MY FAVORITE METS PLAYERS - # 5 - David Wright, by Tom Brennan
Hard to believe that I
could not get to David Wright in my list of FAVORITE METS PLAYERS until # 5,
which coincidentally is Captain America's uniform number. I feel guilty.
But I always have had
a bias towards the new thing, young players in their ascendancy, hence my choices
of Thor, Cespedes (well, not so young, but still in his ascendancy), Harvey and
deGrom as my top 4 favorites.
David Wright has been the Mets' gold standard during his 12
seasons with the Mets, their greatest all-time offensive player. He's had 2
significant hiccups after 2008.
In his first 5 seasons, truly Hall of Fame
caliber: iron man, averaging 42 doubles, 30 homers, 110 RBIs, and an 80%
success rate in steals, plus 2 Gold Gloves. A wonderful all-American guy,
what team wouldn't want a David Wright?
Fast forward to the Wilpons' new playground to replace Shea
Stadium in 2009, the Grand Canyon a/k/a Citifield, with its horrible dimensions
for a power hitter like David Wright.
I for one have failed against
Citifield dimensions, and the fences were pulled in twice, but not before
Wright lost dozens of homers and doubles since Citifield opened in 2009. In
my opinion, jeopardizing what should have been a sure-fire Hall of Fame career,
which would be the first such for a home-grown offensive player.
He may
still make the Hall, but the atrocious fences really hurt (ten homers in 618 plate
appearances in 2009 being the exclamation point of the foolishness of such
hitter-unfriendly dimension when a player like David Wright is your marquee guy).
Due primarily to the inhospitable Citi-dimensions, and his
recent stenosis issues, Wright's seven seasons from 2009-15 have resulted in a
big dip in power numbers and batting average (e.g., just 105 homers in 3657
plate appearances during that time period).
David had everyone
including me concerned that his career might be over after the stenosis
diagnosis in 2015, but when he finally returned and got 38 regular season games
in, results were surprisingly good (regular
season .289/.379/.434). Hey, and he played well in the playoffs, to boot. I'm hoping he will startle all of us and give us
.300/.400/.500 over 130 starts this year. I'd love to see David in the Hall of
Fame, so hopefully there is plenty of that kind of good baseball left in him.
He may be my #5 favorite
this year, but he will always be # 1 in many Mets' fan's hearts. Deservedly so,
and mine included....just not in 2016.
Man...that is one Hall of Fame induction I'd love to attend.
5 comments:
David is one of my favs also but I have lost a lot of faith that he will put up numbers anywhere near .300/30/100 ever again. I like Granderson a lot because he is well spoken and seems to be a real nice guy. Other than that I like the rest of the team mostly the same
I'll stick with David as my #1.
He's the Captain.
David Wright will be my favorite active player until he retires...........Jeff McNeil will be a close 2nd ;)
I hate to burst your bubble, but the only way David Wright gets into the Hall of Fame is if he buys a ticket. He had 4 outstanding years in a row, then 2009 in Citifield hell before one bounceback year in 2010. By comparison Don Mattingly of the crosstown rival and always favored NY Yankees had five legit years in a row at a higher level and even he didn't make it to Cooperstown.
@ Ernest. Jeff McNeil was #1 clearly, but he'll have to make the bits at least for 1 game.
@ Reese: I am with you on Wright. No one knows if he ever complained to the Wilpons about the decidedly anti- homer fence depths before Citi was built, or if he even knew how deep and high they'd soon be, but I wrote a while back that if Reggie Jackson were the star of the team in 2007-08, he'd have threatened to walk if they planned to build them like that.
If on the other hand the dimensions were initially built 5 feet more shallow than the latest decent depth configuration, to actually favor Wright, David might be on his way stat-wise to the Hall right now, but the Grand Canyon clearly derailed him.
Post a Comment