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In his latest column for Newsday, Wallace Matthews writes an open letter to Jose Reyes, asking, “Reyes, do you want to be a Derek Jeter or a Rey Ordonez?”
Matthews continues on to write:
“Jeter’s name is synonymous with winner; Ordoñez’s name is synonymous with bust. So which is it going to be for you? Clearly, you can go either way. And depending upon which way you go, so, too, will go the Mets.”
…i wanted to write an open letter to matthews in response on SNY.tv, but i couldn’t wrap my head around the ordonez comparison… i don’t remember anyone ever suggesting ordonez would be able to hit - he wasn’t - and he went on to win three gold gloves and play a part in what some called The Greatest Infield Ever... of course, i’m not here to defend rey-rey, especially since by the end of the year, reyes will have far surpassed his career totals in just about every offensive category, plus reyes came into the league much younger than ordonez did…
…i don’t understand why reyes has to choose between being ordonez and jeter, since he has his own unique set of skills… matthews is right when he says reyes needs to get on base more, but maybe he should stop drawing silly comparisons and wait until a few more games have been played before he suggests that reyes’ name will be “synonymous with bust.”…
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…this is called a false choice…sort of like in politics of late, when they pit “Experience vs. Change.”…what’s more, it’s lazy-thinking from the writer…reyes has only one choice: to either be the best reyes he can be, or not…that’s it…either way, the name on the back of jersey will never change…
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Jeter will go down as one of the most overrated athletes in history. No one will ever convince me otherwise.
I’m in total agreement. I don’t care what anyone says. I have this argument with friends and family all the time. If he played for the Cincinnati Reds, nobody would even know who he is.
Agreed. While Jeter to me is Hall of Fame caliber, you can still be Hall of Fame caliber and ludicrously overrated.
Of his top ten comparables through age 33, just three have a comparability score of 875 or higher (anything lesser you’re starting to grasp at straws). And who are those players? Roberto Alomar checks in at number one, Frankie Frisch at number two, and Ryne Sandberg at number three. Do these guys deserve the Hall of Fame? Well, Frisch isn’t in debate because he was also a truly great manager. But Sandberg and Alomar merely average Hall of Fame candidates at best and Alomar, the most similar player, could honestly go either way.
Jeter is a great hitter, but quite possibly the worst shortstop in the history of the game (and many independent statistical analyses back this up).
I wonder if Girardi will have the balls that Joe Torre so lacked and tell Jeter he’s needed in left field and move A-Rod to SS.
“If he played for the Reds…” i love this strain of thought. A true Met fan will always be tempted to denegrate Derek “Every Kind of Mo” Jeter. Why attempt to sound resonable by genuflecting at Jeter’s greatness when he is going around giving celebrities stds?
Also Teddy boy, you don’t remember the NYT Magazine (or somewhere like that) article with full color pictures of NY’s next great shortstops, ReyRey and Jeter? The comparisons might have turned out to be ludicrous, but they were there.
I have faith Reyes will eventually learn that he can’t go up there hacking every AB and hit fly balls.
I’m hoping with a few more years of coaching/experience he’ll realize that his value to the team is getting on base any way possible, not hitting HRs.
The bust possibility is still there, though, if he doesn’t change his approach.
I really hate when people connect Reyes struggles because “hes trying to hit home runs”. If Reyes can hit for some power and drive balls let him do that. Notice how guys with power also tend to get on base a lot? Raising his on base should follow that with some more maturation at the plate. If anything, ever since slap hitting Castillo has been here Reyes has been awful. I’m not saying he is responsible for hindering Reyes growth, but just a thought.
He just has been having really terrible at bats lately, example last night when he was hacking away on first pitches. The funny thing about Reyes is, in ‘06 and the first parts of ‘07 he actually wasn’t anymore patient at the plate (despite drawing a ton of walks compared to previous seasons) as he was seeing just about the exact same amount of pitches per AB he had earlier in his career. His pitch recognition has been improved, he just needs to take that a step further I think and look at a few more pitches. And if not for those awful last two months of the season in ‘07 Reyes would have significantly raised his OBP for the third straight season and probably set several career marks, and despite those woes he still ended up having almost the exact same season he had in ‘06. The difference between his lauded ‘06 season and his “disappointing” ‘07 season; 6 extra base hits and a few singles.
I admit that I did not read the article. But, from the intro posted above, I understand his point. Not that Reyes will functionally replicate Jeter or Ordonez, just that he could fulfill his potentail and have a great, HOF level career. Or, he can end up being a disappointment or “bust” Not that he could ever hit as bad as Rey Rey!
Even if Reyes were to play to the absolute floor of his ability, he would still be a more valuable player than Rey Ordonez.
Rey was not a bust, in that he was as advertised - great fielder, horrible, horrible hitter.
It amazes me that people like Matthews get paid to write for a living.
WHen are people going to learn — the more you draw attention to Wallace Matthew’s idiocy - whether by linking to him, writing “I hate you” in the Newsday comments section, whatever, the more he’s going to keep doing what he’s doing. If you don’t think he’s doing it just to get a rise out an overly sensitive fanbase, then you’re not paying attention.
Besides, the guy will likely but canned or bought out after Murdoch buys Newsday in another month.
and therein lies the diemma…on the one hand, I know he;s an idiot; on the other, I want to read his idiocy to confirm my opinion.
finally, an honest fan! (not you 81)
I think Matt hit it on the head - laziness. The only to compare Reyes to Ordonez and Jeter is because they all play the same position. Jose can’t field like Rey-Rey but he is miles ahead of Jeter. Jose doesn’t get on base as much as Jeter, but he’s light years ahead of Ordonez. Just a dumb and lazy analogy all around.
totally agree…this is the kind of crap that dummies absorb and repeat, because they themselves are too lazy to investigate the analogy (dummies = casual fans)
Of course Wally throws out Reyes early seasons stats out there and Jeter’s are the same or worse.
I hate Wallace Matthews. Thats about it…
wallace matthews is no jack lang
Unfortunately, Wallace Matthews doesn’t have a choice.
He’s a Rey Ordonez.
This from FireJoeMorgan.com, in response to the Jeter comparison in this article:
This year, you [Reyes] are hitting only .280.
(Jeter: .277.)
You have drawn a mere four walks,
(Jeter: 2 walks.)
stolen only three bases in five tries,
(Jeter: 0 steals.)
scored only 12 runs.
(Jeter: 7 runs (!))
Your OBP, .313,
(Jeter: .309.)
is worse than all but three other NL leadoff hitters.
(– but better than the living embodiment of heroism, Derek Jeter.)
Awesome…someone needs to send that over to Wally, or better yet, send it to his boss so they can fire his ass.
It’s moments like this that I’m proud to say I go to FJM literally every single day.
Yeah me too. Too bad they only update about once a week.
And that’s the great thing about FJM…they never, EVER get old.
At the end he says
“Wallace Matthews is driving an Underwater StupidTank to Uninformed Thinking Island if he believes that either of their starts is indicative of what their career values will end up being”
Wallace Matthews is a complete joke. All he does is bash the Mets. How does he even have a job?
This was my thought process today upon opening the paper.
“Oh, an article on Reyes, interesting.”
“Oh, it was written by Wallace matthews..nevermind.”
“Oh, an article on the hops shortage. much better.”
THERE’S A HOPS SHORTAGE???!?!?!!??
How much is a beer at Citifield going to cost now?