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NEW YORK — The New York Mets traded slumping first baseman Ike Davis to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night, parting ways with a power hitter who proved to be too inconsistent at the plate. Coyotes Jerseys 2021 . Pittsburgh sent minor league right-hander Zack Thornton and a player to be named to New York for the 27-year-old Davis. The Mets announced the deal just minutes before a 6-0 loss to Atlanta. Davis was on the field during batting practice earlier in the day. The Pirates had searched all winter for a first baseman, without success in the trade and free-agent markets. „Ultimately, we found the right fit,“ Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. „Hopefully this is a move that solves our first base needs for years to come,“ he said. The lefty-swinging Davis hit 32 homers for the Mets in 2012, but fell off sharply last year. „Obviously, I didnt play as well as I should have,“ he said. Davis was hitting .208 with one home run and five RBIs in 24 at-bats. He lost his starting job to Lucas Duda and was relegated to a part-time role with the Mets, who also have Josh Satin at first base. „You cant play a major league season with three first basemen, so one of us had to go,“ Davis said outside the Mets clubhouse after the game started. „Obviously its an emotional time, but we arent there bawling our eyes out,“ he said. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said the team decided several months ago to trade Davis. „We are happy for Ike and it was a situation we needed to resolve,“ Alderson said. „I would not say that we lost patience with Ike. At some point you have to make a decision about players on the roster, so we simply had to make a choice.“ Said Mets star David Wright: „It happened late so I dont think a lot of guys knew, but Ike will be missed. Through thick and thin, Ike was the best teammate Ive ever had.“ The Mets filled Davis roster spot by activating outfielder Chris Young from the 15-day disabled list. He started in centre field. „Happy to be back,“ Young said before the game. „Seems like its been forever, for some reason.“ Young had been out with an injured right quadriceps. He played one inning in the field for the Mets during the opening week and was pulled before he came to bat. Davis, the son of former big league pitcher Ron Davis, was a promising prospect when he hit 19 homers with 71 RBIs while batting .264 as a rookie in 2010. He got off to a strong start the following year, hitting .302 with seven homers and 25 RBIs in 36 games, but missed most of the season with an ankle injury. Still, he seemed primed for a fine career. Davis power numbers peaked in 2012 — he was tied for fifth in the NL homer race — even while he hit just .227. But he got off to a second consecutive miserable start last year and was demoted to the minors for nearly a month. He batted .205 with nine home runs and 33 RBIs, missing the final month with a side strain. „Obviously, its a little weird. Ive been with the Mets for a long time. Ive got really good friends here,“ Davis said. „Ive had a blast in New York. Its where I made my childhood dreams come true.“ As for joining the Pirates a year after they ended a long playoff drought, „in different scenery it will be better,“ Davis said. Since no cash was involved, the Mets save $3,117,486 of Davis $3.5 million salary. The Pirates didnt bring back first baseman Garrett Jones after the season and went searching for a lefty-hitting complement to Gaby Sanchez. But no major moves developed and the Pirates went into spring training with only prospect Andrew Lambo and non-roster invitee Travis Ishikawa at the position. Lambo didnt hit much in exhibition play and Ishikawa got off to a quick start during the regular season before dipping. Manager Clint Hurdle has reverted back to playing Sanchez — a player who has drastic right/left splits — against righties. „Ikes done a really nice job against right-handed pitchers in his career. Hes had two big seasons and two injury-plagued seasons and were betting that our guys can get him back on the right track. Were betting that he was a better fit in this ballpark than he was in what used to be spacious Citi Field,“ Huntington said. Young went 8 for 12 with two homers in a three-game rehabilitation stint at Triple-A Las Vegas. Young hit 27 homers with 91 RBIs and 28 steals for Arizona in 2010. He hasnt been able to duplicate those numbers since then. The 25-year-old Thornton was 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA in four relief appearances at Triple-A Indianapolis. He will report to Las Vegas. Jeremy Roenick Jersey . Every. Single. Game. Thats 1,230 in total to cover the regular season. The man is Corey Sznajder, a soft-spoken 23-year-old Salisbury University grad who lives in Annapolis, Maryland and has been charting zone entries and zone exits throughout the NHL. I love big projects, he said. No kidding. At the 2013 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I met Eric Tulsky, who presented research on the value of controlled zone entries (short answer: about twice as valuable to enter with control of the puck rather than dumping it in) and Sznajder had charted a couple hundred games that were included in that study. Kyle Turris Jersey . „We were left with the overall impression that the team wasnt trending toward being able to compete for a Stanley Cup,“ Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said in a news conference at the clubs arena. „And that was just a clear signal and why it was time to make those changes.LONDON, Ont. – Tomas Kaberle was the 204th selection at the 1996 draft in St. Louis, the second to last player the Maple Leafs would draft on a day that saw the Senators pick Chris Phillips first overall. Kaberle, who could reportedly try out for the New Jersey Devils later this fall, stands as the only homegrown defenceman Toronto has sent to an All-Star game in more than 20 years, a fact that highlights the organizations difficulties drafting and developing talent of its own on the blue line. In fact, since 2000, the Leafs have drafted only six defencemen who went on to play 100 games in the NHL, a solid and yet unremarkable group featuring Carlo Colaiacovo, Jay Harrison, Ian White, Anton Stralman, Carl Gunnarsson and Luke Schenn – all of whom have since moved on from Toronto. Morgan Rielly will soon become the seventh in that group – he played 73 games as a rookie last season – the first in a pool of prospects thats become deepest and most intriguing for the Leafs on defence. Weve got a stockpile there and theyre all different shapes and sizes, Jim Hughes, the teams director of player development said recently. Among them is Matt Finn, who finished last season as the second-highest scoring defenceman in the OHL, captaining Guelph to the leagues top record, an OHL championship and a berth in the Memorial Cup. He will make the jump to the American League this fall. Its going to be tough, he said of the transition. Youre playing against men now with families. Its serious. Its a job now. Its not just fun in junior anymore. Youre not going to get all the opportunities, he continued. Youre not going to be a superstar like you were in junior anymore. Youre going to have to earn your stripes and take it day by day. Its never going to be easy. A second round pick in 2012, Finn will now have to battle for ice-time with the Marlies, helmed by first year head coach Gord Dineen, overseeing the teams annual prospect tournament here in London. The 20-year-old Finn spent time on the ice and in the gym this past summer with some of that competition – not to mention a group from the Leafs – and understands that more will be expected. You get a feel for what that pro level and that pro mentality is like, he said. Being in the gym with them, seeing how they work, how hard the corner battles are, how hard it is just to get areas in front of the net to stand in position – theyre always trying to push you out and gain that ground. Being able to play with guys like that – the NHL guys, the AHL guys – who have been there and have played and have experience and not even verbally sharing it with you, but just on the ice learning it through the ways of hockey. Tom Nilsson is six months older than Finn and he too is expected to join the Marlies for the first time this fall, making the jump from his native Sweden. Hopes are quietly high for the 21-year-old, sturdy at 6-foot and nearly 200 pounds. My goal is of course to play on the Maple Leafs, but if I start on the Marlies thats okay with me, Nilsson said. I want to learn how to play the [North American] game and then Im going to develop from there. Nilsson has some NNiklas Hjalmarsson to his game – Dineen offered a more physical version of Gunnarsson – mobile, sneaky physical, and willing to block to shots and offer a stable defensive presence. Wayne Gretzky Jersey. He started watching the Chicago Blackhawks defender more closely a couple years back, also studying the performance of fellow Swedes, Niklas Kronwall – I like his hitting – and Erik Karlsson, the slap-shot of the Senators defender a particular point of admiration. Im trying to take small things off of players that I like, said Nilsson, who played with Frolunda in the Swedish Hockey League last season. Nilsson is anxious to make the adjustment to the smaller NHL rink; the organization believes his maturity and raw, hard-hitting game will aid in the transition. Hes well-schooled, said Hughes. Hell come over and it shouldnt be a very difficult transition for him. Nilsson might not be the only Swede making the jump to North America this fall for Toronto. He could be joined by Viktor Loov, the third-last pick of the 2012 draft and a fluid skater who played forward until the age of 15. Loov – long at 6-foot-2 and beefed up to the tune of 210 pounds – played with the teams top prospect, William Nylander, on MODO of the Swedish Hockey League last season. He just oozes determination every shift, Dineen said of Loov (pronounced LOVE), who delivered a crushing open ice hit in the second game of the rookie tournament Sunday night. Hes a guy that might [take] a little time in the future, but I think hes going to punch a hole for himself. The two Swedes will try to follow the path carved most recently by Petter Granberg, who made a solid adjustment to North America last fall and is expected to challenge for the seventh spot with the Leafs at training camp next week. That competition could also include Stuart Percy, a 2011 first round pick who impressed with a cerebral all-around game as a first-year Marlie last season, and Andrew MacWilliam, a hard-hitting defender who made some noise at training camp a year ago. Maybe the most NHL-ready of the Marlies group pushing toward the NHL is Korbinian Holzer, whose turbulent 22 games on the top pairing in 2013 has left him almost forgotten. The team raves about his character, leadership, and defensive ability – he was actually sturdy as a penalty killer in that brief spell with the Leafs. Far and away the biggest of the prospects on hand here in London, however, is Eric Knodel, picked in the fifth round of the 2009 draft. Knodel spent three seasons at the University of New Hampshire, employing the college route to add heft to his towering 6-foot-6 frame, while taking steps to improve his skating. He joined the Marlies at the end of his college campaign in the spring and will join the fight for ice in the fall. I think thats the best part is everybodys going to be battling, said Knodel (pronounced KUH-nodle). Great teams have great defence – great defence and goalies. Its always good to have good depth there. Whether any, all or even a few contribute is uncertain, but theres some upside and intrigue to a prospect pool thats been left mostly wanting. ‚ ‚ ‚