The Ike Davis story doesn’t start with his home runs shattering car windows in his team’s executive parking lot, like the Jason Heyward story does. That’s too perfect, almost too folksy a beginning for a player breaking into the Majors with the 2010 Mets.
The Ike Davis story starts with a team putting faith in a backup first baseman recently cut by the Kansas City Royals, coming off two straight seasons with sub-.300 on-base percentages. It starts with a bizarre 20-inning game that depleted the Mets’ bullpen and forced them into a roster move, setting off the chain of events that would lead Davis to Flushing.
It starts with confusion. Confusion over whether the Mets are rushing yet another prospect, confusion over what the team intends to do with the injured Daniel Murphy and, heck, confusion over why Davis was penciled into the Triple-A Bisons’ starting lineup and at Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo before he knew he was bound for Citi Field on Monday.
And it starts with doubt. Doubt that Davis will hit Major League lefties or lay off Major League curveballs, doubt that he’ll make much of a difference in the Mets’ pennant hopes even if he does succeed, and hell, doubt that the team’s’ front office operates with some semblance of a cohesive plan and is not simply fueled by a haphazard series of reactive moves.
Then it started with a single.
Davis may struggle with big-league pitching as some expect him to, show the world he needs a little more development time and provide the Mets an easy decision when Murphy is ready to return from his knee injury in a few months. Or he may mash the ball the way he did all spring and the way he did in his first 10 games in Triple-A in 2010, and stick with the club for good.
For now, the Mets’ top hitting prospect is the Mets’ starting first baseman. The first chapter of the Ike Davis story is underway.
Tedquarters 
Hey Ted – first of all, I just want to say that I read your blog everyday, and I love almost everything you put up here, the exception being long-winded tirades about the stupidity and poor decision-making of the front office and our manager. I find these difficult to read simply (and paradoxically) because I agree with practically everything you’re saying – it becomes that much more painful to think about when I see it in print.
Second of all, I can’t help but be excited about this kid. This is a season to temper one’s expectations, but I read somewhere that Mets fans would rather see the Mets lose with Ruben Tejada, Jenrry Mejia, and Ike Davis than with Fernando Tatis, Luis Castillo, and Mike Jacobs. I can’t agree more (I can even add to that list – Dillon Gee and Tobi Stoner vs. Alex Cora and Ollie Perez, etc.). There’s little enough right now for us humble fans to look forward on a day-to-day basis that we can appreciate watching a guy like Davis develop on the big league stage. For all the front office fumbling, bringing this kid up despite his need for a little more development in the minor leagues will at least energize the fanbase.
Granted, there are a bunch of unpleasant consequences that could result from Ike’s success (see: Manuel and Minaya keeping their jobs for another year), and our front office’s inability to let players learn the game at a pace more reasonable to their age and place in the learning curve is incredibly frustrating (don’t get me started on the Mejia thing). But the only guys who got real cheers from the Flushing Faithful tonight were Jon Niese and Ike Davis. Let’s allow them to give us hope while they can.
The two guys who you claim got real cheers from the Flushing Faithful tonight, Niese and Davis. Both drafted by Omar Minaya’s front office operation.
Here is the thing, front offices make mistakes, sometimes those mistakes become more pronounced, but you can’t dismiss off hand the successful things they have done as happenstance. As was Mike Pelfrey. The guy playing in right field winning over fans, dealt for by Minaya on request of Ricco, and potentially (lots of green still) has his career turned around by Manuel.
Patrick, you’re absolutely right – the successes of this front obvious are many, and I can’t discount them offhand. It’s just that it appears that they can’t turn the proverbial boat around when the team is going downhill. For every Pelfrey, we have an Ollie with a three year, $30+ million dollar contract. And like I said above, I’m not 100% comfortable with Ike’s early call up (and far less so with Mejia’s).
Success stories and capable development of players is what we should expect from our front office – we shouldn’t hold their positive functions as praise-worthy in defense of Alex Cora’s big contract, Manuel’s poor game management, and their baffling confidence in John Maine (to name but a few). It’s all about the little things. Why shouldn’t we criticize them when it appears that, despite our huge payroll and excellent core of players, we won’t contend for the division title?
*Front OFFICE in the first line… typo
Ted, that was me waving to you over by the dug out right before the Pelfrey interview with Sny.
Pedro Feliciano has one of the only autographs you can read, my cousin got it not me, and I saw a couple next to me that had one and it actually says Pedro and then gets harder after that to read.
Ike is the Man. I will label him “The Show” if all goes well, we too will have an elite build your team around first baseman to root for too. Suck it Prince, Ryan, Gonzalez, Just for the record Pujols could not be put in this category because he his a player from a different caliber and hands down, the best player in baseball. That last comment was as a overall baseball fan’s perspective.
Hey Cousin Ted —
I’ve been enjoying the blog for a while now and thought I’d drop in and say “Hi!”
I also appreciate your take on Ike — although I think it’s also not a coincidence that he was brought up after a lousy roadtrip following a homestand that ended with a half-empty stadium. The GM and ownership know they need something to breathe life into the fan base (and put paying fans in the seats). Even if it means possibly rushing a player to the majors to do it.
Anyway, glad Ike is here and hope he does well.
The Mets are set for a future that likely begins next year… using many home grown talents and buying great pitching. This year the Mets can be good, but they have to divorse themselves from the ‘karma’ of Tatis, Castillo, Jacobs, Matthews, and Maine. The Met plan should be:
1) Bring up Kiko Calero when ready and send Jenry Mejia down to be stretched into a starter again. Mejia can start after the break… consistent with his presumed 2010 innings limit anyway. Maine to bullpen (assuming he doesn’t turn stud again)… Nieve’s arm should have fallen off by then. If we need to replace Maine earlier, bring up Gee.
2) Bring up Carter and send GMJ away. Now. Love Carter’s attitude… the team needs more of it.
3) Decide about Ike vs. Murph when the later is ready to return… perhaps keep murph and ditch Tatis (depends whether he becomes productive again… doubtful).
Off season:
1) dump Castillo + money and use Tejada at 2nd. Hopefully he can spend most of this year at 2nd, if not in AAA then in AA.
2) send Beltran to Yankees and use FMart next year… assuming Frenchy warrants staying on the team… looks like it thus far!
3) Send Ollie away for a bag of balls. Rotation next year: Santana, #2 pickup, Pelf, Mejia, Niese.
I agree with your #1 & 3, Joe C., but as much as we all dislike GMJr, we don’t have another viable MLB-ready backup CF right now other than Jason Pridie, whose offensive game is one-dimensional (and too much like Castillo). It’s too early to assume that Beltran won’t be back in time to make the season viable.
Also, re your winter plan — Beltran has a full no-trade clause, I believe. Besides, at this point, the issue is CAN he play, not WHERE can he play. Let him get healthy first…then we’ll worry about what to do with him once F-Mart is ready for the show.
I would argue GMjr isn’t a viable major league CF back up at this point in his career anyway. Which is why I don’t understand why they’re not playing Fernando in cf, even if they don’t think he’s going to stick there he’s probably not going to stick in lf, where they’ve been playing him, either with Bay around, it would at least make sense to get him playing time at the harder position where we may have a real need, even after Beltran comes back since we don’t know how he’ll hold up to playing everyday in cf and he’s only got one year left on his contract.
Also not only does Beltran have a no trade clause it’s written into his contract that he can’t be offered arbitration (how did we let that happen??), so any team that trades for him would have to be willing to send prospects and sacrifice the right to collect draft picks. At this point, considering how many teams have realized how important the draft is, I’m not sure there’s many teams that will be willing to do that.
Exile, Gina –
I would rather have Carter than GMJ. Carter can’t be worse in CF, right?
… and I was assuming that Beltran would welcome a switch to the Yankees… winning team, twilight of his career and all.
I think he will be productive in the 2nd half and all of next year… I would just rather fit FMart and spend the $17+ M on pitching.
Top-line #1 or #2 starter > top-line CF IMO
Beltran may welcome a switch, but there’s really no reason to believe the Yankees would make that trade. If they want a CF they can just drop a bunch of money for Crawford who’s younger and will likely get less per year than the 18 or so million they’d have to pay Beltran, and he’d be a long-term solution.
Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo….Coca-Cola Park in the enemy’s Triple-A Ballpark. It gets confusing I know ;)
Yikes, fixed. Thank you.