Ike Davis once hit off Goose Gossage before an Old-Timers’ Day in the Bronx. Now, the son of former Yankees pitcher Ron Davis is closing in on playing in Flushing.Davis has been tabbed as the Mets’ Sterling Minor-League Player of the Year and could unseat Murphy at first base sometime in 2010. Righthander Jeurys Familia, who was 10-6 with a 2.69 ERA at low-A Savannah, is the organization’s Minor-League Pitcher of the Year.
Manuel plans to head to the Arizona Fall League after the Mets’ season ends to watch Davis and top pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia play for the Surprise Rafters. The hard-throwing Mejia has a shot to sneak onto the Mets’ Opening Day roster next season as a reliever, while Davis more than likely will begin the year at Triple-A Buffalo.
Davis, 22, has plenty on his plate before then. He is currently the organization’s lone representative on Team USA in the World Cup, which is taking place in Europe. When Davis returns home to Phoenix, he is slated to play first base in the AFL, with a spring-training invite to big-league camp in February surely to follow.
While the 6-5, 195-pound Davis may not be ready to succeed Murphy on Opening Day in 2010, Murphy may be just a placeholder for Davis at first base. A slick, lefthanded fielder with a strong arm that allowed him to pitch while attending Arizona State, Davis combined to hit .298 with 20 homers and 71 RBI in 114 games between high-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton this season.
His power upswing was dramatic. Davis went homerless in 215 at-bats last season with Brooklyn after being drafted in the first round (18th overall) in June ’08.
“I can’t say I’m going to hit 20 home runs every year,” Davis said by telephone from Italy, following a four-hour bus ride with Team USA from Germany. “I hope to be a power hitter. I want to be a power hitter. I’ll work hard in the gym this offseason and keep hitting the ball hard and see what happens. I definitely hit some balls this year that wouldn’t have been out in Brooklyn. It’s hard to hit the ball in Brooklyn to right field (because of the wind off the ocean). But I squared up balls more this year. I was stronger this year. Put those two together and you’ll hit more home runs.”
Davis primarily has played right field, which he manned in college, through two rounds of the World Cup. He’s hitting .417 with a homer and two RBI in three starts. Three games into the middle round, Team USA is 3-0. The American team should comfortably advance to the single-elimination, eight-team finals in Rome.
Davis particularly is looking forward to playing in the Arizona Fall League beginning next month. He grew up attending Scottsdale Scorpions AFL games. This year’s Mets farmhands in the AFL have been assigned to the Surprise Rafters, 45 minutes from his family’s home.
Davis didn’t get to experience his father Ron’s career firsthand, since the righthanded pitcher’s major-league career ended after 11 seasons in 1988, when Davis wasn’t quite two years old. Still, Davis vividly remembers taking batting practice off Gossage as a teenager at the former Yankee Stadium, when his father was invited back for an Old-Timers’ Day.
“The Old-Timers’ games were all I got really because my dad had already stopped playing,” Davis said.
