Prospect Focus: Ike Davis

Splits courtesy www.minorleaguesplits.com

The Mets took Ike Davis with the 18th overall pick in the 2008 draft out of Arizona State, where he had a composite line of .352/.418/.601/1.019 in 684 ABs (68 2b, 32 HR, 77/131 BB/K), with a .192 K rate and a .5878 BB/K ratio.

In his junior year, Davis hit .385/.457/.742/1.199 (82 for 213, 64 runs, 26 2b, 3b, 16 HR, 76 RBI, 6/8 SBs, 31/34 BB/K), with a .160 K rate and an outstanding .9118 BB/K ratio. Against lefties, Davis hit .347/.430/.733/1.163 (26 for 75, 21 runs, 8 2b, 7 HR, 27 RBI, 11/18 BB/K), with a .240 K rate and a .6111 BB/K ratio, while against righties, he hit .397/.475/.777/1.252 (48 for 121, 40 runs, 17 2b, 3b, 9 HR, 46 RBI, 18/13 BB/K) with a miniscule .107 K rate and an equally outstanding 1.384 BB/K ratio.

Upon signing with the Mets, he was sent to Brooklyn where he had an all together brutal time of it, hitting just .256/.326/.326/.652 (55 for 215, 17 runs, 15 2b, 17 RBI, 23/43 BB/K), with a good .200 K rate, and an equally good .5349 BB/K ratio. Davis hit better against lefties, .317/.369/.383/.752 (19 for 60, 4 2b, 5/15 BB/K), with a corresponding .250 K rate and a .3333 BB/K ratio, then he did versus righties, .232/.310/.303/.613 (36 for 155, 11 2b, 18/28 BB/K), with a .181 K rate, and a .6429 BB/K ratio.

Despite his awful year in Brooklyn, and there being some talk in the organization of having him open 2009 in Savannah, Davis opened in St. Lucie, where he enjoyed very good success, hitting .290/.378/.489/.867 (64 for 221, 28 runs, 17 2b, 3 3b, 7 HR, 28 RBI, 31/52 BB/K), with a good .235 K rate, and an equally good .5962 BB/K ratiod.

Davis hit MISERABLY against lefties, just .200/.234/.283/.518 (12 for 60, 4 runs, 2 2b, HR, 5 RBI, 3/18 BB/K), with a .300 K rate and a .1667 BB/K ratio, but on the flip side, hit extremely well against righties, .323/.426/.565/.992 (52 for 161, 24 runs, 15 2b, 3 3b, 6 HR, 23 RBI, 28/34 BB/K), with a .211 K rate and a very good .8235 BB/K ratio. At this point, I would've left Davis in St. Lucie, mostly due to his abysmal numbers against lefties, but the Mets obviously had other plans.

They promoted Davis to Binghamton on June 19th, where he proceeded to annihiliate the Eastern League, hitting .309/.386/.565/.951 (64 for 207, 30 runs, 14 2b, 13 HR, 43 RBI, 26/60 BB/K), with a very high .290 K rate, and a decent .4333 BB/K ratio. He hit markedly better against lefties in Binghamton, hitting .268/.342/.465/.807 (19 for 71, 9 runs, 5 2b, 3 HR, 14 RBI, 8/25 BB/K), with a ridiculously laughable .352 K rate, and a low .3200 BB/K ratio. Davis abused righties, much as he did in St. Lucie. He hit .331/.409/.618/1.027 against AA righties (45 for 136, 21 runs, 9 2b, 10 HR, 29 RBI, 18/35 BB/K), with a very good .257 K rate, and an equally good .5143 BB/K ratio.

Overall in 2009, Davis hit .298/.381/.524/.906 (128 for 429, 58 runs, 31 2b, 3 3b, 20 HR, 71 RBI, 57/112 BB/K), with a .261 K rate, and a .5089 BB/K ratio. He hit just .237/.296/.382/.677 against lefties (31 for 131, 13 runs, 7 2b, 4 HR, 19 RBI, 11/43 BB/K), with a deplorable .328 K rate, and an equally poor .2558 BB/K ratio. Keep in mind Davis did improve substantially against LHP after being promoted to AA.

Against righties, Davis just mashed, hitting a combined .327/.417/.589/1.006 (97 for 297, 45 runs, 24 2b, 3 3b, 16 HR, 52 RBI, 46/69 BB/K), with an excellent .232 K rate, and an equally good .6667 BB/K ratio.

THE FUTURE: Davis should spend all of 2010 with Buffalo, primarily manning 1b (although a little corner outfield shouldn't be out of the question), and should be in line to succeed Daniel Murphy in 2011.