New York Mets Could Have Something Special In Ike Davis
Zach Petersel over at The Curious Case of Sidd Finch - a New York Mets website – posed an interesting question on Friday. He asked: Does the New York Mets’ Ike Davis compare favorably to the Cincinnati Reds’ Joey Votto? To be honest, my first thought upon seeing the title was “eh, fat chance of that”, but Petersel makes a good argument. I recommend checking out his post and then coming back here for some additional perspective. We all know that the New York Mets need some guys to deliver high levels of production in the middle of their lineup. Jason Bay and David Wright have been big disappointments over the past couple of years while Ike Davis has showed substantial promise. The New York Mets will especially lean on him to provide some offensive thump.
In terms of this comparison to Votto, I think Petersel at least gives us something to think about. He breaks down the numbers in his post so I won’t get into too much of that here. However, I will say that it can sometimes be kind of difficult to develop a fair basis for comparing two players just on stats. There are so many intangible factors that play a role in what stats a player produces and how he produces them. That doesn’t the stat comparisons in this case should be ignored. It just means that I wanted to dig a little bit deeper.
I pulled out a couple of old Baseball America Handbooks – 2008 for Joey Votto and 2010 for Ike Davis – to get an idea of what types of skills each player is using to produce his stats. Votto, a second round pick in 2002, was regarded as a more complete hitter with a solid batting average potential, strong strike zone command and coverage with natural power to the gaps. That assessment obviously turned out to be accurate as he has developed into one of the game’s best hitters.
Conversely, Davis, one of the New York Mets’ first round picks in 2008, did not garner quite the same promise as an overall hitter, but the scouting report recognized that his bat speed and loft allowed him to achieve plus power. Also mentioned was the fact that his swing can get lengthy at times and he could sometimes leave himself vulnerable on the outside corner. That isn’t anything uncommon though. As far as his plus power, it was certainly on display during the final month of 2010 – his rookie season – and during the first 36 games in 2011. Unfortunately, Davis’ season was lost to what turned out to be an ugly ankle injury so we were not granted the privilege of watching him develop over the full season.
To wrap up, I’ll disagree slightly with Zach here because I don’t think Davis will hit quite as well as Votto, but he could eventually supply more power. With that said, Zach definitely nails the most important point on the head. Ike Davis looks like he could be a very good offensive producer moving forward and may even emerge as the New York Mets’ most dangerous hitter as early as this season. That is going to be a huge development whether he’s the next Joey Votto or just the first Ike Davis.
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