What If David Wright Is Not as Good as We Think, Mets Fans?

I'm reminded of a scene in a movie where Jack Nicholson is walking out of a psychiatrist's office.  He stops, looks at the patrons in the waiting room, and asks, "What if this is as good as it gets?"

Well, what if this David Wright, the peaks and valleys, the streaks and slumps, the hold your breath every time he throws the ball to first base...What if this is as good as he gets?

No one will argue that Wright has shown flashes of brilliance in his Major League career. His numbers from 2005 through 2009 are impressive:

Stats Courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

In his best season (2007), he was an All-Star, he won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger Award, and he was fourth in MVP voting.

The problem with Wright is that his numbers never tell the whole story.

I'm sure Mets fans everywhere will agree with me when I say Wright has never been clutch. And although he's a Gold Glove winner, it sometimes looks like he's throwing a ball made of solid gold to first base.

Wright's offensive effort last season, in which his strikeouts were way up and his home runs were way down, was written off as an anomaly.

This season, when Wright hit a home run in his first at-bat of the year, I was convinced things had changed.

Fifteen games into the season, it seems like things haven't changed that much after all.

Wright already has 18 strikeouts in only 70 plate appearances.  Although he's already hit three home runs and walked 19 times (which may be a result of Jason Bay's early season struggles), he's clearly struggling at the plate.  Struggling so much that he's being booed frequently at Citi Field after at-bats.

I'm not a believer that a 15-game sample is in any way indicative of what the full season will look like when it's over, but I am a believer that Wright's season will be full of highs and lows just like it was last season (click here).

So Mets fans are at a crossroads. Do we call out the boo birds when Wright is in a down swing and not hitting anything? Or do we just accept the fact that this is the hitter he'll always be.

Maybe lowering our expectations will be good for everyone, David Wright included.

Here's to hoping I'm wrong.