Ernest Dove - Has The REAL Lucas Duda Officially Stood Up ?

  At this point, it seems like Lucas has been around for about 10 years.  And it feels like he and Ike were in competition for about 20.  Yet, here we are, in August 2014, and the Mets 'full-time' first baseman is officially named Duda.

  Hmmmmmmm, does anyone remember that, in 2011, Lucas Duda played 100 games for the Mets, and hit .292, with a .370 OBP?  I didn't remember just how good he was that year.  I'm still getting over the hangover of that Duda/Davis battle, which basically resulted in both young sluggers hitting under .250 and being criticized.

  Well, after spending 2012, 2013, and about half of 2014 hitting the usual under .250, something happened to Lucas Duda. Could it be as simple as trading Ike, letting Lucas play first, and bat him lower in the order for a few weeks to start off the new full-time confidence building?

  I don't know about you, but I still remember EVERY ONE of us preferring Ike.  And I remember NOBODY feeling as though Lucas could ever seem to hit when it counts in a game. It basically became the running joke.  Hey, Lucas is up in the 9th, with two outs, nobody on, and the team down 5 runs..... Guess its time for him to hit another meaningless homer......BOOM, there it goes....... and it means NOTHING.

  Then, the ongoing social media bashing continued, into 2014.  Hey, its his job now, and he's still not hitting in the clutch.  Hey, he just made an error, bring back Ike. Hey, did he just hit another solo homer when it meant jack squat?

  However, all of a sudden, that hated Mets front office seemingly made the best decision possible, and it is now fully starting to show on the field.  Since the all star break, exaggerating or not, I actually feel as though Lucas Duda might just be one of the 5 to 10 most dominant hitters in the National League, and the scariest to face, with runners on or not.

  Although, lets face it, Mets fans are Mets fans.  Even a few games leading into and out of the all star break, twitter continues a flutter with those bashing Duda for not hitting in the clutch (even though all 2014 numbers pretty much show he's the best on the team in those situations). And there are many who still swoon over the thought of somebody else's star player (Tulo) hitting cleanup. But, the bottom line is that the Mets already have their cleanup hitter.  His name is Lucas 'hulk smash' Duda. He still has plate discipline, he has his second highest OBP of his career going right now (which obviously counts his SLOW 2014 start while dealing with Ike and Satin,,,,ughhhh).  However, he is also currently sporting his highest homerun total (19), his highest slugging percentage (.506) and OPS (.864) of his still brief 4 year major league career.  Now, the question truly remains, "is this the REAL Lucas Duda"?  

  It seems like all the front office really wanted from Lucas was to have self confidence (oh, and learn how to play LF because they still believed in Ike). And now, the confidence is there. The confidence is building. And the homers are flying.  Now, there's no point in projecting out homerun totals over 162 games, because there was too much of a tale of two seasons almost, considering how Lucas started this year.  But, we certainly can't help but dream.  We can certainly dream of Lucas, with ongoing plate discipline, more aggressive early pitch count hitting, and ongoing timely hitting, all of a sudden being a .275/35/100 guy.  Oh, and Lucas Duda is still probably looking to get peanuts for a 2015 salary (I'm assuming under $5mil) which will make this front office very happy.

  But, what happens after that?  I mean, Ike is gone, Josh Satin was never supposed to be more then a guy to hit lefties (meanwhile, Mets trying to get Lucas more starts against lefties now anyway), and the guy manning the position at the organizations next highest level (Dykstra), is pretty much the same age and makeup as Lucas, only he obviously has proved nothing yet at the major league level.  If you go down another level, AA ball, there's a guy named Jayce Boyd.  I remember him hitting the cover of the ball in the low A levels, and he is now on a hot streak at Bingo over the past month or so (although, last 10 games he is slowing down again, and he is also totaling 5 homers in 89 games this year).
  So, all we can do is drool over the teenager from Cali (Dominic Smith), who is not hitting homers, (Zero to be exact), but was completely dominating Low A ball pitching for a few months (although sporting a .226BA in last 10 games) this season for a potential back to back minor league championship team). 

  Well, if you conservatively (talking about the Mets here) put Smith at an ETA of 2017, that would pretty much put Lucas Duda at David Wright age (31) to start that season.  And, as good old Mack always says, "We got a lot more things to worry about than............" I would say that priority number 1 for the Mets (after figuring out LF, SS and Daniel Murphy) should probably be to call up the agent for Mr. Hulk Smash here and offer the sweetest (and most cost effective Wilpon approving) 3 year deal, to keep this slugger in the middle of this Mets possible playoff contending lineup................... Oh, and did I mention that the Captain is publicly praising and acknowledging Lucas, and agreeing that he is putting it all together and becoming a nightmare for opposing pitchers, cause that's good enough for me.