I don’t think Ike Davis is a lost cause. It would not surprise me at all if two years from now he were hitting 37 homers, defending at a high level and doing so for, say, the Tampa Bay Rays.
Some players excel from Day 1 with little deviation throughout their careers. We tend to call them Hall of Famers — think Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones.
But for the other 98 percent — even above-average performers — there are dips, swerves, veers. Baseball is, indeed, a game of adjustments: A player succeeds initially. Opponents counter by uncovering weaknesses and then attacking them mercilessly — never more than today when computerized hot-and-cold zones better define specific areas and types of pitches hitters cannot handle. We then learn if the player can adjust to the adjustments.
This involves reworking physical skills proven to work from T-ball through the early majors. And it also means rewiring mental circuits of players who have grown cocky from that success — “I have always done it this way and it has worked, why would I change now?”
At this point Davis probably is too open to new advice, overloaded with information, being killed by attempts at kindness. He looks mentally fried, beaten down by the debilitating brew of failure, daily interrogations on that failure and recognition there simply is no quick fix to a .147 batting average and .481 OPS — both major league lows among 169 qualifiers.
So for his good and that of a team consumed by his daily travails, Davis should be sent to Triple-A. Not for punishment, but to try to recalibrate his swing and resuscitate his confidence.
After all — besides Matt Harvey’s starts — Davis’ at-bats have become the must-watch event around the Mets, just for all the wrong reasons. Let’s see what horrible thing Davis can do now.
The tension and attention around Davis before, during and after each game is compounding the stress for a team now a season-high 10 games under .500. He has become the face and target of a Mets season in freefall. Sure, his teammates want him to stay. Maybe because he is a good guy or maybe because his removal would rightfully spread the blame beyond first base.
The only reason Davis has survived this long is because he revived from a near-equal horror-show start last year to finish with 32 homers, 90 RBIs. But Davis’ problems and mental scars feel more substantial this time.
He has been reduced to seeing the silver linings in walks or long flyouts. What else is there when you have one hit in your past 38 at-bats and your nine RBIs are tied for 237th in the majors.
Jesus Montero also has nine RBIs and was demoted yesterday by the Mariners. Like Davis, he was supposed to be a middle-of-the-order cornerstone for a rebuilding team. Seattle would have overlooked the horrendous defense behind the plate if Montero honored the hefty offensive projections. Instead, as Michael Pineda makes inroads toward the Yankees’ rotation and away from his shoulder surgery, Montero will be at Triple-A, perhaps learning to play some first base, but mainly trying to recapture his hitting mojo.
And if a general manager on the brink, Jack Zduriencik, can make such a concession a season-and-a-quarter after expending a chip as good as Pineda on Montero, then the Mets must do the same with Davis — if for nothing else, to try and help Davis recover trade value.
Again, he is not a lost cause. Just look, for example, at how Texas’ Mitch Moreland has crested and fallen in about the same number of career plate appearances (1,216) as Davis (1,495). There certainly were many calls to give up on Moreland. But with Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli and Michael Young gone, Moreland arguably is the best hitter on a Rangers team with the AL’s best record.
Can Davis ever do that for the Mets? He will have to be rebuilt, and that is best begun away from New York, away from such negative daily scrutiny. For Davis the first step forward has to be a step backward to Triple-A.
Mattingly unlikely to dodge L.A. ax
With all of his struggles and the Triple-A guillotine poised over his head, Ike Davis is not on the hottest seat in baseball as we break out our barbecues this Memorial Day weekend. That honor belongs to a former New York first baseman.
It feels as if Don Mattingly is managing one of those Yankees teams he was on in the late 1980s — a disjointed group of stars and a skipper seemingly on an hour-by-hour firing watch. Just he is the Dodgers skipper, so the hourly calculations are for him. Matters had gotten so uncomfortable that there were reports out of L.A. that Mattingly was safe only for tonight’s series opener against the NL-best Cardinals.
But ESPN reported last night that Dodger GM Ned Colletti and Mattingly were on the same page, and that the manager’s job was in no imminent peril. That came in the aftermath of the the normally laidback, encouraging Mattingly going all Bobby V on Wednesday, criticizing the construction and individual elements of his roster, notably the tenacity of right fielder Andre Ethier.
With all the money that has been spent in buying this team a year ago then in investing in big-name players since, someone is going to pay if the losing persists — and it is not going to be Magic Johnson, who in Boss fashion called this a championship-or-bust campaign.
No one has run away in the NL West, so even in last place at 19-26, the Dodgers are just six games out. They have a dynamic 1-2 punch atop the rotation in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke plus what looks, at least on paper, like plenty of talent. So upper management is not going to surrender, not with a $200 million-plus payroll. That is why this current vote of confidence will mean little without a reversal. For Mattingly is on the thinnest of ice if his new bosses — same as the old Boss — believe a managerial change will stir this drowsy roster.
PREDICTION: If Mattingly is canned in the coming weeks watch for Steinbrenner’s son, Ha
l, to try to bring back a popular figure in some to-be-determined job.
Adams’ O’Day in sun
The reason Jesus Montero was not traded a year-and-a-half earlier than he was to Seattle was because David Adams’ damaged ankle failed a Mariners physical, and so Seattle shifted directions and traded Cliff Lee to Texas rather than the Yankees in July 2010.
Adams was so broken down, in fact, that the Yanks took him off the 40-man roster late in spring to get Vernon Wells on. The Yanks signed Adams back because they believed if he ever could get healthy he could hit in the majors.
Well, he has gotten healthy and, at least early on, he has hit in the majors — plus fielded much better at third base than anticipated. His strong work at third, in fact, will allow manager Joe Girardi to play Kevin Youkilis at first, at least against lefties, to spell the currently overused Lyle Overbay when Youkilis returns from the disabled list, likely next weekend.
Adams hit .316 in Triple-A and since his promotion, in 26 at-bats, he is hitting .308 with four extra-base hits. His second career homer came Wednesday against Baltimore’s death-on-righties Darren O’Day (you may remember what he did to another Yankees third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, last postseason).
In fact, before Adams’ homer, O’Day had not given up a regular-season homer to a righty since Mike Trout last July 6 — a span of 119 at-bats.