Who’s on first? For Mets, it should be Ike Davis, for now

ESPN photo

Ike Davis was a disaster at the plate last year. He was so bad, in fact, that the Mets considered using the dreadful Lucas Duda there on a permanent basis as an alternative.

The plan, according to all the press reports, was to move Davis in the offseason — mostly because he still had some value, unlike Duda. There were no takers, or none, at least, who wanted to pay the Mets’ price.

So Davis and Duda entered spring in competition for the job. Injuries have slowed the competition, but it shouldn’t matter. Davis was a former top pick by the Mets, is a good defensive first-baseman and, most importantly, has upside — even if he did not show it last year.

My argument is pretty simple: Davis is 26 and has shown flashes of what he can do. His second half in 2012 was impressive (flawed, but impressive). And, more importantly, his numbers match up with some decent first-basemen:

Here are Ike’s career numbers:

He has played 442 games, hit 67 homers, walked 207 times while striking out 411 times. His splits (batting average / on-base percentage / slugging percentage) are .242/.334/.434. These are not all-star numbers, to be sure. And his career arc is troubling — good start, but little improvement with his worst year coming last year.

That said, consider these numbers: 436 games played, 77 homers, 107 walks, 510 strikeouts and a .258/.309/.466 split. Not much better, right? Those are the numbers put up by Chris “Crash” Davis, the slugging first-baseman of the Orioles. Davis was a rock-headed, swing-at-anything hitter until he showed up in Baltimore and they subjected him to some very targeted hitting exercises (contrast this with the Mets’ efforts — send Ike to Vegas but do nothing with him). The results for Crash — 33 homers in 2012 (included in the above numbers) and a whopping 53 in 2013, with 138 runs batted in and .286/.370/.634 splits. Davis turned 27 last year, the same age as Ike will be this year.

How about these numbers: 402 games, 57 homers, 136 walks, 213 strikeouts and a .254/.320/.434 split. Again, a very familiar stat line. These were the numbers Tino Martinez put up through age 26.
I am in no way saying that Ike can turn into Chris Davis or Tino Martinez. All I am doing is making the case that Davis deserves one last long look at first for the Mets. He should be there everyday, for the most part, though the clock must be ticking. See if there are signs of the 2011 Ike — before he went down for the year, he was hitting .302 with 8 homers in 36 games — or even the Ike of 2012’s second half. If he doesn’t show up, send him packing. What are the alternatives this year? Lucas Duda? Josh Satin? Zack Lutz? Exactly.

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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

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