The LTJ Editorial: “Could Ike Davis just have had a bad 2013?”

Rooting for Ike Davis and a better 2014!

“The LTJ Editorial”
Author: Luis Tirado Jr.
Twitter: @LTJ81
Website: http://www.TheNYExpress.com

“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!