14
2012
Beltran Says Duda Will Be A Great Player
An article by 
Yesterday, former Met Carlos Beltran spoke to reporters and actually had some nice things to say about his former team. Beltran said he felt bad for Met fans who want see contender right now, but sees the Mets as a young team with great prospects, but that it’s going to take some time
He’s very excited about what he sees in left fielder Lucas Duda:
“I think he’s gonna be a great, great player for the Mets… He has the potential to go out there and compete and put up some good numbers. He has the power and the talent. I think he is going to continue to get even better now that he will play everyday. He’s one of the Mets’ great young players.”
Duda was one of the league’s best sluggers during the second half of the 2011 season. Since arriving to camp two weeks early, Duda has done nothing but impress. He has been working hard on improving defensively, and almost daily he puts on a hitting show during batting practice.
After missing a couple of days with a sore back, Duda came roaring back on Monday and belted a monstrous grand slam.
It’s going to be fun watching Lucas Duda this season.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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I think that lucas duda will be a good player for the mets, imo he’ll definetely be a 30+ hr guy for the mets, not having reyes at the top will hurt his RBI total as he has the potential to be a 100+ rbi guy as well, with reyes at the top he could’ve seen more fastball just as ike, but that’s nor here nor there. he’s not here, but i still think Duda and ike will carry the mets for years to come… Of course, he was not ranked in the BA top 100 so a lot of people are not as high on him..
I agree about Duda and Ike having a lot of potential. Still some issues where Duda has to prove he can play any position and Ike has to prove he can hit LH.
That being said I do take issue with the Reyes comment. Assuming that Duda is hitting 4th or 5th how exactly would the lead-off guy provide them with more fastballs?
TRS86, wright was the 5th hitter on the team during the 2005-2006 and major part of 2007, all season he was a 100+ rbi guy… i think reyes had a lot to do with that don’t you think?
How many of those RBIs were Reyes?
From 2005-2008 reyes avg 114 runs and 65 SB’s per year… I think that had a lot to do with the whole team scoring a lot of runs, plus having Beltran and Delgado also helped.. Pitchers were more afraid to face any of those 2 than wright, which gave him more opportunities to drive in runs, and he was a good opposite field hitter, specially with 2 strikes, he went away from that and became mr unclutch… You should know that by now
You are debating 2 different points. How on earth would the #1 hitter provide more fastballs for the #5 hitter. Logically it just doesn’t work that way. Now if you are saying that they were more willing to pitch to Wright because of Delgado and Beltran I can buy that. However, that would also mean that Castillo and Beltran got more fastballs to hit because of Reyes, not the #5 hitter.
thinking about it, it would never happen, since there is no way you can have the lead off man on 1st base with the #5 hitter up.
You could end up with 1st and 2nd 2 outs, but normally the guy on 2nd isn’t going to be trying to steal 3rd in that situation.
trs86 — Beltran yes, Delgado no. Delgado had three good years with the Mets, 2006-2008. He was in Florida in 2005 and he didn’t do much at all in 2009. In 2009 he played only in 26 games.
Let’s compare Delgado and Wright for the 2006-2008 period. Carlos had BA’s of .265, .258 and .271. Wright for the same three years had BA’s of .311, .325 and .302. For the period, Delgado had 440 hits. Wright had 566 hits. How about doubles? Delgado had 92, but Wright had 124. Triples? Delgado had 3, but Wright had 8. Only in HR’s did Delgado have more than Wright, 100 to 89. Carlos had 198 BB but David had 254 BB. When on base, Carlos had 5 SB, but David had 69 SB.
So who was better as a hitter in 2006-2008? Overall Wright clearly was better. He hit 11 less homers but he had 126 more hits, 32 more 2B and 5 more 3B. Wright’s BA was about 40 points higher on average. Wright also had 64 more SB. This leads to the overall conclusion that Wright was more valuable to the Mets for the three year period.
Des that’s good information and of course I think Wright was the bets Mets hitter during that time. My point is the absolutely ridiculous thought that Reyes provided Wright more fastballs when he was hitting 5th.
trs86 — I agree that the impact was drastically overstated. Wright was on fire in the 2006-2008 seasons.
wait, if I have this straight, more guys getting on base leads to more opportunities to drive them in which leads to more runs being scored?
so OBP is actually important after all?
Stick, see wright when he had boppers and good hitter in front of him 2005-2008 and then see when he was labeled the man and “franchise” player for this team 2009-2011… then come talk to me…
See his counting numbers, the only ones that some allow in 2010 when there was NOTHING on the team.
Not only was that illogical and wrong, it does not even address my question.
Well again you are asking about fastballs. Lets play out the inning.
Lets assume that it’s the first inning and Reyes gets a single.
Next up #2 hitter, job before on the Mets just to move over the hitter, 1 out.
Next up the #3 hitter, job drive in the guy on 2nd base, fails, 2 out.
Next up the #4 hitter, walked to face Wright.
Next up the #5 hitter, again so Reyes on 2nd base and the #4 hitter on 1st base the pitcher is going to give Wright a fastball because of Reyes on 2nd base?
How exactly would the #1 hitter be on 1st base terrorizing the pitcher to force him to throw a fastball for the #5 hitter?
Not only that but how many of those innings does the #1 hitter come up in the same inning as the #5.
Thus saying that any #1 hitter can help the #5 hitter see a substantial amount of fastballs just defies any logic whatsoever.
Carlos always was a class act.
I’m seeing some actually wanted Beltran to stay. Think of it this way though, with Beltran still here, Duda doesn’t get a chance with this club.
Carlos can’t play CF full time anymore. Duda can’t play CF and Bay and his albatross of a contract is firmly entrenched in LF.
Beltran is a good guy and a great player. Did he or we move Duda to LF already?
sadly, just wishful thinking that bay will be gone and Duda will be moved to his best home on the field.
At least I am in good company, with Beltran and Kiner gushing over him too.
Ha! I can hear Kiner now “No Pongas En Duda A Lucas Duda!”
I can only imagine how badly Ralph would mangle that. Would probably translate to something like “your wife rode Duda like a donkey”.
ahh, that catchy phrase sounds familiar… the CORE!!!!!!
Keith had nothing but praise for his swing too yesterday during the game.
That is actually one of the things I liked so much about him. Even though in college and early in his pro career he had less HR power than you would expect from a guy his size (lingering effects of an earlier wrist injury I believe), he was a very good and complete hitter (situations, hitting with 2 strikes, controlling the plate, going the other way). Actually, in some ways, he was a lot like Keith as a hitter.
But, people thought it was strange that a guy his size had that type of style.
”
So once he finally got inthe habit of turning on balls and driving them, without abandoning his ovearall approach (since he had so much natural power he did not have to “sell out” to hit dingers), he bacame a monster.
His D obviously keeps him from being a 5 tool guy, but he has plenty of bat to cover for the glove. Even in AAA, putting up an OPS of 1.000 is not easy, and he did that 2 years in a row. So the .900 he put up last year (at least in the 2nd half 80 games) is not surprising.
Here’s hoping he stays healthy this year.
Give us a reason or two to look forward to these games…..
The only worry I have regarding Duda is the fielding…And I’m not worried about the errors themselves because errors happen all the time you just accept them.
The Worry is that his fielding exploits will be taken with him to the plate and affecting his hitting, just as the hitting was taken out to the field with Pagan and affected his fielding in reverse!
If he makes too many errors that cost the team the game the press and fans will get on him (not fairly but since when has the press or fans ever been fair) and that may take a toll on him in the batter’s box!
Lets hope he can avoid that because if he hits the way he has the errors in the field will be offset and meaningless because of the offense he will provide!
Metsi — It’s the errors, the judgement on the routes he makes, and sometimes his trouble with the walls . Understandably, last year his lack of experience didn’t always show up in the box score but nonetheless cost the Mets. Yup, if can hit as many of us expect, his net value will be terrific.
Yep and that skill will come the more he plays there…
Fences coming in will also help him as he can’t really cover a lot of ground. Has less to cover this year.
If he hits the way he has there sure won’t be any issues for me!
the only worry is if the fielding starts to affect the hitting!
And I think we will see vast improvement in the fielding this year!
So I’m not really concerned about him at this point.
I expect some circus acts from time to time but if he keeps hitting those few won’t matter because he will get those runs back with the bat!
Perhaps the dimensions in right being less this year will help Lucas in the field.
With less room to cover he would no longer have to contend with catching up with 400+ foot fly balls and thus the ones that remain playable will require less room and less time for him to get into proper fielding position. As Des points out, a lot of his fielding woes had to do with his judgement.
It will…It will also help that he has 6 months under his belt seeing the ball come off the bat from that RF perspective!
In time he will get better and not need to make great strides to get to the ball!
The mets will be great from 2013 and on forward because they will have very young team and a great team that will be coming up from the minors and maybe from trades of their veterans for young prospect . I”m very happy that Sandy Alderson became their General Manager and he gave us mets fans new hope for the future.
Ask the Pirates how well that has worked!
Very Young is also very INEXPERIENCED and doesn’t know HOW to win the way a Vet team does!
And at this rate our Vet will be Ike Davis!
Ping,
One should be hopeful but there is little guarantee that even if top prospects do work out, that farm system can produce enough of them that the Mets now require. Let’s say all the kids currently on the team now do develop into good, solid everyday players, including Tejada based on the age of what we have now at other positions, we will still need at least three starting pitchers, almost an entirely new bullpen , an infielder to replace Wright and two outfielders. That’s nearly half a team. Since we will not be going strongly into the free agent market and they will need at least two years to develop fully in the majors, that’s too many holes to fill.
It has happened. I was a college freshman when the ’69 team pulled off it’s miracle filled mostly with players of three or less years of major league experience. We saw it in Tampa Bay, too. But that’s over a span of 42 years.