Jose Reyes will miss the rest of the season. Likely, more than any other of the many major injuries the Mets suffered this season, the one to Jose Reyes sealed the Mets fate in 2009. 

According to an article in today's New York Daily News, Reyes has a completely torn tendon in the back of his right knee that connects the bone to the hamstring. However, this is the tendon used to replace the elbow tendon in Tommy John surgery and is expendable. Reyes may have surgery to remove the tendon which is causing the discomfort. Without it, Reyes could return to form next season side effect free.

The idea that the problem is more in Reyes's head, as some suggested, may not be fair. After all, Jose Reyes has averaged better than 158 games in his last four seasons. Of course before that in 2003 and 2004 he played in 69 and 53 games respectively due to leg injuries.

Reyes has played in fewer games this season than any other during his Major League career. So either he really is hurting or he is completely psyched out and fears doing much more damage to his leg(s) than he already has.

There was a comment in one of the New York papers recently that claimed a couple of Mets officials were exasperated with Reyes. It's hard to know if that is true but I can understand the sentiment if it is. When you compare Jose with other Mets that have been hurting yet still playing, Wright with a groin issue, Cora with torn tendons in his thumb, now Francouer with a torn thumb tendon, and Santana pitching with bone chips in his elbow, you can see why some might have felt Reyes needs to just get out there, scar tissue or not.

However, it's too late now anyway. The Mets are buried in both the division and wild card races. Why take the chance? There is no point of bringing him, or Beltran back for that matter, in a season where the Mets are going nowhere.  

I would hope that Reyes can bounce back next season and become the exciting player we have witnessed the previous four years. But the one thing that bothers me about him, besides his inability to heal, is his lack of baseball instinct.

For a long time we would hear the spin that Reyes is a young player and would learn the game and improve his fundamentals as he matured. Reyes is not that young anymore. He will be 27 years old next June. By then a Major League player should know how to play the game.

There is no question of Reyes's talent. But there is a question on his approach to the game. Reyes is probably more talented than Jimmy Rollins but Rollins is much smarter in his approach to the game. Rollins plays within his abilities extraordinarily well while Reyes often swings for the fences and does not read the situation consistently.

Reyes wonderful speed is often waisted. If he bunted his way on base once or more a week, he would raise his batting average 25 to 30 points and more importantly, he would be putting himself in position to wreck havoc on the base paths more often. When Reyes does those things, the Mets win. It's that cut and dry.

It's unlikely the Mets GM, be it Omar Minaya, John Ricco, or Bobby Valentine, will trade Jose Reyes. Because he has missed two thirds of the season, the Mets would never get equal value in return. Plus, Reyes could still be a huge asset for the Mets if he could only get his head together once healthy.

It is difficult to predict what Reyes will ultimately become for the Mets. He could be one of the all time great base running players, right up there with Rickey Henderson. Or he could be another Mets player with great potential that will just never live up to it like Darryl Strawberry. Time will tell.

First, Reyes needs to get healthy over the winter and get his legs back into shape where he feels confident to run the bases like he use to. Next year will likely be a turning point for Jose Reyes.

Pedro Martinez pitched 7 strong innings. He made just one mistake giving up the two run homerun to the Met nemesis Chipper Jones. David Wright hit two home runs. The Mets played good defense, Duaner Sanchez again doing his thing and Billy Wagner strikes out the side to end it although he gave me some agata in the process. After the game I watched the highlights on SNY but the one highlight they didn't show for me was the most important. Jose Reyes in the top of the ninth led off with a drag bunt single, stole second, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Paul Lo Duca, then scored on a Carlos Delgado sac fly. Now that's winning baseball, simply text book! When Reyes is on, the Mets win, it's as simple as that.

Pedro is 5 and 0, so much for that toe problem. This guy is a winner, he has an intangible to go along with his great stuff, he just knows how to compete and has tremendous desire to win. He is just so much fun to watch. Hopefully Tom Glavine will be ready to take the spotlight tomorrow night. It's early but it would be great for the Mets to win this series. One game at a time, one game at a time.

Through the first twelve games of the season, the Mets had a 10 and 2 record, their best start in franchise history. During the last seven games, the Mets record has been 2 and 5. What has changed? A lot has been made of Victor Zambrano’s inability to pitch effectively which is surely a contributor. But let’s take a look at the lead off hitter Jose Reyes.

The speedy shortstop got off to a very good start. Through the first 12 games, Reyes hit .283 with 15 hits and 4 walks while scoring 13 runs! He hit a couple of triples and stole bases causing havoc on the base lines. In his last seven games, Reyes is batting just .138. He has only scored 3 runs and walked just once. It seems that the production of the Mets offense is directly related to Reyes’s offense, when he does not hit, the Mets slump. Lately he is upper cutting everything popping the ball up and not taking pitches out of the strike zone. Jose must learn how to get into hitter’s counts and take walks whenever possible. He is the key to the Mets being able to score runs early and putting pressure on the opposing pitcher.

Is Reyes the lead off hitter of a championship caliber team? When he is hot, there is no question that he is. The problem is that he has too many of these periods where he can’t get on base. With his speed, he has got to learn to hit down on the ball and to understand the strike zone better. Doing so will increase his number of infield hits and walks. He’s going to get his doubles, triples, and occasional homeruns but his focus must be just to get on first base. Speed is his game. He can turn walks into doubles. He can steal third, and score on a sacrifice fly or ground ball out. When Reyes plays like that he ignites the offense. Hopefully he’ll catch that spark again soon.

Notes: I mentioned in an earlier blog that the Mets should have dl-ed Beltran. I hate when I’m always right. For the amount of time Beltran has been “day to day”, he could have been resting and Lastings Milledge could have been playing center. I know there is issues with the 40 man roster but come on figure it out and get him up here. If Beltran is close, I still say put him on the 15 day DL now so he can really get his hamstring healed up. We’ll figure out what to do with Milledge later.

WFAN is the flagship station of the Mets yet during “Imus In the Morning”, they don’t give the Mets score. They give the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox and maybe a couple of others, but not the Mets. What’s up with that? Who runs that station anyway, Mike Francesa? (or is it Franceser)