One New York Life

2009 stats: (A+/AA), 114 games, .298/.381/.524, 20 HR
2010 Spring Training: 11 games, .500/.556/1.000, 3 HR
Contract Status: Reserved, signing bonus
Projected Position: Daniel Murphy’s or Jeff Francoeur’s replacement

On Offense: As noted above, Davis is destroying Spring Training and, honestly, the only reason he isn’t front-running for the starting job is because of management’s burning desire to prove they weren’t wrong about Daniel Murphy. Last season, Davis had something of a rough go of it in A+, but on his promotion to AA Binghamton, started tearing the cover off the ball. I maintain the Mets were brilliant when they decided to move their AA and AAA squads to Western New York. If you get demoted to Port St. Lucie or New Orleans — eh, no big deal — weather’s nice and there’s stuff to do. Get demoted to Binghamton or Siberia Buffalo? Play some baseball in the light snows of June and you’ll either get your head on straight or you’ll wash out. Literally the only thing for players to do in Binghamton is try to bang college girls. The only thing to do in Buffalo is to eat chicken wings and try to not get shot.

On Defense: Reports out of Spring Training suggest that Davis has the best glove out of the first basemen — including the probable starter/platoon. Davis has the slight edge for being the only guy who throws lefty from the position. He’s had a few hiccups at first so far, but most seem to agree these are a combination of jitters and the speed of the “major league” game. I expect Davis to iron out these problems at first and probably get a bunch more right field play in Western NY this season. Whichever of Jeff Francoeur and Daniel Murphy don’t live up to expectations will likely find their jobs belonging to Davis in 2011.

On 2010: My biggest fear, at the moment, is that Davis ends up in a package to the Astros or Reds for Roy Oswalt or Bronson Arroyo before the team bothers to see what he brings to a major league roster. Mets’ fans, in their normal overreaction, want Davis to make to make the major league roster out of the gate this season with no time spent at AAA and only a half-season spent at AA. This is yet another bit of evidence of why I can no longer really read Mets’ blogs, news, or listen to talk radio. In the last three years, the Mets have brought up 5 players with minimal-to-none AAA experience due to fan pressure. Lastings Milledge (couldn’t judge balls in the outfield, fans turned on him when he didn’t perform, traded for nothing), Fernando Martinez (less than 30 games at AAA, hit .176/.242/.275, fans turned on him, got injured), Mike Pelfrey (mostly skipped AAA, started his career 0-8 in 2007, fans wanted him murdered or traded for prospects), Daniel Murphy (skipped AAA entirely, Canseco-esque fielding, three months hitting .202, want him replaced with another AA player), and Joe Smith (9 innings of AAA, future closer, traded as part of the Great Bullpen Cleanse Of 2008). Slow down, people. Let a guy come up naturally. Let the guy start the season in AAA, get some innings against better pitching, and bring him up when the first inevitable injury occurs. The worst thing for a young guy is sitting on the bench, coming up and hitting .120, or coming up and getting banished for no good reason.

Surefire Prediction: Davis destroys AAA. Winds up traded. I get sad.