Never Forget 69

The Future of Jose Reyes

Lou Di Falco — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:00:00 -0400

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.

The Road Trip From Hell

Lou Di Falco — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:42:01 -0400

It certainly would have been a lot nicer had the Mets won the final game of their series with the Braves. It's hard to complain about a six and two home stand but when you consider where they are headed, the Mets could take all the wins they can get.

The Mets begin a very difficult ten game road trip starting tonight. First, it's four in San Francisco where the Giants have played extremely well this season. It's a night game tonight and tomorrow then a Fox afternoon game on Saturday before concluding on ESPN Sunday night at 8:00PM Eastern.

Then the Mets head down the coast to Los Angeles to play the first place Dodgers who recently lost their first couple of home games of the season and Manny Ramirez for breaking baseball's drug policy. It's three night games in Dodger Stadium, Monday through Wednesday, before the Mets have a day off to jet all the way across the country to the coziest ballpark on the planet, Fenway Park.

The Mets will play the Red Sox in the season's first installation of inter-league play for three games Memorial Day weekend. I don't think it could get much harder for the Mets than the next ten games.

Consider the Mets will play three teams whose combined home record is 61-39. The Mets will have to be on top of their game to come home in good shape.

No question, the Mets have played better recently. But what concerns me is the little things the Mets are not doing. Their defense has been less than what it should be. It's not that the Mets are making lots of errors but they are not thinking smart in the field. Fundamentally, the defense has been lacking and it is affecting outcome.

The base running has been awful, especially for Jose Reyes. If you believe that Reyes might have made it to third in the 12th inning yesterday, then that's three base running mistakes he made in two games. The other two were getting thrown out at third when running from second on a ground ball to short and trying to stretch a double into a triple and getting thrown out at third as the tying run on Tuesday night. For all the raw talent Jose Reyes has, he has little baseball instincts. He's not a raw rookie anymore either. He is a five year veteran. I do not understand why Reyes does not use his speed to bunt his way on base more often. He still does not understand his talent and what to do with it. I'm starting to wonder if he ever will. I know he's an exciting player but his thought process does not match his talent. Jimmy Rollins in Philadelphia has less talent than Reyes but plays at a higher, smarter, and more intense level although he is struggling this season too. But I digress.

What would Mets fans settle for on this trip, six and four, five and five? I would hope the Mets win at least five games. More would be sweet but let's be realistic, a west coast trip followed by a series in Boston is no picnic.

Last season the Mets split six games in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Mets won two out of three from the Giants but only one against the Dodgers. The Mets have not faced the Red Sox, in regular season play, since 2006. That year, also at Fenway Park, the Sox swept the three game series in embarrassing fashion.

The Mets need to win four of the seven games on the west coast then win at least one in Boston. That would insure a .500 trip. It's not going to be easy especially without Carlos Delgado, a team lost on fundamentals right now, and figuring out who is to replace Oliver Perez while he works out his issues in PSL.

Some late nights await. Get some sleep.

One Down, Two to Go

Lou Di Falco — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:44:24 -0400

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.

As Reyes goes, so go the Mets…

Lou Di Falco — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:32:04 -0400

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)