Rising Apple Player of the Week: David Wright

The Rising Apple staff will be starting a weekly feature where one player will be chosen and highlighted on our site for their outstanding or unique performance for the last week. If you have a nomination on who should be crowned as the Rising Apple Player of the Week, please let us know! You can leave us a comment, tweet us (@RisingAppleBlog) or make a comment on Facebook.
David Wright has been the Mets MVP all season long as he’s been the team’s most consistent offensive player, as well as the biggest threat in the lineup. Despite some big weeks from other New York players, Wright’s performance in the last seven days merit his first Player of the Week honors from Rising Apple.
Coming off the blowout victory against the Cubs on Wednesday, New York flew into Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers and left-hander, Chris Capuano. As a team, the Amazins have not been very successful against southpaws, so Wright and his
.363/.490/.538 triple slash against lefties went to work, as he carried the team to their second straight victory. This performance is capping off a week where he did only hit one home run, but has compiled 10 hits in 26 at-bats, good for a .384 average, and has scored four runs. Wright has also driven in 10 runs this week, with seven of them coming in the last two games.
What won the POTW honors for Wright this week? Well, in addition to the usual punishment he has been giving opposing pitchers, he’s continuing to re-write the Mets record books. Wright drew his 581st walk as a Met last night, passing Darryl Strawberry for the franchise lead. The third baseman also hit his 192nd career home run, putting him in a tie for third on the Mets all-time list with Howard Johnson. Wright is 28 homers away from reaching Mike Piazza for second place, and 60 away from taking Strawberry off the top of that list as well.
Last night was the final opportunity for fans to vote for their favorite players to start the All-Star game, and as if he hadn’t done enough to prove his case, Wright decided to take over the series opener against the Dodgers to show his worth once more. The third baseman has led the voting at his position since the start of the season, but he’s also led the league at his position in most offensive categories. This has been a special year for David, with this honor of being Rising Apple’s Player of the Week surely not going to be his last.
Honorable mentions this week:
Ike Davis put together a .272 average in the last week, and supplied a lot of power, blasting three home runs, driving in 8 runs, while scoring 5 times himself. Jonathon Niese was one of the few pitchers that was consistent in all his appearances, as he threw 13.1 innings this week against the Yankees and Cubs, giving up only 3 runs and striking out 11 while getting both victories.