back to the player we all
remembered in the past. The one that hit game-winning RBI's, HR's
into the bleachers of Citi Field, and went flying into dugouts to
catch that foul ball!
8 comments:
If given the choice of arsenic (Davis) and cyanide (Duda), I'll take the arsenic and hope for the best. I am personally starting a campaign to cut Duda before the season starts and save the team over $1 million which could land more talent or finance payments on another private jet for the Wilpons.
I just hate all this Davis-Duda shit.
I just do.
This Davis/Duda stuff has gotten way out of hand.
Nobody wanted to pay anything for Davis. The way Davis played, combined with the way the Mets approached this whole situation, and the media coverage resulted in no other team wanting to pay anything of any consequence for him.
He has proven that he does have potential. Cutting him now or trading him for nothing now makes no sense either. Will the couple million saved really make the team much better?
Giving Davis one more shot to prove he can hit like he has shown glimpses of in the past could result in a much better use for the money. And if he fizzles again... well its not like the money would have been spent somewhere else to make the team much better anyway.
Now when it comes to Duda. Again, saving $1.6 million by cutting him or giving him away for nothing? Can that money really be spent somewhere else to make the team much better?
Better to have him around in case Davis flops or succeeds.
If Davis flops then plug Duda in and see what happens.
If Davis succeeds then we have a nice change of story where Davis can be traded for real value.
Forcing Duda into the outfield really doesnt seem to help his hitting either. Keeping him around to get sporadic starts at
1b is a waste as well.
Best thing for Duda and the Mets would be to send him to AAA where he can MASH the ball. Let him hit like a monster in Las Vegas.
It will build his confidence which has been reported to help his hitting.
Or Maybe some other team sees a power hitting first baseman that interests them enough to trade for.
This whole situation has been poorly handled by the Mets as soon as Davis hurt his ankle on that freak play. Things have been forced, rushed, ignored, dragged out, ....etc
But we are where we are now. The best interest of the team at this point seems to be plug Davis in, monitor what happens. Keep Duda in reserve where he can enjoy hitting and succeeding while monitoring him. React to what occurs.
Bob -
The Mets made this Ike Davis thing into a fiasco. He has absolutely no trade value right now.
I hope most of this competition is in ST and, sadly, one almost wishes one of these guys bats .450 there while the other hits .100.
I just want this to be over, have one as the first baseman, Josh Satin as his backup, and Alan Dykstra play Vegas
Mack
i agree with you completely.
Heck, I am not sure fiasco is even a strong enough word to describe it.
except... didnt Dykstra hurt himself (knee?) pretty seriously this winter?
Let Duda start the year in AAA. If Davis has no worse of a pre-season as he has had last year, let him start the year and see what happens.
The team however needs to develop a hard time frame that they use as their assessment. Make the assessment and act accordingly.
@Bob
Yes, Allan Dykstra suffered a compound fracture of his fibula. It's going to be a significant amount of healing time before he is back on the field.
What tangles this situation more is, IDavis cant be sent to AAA(out of options) or he'll get claimed. It was my thought if IDavis had a poor spring they would let him catch his stroke in Vegas before they would ever subject him to have another horrid start to the season, meanwhile Duda could babysit 1b and show what he's got.
If Ike earns 1b the situation solves itself because i actually think there is room on the bench for Duda - he can play OF in an away game, DH, PHer w power, offer TCollins flexibilty for double switches and well play 1b here and there--all this obviosuly not ideal but it could work. The problem is Ike in a funk does not offer as much and he would rot on the bench and it could be another season long effort to get him started..
The Mets should have kept quiet on all the Davis trade talk and maybe the Brewers would have pulled the trigger on a deal. I think they scared them away when they valued Davis for much.... much more than what he was really worth. Don't get me wrong, Davis had a ton of potential and was doing great his first few years but then it all went downhill. No organization is going to part with one of their top prospect pitchers for a guy on the decline due to the risk that it'll be the same or even get worse.
The Mets did a poor job giving him confidence in the beginning of the offseason since they flat out said they want to cut him loose and get something else they need in return. Now that nobody really wants him, they are flipping the switch and hoping he actually does improve since now they will probably be stuck with him!
Post a Comment