Ike Davis is Holding Back the Mets But He's Not To Blame

Ike Davis is an automatic out. He's the fat kid on your little league team. He gets up to the plate. Flails at a couple of pitches. Most of the time strikes out. But every once in awhile gets a hit.When that happens we all cheer. Not because we're happy for his success, but because we're surprised something good actually happened.

I like Ike Davis a lot. I had high hopes for him, but there's something wrong between his ears that needs to get worked out. His failures are painful to watch and it's not his fault. The Mets are letting him dig his own grave.

By coming out a few weeks ago and saying they aren't going to send Ike Davis to the minor leagues the Mets organization ruined more than a few games as well as potentially the season for Ike. What they did is show they have no accountability for young hitters. Ike is getting a free pass for being the worst hitter in the National League when he hasn't even been an All Star caliber player. He's only been playing in the bigs for parts of 3 seasons. He's hardly a seasoned veteran that has earned the respect to fight through it. Even Jason Bay's numbers look stellar compared to Ike. Sure he's a nice guy, great in the clubhouse and all that, but last time I checked being nice doesn't put fans in the seats or get you to the playoffs. Wins do.

The Mets are also causing the success of others to be hindered by Ike's playing time. Davis has played almost every game since the announcement that he wasn't headed to the minors. During that time frame, Scott Hairston has hit more home runs, scored more runs and gotten more hits than Ike has the entire month of May. And he's done all that for the most part coming off the bench. When Bay comes back will Kirk have to platoon instead of letting Duda play first? When did the Mets stop putting the team first in the hopes of not hurting someone's feelings.

If the organization honestly believes that Ike Davis would be totally crushed by being sent to the minors do they think that keeping him in the majors and making him suffer through every game and every at bat in total embarrassment is doing much to help his cause?

With interleague play upon us, the struggles of Davis will be even more obvious. Someone who bats merely .200 would be a 25% increase in production compared to Davis. Think about all the horrible hitters the Mets have had in their history. None of the every day players have hit for average as poorly as Davis to this point in the season.

Ike Davis needs help and the Mets aren't giving it to him. With all eyes on the Subway Series and nationally televised games this weekend, you can be sure Ike Davis will want to be out of the spotlight instead of being forced into it.

And most importantly, it's costing the Mets wins. That's too high a price for even the nicest of guys.