I understand their frustration, but I fear that such protestations are somewhat misguided for a couple of reasons.
1. Andres Torres?
While I can understand the desire to let Jason Bay get into the everyday lineup, so we can see if his early-season hitting was a true return to form (and return on the Mets' investment), Bay is just one piece of the outfield puzzle.
It seems to be being ignored (perhaps because of Davis' troubles) but Andres Torres is not hitting well at all, either. He also didn't hit well last year and is 34 years old. It's reasonable to say that Andres Torres on the bench with Nieuwenhuis in center and Duda remaining in right is the correct answer for the outfield alignment, now that Jason Bay's returning to left.
2. Will it help Ike?
Ike Davis' major league resume has close to 1,000 plate appearances and and adjusted OPS of 106, even with this year's hitting woes (100 is average). That's enough of a sample size to tell us that his hitting prowess from 2010-2011 was not a fluke. On the other hand, it's not a huge amount of experience.
It seems as though pitchers are currently throwing him soft stuff away and are consistently getting him out with their junk.
Davis is certainly aware of this and he doesn't believe that being sent down will help him. Speaking about whether a trip down would help him, Davis said "It’s not going to help me down there. If I hit .400 down there, what’s it going to do up here? You can’t just hit in the minor leagues. That’s not going to help." (source)
While it's clear that Davis' take on the matter is biased, it's not clear to me that it's incorrect. Naysayers will point to Steve Trachsel's renaissance in 2001 after a trip to the minors. But there's a big difference between pitching and hitting.
Pitching, by its very nature, involves an action. Steve Trachsel was not doing his required action well enough, so the Mets sent him down to a less pressurized environment where his experimentation would not hurt the big league club to work on his control. (Trachsel also - unlike Davis - felt that his trip to AAA would improve his pitching, so in that situation the demotion was not going to lead to any discord.)
Hitting, on the other hand, is based on a reaction. (I've read this, but it's also clearly true.) The pitchers at the major league level, on the whole, are significantly better than the pitchers in the minor leagues. Because of this, Ike Davis' potential positive performance at, say, AAA will not necessarily do much to help him hit at the major league level, because while he'll have improved his reactions, he'll have improved his reactions to a qualitatively lesser level of pitching. (In other words, he will not have practiced the type of reaction which he'll have to perform on the major league level.)
Additionally, it seems as though part of what's causing Davis' anemic batting results is simply bad luck. His BABIP this year is .203 - significantly below his career rate of .301.
Listen - BABIP certainly isn't the answer to all of Davis' struggles - but he thinks he can figure out the rest without a stop in Buffalo.
Hitting, on the other hand, is based on a reaction. (I've read this, but it's also clearly true.) The pitchers at the major league level, on the whole, are significantly better than the pitchers in the minor leagues. Because of this, Ike Davis' potential positive performance at, say, AAA will not necessarily do much to help him hit at the major league level, because while he'll have improved his reactions, he'll have improved his reactions to a qualitatively lesser level of pitching. (In other words, he will not have practiced the type of reaction which he'll have to perform on the major league level.)
Additionally, it seems as though part of what's causing Davis' anemic batting results is simply bad luck. His BABIP this year is .203 - significantly below his career rate of .301.
Listen - BABIP certainly isn't the answer to all of Davis' struggles - but he thinks he can figure out the rest without a stop in Buffalo.
