Mets Player Performance Meter, Week 1

Fan confidence in the 2011 Mets is scrape-the-ground low, but with a 4-6 record through the first ten games of the season it's a little premature to call it a season just yet. The Mets' starters haven't pitched very deep into games, and as a result the bullpen, ineffective to begin with, has been stretched too thin. Blaine Boyer has already sent packing, while Ryota Igarashi and Jason Isringhausen have joined the team to provide some relief for the other relievers. Lucas Duda has also been shown the door, though waiting for him on the other side isn't unemployment but rather a bus ride to Buffalo. The worse fate of the two is open to discussion.

While this will be a weekly temperature reading of the Mets who have seen significant playing time in the preceding seven days, this first go-round will bring us up to speed for the season to date.

Player	Last Week	This Week	Comment
Pedro Beato, RP			Has yet to allow a run in four appearances spanning six innings. Beato? More like Be-Great-Oh.
Carlos Beltran, RF			The wonky knee has been good so far, though he hasn't done much at the plate apart from his two homers the other day.
Blaine Boyer, RP			17.6 hits per nine is an obvious aberration, but Sandy Alderson wasted no time in jettisoning Boyer in favor of Ryota Igarashi.
Tim Byrdak, RP			Left-handed batters are hitting .273/.273/.636 in 11 plate appearances. Whatever, small sample.
Taylor Buchholz, RP			Four walks in 5.2 innings is not what we're looking for, and the crevasse separating his 1.59 ERA from his 4.96 FIP will be filled by regression to the mean.
Chris Capuano, SP			The ERA isn't great, but eight strikeouts and just two walks in 6.2 innings are encouraging.
D.J. Carrasco, RP			Only in this bullpen will a 4.76 ERA get you a sideways arrow. 3.02 FIP is pretty reasonable, actually.
Ike Davis, 1B			Davis has been the Mets' best hitter so far, leading the team in average (.351), on-base percentage (.419), and slugging (.568). He is on pace for 178 RBI.
R.A. Dickey, SP			His control was a little spotty last time out, but that can be attributed to a split nail Dickey suffered during the outing. He's their best pitcher, of course.
Lucas Duda, OF			Willie Harris took his playing time early on, and Duda didn't hit at all when he did see game action. He's up in Buffalo now, ceding his roster spot to Jason Isringhausen on Sunday.
Brad Emaus, 2B			Just 4-for-24 with no extra-base hits. He hasn't embarrassed himself with the glove, at least.
Scott Hairston, OF			.243 OPS is not a misprint.
Willie Harris, OF			Harris looked great in the opening series against the Marlins, but has hit just .235/.316/.294 since then and, at least stylistically, hasn't looked so hot in the field, either.
Daniel Murphy, UT			His glove has been better than advertised at second, but he hasn't hit yet.
Jonathon Niese, SP			The results—namely a 6.55 ERA—aren't there, but the process is rock solid: ten strikeouts and two walks in 11 innings augur well for Niese.
Angel Pagan, CF			Pagan is hitting .179 with a home run and six singles, but he has been great in the field and his six walks are tops on the team. Still, .561 OPS?
Bobby Parnell, RP			Parnell is getting plenty of strikeouts early, and he looked really good overall before being raked for three runs and the "loss" in Monday's come-from-ahead defeat to the Rockies on Monday.
Mike Pelfrey, SP			It takes two pretty lousy starts to make a thoroughly pedestrian start seem pretty decent by comparison, but I suppose any improvement is a good thing.
Jose Reyes, SS			.340 batting average and .489 slugging? Good. Just one walk in nearly 50 trips to the plate? Bleah. His .372 BABIP might not be sustainable (duh), so his OPS will quickly go in the crapper if he can't remember how to draw walks.
Francisco Rodriguez, RP			With just two games finished, Rodriguez is on pace for 32 this season, well short of the 55 needed for his 2012 option to vest.
Josh Thole, C			Thole is hitting .276/.344/.310 so far, with three walks, seven strikeouts, and just one extra-base hit—a double—in 32 plate appearances. A high-on-base, low-power catcher has lots of value.
David Wright, 3B			TRAID DAVID WRONG is hitting .325/.378/.550 with two home runs and eight knocked in. His 12 strikeouts lead the team place him among the top ten whiffers in baseball.
Chris Young, SP			Young has been one of the pleasant surprises so far, tossing two great games and fanning 12 in 12.1 innings. The 4.4 hits per nine innings won't be that low for long, though.