Everyone’s bitter and anxious about the economy and the government and all sorts of awful things, and now baseball — a pastime that’s always provided an escape from all those realities — is inextricably linked to them. The Mets have a brand new home, this throwback ballpark that’s become a throw-back-the-ball park, and it has a bank’s name attached to it, and all those open concourses and fine-dining options and massive team shops make the temptation to spend money even greater. And there’s just not a whole lot of cash to throw around. Plus the team’s off to a slow start after three straight disappointing finishes, and it was 90 degrees on a late April afternoon on Sunday, so maybe the specter of global warming had people hot and bothered, too.

Just so many people and concepts and environmental phenomena to jeer. What a moment for emotivism. What a time to breathe deep, rear back and boo heartily.

But David Wright? Really?

Listen: I will go to my grave defending fans’ right to boo. In the right situation, it’s one of my favorite activities. At the Citi Field opener, when I was roaming the press area of the field and the ESPN folks were setting up their broadcast, I noticed Steve Phillips chatting with Jim Duquette. It took every inkling of my professionalism (of which there is not much) to refrain from booing the pair point-blank, and it was pretty much only the knowledge that doing so would cost me my press credential — my ticket to Mets games — that stopped me….

We hear stories of Red Sox fans booing Ted Williams and Phillies fans booing Mike Schmidt and we cringe. But then here we are, booing the guy who could very well become the defining hitter of this franchise like those players were for theirs, and we’re doing it less than three weeks into a six-month season.

– Me, SNY.tv, April 27, 2009.

I genuinely liked that column, and I don’t often feel that way about the things I publish. That’s probably why I couldn’t resist excerpting so much of it here.

But I recognize now that it was pointless. Booing, like cheering, is a spontaneous, emotional response, and attempting to employ reason to argue against it is plain silly. Booing is not something you rationalize.

You never think, “Well, even though David Wright is well on his way to being the best position player in Mets history, I am displeased with his recent performance with runners in scoring position. And though I recognize that his enormous walk totals probably mean he’s not seeing a whole lot of good pitches to hit in general, I expected him to find some way to succeed in this situation and so I will jeer him now.”

You think, “F#@$ DAVID WRIGHT! THIS UNCLUTCH #@$@#$ HAS FAILED ME AGAIN! BOOOOOO!”

And that’s your right, I suppose.

I don’t do it, but only because I think the way I watch and appreciate baseball is now deeply woven into my emotional response to the on-field action. Certainly I get upset when Wright fails in a big spot, but my appreciation for Wright as a hitter, and my knowledge that great hitters will do plenty of great things with enough opportunities, overwhelm the momentary dissatisfaction. I feel lousy, sure, but not angry.

When I’m not in the press box — where booing is tempting, but a strict no-no — I boo when I feel the situation calls for it, even though I realize it’s not, you know, a nice thing to do. (As I’ve said before, if people paid as much attention to my day-to-day decisions, behavior and performance as we do the Mets, I’d get booed on the streets of Manhattan.)

Baseball is entertainment, and the most compelling forms of entertainment provide us some canvas upon which to project, contemplate and untangle our emotions. Booing is a visceral, almost primal response to frustration and anger, but it is inappropriate to boo our bosses if we disagree with their decisions or boo our friends if they fail to come through when we’re relying on them.

So, you know, f@#! David Wright.

It’s not wrong or right, I think, it just is. Mets fans have a lot of pent-up vitriol they’re eager to release, and the well-paid, handsome face-of-the-franchise makes for an easy target when he lets them down.

And I could point out that he’s got a .467 on-base percentage in 15 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, meaning he has not only succeeded in the spot this year but also that he’s probably not seeing a whole lot to hit when he can do real damage. But again, no fans factor that into their decision to boo.

I’m more likely to boo the guys that more accurately embody the things about the franchise that frustrate me, but plenty of Mets fans view Wright that way. And until he gets some big hits, and until the team starts winning, and until those fans feel better about just about everything, they’re going to boo him.

Whatever. Dude can handle it.

I didn’t ask him about being the white whale for New York-area bloggers and talk-radio callers. I kind of wanted to, but I figured that would have been awkward, plus I couldn’t come up with a good way to phrase it. “How does it feel to know that like 50% of the Mets’ fanbase has desperately wanted you back since the day you left?”

I’m going to go ahead and guess “no.”

Big Pelf’s been awesome this season, no doubt, and it’s entirely likely that there are real reasons for his success beyond a still very small sample in isolation.

Pelfrey is striking out more batters, something that’s been attributed in part to his increased confidence in his secondary stuff and a new splitter that dives out of the strike zone. He’s hardly whiffing batters at Tim Lincecum-like rates, but his K/9 has ticked up from 5.22 last season to 6.86 this year.

And Pelfrey has likely benefited from better defense behind him, as well. He’s still yielding a high rate of ground balls — 47.3% according to Fangraphs, a bit below his career mark — but he’s yet to pitch in front of the Alex Cora/Luis Castillo middle infield he suffered from all too frequently last season. Indeed, Pelfrey’s 2009 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) was well below his ERA — indicating either bad luck or bad defense — and his 2010 FIP is well above.

Pelfrey’s 2.63 FIP is well below his career rates in part because he hasn’t allowed a home run yet, something that’s not likely to continue. When Pelfrey’s going well he’s not at all prone to the gopherball, but it’s obviously silly to expect that he’ll never allow any, just as it’s silly to expect he’ll continue to allow so few hits.

Since even with the increased strikeout totals, Pelfrey still lets batters put the ball in play a good deal, at some point soon someone will knock one over the fence and a few more balls will sneak through the infield. Though it’s reasonable to hope Pelfrey’s enhanced arsenal will help him continue to induce weak contact, it’s not reasonable to expect a guy who has yielded a lifetime .312 batting average on balls in play to suddenly maintain a .231 mark.

And it’s important to remember the whims of the sample size. Though it probably does mean something that this stretch is coming at the beginning of the season, when we know Pelfrey has made an adjustment, this is not really even the best three-start stretch of Pelfrey’s career. That came back in July of 2008, when he struck out 16 batters while walking only two and allowed just one earned run over 22 innings.

Of course, this is all pointless, because I can’t imagine any reasonable human expects Mike Pelfrey to maintain a 0.86 ERA over the course of a full season.

The important thing is that what Pelfrey has done so far is fantastic, and there are some decent indicators that he’s made real improvements beyond just pitching in front of a better defense.

It’s baseball, though, and things have a way of evening out. It will be interesting to see how Pelfrey fares once opposing teams are better prepared for his new offerings, if he maintains confidence in his secondary stuff when he hits rough stretches, and if it takes any toll on his arm over the course of a long season.

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.

– NeverSeenThemWinOne, comments section this morning.

With increasing frequency, I’m finding that the reactions to posts here don’t seem to follow my original intentions when making said posts. Obviously, this reflects poorly on me and my ability to communicate whatever the hell it is I’m trying to say, but I think I’ve identified the problem. I’m adjusting to the (awesome) rigors of my schedule during the baseball season while trying to maintain some consistent flow of content here, and I think too often I’m crapping out half-formed thoughts and assuming readers can somehow divine what I’m getting at.

But whatever. You probably don’t care much about that stuff, so here’s this stuff:

To be clear, like NeverSeenThemWinOne, I am extremely excited to see Ike Davis playing for the Major League Mets every day. Though I have reservations over whether he’s actually ready to hit lefthanders and lay off breaking pitches, I want very much to see him try.

And I recognize he is a massive upgrade over Mike Jacobs, both in actual on-field value and in asses-in-seats production. Watching Mike Jacobs’ approach at the plate was starting to make me not want to watch baseball at all, or at least change the channel while he was hitting or something, and that’s terrible.

And Fernando Tatis, nice and versatile player though he may be, is just not exciting to watch play for a 5-8 team. I know exactly what I’m going to see out of Fernando Tatis, and though it’s decent, and probably better than a lot of people realize, it’s still not exceptional.

I don’t know exactly what I’m going to see out of Ike Davis, and that’s what makes it fun. I know how infrequently prospects actually pan out, and I realize, from a rational perspective, that we will be lucky if Davis turns out to be a deserving but unspectacular Major League regular like Paul Konerko or someone.

But I can cling to the small hope that Ike Davis is a Hall of Famer because he hasn’t done anything yet to show me otherwise.

Mike Jacobs? Not a Hall of Famer. Fernando Tatis? Not a Hall of Famer.

On a team like this one, I’ll root for uncertainty over the certainly bad or the certainly not-so-good anytime, especially when the uncertainty comes in the form of a young, highly touted homegrown player.

It’s a thrilling thing, and the Mets-fan side of me is absolutely thrilled. I don’t think he’ll hit .500 all season and I don’t think he’ll provide enough to make the team a great one, but I know he’ll make me more excited to tune in every night, and that means something too.

The post last night just aimed to point out that with this franchise, the way things are going these days, even something indisputably invigorating like the top hitting prospect ascending to the big leagues comes somehow mired in confusion and doubt. That part sucks. But the rest of it is awesome, no doubt.

It was everything Ike on Monday at Citi Field. You’ll read way more in the papers, I’m sure. Here’s about 1/100th of the things said by and about Ike Davis:

“It was evident that we needed left-handed power. We expected to get that from Mike Jacobs. And maybe the inconsistency of play there, or him just not getting off going right, made that a glaring weakness for us. And when you hear that a guy down there [in Triple-A] is hitting tape-measure shots, you kind of put a hint in and say, ‘Hey, man. What do you think, bro? I need a little help here.'” – Jerry Manuel.

“We’ve been looking forward to seeing him here.” – Angel Pagan.

“This is awesome.” – Ike Davis.

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.

According to SNY’s Brad Como, Ike Davis is on his way to Citi Field.

So am I, incidentally.

Anyway, in these funky times, I think it’s important that we remember that Davis’ first name is actually Isaac, and Isaac is a totally sweet first name.

Indeed, there appear to be enough dependable arms that they won’t need Mejia to be the primary setup man, and the rookie was only supposed to stay in the majors at age 20 if he played a pivotal role in the pen.

So send him down now, build him back up as a starter in Triple-A and maybe by mid-June Mejia could be ready to take a spot in the rotation and make an impact.

– John Harper, N.Y. Daily News.

It looks like the newspapers are catching up with the blogosphere on this issue, and, well, great.

And it could turn out that the Mejia-to-the-bullpen experiment, if the Mets send him down and stretch him out soon, ultimately only worked to give him a taste of Major League hitters while simultaneously limiting his 2010 innings total.

Granted, relief appearances are not the same as innings thrown by a starting pitcher. And given Jerry Manuel’s tendency for overworking his relievers for stretches of the season, it’s reasonable to worry about Mejia remaining (for now) in his manager’s care without any apparent set of front-office mandated rules governing his use.

But since last we heard — per Gary Cohen, during a game on SNY a few nights ago — Manuel is the biggest and perhaps only advocate for keeping Mejia on the Major League club, I have to imagine the manager will change his tune or be voted down as it becomes clearer that the Mets will eventually need starting-pitching help. Or, you know, he’ll be replaced by someone with more of a longterm stake in the team’s success.

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.