If you ask who the biggest stars were in Sunday night’s win over the Braves, most people would answer Shaun Marcum, who fanned 12 batters in seven innings, or Ike Davis, who had a two-run single to give the Mets the lead in the eighth inning. Perhaps some would mention Bobby Parnell, who cruised through the heart of the Braves’ order in the ninth inning and who fanned two of the three batters he faced. That makes the unsung star Lucas Duda, who had a three-hit game and scored two runs.

After bottoming out with a 4-40 stretch starting on May 1st, Duda is now riding a 10-game hitting streak. In a span covering 41 PA, Duda has a .351/.390/.541 line. Overall for the year, Duda has an .843 OPS, just eight points behind David Wright’s team-leading .851 mark. However, the narrative for the year has been how Wright is earning his multi-year extension while Duda still needs to step up to the next level and is part of the reason the Mets have been struggling. It makes no sense.

People look to bend over backwards to criticize Duda. Yes, he’s a terrible defensive outfielder but he’s doing the best he can while playing out of position. His AVG is nothing to write home about but c’mon it’s not 1973 when batting average ruled the world. Here in 2013 we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that OBP is more important than AVG and Duda has a .360 OBP, the 24th-best mark in the National League.

Duda has not put up strong numbers with Runners in Scoring Position but that has at least as much to do with opposing pitchers refusing to give him much to hit (10 BB in 42 PA) as with his poor BABIP (.174). And if we’re going to focus on a small sample, why not look at High Leverage situations, where Duda has a .771 OPS – 35 points above league average. Another small sample that Duda has been performing well in is his production hitting cleanup. In 47 PA batting fourth, Duda has a .326 AVG and a .964 OPS.

While people focus on the wrong things and mock him for not being a better outfielder, Duda has been a very productive hitter. He currently has a 137 OPS+, tied with Prince Fielder and Robinson Cano – two guys with big offensive reputations. Now if he could just learn to lay off breaking balls at his ankles, Duda would become a monster.

SP ROUND INTO FORM – The Mets just concluded a stretch of 16 straight days with a game and not surprisingly, the starters began to pitch better while working on regular rest. In their last 13 appearances, despite having 10 games against some of the top offensive clubs in the league – the Cardinals, Reds and Braves – Mets starters have delivered seven Quality Starts. It’s even more impressive when you consider that Matt Harvey has just one and that Dillon Gee is still looking for his first one this season. The trio of Jeremy Hefner, Marcum and Jonathon Niese have each delivered 2 QS in this span, with Niese doing it in just two starts.

The NL has produced 389 QS in 739 games played this year or 52.6% of the time. The Mets, with allegedly just one SP worth anything and while playing a tough schedule, have essentially matched that mark (53.8) over the past two weeks. If Gee can get untracked, the starting rotation could be a strength going forward.

ANKIEL SURPRISES WITH STRONG PLAY – When the Mets signed Rick Ankiel after he was let go by the Houston Astros, the near-universal reaction was – Why? But Ankiel has been a very pleasant surprise, as he has cut his K-rate significantly and has done damage when he has put the bat on the ball. After having a 53.8 K% in 65 PA with Houston, Ankiel has a still-high but much-improved 31.0 K% in 42 PA with New York. Additionally, he has a .564 SLG with the Mets, thanks to a .308 ISO.

Perhaps even more interesting is the “Hot Zone” chart for Ankiel. Fox Sports has a breakdown of how a hitter does in nine zones. Unfortunately, they do not show the raw data – so we do not know if this is just for pitches in the strike zone or for all pitches. But however it works out, Ankiel has some interesting zones. While the best way to attack Davis is on the outside third of the plate, the best place to go after Ankiel is with inside pitches. Fox does a three-by-three grid, with the numbers duplicated here:

.375 .000 .000

.333 .714 .143

.300 .429 .000

There’s no reason for pitchers to do anything besides bust Ankiel with inside pitches.

NIGHT AND DAY FOR BURKE? – The Mets picked up Greg Burke on a minor league deal this winter and he made the team out of Spring Training. But Burke was soon sent to the minors after getting off to a rough start. He was recalled in mid-May and now has seven appearances both before and after his demotion. Here are his splits:

Pre – 7.1 IP, 7.36 ERA, .385 BABIP, 3.35 xFIP

Post – 6.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, .222 BABIP, 2.78 xFIP

It looks like Burke has been a completely different pitcher if you just go by ERA. But we see by xFIP that he’s been similar in both stints with the Mets. It’s just that in May, Burke is having much better luck with balls in play and he has a 100% strand rate this month after having a 30.8 LOB% in April. If we go by xFIP, Burke has been a worthwhile reliever for the club in both stints and overall he has a strong 3.08 xFIP.

ANYONE SEEN RECKER? – Backup catcher Anthony Recker has been with the Mets all 47 games this season. Yet in that span – nearly 30 percent of the season – he has just 26 PA. Backup catchers will always rank low in this category, as managers will use them as a PH only as a last option. But even for backups, Recker’s total is very low.

It’s hard to compare him to recent Mets backups because the team frequently used a platoon at catcher. But if we go back to the last year before Josh Thole made the Opening Day roster, we see that backup Henry Blanco had 45 PA thru games of May 26th. And Blanco did not play a game until April 10th. Todd Pratt, the backup to Mike Piazza in 1999, had 79 PA by May 26th. With John Buck no longer on a record pace for homers, manager Terry Collins needs to give Recker some more playing time.

METS LAG IN DEFENSIVE CATEGORIES – The Mets rank near the bottom in the National League in both Defensive Runs Saved and UZR. Their (-15) DRS leads only the Cardinals while their (-14.6) UZR is the worst in the league. Duda catches all the flack but he has a lot of company with 17 players/positions overall feature a negative DRS. Duda checks in with a (-6) DRS, with Ruben Tejada (-5) and Buck (-4) close behind. Jordany Valdespin also has a (-5) but that’s split among CF (-2), RF (-2) and LF (-1). Valdespin’s (-5) comes in 132.1 innings in the outfield, while Duda’s (-6) comes in 355 innings. But Valdespin looks athletic so he does not catch anywhere the same grief Duda does.

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