I was trying my best to avoid buying into Lucas Duda’s absurd destruction of Triple-A pitching, but since it simply hasn’t stopped, it’s probably time the Mets call him up and see what he’s about.
Apparently there’s a subscriber-only piece about Duda up at Baseball America that explains how he’s finally changed his approach back to pulling the ball after breaking his wrist in 2005. Something like that.
Who knows? Duda has a .322/.394/.643 line in Buffalo and a .307/.401/.586 line for the season. At 24, he’s hardly a baby, but he’s still clinging on to prospect age.
Duda is not on the Mets’ 40-man roster, but the club could, I believe, make room for him by moving John Maine to the 60-day DL or parting ways with Extra-Base Omir Santos.
Tedquarters 
Does he play RF? As lontg as hes taking AB’s away from Jeff Francoeur, i’m all for it.
It would be interesting to see what Duda can do against major league pitching, but at this point you may as well let him finish out the season with the Bisons. Unlike the Mets, they’re actually in the running for a playoff spot (6.5 games back of the Scranton Yankees in the division with 16 to play including 6 against Scranton, and only 2 back of the Columbus Clippers for the wild card). It would seem that if the Mets are serious about doing right by Buffalo by fielding a competitive team, calling up the Bisons’ best hitter to play meaningless games for the Mets would be the wrong way to go about it.
I saw that piece on Duda today, that discussed his recent power surge. Seems that in 2005, as a college freshman, he broke his left wirst. That led to a decrease in power, due to not being able to turn on and rip inside pitches. He also adjusted by becoming more of an inside-out/opposite field hitter.
even in the minors, while he ws only ~ a 10 HR guy, he put up solid hitting numbers, and a nice high OBP and even solid OPS. So he was never a “weak” hitter. Just not a big HR guy.
THe fact that he rediscovered his power (HR) stroke this year does not have to be considered some anomoly, or related to “selling out” his swing to generate HRs. His walk and K rate have stayed good.
Entirely possible it has much to do with being fully healthy, and basically readjusting his swing/approach to take advantage of his natural power. The dude is like 6’5″, 240#. And after watching some of his shots, he generates a ton of power (some of his shots look like Dunn).
all this, while still maintaining a controlled swing, and good plate coverage.
If he can get to be considered at least a decent (average?) fielder, he could be the real deal.
SO of course, I expect the Mets to trade him for a washed up MRP, but that is just the Met cynic in me coming out!
I would have no problem in a week or so, when the Buffalo season is over, with calling up Duda and Evans and letting them platoon in LF. Heck, I would be fine with Duda just starting every damn game. He has improved his splits vs. LHP quite a bit this year.
Duda has also played some games in RF, but more in LF. Doesn’t matter this year that much, since it puts frenchy on the bench, and pagan plays the other spot. But certainly, if he is a viable option for 2011, either Duda or bay will have to shift to RF.
I watched that one Bisons game recently that was on SNY. I was really watching to try to get an idea about how fast he is, especially patrolling the OF. My take is that because of his size, he seems slower than he really is, although I could be wrong. I don’t think that he could cover the ground in Citi Field’s right field, but Jason Bay could. If he can cover LF in Flushing, he’s worth a shot. If (and this is a big if) he can carry his AAA numbers to the majors, and improve against LHP (which he has slowly done in Buffalo this month, though still not great), we could be looking at the Mets future cleanup hitter.
When the Bisons’ season ends, he should be called up. Let’s hope that Mets management is smart enough to give him playing time.