One New York Life

2009 Stats: 128 games (Kansas City), .228/.297/.401, 19 HR
2010 Projections: .245/.305/.464, 25 HR
2009 Injury: Kansas City Royal
Contract Status: 1 year/$900K
Position: Back-up 1B

On Offense: No one is ever going to confuse Mike Jacobs as a batting title champion. He’s a three true outcome hitter in the vein of Adam Dunn. When Jacobs steps to the plate, he’s probably going to strike-out, walk, or hit a home run. He dazzled the Mets in 2005 when he came up an hit 11 home runs in 100 at-bats and was promptly traded at high value to the Marlins for Carlos Delgado. He quietly hit 70 home runs over three seasons with the Fish. The knock on Jacobs when he was here the first time was that he couldn’t hit lefties. Since he’s been gone, he’s compiled a slash-line of .221/.269/.374 against them so he hasn’t really improved. He’s been insistent this spring that he’s figured it out but, as MLB.com’s statistic engine still sucks, I really can neither confirm nor deny that. Jacobs is going to get a chance to prove he can hit lefties this year… and Daniel Murphy better hope he can’t.

On Defense: Jacobs is the prototypical DH playing first. This is the reason I think he’s probably going to make the team. Right now, the Mets’ don’t have their Jim Thome/Raul Ibanez/Gary Sheffield player — the guy who can slot in to the DH spot in Interleague play and be a competent hitter instead of a bench player getting at-bats. The Mets have no real “good” option at first base other than Ike Davis, who they seem to have no interest in starting on Opening Day. The defense is just a wash.

On 2010: Jacobs, to this point, failed to heed the memo that the starting 1B job is Daniel Murphy’s. Jacobs has been destroying Spring Training and between he and Ike Davis’ two grand slams, Murphy is honestly looking more and more like third on the depth chart. Jacobs hasn’t been exactly toeing the party line in regards to Murphy — he’s said to the press more than once that he’s pretty sure he should make the team and relatively certain he can take over the starting job. Folks hung up on his .208 average willfully ignore the .354 OBP and .458 SLG. Folks hung up on his bad season in Kansas City willfully ignore how much it must suck balls to play a 162-game season for a team that’s not in contention by April 5th. Seriously. Can you think of anything worse than kludging through a 162-game season as a Kansas City Royal? I mean, relative to other professional athletes? It’s worse than playing for the Nets this year because at least those guys know it’ll be better next season. If Jacobs figures out how to hit lefties… Murphy’s season is going to be a short one. At the moment, Jacobs is probably battling for the last roster spot with Frank Catalanotto. Fortunately for him, Catalanatto’s .100/.174/.250 isn’t exactly setting the world aflame.

Surefire Prediction: Jacobs hits a home run in his first appearance. 874 articles are written the next day about how Murphy should be fired.