Time to demote Ike

[Guest themetfairy]

He's not dead yet!

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Hopefully, he is starting to turn it around. I guess we'll know whether that is the case or not, by the end of this homestand.

[batmagadanleadoff]

NL first basemen, min. 125 PA's*




*Posting in this thread does not necessarily constitute my vote for Ike's demotion

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Vote of Confidence + 2 weeks and he's just as bad as before it.

200 PAs enough?

[batmagadanleadoff]

I dunno, but just ponder Ike's slash numbers for a few moments:

.164/.227/.281

[Edgy MD]

Jason Bay, as before, is perhaps his hobgoblin. If Ike sees Bay's jersey hanging in a locker, it's probably not a comfortable feeling. With a little hitting from Torres too, it gives the Mets some cushion to staff first with Duda and Rottino.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Jason Bay, as before, is perhaps his hobgoblin. If Ike sees Bay's jersey hanging in a locker, it's probably not a comfortable feeling. With a little hitting from Torres too, it gives the Mets some cushion to staff first with Duda and Rottino.

Which might been Ike only has through the TB series before his next check in. (I think Terry mentioned using Bay mostly at DH at first.) 9 games. Give me 4 XBH, 4 singles, and 4 walks and you can stay. Figure he gets about ~36 AB, so that's ~ a .333 OBP and a .250 average.

[Lefty Specialist]

A .508 OPS. I didn't think that was possible.

For comparison, Rey Ordonez' career OPS was .600.

[TransMonk]

I give him a couple of weeks in the minors to work on his plate approach without the stresses of the MLB in NYC.

At this rate, he's not helping anyone and he has been given ample time to snap out of it.

[metirish]

Please Mr. Alderson end this now!

seriously, I think Terry and the FO said again the other day that Ike is not going down and needs to fix himself here. Keith Hernandez thinks this is great, but how the fuck can they allow a guy to go 0-4 nightly, the fact that they have said several times he in NOT going down leaves them in a vulnerable situation I think. Are they flip floppers if they send him down?, should Ike approach them and asked to be sent down as advocated by Boomer and Carton this morning?

[Benjamin Grimm]

If the Mets want to continue to hang in this pennant race, they need to act like they're serious about winning. And teams that are serious about winning aren't content with a first baseman who hits .160.

If they were ten games below .500 right now, I'd be more willing to be patient with Ike. But if it were up to me, I'd send him down now (or at most, in the next fifteen minutes) and move Duda to first. And I'd let Hairston play every day, at least for the time being.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ike's latest comments on the get-sent-down situation were a reiteration of his "I need to fix this up here" philosophy.

But look, Terry removed the pressure from him for a few weeks and it's still no better.

[Edgy MD]

And credit to Sandy and Terry and everybody but now we're at another place and it's as good a time as any for a re-evaluation.

And with Bay hitting the ballpark today, I'd be surprised if they weren't having a very serious conversation right now.

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: . Are they flip floppers if they send him down?, should Ike approach them and asked to be sent down as advocated by Boomer and Carton this morning?

They'd absolutely kill him for that later on for having no 'competitive fire' or whatever. And I get that I guess. I don't see Ike, or really any professional athlete that hasn't hit absolutely rock bottom (and maybe he has), ever thinking "I should go away and work on some things" over "I've been putting my work in, TODAY is the day I break out."

They're not flip-floppers though, if they do. No decisions are ever final. If you let him last through the little league park in the Bronx and he still looks bad, give him 2 weeks in Buffalo and recall him for the Wrigley Field series.

My impression the last couple of days weren't so much that he was missing things, but more that he was guessing wrong and taking at the wrong times. Gary or Keith or someone has mentioned this. He'll take that easy to hit pitch early, and he keeps getting in these 0-2 counts where the pitchers are that much harder. sometimes he fights back to 2-2 but usually thats because the pitcher missed, and he's going to miss outside because it's a pitcher's count. So he's got three tries to make the perfect pitch and usually either Ike swings at the pitch that drops out of the zone, or it nicks the corner and he's out looking.

[Gwreck]

Let's all hope the Mets don't take any cues from what hosts on WFAN think.

I don't want Ike to "ask" to be sent down. It's abundantly clear that doing so is best for the team, so that's what they should do. Ike has a contract and he'll play where the Mets tell him to.

[Benjamin Grimm]

And more and more, I'm thinking that if he goes down, he may never come back. I hate to say it, but there's a real possibility that he's washed up.

[metirish]

Gwreck wrote: Let's all hope the Mets don't take any cues from what hosts on WFAN think. I don't want Ike to "ask" to be sent down. It's abundantly clear that doing so is best for the team, so that's what they should do. Ike has a contract and he'll play where the Mets tell him to.

Ha!, I didn't want people to think it was my idea so I gave them due credit......and in there thinking Ike doing that would forever ingratiate himself with the fans.

[bmfc1]

Ceetar wrote: My impression the last couple of days weren't so much that he was missing things, but more that he was guessing wrong and taking at the wrong times. Gary or Keith or someone has mentioned this. He'll take that easy to hit pitch early, and he keeps getting in these 0-2 counts where the pitchers are that much harder. sometimes he fights back to 2-2 but usually thats because the pitcher missed, and he's going to miss outside because it's a pitcher's count. So he's got three tries to make the perfect pitch and usually either Ike swings at the pitch that drops out of the zone, or it nicks the corner and he's out looking.

This continued to happen last night. The first pitch to him every at bat was a fastball and I don't that think he swung at any of them. He can't adjust to the off-speed pitches so he has to attack the fastballs, even if it's the first pitch he sees.

[Frayed Knot]

In addition to the other demotions over the last few weeks for guys that were in similar situations to Ike (Gaby Sanchez, etc.) the BoSox sent down Daniel Bard yesterday (the same day his little bro got drafted).
He was last year's 100 mph-throwing set-up man, briefly a closer, then turned into a starter, and now is in Pawtucket as a project.

[Edgy MD]

So who do I gotta sleep with to be a project?

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: So who do I gotta sleep with to be a project?

grab your glove. we'll have a CPF baseball game and tweet at all the scouts to come watch.

[Vic Sage]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: And more and more, I'm thinking that if he goes down, he may never come back. I hate to say it, but there's a real possibility that he's washed up.

But why? Was the injury was that profound, or valley fever is that significant? Or was he was just a flash in the pan to begin with?
I don't buy any of that.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Vic Sage wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: And more and more, I'm thinking that if he goes down, he may never come back. I hate to say it, but there's a real possibility that he's washed up. But why? Was the injury was that profound, or valley fever is that significant? Or was he was just a flash in the pan to begin with? I don't buy any of that.

I don't claim to know what's wrong with Ike, but I've been floating at least the idea that Ike might be permanently diminished. If you'll recall, there was some credible talk last year that his foot injury was a career threatener.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, I have no idea either. But with such prolonged suckage, I don't think we can still assume that he'll eventually snap out of it. Maybe he will; I sure HOPE that he will. But maybe he won't.

[metirish]

Two bases on balls and a nice hit the other way into the gap for a double.

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: Two bases on balls and a nice hit the other way into the gap for a double.

the hit was real nice, the soft roller to second, not so much. Good to see him walk, but they were wild walks, not quite the 'fight off good pitches, avoid bad ones' walk.

[nymr83]

Well at least we know he still has the skill/eye not to swing at that garbage, because there are plenty of major leaguers who would never have the discipline to take what the pitxher gives them and draw two walks in a game even if the pitcher is a bit wild.

It took almost two months to convince me it was time to send him down so one game won't convince me he is back. I'd still send him down tonight, but if they don't I hope he can string more of these performances together and prove he should stay.

[Benjamin Grimm]

So far in June, Ike is hitting .280 and slugging .460.

[TransMonk]

That's more Ike-like. I really hope he is pulling it together.

Keep it up, Davis.

[nymr83]

It would be great if we never had to discuss a possible Ike-demotion again, but he's not out of the woods yet and needs to keep up his play of the last 2 weeks