27
2009
David Wright Not Doing The Wright Stuff
An article by Former Writers
Over the past five seasons, David Wright has emerged as the face of the New York Mets franchise and assumed the role of unofficial “captain”.
For the most part he has filled this role rather nicely and has always brought a positive vibe to the team.
Over his five year tenure with the Mets, Wright has been through the highs and lows. What has always impressed me was regardless of how the team was performing overall, he always brought his “A game”. This held true up until the previous two weeks or so.
Since then, David has become a different player. For starters, he no longer looks energized to play baseball, which is very uncharacteristic of him. His performance on the field is also indicative of this. Since returning from the disabled list on September 1st he has only hit .220, which has caused his average to drop nearly 20 points (.324 to .306) and is in danger finishing with a sub-.300 average for the first time in his career..
I am sympathetic with his struggles because this has been a particularly disappointing season considering all of the fluke injuries. On top of that Wright went through a traumatic experience in mid-August when he was concussed by a fastball to the head.
What is unacceptable is the the lack of hustle that he has shown recently. In the past two games Wright’s play on the field has been inexcusable. Looking solely at the box score it could be assumed that I am referring to the seven punch outs in ten at-bats, however I am not.
I am referring to the sluggish and downright careless play that has become blatantly obvious during the final road trip of the 2009 season.
First, during last night’s game Wright choose not to run on a ball that was dropped by Florida catcher Ronny Paulino.
Luckily, Brian Schneider‘s head was in the game and he was able to score what would become an important run in the team’s 6-5 victory before Wright was tagged out. At first the issue didn’t concern me as players, like any human being make bone-headed moves at times.
Unfortunately during tonight’s game, Wright’s lack of motivation became apparent and in this instance cost the Mets a run when he choose not to run at full speed while rounding third base, which enabled the Marlins to tag Jeff Francoeur out at second base before the run could score.
This is disturbing because through all the heartbreak, David Wright was one guy you could always count on to give it his all, and now even that is up in the air. The team’s fans deserve better than this.
While I can understand Jerry Manuel giving Wright a reprieve yesterday and not pulling him from the game; pulling him from today’s game should have been a no-brainer. Instead, Wright remained in the game for all nine innings.
Decisions like these promote the sense that giving up and not playing hard is acceptable.What kind of message does this send to players like Nick Evans, who was regulated to watching the game from the bench while a player with questionable effort is allowed to play?
Now I am not yet ready to give up Wright because he has done a lot of good for this franchise over the past half decade, but a conversation certainly needs to take place between the manager and player and it must be reiterated that this kind of attitude will not be tolerated.
At the very least Wright should be given the day off tomorrow to collect his thoughts and then go from there. Under no circumstances should Wright be given so-called “superstar treatment” and be allowed to let this situation go away.
What do you, the Mets fans, think? Am I being too hard on Mr. Wright?
About the Author: Former Writers
31 Comments + Add Comment
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Man, I have nothing to say about Wright. Its the whole team that played terrible ball this year.
Not too hard at all, actually a little soft
He wasn’t hustling before he got hit in the head. I can’t give you an exact date but I’m pretty sure we’ve been talking about it in MetsMerized chat since around July and maybe even before that.
When Kevin Burkhard asked him about it in tonight’s Post game it sounded like Kevin was wiping Wright’s eyes with a Kleenex while asking the question.
STOP BABYING WRIGHT AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR HIM.
Has any other Mets star in recent memory, before this crew, been accused of this type of play? I challenge any Mets fan who’s followed the time for a long time to give me an answer. Can you name any of the major players in the late 90s early 00s crew who gave us this type of disgraceful effort? NO.
It is a bit concerning to me the type of play we’ve seen out of Wright lately. The closest thing I can recall to Wright’s lack of hustle was Reyes not running out an infield pop up that dropped in the infield a few years back.
In that instance Reyes was removed from the game and heavily scrutinized by the media. I’m a bit dumbfounded as why the same isn’t happening to Wright.
Actually yes. Anytime those Mets teams struggled (and actually they did get off to a pretty mediocre start in ’99) those type accusations always came out. With Piazza, Ventura, and Olerud all being relatively calm personalities, when that team did lose there were always people alleging that they didn’t care enough, weren’t fiery enough, weren’t bothered by the losing.
I don’t remember that but I do remember individual incidents such as Todd Zeile assuming a HR in a playoff game and who can forget Timo Perez not hustling. But that was such a huge incident it pretty much was the beginning of the end for Timo.
But a big star consistently not hustling and playing stupid like Wright? No. Not one.
Oh god that WS was horrible. They also had two other guys not run out balls they thought were foul that were fair.
Its been a dreadful couple weeks for Wright. But I certainly wouldn’t label him as a guy who “consistently doesn’t hustle”. No player runs full speed on every single play.
Don’t give Wright a pass,
Just because other people do it doesn’t make it right or you should do it. Terrible excuse. Wright was one of the people at the heart of the last 2 Met collapses and should be thinking about that while playing this series. Also Wright hasn’t been hustling hard almost all season long. This is a big series for the Mets in my eyes, the Marlins danced on their graves the last 2 years and again he comes up small in the biggest of big spots. Knock it off with excuses. Stop rationalizing things just because other people do them.
Wright is a decent player who accumulates numbers. He doesn’t know how to play to win, has no heart and I think we should listen to offers for him this winter
I think Jerry should sit Wright tomorrow if Jerry’s head is in the right place. Like Phil said, he needs a day off every once in a while just for it, because he is still human and we all need days off to collect our thoughts and recharge our batteries, so I hope Wright sits tomorrow.
I was surprised to see Wright in the lineup as Jerry Manuel had told reporters on Friday that Wright would get Saturday’s game off. Since Fernando Tatis hit a homer playing first base tonight, he should be rewarded and get a start at third base on Sunday, spelling David Wright for a day. David gets his day off to clear his mind and Fernando gets a well-deserved start. Works for me.
I wouldn’t say he’s unmotivated or not trying. Last nights play he thought he foul tipped the ball, which is why he didn’t run. I would think a guy would generally know if the ball hit his bat, and when you do and its tipped like that, its your natural reaction not to run.
Today’s mistake was more egregious. But I think was more of just a stupid mental mistake. That kind of stuff isn’t excusable either, but I don’t think its an example of not caring. Pretty much every single player slows up going into homeplate like that when they know they are going to score easily and there is no play on them (and Jerry Manuel did say that Razor Shines told Wright he’d score easily as he was rounding the base). We saw several examples of guys slowing up just in that one inning from other players, its normal. However, Wright in that spot needs to know that there is a possible play on at second, and that he can’t afford to slow up there. I think it was a case of stupidity there not of not caring. And Wright did apologize to his teammates after the game, so while that in no way makes up for it, at least he is being accountable on some level.
However, we have had way too many mental mistakes this season as a team. Murphy had that recent mistake in the Pedro game, the infamous Church missing 3rd, Beltran’s two non-slide incidents, Pagan’s multiple baserunning mistakes. That all needs to stop, and its certainly not encouraging to have Wright join in the clown show.
Jerry already said yesterday that Wright will have tomorrow off. Hopefully that breather will help him. Tonight’s play was embarrassing, but I don’t have any doubts about Wright’s desire to win or motivation or any of that; however, I am concerned right now about his ability to hit any semblance of a decent fastball.
To Ed Leyro and Nick above me – Give me a FUCKING break!
There…my first cuss word and hopefully my last but the David Wright Pom Pom waving and and excuses are completely illogical and out of hand now.
Day off MY ASS. No excuse NOT TO run hard, and play SMART. 2 outs, you’re on 2B and the ball is hit. You DO NOT LOOK, YOU RUN, YOU PICK UP YOUR 3B Coach. You ROUND 3B and since you have NO IDEA where the ball is you look at your ON DECK hitter to guide you. If he’s not there just run hard and SCORE.
He’s been not hustling ALL SUMMER LONG. If this was Reyes you’d tar and feather him. Knock it off!
Not only that but this Marlin series is about as big as it gets for the Mets right now. David Wright has been a MAJOR reason of the last 2 collapses and he should be taking this personal. Especially if you’re the alleged face of the team.
He’s not playing to win. He doesn’t know HOW to play to win. He is too politically correct to know how to play to win. He’s too busy worrying about pink bats. Remember how passionate and VOCAL he was about the World Baseball Classic? Remember that? Now he’s Mr. softspoken. He’s a PUSSY!
And guys like the 2 posters above me are too busy waving giant grape leaves around David’s head as he sits in the dugout to realize this. They and fans like them WON’T realize it.
David’s ASS should be on the block and if we can get a guy who plays the game like a Shane Victorino (yes, I said it) ship him OUT.
And all of this is not going to change while Jerry Manuel is the manager. The fundamental mistakes CONTINUE to happen. It is not getting better. This has been going on for months. This is what you’re going to see in 2010
It’s like a family. You keep coming home and thinking something is going to change and it’s not. A divorce is needed. Goodbye Jerry.
How is David Wright responsible for the 2007 collapse? In September 2007 he hit .352, he had an OBP of .432. He hit 6 HR’s in September, he hit 27 RBI’s. If it wasn’t for Wright and Alou the Mets wouldn’t have missed the playoffs the last day of the season, they would have been out of it in early September. Jose Reyes in September of 2007 hit just above .200.
I don’t fully agree with some of Bayonne’s remarks, however the basis of what he says is true IMHO. With regards to David being the “go to guy”, he is not. When the team has really needed him to bring it he has come up short, especially in the Marlins series. For that matter, none of these players have been “the guy” when we need one. If you want great things to happen, you have to do great things. Now one interesting point Randy makes is trading Wright. I realize that is insane to most of you, but what if we were able to get a real franchise offensive player for him? It would be worth it to me seeing how David does not really seem to be motivated which is what he gets paid millions to do, on every single play!
The reason I replied to Gregs post is he has hit the mark with the cause. None of our team is real fundamentaly sound, and the person directly responsible for that is Jerry. He is a terrible manager, he has no real leadership skills, and as long as he is the manager the Mets simply are what they are. Apparently his approach is to “just let them play”, win or lose, who cares.
You’re a total idiot and the worst kind of Met fan. The king that loves loves loves Jeff Francoeur and Omir Santos and Alex Cora and hates the actual good players on the team like David Wright. STFU.
Let’s see….
I like Jeff Francoeur and see him as our Right Fielder next year. Omir Santos and Alex Cora are backups so no need to go to much into that. And David Wright is over-rated, he piles up numbers, that’s it and comes up small in the biggest of spots. He’s a decent 4th or 5th best guy on the team but not a go to guy.
The David Wright Pom-Pom wavers are burning me in effigy but that’s ok, I’m probably a Mets fan longer than most of them have been alive, I’m also a baseball person and I recognize the makeup of winning players and unfortunately, for the kiddie corp….so far, Wright is not one of them.
@Bayonne
You are what is wrong with baseball fans. First off David Wright has been the THIRD BEST PLAYER IN BASEBALL THE PAST THREE YEARS. You blame a guy who had a 1.034 OPS in September 2007 and a .993 OPS in September 2008 for the collapses. Please, help me out, what exactly is a winning player? Is it the guy who is 0-4 every game but the four or five times he has a chance to win the game he comes through? You base your opinion on the few times they come up in those situations and remember when they fail. These clutch situations players get in are so few and far between it is impossible to actually quantify how they do in those situations with any accuracy (I bet you are thinking “numbers don’t tell you everything”)
And I don’t care how long you’ve been a Mets fan, with that inane logic, the oldest person who has been a Mets fan since 1962 is automatically right. To say David Wright is overrated and no better than the fourth or fifth best player on a winning team is beyond idiotic. He’s having a bad year for him. Believe it or not, he’s still having a good year just not what we’ve come to expect from David. Bayonne, and whoever thinks David is overrated, your are a moron. There is no way around it, you do not have a cognitive mind. Please, for those of us who try and understand things that are tangible (i.e. things that EXIST) please stop watching, talking and thinking about baseball so we can have intelligent conversations about it.
I just threw up from reading your nonsense.
Juxtapose the effort displayed this evening by Hanley Ramirez and David Wright and look no further to discern the heart of a champion from the soul of a Prima Donna.
Go to hell.
Wright’s told that he will score easy, by the 3rd Base Coach, who assumes the guy getting the hit has a brain. Every 3rd Base Coach in Baseball would have told him “Up Easy”, because he was fucking up easy.
Yet our fans have a hard on to try and suck, and they want to force our Best Players out of town (i.e Wanting Jose Reyes to get a Career Threatening Hamstring Surgery), so they can be miserable little fucks.
You whiny little pansies deserve 2009.
In fact, you deserve 2007 and 2008 as well.
David Wright NEVER runs out ground balls. EVER. Let’s not forget that. I think he learned this habit from watching guys like Delgado. He has always been a lazy fielder/thrower. That said, he is a nice guy who seems to be moving farther from the plate since the beaning. He also seems to have lost his swing completely from two or three years ago. He has spent this year fiddling with his stance and swing. Last year it was all about jerking home runs. We want the swing that came before that. Why his bat speed has fallen off is anybody’s guess. Face it, he is not a complete player. He is a good RBI guy who does not scare closers. Don’t ecxpect late and close fireworks from him. I think Howard Johnson should be fired. All this messing around has come on his watch. He was a rotten hitter as a player who could only hit a mistake fast ball and should not be instructing others on their approach. He also was a terrible clutch hitter. Ask Sparky Anderson about that one. But he will stay because David likes him. The mets do all their decision making based on what their stupid players want. They have no front office or managing expertise available to them so what can you expect?
Wright is human. He knows he’s played on a sh*t team this year. He knows his GM is a bigot and along with his criminal cronies ran the club like they are at the barras locales.
David Wright is out of steam and dragging to the finish line. He is probably HOPING and PRAYING that Jerry Manuel suspends him for the rest of the year…
There is no point anymore. We will finish in 4th no matter what.
everybody loves David, and for the most part he has earned it. But this is a differnet David this year. He has gotten raves for his batting average this year, but in truth it has come from his becominbg a defensive hitter. He pokes to right field with a bunch of singles, mostly with no one on base. But how many times has he left men on third with fewer with two outs, and this was before all the injuries occured. every pitcher in league knows he can’t hit the low outside pitch, wath how he leans with his rear sticking out. The Mets would be wise to deal him to the Padres for adrian Gonzales and a young outfielder. Too many of us become fans certain players, while in truth we are Mets’ fans. Wake up and be honest. This team is a mess, and it all starts with Omar, and those who keep him as G.M.
This is attributed to the manager. Manuel does not push fundementals, he just sits down preparing his jokes for his post game show. The whole team has been horrible running the bases and fielding this year. Jerry needs to go.
Mountain meet the molehill………..Wright was reprimanded and it went public that he was remprimanded.
Lets talk for days about how horrible he is, how he lacks hustle, how much he sucks, because all of those qualities he posses this year is the ONLY reason why they are finishing in 4th place after all.
I say cut him now, cut your losses………..
No, the solution is to fire Manuel now and get a real field manager instead of Mr All Words and No Action.
Bayonne Met Fan is perhaps the dumbest person alive.
He should be stripped of all voting rights and be sent to live at a Long Term Care Facility.
Wow this was by far one of the more entertaining comment sections we’ve had since the Frenchy-extension-debacle.
Our fundamentals have sucked this year. That is on the manager just as much as the players.
When did he ever have the right stuff??? Go Phillies!!!! You losers never had a chance!!!
I’m taking David’s side here. Unless you have been hit in the head by a 90+mph baseball, you cannot understand what David went through and will not be able to forget for a long time. Hopefully over the winter he will be able to put the event in perspective, but if not, I hope he gets some help from a professional.
We love you David -