The Importance of Being David Wright

To be fair, it must have never been easy to be David Wright.

During a disappointing 2004 season in which the Mets were embarrassed by the colossal failure of Kazuo Matsui at shortstop and the fallout from the now infamous Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano swap, David Wright was the lone bright spot in what was otherwise a depressing season.

Wright was saddled with massive expectations following his impressive performance during his 2004 rookie campaign, in which he batted .293 and slugged 14 home runs in just 263 at-bats. Met fans imagined that Wright would be the home-grown, face of the franchise-type player that would restore the Mets to prominence following their dismal performances in the years following their 2000 World Series appearance.

Wright has done little to disappoint. In his first four full seasons with the Mets, the star third baseman has produced an average seasonal line of a .310 batting average, 29 home runs, and 112 RBI. During that span, he has also averaged 21 stolen bases and captured consecutive gold gloves in the last two seasons for his defensive play at third base.

Never batting less than .300 in a full season, Wright is not only one of the most productive and dependable players on the Mets, but also in all of baseball.

That is why 2009 has been so trying for the Mets’ third baseman. There have certainly been bright spots to Wright’s play this season. He is, after all, batting .324, has stolen 20 bases, is hitting .343 with runners in scoring position, and will be starting at third base for the National League All-Stars.

However, much attention has been paid this season to his uncharacteristically high strikeout totals and low home run figures. After averaging 29 home runs for each of the past four seasons, Wright has hit only five midway through 2009. Additionally, he has struck out 87 times so far this season, which projects to about 164 strikeouts over a full 162 game season.

In the four previous seasons, Wright has averaged a considerably lower 115 strikeouts. He has also already made 12 errors at third base, after having just 16 during all of 2008.

Wright’s uneven play this season has been magnified by the injury struggles that the Mets have dealt with. Without Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado providing him protection in the batting order, and without Jose Reyes getting on-base in front of him, Wright has been seen a reduction in RBI opportunities, as well as decrease in the amount of hittable pitches he sees.

Opposing hurlers can afford to pitch around the third baseman more than they ever could before. The loss of Beltran has seemed to have a particularly catastrophic influence on Wright.

Without Beltran: 75 AB, 18 hits, .240 BA, 1 HR, 5 RBI.

With Beltran: 252 AB, 88 hits, .349 BA 4 HR, 39 RBI.

Far more hits, home runs, and RBI are to be expected with Beltran because Wright has recorded more than three times the at-bats with the injured center fielder than without.

However, Wright has recorded about one-eighth fewer RBI, one-fourth fewer home runs, and one-fifth less hits with Beltran in the lineup than without him. All are figures much lower than the one-third less than would be proportionate to his lesser amount of at-bats.

But, this is to be expected when you have guys like Ryan Church (traded), Daniel Murphy (batting .248), and Fernando Tatis (yes, he’s still alive) batting behind you.

The loss of Beltran puts an incredible amount of pressure on Wright to produce, as he is the lone remaining star and "core" Met player that is not wasting away on the disabled list. It seems that since Beltran’s injury Wright has been conscious of the pressure on him and is trying even harder to produce, with less than desirable results.

With such pressure to perform, Wright cannot make it any harder on himself; he must relax and play the game the way he’s played it for the past four seasons. If pitchers want to pitch around him, he shouldn’t be swinging at pitches out of the zone trying to get hits to make up for the lack of production around him.

That’s not the way to hit. Take bad pitches and either wait for the free pass or the pitcher to throw something real.

Never before in his career has it been more important to the Mets for Wright to be healthy (imagine if Wright were to be shelved with a serious injury?) and productive. But in order for him to do so, he can’t continue to let this glaringly obvious reality get into his head.