Met fans need to get over Ike Davis. I can comfortably say
that because I am a huge Ike Davis fan and I was pulling for him to beat out
Lucas Duda in a competition that didn’t really happen in spring training. Some players aren’t meant to play for certain
teams.
While neither player really set the world on fire during
their Met careers, Ike Davis was the former first round draft pick with power
to spare and a gold glove caliber glove at first. Davis was gregarious and
popular in the Met clubhouse. Duda was more shy and reserved, both have power,
but Davis had more of an impact because of his strong rookie year, his great
start to 2011 and of course his 32 homers in 2012.
Duda, has never been allowed to settle in at his natural
position in the majors. He was a square peg in a round hole forced to play in
the outfield and that was an utter disaster and frankly having both players on
the same 25 man roster was a waste of a slot. It was a duplication of talent.
Ultimately the Mets saw more possibilities with Duda. While Duda hasn’t driven
in more than 57 runs in a season, nor has he hit more than 15 homers, he’s
never spent the first three months of two consecutive seasons in a horrendous
slump either. Not quite gold glove
caliber, Duda is an average fielder at first, so all in all and not to mention
his cheaper price tag, Duda was the most logical choice. That and Duda has a
tendency to not swing a bad pitches and he’s less argumentative at the plate
and tends to take instruction better.
In retrospect, many Met fans were horrified at the R.A.
Dickey and Josh Thole for Travis d’Arnaud and
Noah Syndergaard trade. When it happened the uproar was huge. The majority of fans believed the Coupons were too cheap to pay R.A. Dickey who just had the best season any Met pitcher had had in nearly 20 years and was the first Met to win the Cy Young since 1985. Sure, d’Arnaud was the top catching prospect in baseball and Syndergaard was highly thought of too, but Mets fans were sure that it was as bad a deal as Jim Fregosi for Nolan Ryan and Leroy Stanton trade in the winter of 1971. Well, Syndergaard is expected to follow the same path as Matt Harvey and Zach Wheeler and is projected as a mainstay in the Mets rotation of the future. d’Arnaud is with the big club and his swing is being praised constantly. He’s hitting line drives and after a very slow start is heating up and is proving to be a clutch hitter and has surprising opposite field power as well. As for Dickey, after a decent year with Toronto in 2013 (14-13 4.21.),this year he’s off to a horrible start standing at 1-3 with a 5.90 era. It’s early, but he’s nowhere close to as effective as he was in 2012. The Mets are looking particularly smart for selling high on a 38 year old pitcher who was born without an UCL in his pitching arm.
Last year the Marlon Byrd for Vic Black deal wasn’t very
popular at first. However Black looked good in 2013, but had a rocky
spring. He’ll probably be back up to the
big club sooner than later and while he was on the short list to be the closer
if Parnell had problems (he still might be) he is a possible candidate to be a
set-up man. Stay tuned.
I could do this all day. The Carlos Beltran for Zach Wheeler
deal looks even more than fair considering Beltran was going to be a free agent
in 2011 etc., etc.
My point is, sometimes you have to add by subtracting. With
both Duda and Davis on the roster they were kind of cancelling each other out.
Neither could get into a groove, plus it probably divided the clubhouse in some
ways. The Mets didn’t totally subtract either. They got Zach Thornton, plus are
due a more significant player from the 2013 draft to be named later.
Ike may very well flourish and become the superstar his
potential always threatened to make him. Duda may also flourish. It all remains
to be seen. But one thing for certain, It would not have happened with both in
New York. We may not know the true
impact of this move for years, however my hunch is it was the right call. It
was actually a little overdue.
On top of all this Allen Dykstra (no relation to Lenny)
picked this particular week to be named the PCL’s
player of the week with a
.900 slugging percentage. Hey…competition is a good thing…right?
1 comment:
I still believe that Ike Davis has a better chance of being a 'superstar' in this sport, but I'm happy with Duda and thrilled that the drama has died.
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