The Mets could have optioned Jacobs to Buffalo immediately, but designated him for assignment instead. That way, there would be no chance of a scene if Jacobs decided not to report after reflecting on the situation. Jacobs indicated he would go to Mets’ top minor league affiliate if playing time existed — which should be the case once Davis is promoted.
“I’m not going to go down there and sit on the bench, I’ll tell you that,” Jacobs said. “That’s for sure. I’m definitely not going to waste my time doing that.”
How Davis performs could have interesting ramifications for Murphy. Poised to be the Opening Day first baseman, Murphy suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee during a rundown the final week of spring training. If Davis takes off, a team source speculated that Murphy could even find himself at Buffalo. There, Murphy could primarily play first base, but also be exposed to second base and the outfield to improve his versatility for an eventual utility role.
– Adam Rubin, ESPNNewYork.com.
OK, obviously the most important tidbit here is that Ike Davis is apparently on his way up to the big club, and soon. I figured the front office was being careful about starting the prospect’s arbitration clock and would wait at least a little longer, but then, when has this front office really been careful when it comes to saving money, especially down the road?
Regardless, if Davis is as good as the Mets and their fans hope he is, the club will likely lock him in to a contract that extends beyond his arbitration years at some point early in his career, as is the trend with young players. But I’m getting ahead of myself. He hasn’t even been added to the 40-man roster yet.
When that happens, he’ll be an upgrade over Jacobs, for sure. How big an upgrade depends on a couple of factors. Davis struck out a lot last season in Double-A and struggled against left-handers. He hasn’t done much of either in his first 10 games at Triple-A, but it is a tiny, tiny sample: Far too small to adequately judge any improvement in those areas.
At whatever level, Davis should be playing everyday to develop those skills (and all of them, really), so assuming he’s actually Queens-bound, we should soon get a good sense of whether Davis can handle Major League southpaws. Of course, that’s making the giant assumption that Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya do right by their top prospect and don’t platoon him with Fernando Tatis.
I lobbied for Chris Carter a bit on Twitter yesterday. The way I see it, Carter, a proven Triple-A hitter, represents a nice stopgap option for the Mets until Murphy returns, and should probably be given a chance to succeed in the Majors, since the Mets don’t have many more inspiring options.
I’m not about to claim Carter’s a better player than Davis, though, and since I’m plain-old Mets-fan excited about seeing Davis at Citi Field, I’m not going to argue against his promotion. If there’s one top prospect that should be spending more time in the Minors developing his game, it’s certainly not the one who will be playing everyday.
As for Jacobs: Jeez. “No chance of a scene”? “Waste my time”? I’m sorry. I know you once hit 32 home runs in the big leagues, bro, but you’re also rocking a .671 OPS from first base this season. And for those who want to — rightfully — point to a small sample size on Jacobs’ line so far, consider this: Jacobs hit .208/.296/.375 for the Mets this season, and .228/.297/.401 for Kansas City in 2009. Almost identical. Mike Jacobs spent all of 2009 hitting like we watched him hit for the past two weeks. That’s how you get cut by the Royals. And the Mets. The deepest recesses of baseball ignominy.
And as for Murph? I like Murph. I want to see Murph play, because, as I’ve now written about a million times, I don’t believe one full season of Major League at-bats at 24 is a good indicator of anything, and I’m holding out hope that Murphy can be a decent low-cost contributor for the Mets. That’s not going to happen if he never gets a chance, of course, but if the club would actually consider moving him to a super-utility role, I’m all for it.
Tedquarters 
find a spot for Murph. 2B? How about catch,270 with 10 hrs is good for a catcher. Murphy needs a spot.
2nd base could be an option for the guy. Not now butif he spent some time in the minors learning it maybe he could become decent enough at it to play there. His batting numbers would certainly look alot better as a second baseman thna they do a 1st baseman or corner OFer.
I’m sure it was unintentional, but your use of quotes is misleading; the quote “No chance of a scene” came from Rubin, not Jacobs. As for Jacobs’ actual quote, a 29 year old baseball player who has had some success in over 2,000 career Major League at bats would indeed be wasting his time sitting on the bench at AAA, and there is certainly nothing wrong with him saying as much.
I would disagree he’s had some success. He’s been well below average in every way. And there’s a reason he was dfa’d by the royals of all people and could only get a minor league deal to begin with.
Gina, “some major league success” is obviously subjective and up for interpretation. I don’t mean to imply he’s an All Star. However, to me, a guy that puts up a .262 /325/.503 line against righties has demonstrated a valuable Major League skill, i.e., hitting righties for power, i.e., “some success.” The fact that Jacobs was cast by the Mets as an everyday player, and a clean-up hitter no less, is more an indictment of the Mets’ decision-making and less an indictment of Jacobs. And besides, my main issue was to point out that Berg attributed a quote to Jacobs and cast him in a negative light as a result when Jacobs never uttered the words.
Well like you said he’s had success against righties. And one of Jacob’s chief complaints in his statement was that he was being platooned, which according to him is a big reason he struggled so far in the season.
Where is everyone getting these supposed quotes from Jacobs? Please point me to a quote attributed to Jacobs in which he complains about platooning on the big league club. He said he didn’t want to sit on the bench in AAA. There is a HUGE difference.
“In his second stint as a Met, Jacobs struggled in the platoon role, batting .208, with one home run and two runs batted in 24 at-bats. “Being able to play every day and get consistent at-bats would have helped a whole lot,” Jacobs said.”
does posting links in here work? I know back in the olden days of metsblog it always failed.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2010/04/18/2010-04-18_ike_davis_could_be_on_way_as_mets_cut_jacobs.html
Whoa whoa, hold on. I recognize that the two phrases in quotes may have been misleading and I apologize for that, but I did not attribute them to Jacobs. I put them in quotes because they were not my own.
Can we agree he’s a AAAA type player? Which still would mean he’s worth starting somewhere in AAA.