Driving back from North Carolina on Saturday, I fumbled with the radio trying to get WFAN. Around Salisbury, Maryland, I was finally able to pull in the 50,000 watt station. The first thing I heard was Wayne Hagen saying that David Wright had finally sat up at home plate with the trainers hovering over him. Gulp!

Another glaring indication of how this Mets season has gone. I kept wondering while on vacation if this season could get any worse. Each night, the scores on ESPN were not making me feel any better that the Mets had any chance of getting back in it this year. Then the icing on the cake was Wright getting plunked on the head. There is not a more symbolic event this year than what happened to Wright on Saturday.

The core is completely gone, on the disabled list, a season of injury like no other. Thank goodness David will be okay and I’m glad to see that common sense prevailed in disabling the third baseman.  In fact there is no reason to bring him back even when he comes off the list. Why take any chances with Wright’s future on a season that has become meaningless.

You can criticize David’s loss of power or his bad throws to first all you want but there is no bigger gamer the Mets have than David Wright. Marty Noble of MLB.com has hinted at David struggling with a groin injury all season and that could be why he has not hit for power or appears to be dogging it out of the box. But Wright would never use an injury as an excuse or stay out of the lineup. Now, the concussion has given him and the Mets no choice.

The Mets should rest Wright, Reyes, and Beltran the rest of the season. There is no point in bringing any of them back, especially David. The worst thing that can happen is for Wright to get hit again. Regardless if Wright is in the lineup, the Mets will finish in fourth place.  It’s time to start thinking about next year.

It’s also time for MLB to make the 100MPH helmet developed by Rawlings mandatory. A lot of players do not like it because the way it looks, big and clumsy. But if it’s mandatory, all hitters will look just as silly, no one will stand out.

A couple of years ago, minor league third base coach Mike Coolbaugh died of injuries suffered when struck by a batted ball in the temple. Had he been wearing a helmet, he likely would have survived. Since then, all line coaches in the major and minor leagues must wear a helmet, a common sense solution a bit tardy in being implemented.

Although, Wright was wearing a helmet, the model he and others currently use has little padding on the sides. The helmet prevented Wright from severe head injury but did not protect him from a concussion. Baseball should do everything it can to protect its players before a player is severely injured or God forbid, killed.

Last Saturday, Wright, Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers, and Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda were all hit in the head, Kuroda by a batted ball. Thankfully, none were seriously injured beyond concussion. Hopefully, Saturday will serve as a warning to MLB to get safer before it’s too late.

Just some more information to support the fact that David Wright is about as untradeable a Met as they come. The table I have included compares Wright's statistics to all the other third baseman in the National League. Wright leads the pack in almost every category.   more »

The sports genius Mike Francesa was at it again today on Miked Up, Francesa on the Fan. He was once again touting the idea of trading David Wright. He defended not trading Carlos Beltran because there is no other center fielder in baseball with comparable numbers. I agree with that. Mike also defended not trading Jose Reyes because he is an outstanding leadoff hitter and a great defensive shortstop. I agree with that too. But in his infinite wisdom, Francesa then proclaimed that Wright is expendable because there are lots of third basemen out there. This is where I disagree with the self exalted sports maverick.

 

Let’s take a look at what the Mets have in David Wright. Wright came up in the middle of the 2004 season. In 69 games, Wright batted .293 with 77 hits, 17 doubles, a triple, 14 homeruns, and 40 runs batted in. He scored 41 runs and had a slugging percentage of .525. Since David Wright began playing full seasons starting in ’05, he has batted in over 100 runs each season. He hit over .300 every year averaging .309 with a slugging percentage of .533. Wright’s homerun total has gone up each season with 33 in 2008. He also reached a season high of 124 RBI, a Mets record surpassing Mike Piazza. David has hit 42 doubles every year since 2005 except 2006 when he hit 40. He already has 819 hits meaning he will likely reach 1000 hits by the end of next season provided he stays healthy and it will only be his fifth full season in the Majors. Wright sports some of the best stats in baseball since he came up.

 

David is also a tireless worker, a gamer who has to be dragged out of the lineup. He has worked tremendously on his defense taking ground ball after ground ball before games. He worked so hard that he won the gold glove last year and it’s likely he will win it again this season. There isn’t a week that goes by during the season that David Wright doesn’t make the highlight reel on ESPN.

 

Then there are the intangibles. David Wright has become the face of the Mets. He’s a standup guy who is always ready to talk to the press no matter what the circumstance. Most importantly, he absolutely loves being a New York Met. He is one of a handful of prospects the Mets have developed who, if he stays healthy, could be headed to the Hall of Fame. Tom Seaver was one of them. Nolan Ryan was another but he didn’t go in as a Met because he was traded away. The point is David is a franchise player. Players like Wright do not grow on trees. The Mets would never receive the talent back that could justify such a deal.

 

Is David Wright perfect? No, but he’s damn close. I know Wright struggled with runners in scoring position this year. That can happen to any player, ask Alex Rodriguez. But was David Wright the number one reason the Mets failed this season? Don’t just look at the final game of the season. That is not where the Mets lost a playoff spot. They lost it in many other games throughout the year. The bullpen was the number one problem. The corner outfielders were another area of concern due to injuries. Pedro Martinez struggled as the fifth starter. There was little production from the catcher position and second base also was a huge issue. And don’t forget for the first half of the season, Carlos Delgado struggled mightily.

 

David Wright’s production with runners in scoring position may have been a problem but it was not near the top of the list of reasons why the Mets are not still playing. And if you don’t think his numbers meant anything this year, I shudder to think where the Mets would have been without them.

 

An optimist would look at the 2008 season and say given all the adversity, it's incredible that the Mets made it to game 162 and were still relevant.

 

David Wright will continue to grow. There were lessons to be learned this season and Wright is a good learner. He tried too hard at times pressing to do it all himself. He will learn to stay within himself and be the clutch player he can be. Remember, during last year’s collapse in September, Wright had a phenomenal month. He simply struggled this year at a time when the Mets needed him to produce. But to be fare, other Mets hitters were not contributing either.

 

Mike Francesa, for all the accolades made about him, really has no idea what he is talking about. His basic thesis is that the Mets have won nothing with David Wright. And only a fool would assume that coming within a game of the World Series in 2006 is winning nothing. David Wright was part of a division championship team. That is an accomplishment. A true baseball fan understands that winning championships takes time. Only the self absorbed instant gratification types do not understand that. I guarantee that if the Mets traded David Wright, they would take a step backward before they would move forward. It’s simply a foolish idea from a foolish sports talk show host.

Trade David Wright? I for one would not do that. I feel David Wright has the best years ahead of him. But a couple of knuckleheads who grace afternoon drive time at the opposite ends of the dial in New York think Wright is the problem.  

 

There is no question that something needs to be done before opening day next season. An overhaul of sorts is required. Mostly, that overhaul should be in the bullpen. Many of the pitchers in that pen contributed to the demise of the 2008 Mets. How does anyone expect a team to win a division when the bullpen authors 30 blown saves? That is intolerable.

 

But the remarks made by Mike Francesa of WFAN and Michael Kay of ESPN Radio (both Yankee fans) reflect almost a football mentality. For two years in a row now the Mets failed on the last day of the season. Also in both seasons, the Mets compiled losing records during the last two weeks against also-ran teams. This is a problem and certainly it cannot be denied.

 

But you cannot reconstruct your team with the idea that next year when we face elimination on the last day of the season, we’ll have the players to win. That’s a bit absurd, don’t you think? The point is the Mets for two seasons in a row should have never been in the position to lose the season on the last day. That’s the bigger problem and that is what the focus should be on. The Mets goal in retooling the team should be to create a roster that can capture a playoff spot before the last day of the season.

 

This is not to say that the Mets did not choke the season away at the end. They did. This year the Milwaukee Brewers were in the midst of a meltdown that would make what the Mets went through pale in comparison. But, the Brewers righted the ship during the last week of the season going 6-1 where as the Mets went 3-4 on their final home stand at Shea. So is there a problem, yes of course. Is trading David Wright the answer? Not unless the return is so great that it almost guarantees a playoff spot next year and for years after.  

 

When you look at 2008, there were so many devastating losses, Mets fans became numb. How many leads did the bullpen give back? Would the Mets have been under the same pressure the last couple of weeks had the bullpen did their job? Likely the Mets would have been in position to clinch the division by mid-September had the pen saved most or even half of their opportunities.

 

My point is that regardless of the offensive woes with runners in scoring position the bullpen was the primary cause of the Mets failure to get into the post season. The Mets secondary culprit was the hitter’s inability to tack on runs late and get key hits with two outs.

 

Both issues must be addressed but before the Mets trade David Wright, they had better have some super plan. If you think the fan base is angry now, wait till David Wright starts hitting baseballs out of sight at Citi Field wearing another uniform.

 

On the heels of two seasons where the Mets lost a chance to go to the post season on the last day, I would be naïve to think that no player is untouchable. But in David Wright you have a franchise player who has now knocked in over 100 runs and has hit 25 home runs or more for four consecutive seasons. He struggled this year in clutch situations. That means he needs more support around him. Also David needs to grow up and realize that he cannot do it all. Part of his problem was he had too many big swings when short swings were required. David needs to get back to being the hitter he has been in the past where he took the ball the other way hitting line drives. He has to have faith in the other players around him. He needs to remove the weight of the world from his shoulders.

 

Mike Francesa and Michael Kay are more interested in creating controversy than what really ails the Mets. That said, Omar Minaya has a daunting task in front of him. But trading David Wright would likely hasten Omar’s exit from running the Mets, new contract or not.

David Wright hit a game tying ninth inning home run in an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo last night.   more »

If the Mets were smart, and with Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya in charge I believe they are, the Mets would sit down and lock up David Wright for the next 100 years.   more »