Over his last three games, Ike Davis has an OPS of 1.843 with one strikeout in ten plate appearances, along with a home run last night.
From May 23-26, Davis posted an OPS of 1.056 over four games, with one strikeout in ten plate appearances. He followed that with a .371 OPS over his next 11 games.
In four games from May 7-11, he posted an OPS of 1.161, with his two most recent home runs prior to last night. He followed with 10 games at a .216 OPS.
In four games from April 15-18, he posted an OPS of 1.157, with three home runs. He followed with eight games at a .294 OPS.
The point here isn’t that Davis is doomed. If/when he comes out of his slump, it is going to look like all the other times he seemed to be doing so, then faltered, until he sustains it.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ike Davis is battling a year of rust, a still-tricky medical condition that may or may not be Valley Fever, and the worst slump of his professional career. Last night’s home run felt cathartic to watch; I can only imagine how it felt for Ike Davis to hit it. The poor man has been through entirely too much over the past year; no one could have anticipated all this for a 24-25 year old baseball player who seemed poised for stardom.
More evidence is needed that he can sustain what he’s done over the last three games. But it has been an enjoyable start, and easily his best small stretch of the season.
1 Comment
We’re all rooting for Ike. His power, which the Mets sorely need, is a given. He is consistently fooled, however, by crafty pitching, and needs to learn to slowly rein-in that loopy swing a bit, stop fishing and to take bending outside pitches and accept more walks – until this approach forces the guy on the mound to give him at least one good pitch an at-bat, which he must then pounce upon. If he has a dud batting behind him, and he keeps swinging wildly, he’ll rarely see a hittable pitch.