The Rocket ride of Ike Davis

It seems like everywhere you turn in the Metsblogosphere Ike Davis is being mentioned, now those accolades have even begun to suggest that the young first baseman could end up in Queens next year.

After years of watching Omar over inflate prospects and rush them to the majors, only to have them flop, I'm leery of anyone being placed on an accelerated path with him in charge.

I've asked this several times, since Omar took over and began this accelerated program that is suppose to push prospects to meet their potential what has it produced.

In five years, Mike Pelfrey advanced faster then any other pitcher from his draft and now he can't decide whether to balk or throw the ball into the ground half the time ( of course that's an exaggeration ).

Any other player on this team from the farm you could say the same thing about, they need more seasoning. Now; Nick Evans, Josh Thole, Tobi Stoner and Lance Broadway you could say were a result of injuries but guys like Dan Murphy, Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese and Bobby Parnell were by design.

The fact that with all the injuries, which SNY posted a number the other night which was over 1,000 games missed, the Mets went through all the journeyman ( Figgy, Redding, Misch, Taki, Dessens, Valdez, Nieve ) and then into the prospects and not one was ready speaks volumes for the farm system.

I know we have a group of promising young prospects in the lower levels but still, in five years to have not developed one player better then how Pelfrey is currently preforming, tells me something is amiss.

I'm a big proponent of trade, so maybe it's my own fault since I'm always screaming for trades, maybe we've traded our future stars away. I just don't see anyone we traded who is an All-star caliber player; Lasting Milledge and Carlos Gomez could someday but one brought us our franchise Ace and the other has issues. Brian Bannister, Jason Vargas, Mike Carp, Henry Owens, Matt Lindstrom still only seeing contributors at best, well Heath Bell is an All-Star but I don't see him sustaining that level and he wasn't selected by this group nor did they seem to like him.

The point is this, in five years they have not developed one all-star caliber player who is on this team or somewhere else in the majors, using their approach. So any player with promise who starts to receive the type of buzz Davis is receiving I'm concerned they're going to rush to the majors and retard their development, like they did with Milledge, Gomez, Pelfrey, Martinez, Parnell, Murphy, etc...

Most of these guys spent very little time in AAA and for most of them, the exact same thing was said about each and everyone of them, they could use more seasoning. The mistakes they made or are making are a result of being rushed and not properly developing through the farm system.

I'm glad Davis is taring it up in the minors and looks like he's our future 1B, I can't wait to see him in 2011 but if their answer is Ike in 2010 because he tore it up for Team USA, Binghampton and Arizona then they're making another mistake. Come July if Ike Davis is destroying AAA and you want to bring him up to replace a guy on the bench hitting .240, I would have no problem with that but if he's in camp competing for the starters job at 1B in March there's an issue...

In my opinion, Dan Murphy is what he is ( Miguel Cairo) a utility player, making him the first baseman again next year with Davis waiting to be brought up only compounds the mistakes made. Murphy should be the utility player next year with a solid 1B brought in on a one year deal. A Russell Branyan, Adam LaRoche, Nick Johnson, Doug Mientkiewicz ( again) type guy who won't cost a fortune, do a solid job and only demand a one year deal.

Davis has been tabbed as the Mets’ Sterling Minor-League Player of the Year and could unseat Murphy at first base sometime in 2010. source Daily News