Opinion: Jose’s Malaise
In a recent e-mail exchange about Willie Randolph, a fellow fan casually tossed out the following statement…
“I don’t think it is a coincidence that Jose Reyes has had a big decline and has looked clueless at times in the field and on the basepaths since he got embarrassed by Willie in Houston.”
Actually, in the previous 29 at-bats before being pulled off the field on July 6, Reyes hit .172.
In the 31 at-bats that immediately after being pulled, Reyes hit .387 with three stolen bases in five games.
…my point is, there is nothing to suggest the public embarrassment from six weeks ago did anything to contribute to jose’s recent struggles, which actually started only two weeks ago – a month after being pulled…in fact, the opposite may be true…
…nevertheless, reyes is not right…he’s making odd mental mistakes on the base paths, physical errors in the field, not just on grounders and throws, but on where he is setting up in advance of the play and on cut off throws, and he’s not always running hard out of the box…he just has a strange, uncharacteristic, low-energy confusion about him, that actually reminds me of reyes circa 2004…i have no explanation for it, and do not hear the team talking about it much, as well…last week it was all about him needing a day off…if he’s burned out, i don’t know how one or two days away was going to help…
…fact is, it’s go time, and if jose is gonna be the super-star we know him to be, to really jump up in to that elite group of player he has no choice but to step up, shake off the grogginess, and be that super star…how that happens i have no idea…that’s why i am sitting here, and am not in uniform…frankly, it’s like magic to me that it even happens at all…but, nevertheless, it has to happen, because the Mets will not keep winning in spite of jose’s malaise…at some point, it’s going to catch up with them, if it hasn’t happened already…
