Nervous Nick Evans: Is He the Key?

With all of the recent "Expo caliber" player signings, the failure to bring in any hitters of note (Dunn, Manny, etc), the season looks like it might come down to whether or not Nick Evans can continue to mash lefty's.

OK, OK stop laughing and at least hear me out.

With the Mets lefthanded cadre of returning players and new additions, and the increasing amount of lefthanded starters and relievers in the NL, every righthanded bat is a commodity.

For the unaware (and there aren't many of you since we know how savvy Mets fans are), Nick Evans scorched lefty's for much of last year.

How good was he?

2008 Batting Splits
Overall	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	HBP	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Total	109	18	28	10	0	2	9	7	1	24	0	0	.257	.303	.404	.707
By Breakdown	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	HBP	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs. Left	72	15	23	8	0	2	5	6	1	15	0	0	.319	.380	.514	.894
vs. Right	37	3	5	2	0	0	4	1	0	9	0	0	.135	.150	.189	.339

That is a pretty good sample size, and the results are there.

It's also no coincidence that when the Mets played their best baseball of the season in July and August (18-8 and 18-11), that Nick was putting up back to back months of .300+ BA with a few timely hits thrown in for good measure.

He faltered in September, and we know how the club finished.

So as we enter 2009, the club has essentially the same starting lineup--Fernando Tatis and Daniel Murphy seem likely to split time in leftfield, and that leaves Nick Evans as a primary righthanded bat off the bench.

His minor league stats show a guy quite capable of hitting for average with a little power thrown in, and he is improving...the real question is what is his ceiling?

Though overmatched at times, he does have a quick bat and an agressive attitude at the plate--both good signs.

If he only looked a little less nervous.