Updated Post 5/22
During Tuesday night’s Mets broadcast, general manager Sandy Alderson said he intends to stick with slumping first baseman Ike Davis for a little while longer, but added that there’s a chance that he might be better off going to Triple-A Las Vegas for some period of time.
Alderson said it’s hard to ignore what Davis did in the second half of last season, but the big difference is that the team is not playing well at this time and he needs production.
Davis went 0-for-3 during the Mets’ 4-0 loss to the Reds on Tuesday night and is 1-for-his-last-36.
The fans let him have it as they loudly booed him during each plate appearance. “What are you going to do?” Davis said afterward.
He is now batting .149 with 48 strikeouts and a .478 OPS in 42 games this season.
Original Post 5/21
Perhaps Sandy Alderson knew of Andrew Brown’s strained oblique when he said there was nothing imminent about sending Ike Davis to the minor leagues. Assuming he did not, it is puzzling as to why he’s in no hurry to ship out his struggling first baseman.
Eventually, Alderson said, “everything comes to a head at some point,’’ but evidently it is not hitting .156 two months into the season. Either are Davis’ other miserable numbers.
Alderson said he’s interested not in results, but good at-bats. Sounds good in theory, but that won’t happen if Davis’ thinking doesn’t change, and there’s no indication of it happening soon.
About the minor leagues, Davis said that would not help because he needs to learn to hit at this level. Davis insists he’s a home run hitter, that he likes to hit home runs and strikeouts are part of the equation.
I can’t scream “that’s crap,’’ loud enough. Davis is so married to his pull-everything approach that improvement is almost impossible to attain.
Davis’ extraordinary wide stance offers no alternatives but to lunge, and he doesn’t have the discipline to lay off breaking balls down and away and fastballs up in the zone. Davis’ mechanics and approach must be torn down and built back up. It could take a month for that to happen, and it shouldn’t be a month up here.
Incredibly, Davis said he’s having positive at-bats, that in Chicago he just missed driving a few balls. But, the fact is he missed those pitches so they can’t be considered good at-bats. It isn’t as if he’s hit a lot of balls on the screws or driven them to the warning track.
Davis was 1-for-24 on the trip to St. Louis and Chicago; is hitting .103 (4-for-39) with runners in scoring position; and is on pace for 177 strikeouts.
When he first came up, Davis showed a willingness to go to the opposite field. There’s none of that now.
Davis said he’s still playing good defense, but he’s delusional there, too. He should have been given an error when he short-armed Ruben Tejada’s wild throw in the dirt in Chicago. The ball did not take a short hop and was something he should have snared.
He was also flat out lazy Monday night on a obstruction call that opened the door to a big inning for Cincinnati in the first inning.
Davis’ head isn’t screwed on straight and he’s fallen into a myriad of bad habits that preclude good at-bats. Davis anticipates getting a month to work out of his funk, but how much lower will the Mets sink in that time?
For the past three years, the Mets had to settle for lousy at-bats and performance from Jason Bay because of his salary. Currently, Alderson plans to have the Mets settling from horrid performance from Davis despite a manageable contract.
OK, Brown is out, but what about Zach Lutz? What about making a move and adding Josh Satin to the 40-man roster?
It doesn’t matter what they do, except for standing pat, and Alderson hasn’t given a good reason for choosing that route. That decision is doing a disservice to the Mets and not helping Davis any, either.
Thoughts from Joe D.
What a waste of a month it’s been for Ike Davis. Had Davis been sent down to the minors at the end of April when I first called for such a move, he could of been back by now and contributing to the team again. But instead he continues to deteriorate statistically and it’s dragging the team down offensively AND defensively.
Check out this screenshot of his last ten games:
This is further evidence that Davis is still in a downslide and not making any progress at all. He has struck out in more than a third of his at-bats in his last ten games. His average has sunk from an already woeful .190 to .152 after batting just .080 in his last ten games.
What’s worse is how negatively this has affected him defensively. He’s stabbing at balls, lost much of his range, and mishandling throws to him.
He looked completely out of it yesterday when he was called for obstruction. His instincts are shot. His head is not in the game.
Send him down already before the situation becomes completely unsalvageable.
