FanPost

The Wright Decade: Ten Years with the captain!

The first attempt to aquire a good 3rd baseman,

1970- The mets trade Amos Otis to the Royals for Joe Foy.

1971- Amos Otis becomes a star. Joe Foy is out of baseball.

The second attempt to aquire a good 3rd baseman.

1971- The Mets trade Nolan Ryan and others to the Angels for Jim Fregosi.

1972- Jim Fregosi posts 0.1 WAR in over 100 games at 3rd base for the Mets. Nolan Ryan has his first of many HOF seasons.

Then, for a while, nothing happened.

The third (and final) attempt to aquire a good 3rd baseman. (third times the charm.!)

2000- The Rockies sign Mike Hampton away from the Mets.

2001- Mike Hampton sucks. The Mets use the compensation pick to draft a high school 3rd baseman named David Wright.

July 21 2004- David Wright makes his MLB debut.

David's debut didn't go exactly as planned as he went 0-4. But he didn't strike out, so we can chalk that game up to BABIP.

2004:

Wright bounced back after his 0-4 debut. he posted a wRC+ of 120 and posted 2. WAR in 9 games for New York. This young guy was just waiting for Mike Piazza to leave so that he could take the crown. He had a great year, even though he got 0 votes for RotY but so what, the BBWAA votes for that, so it means nothing.

2005:

2005 was David's first full season. He didn't disapoint with a 142 wRC+ and a 5.7 WAR. The Mets had finaly found a 3rd baseman.

2006:

Another great year! David took over as the face of the Mets franchise with Piazza gone! Some complained about a bad playoff performance, bt the Mets would have never made the postseason without him. David had a 132 wRC+ and posted 4.7 WAR. The lowest single season average WAR of his career. @TRAID@!

2007:

He now has by far the best season of his young career! Davis potsed a 151 wRC+ and 8.4 WAR!!! However im not happy about this. If he had a worse season the September downfall might not have been sooooooooo painful. @#BlameDavid@!!!

2008:

A career high 33 HR's and 232 ISO bring the Mets the same result as the previous year. A wRC+ of 143 helps him post 6.8 WAR! This is now what has come to be expected of the (future) captain.

2009:

For the first time in his life, #5 struggled. The reasons look obvious. He had a .140 ISO (thank you City Field!) and a 22% strikeout rate. Was he striking out more because he wanted more power? probably. Did he want more power because the Mets sucked or because he was challenging the dimensions of the mighty City Field? IDK. Most likely both. But in a down year for him, he still managed to post a 125 wRC+ and put up 3.3 WAR. That's (W)right, being an above average player by almost a WAR and a half is struggling for David Wright.

2010:

With the Mets long gone, Wright deals with Trade Rumors for the first tie in his life. Tis is the first of many examples that show you how great of a guy he is. This is of course all after dupplicating his 2009 season with another above average slump. he posts 3.5 WAR and a 129 wRC+ during the slump.

2011:

The 2011 season was the first one in which David actually slumped. He played hurt, he only played 102 games and only put up a 112 wRC+. Even through the slump Wright averaged to be an above average player, posting 1.7 WAR in only those 102 games. But this season, Wright was a HOFer. Not for his performance on the field, but for his performance off the field. In the middle of May, the Mets owner commented that he's a "really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.". #1 this couldn't be farther from the truth. This was in the middle of the worst season of Wright's career and he was STILL an above average player. And if we started talking about the BEST seasons of Wright career, we're in Mike Schmidt territory. #2 is how Wright responded. After the comment Wright sent out an e-mail that said "Fred is a good man and is obviously going through some difficult times. There is nothing more productive that I can say at this point." Now that's what a good guy does. Us Mets fans wanted to kill Fred, it looks like Wright was pitying him.

2012:

Not a superstar my ass!!! The word "bounceback" doesn't really cover it. David played 156 games in 2012 posting a 141 wRC+. His 7.5 WAR was the 2nd highest in his career. A mojor factor in his comeack year was his vastly improved defense. But the hitting didn't really hurt either. But David's highlight of 2012 has to have come after the season. In November the Mets and their non-superstar 3rd baseman agree to an 7 year 122M dollar deal!

The contract:

New York had 2 young superstar infielders who were set to become free agents in 2013. One signed with his rebuilding ballclub. The other left his team to go to Seattle on a 10 year 240M dollar deal. It's foolish to think that Wright couldn't have gotten the same deal. He played much better than Cano over the two careers. Also the need for such a high caliber 3rd baseman was set in the big markets. The Yankees went on a spending spree, and had no 3rd baseman. The Dodgers are always on a spending spree, they could have used a third baseman. And of course, in a bidding war the Mets would need one too. But Wright chose to stay. He turned down about 118 million dollars. Because he loves the Mets. WE LOVE YOU TOO DAVID!!

2012:

With a brand new contract in his pocket, David continued to play well. He posted 6.0 WAR in just 112 games. David had a career high 156 wRC+. he hit .307/.390/.514 to get that career high mark. I know that wRC+ adjusts for ballpark, but doing it in Citi field is still impressive.

2013:

Another so called "slump" year for David, but he is still on pce to post 4.0 WAR, and this isn't counting the possibility of a 2nd half surge. Wright has so far posted a wRC+ of118, playig alot of the season with a hurt shoulder.

Now for some GIF's!

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via 25.media.tumblr.com

Links

The Mets draft David Wright

Wrights career highlihts

And this GIF one last time!

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