Everyone likes Ike

The response to Ike Davis' debut was overwhelmingly positive. I was surprised at the number of news stories nationally, including two articles at baseball prospectus and one at fangraphs.

Here is an excerpt from the baseball prospectus articles:

In all, Davis saw 13 pitches and only two were fastball. Yet he managed a pair of hits on non-fastballs, making for a solid debut for Davis and good news for the Mets, whose first basemen had combined for the second-worst OPS (516) in the National League prior to Monday, ahead of only the Pirates (391).

And From Kevin Goldstein (prospect expert), also of Baseball Prospectus:

Davis certainly entered the year as the club's first baseman of the future, but the plan was for that to begin in September if Davis continued to make progress at Triple-A. Injuries, poor performances, and bad signing decisions have moved that timetable up considerably. The future is certainly bright for Davis, but I wouldn't expect too much until next year. He's in the big leagues right now by need, not design. 

Mike Axisa from Fangraphs had this to say about Ike versus lefties .

His bane is lefty pitchers, and has been since his days at Arizona State (seriously, who had him beating college teammate and fellow 2008 first rounder Brett Wallace to majors?). Davis hit .267 (.369 BABIP) with a .110 ISO against southpaws in the minors, compared to .297 (.343 BABIP) with a .203 ISO vs. righties, though 191 and 478 at-bats aren’t the largest of sample sizes. He did hang in well to single off Sean Marshall last night, who fed him three curveballs and a slider.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/ike-arrives


My take: He has created a much needed buzz around this Mets team, and an unexpected buzz nationally. Hopefully his arrival will jump-start the Mets into a winning streak, because at the end of the day, that's all that matters.