In the two games this weekend against the Yankees, both wins, Jose Reyes was 4 for 10 with no walks, one strike out, one double, two home runs and four RBI.
Reyes, on Reyes, talking to reporters, said:
“I don’t try to hit home runs. I just try to put a good swing on the ball, and I did the last couple of days. Hopefully I can continue to be like that.”
…yes…hopefully…because, like the rest of the team, that has been the problem…it’s not a lack of talent…not at all…the problem is a lack of consistency…keep it going, jose…you know, get in to a nice, little rhythm…
Willie Randolph, on Reyes, talking after Sunday’s win:
“I spoke to Jose the other day, and asked him a straight question, and asked him if he’s feeling any added pressure, is he trying to do too much and he looked at me with that big smile and said, ‘No,’ so you got to believe him…Obviously, when you’re playing well you play with more enthusiasm. With him, I just think it’s doing the right things mechanically. I mean, he kept his head more still tonight, I noticed that yesterday on the home run he hit…Once they fix that up, we’ll start to roll.”
For more on Reyes, check out Ken Davidoff’s column for Newsday, in which he details Reyes’s effort to learn about his swing from watching video in the clubhouse.
…for what it’s worth, from what i can gather, reyes took time to work and watch tape while his teammates took in the NBA Playoffs on television…which is not to suggest that relaxing and watching hoops is a bad thing…it’s just nice to hear of a young player doing a little extra, when he could easily have just hung out with his buddies watching hoops…
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Reyes in May: 295/.371/.525/.896
clubhouse meeting on friday=turning point??
The offense is clicking at the moment lets just hope they continue to click against ATL and COL. Hopefully the SP will give us a good performance like they have done the last couple of days. Its good to sweep the yankees but most importantly it looks like some people are warming up. Good job to op for this game. Out aced the yanks ace. Now just has to repeat….
I would qualify Billy Wagner’s outburst as the turning point. Without that, there is no meeting.
Not me, because he blew up after the Pirates game too and the Mets continued to play mediocre.
With the win, Willie proved he can manage in the american league (i.e. with a DH).
Perhaps that is where he belongs
Exactly. Because he’s never won a game in the NL and never lost a game with the DH.
Come on everybody, the article a couple of weeks ago “Are you worried about Reyes?” generated about 200 posts with people freaking out and precious few of us not falling into the trap.
Where is the love?
If Reyes was a Yankee, he would be challenging the records of Bonds and Ruth.
I heart seeing Reyes round the bases on a HR. BTW, what do people think about Reyes getting picked off. IMO it’s part of the risk taken when you take such a big lead. Nothing you can do there, and Joe and John were being over critical in saying he didn’t take long enough to get thrown out.
Thank you! Not Reyes’ fault there. If you take a big secondary lead off of second base and the guy grounds back to the pitcher so quickly, you have NO chance to get back. None.
It was Marlon’s fault for hitting it to the worst possible spot in the field.
Actually, and I can’t believe I am about to say this, but they were right. Reyes needs to get into a rundown in order to give Marlon time to get to 2nd base. Reyes only forced one additional throw to third. He does need to get into a rundown in that situation
Not as easy as you pose it. Since he grounds to the pitcher, Marlon is probably about 45 feet down the first base line when the rundown begins. Reyes has to generate like 9 or 10 throws to even give Marlon a chance to get to second.
If you run a rundown correctly, it shouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 throws at THE MOST.
agreed, but reyes did not even give it a chance. He has to make the effort.
Ehh, I think it’s incredibly nitpicky.
Well he didn’t get picked off, and he got an aggressive secondary lead. Because of the lead I think the play was overblown more than it should have been. I don’t think it was as bad as a play as it was made out to be. It was aggressive, and it was still early in the game, not the eighth inning.
Personally, I think it was a bad play by Reyes. But then I’m of the school of thought that you don’t give up outs on the basepaths, especially with less than 2 outs. If you miss out on a few extra bases, so be it, the outs are too important.
Although in this case, it wasn’t terrible because you didn’t really lose an out–just Marlon on 1st instead of Reyes on 2nd with 1 out.
As keith would say it is bad fundies. If you ever played baseball you know that on a ball hit back to the pitcher you have to go back to the bag, you should not get caught between second and third no matter how big your lead, or your secondary lead.
In other fundy news a run down should only take 1 throw, forcing 9 is comical and almost never happens. To blame reyes for getting caught is one thing, but to blame him for not getting into a bad rundown, is not his fault.
That being said, reyes is my favorite player and I hope he starts getting on base more often, as unfair as it is, “as he goes, so go the mets.
I like Willie fine for a by-the-numbers guy, but that “nice little” thing he says all the time drives me up the wall. If nothing else THAT has got to rub off on the team. They weren’t nice little players in 2006.
nitpicking 101
Reyes certainly seems to hit well at Yankee stadium. His swing is perfect for that ball park…at least from the left side. He is starting to drive the ball more as opposed to the pop outs. I am slowly gaining more confidence in him and gettting closer to the sheer exuberance I once had for the kid.
I hate streakiness by the way. I realize slumps and bumps in performance are part of a 162 game season but it is so painful to watch top level performers streak their way to mediocrity then streak there way back up.
I prefer the Alou approach. Get a hit one time every 3 at bats pretty regularly and drive in runs with sac flies and hitting behind the runners etc to load up on RBIs.
But not everyone, including DW the golden boy, is like that
This is interesting… could it be that Reyes’ early struggles are in part due to placing more focus on his swing?
I recall the talk in ST was of the club wanting him to be more of a singles hitter.
If he is focusing on mechanics that would definitely explain his slow start, especially when you factor in his age. It can’t be too easy to understand the need for change when you’re 24 and on the cover of MLB ‘08, and that can’t make it too easy to understand the nature of the change you’re being asked to make.
Limiting Reyes to being a slap hitter is so stupid.
I don’t think he was asked to be a singles hitter–only hit more line drives and ground balls, as opposed to fly balls and popouts. He has pop, but not enough to consistently get the ball out of the park, and so he’s better served keeping the ball down. But if he can’t be successful with that approach, then it’s may be better not to mess with his natural swing.
The result of more hitting line drives and grounders and fewer fly balls should be a higher proportion of his hits being singles.
Ultimately I believe it will make him a better leadoff hitter (average, or rather, OBP, more important than power when leading off), but the price is in the transitional period. Ask Tiger Woods – rebuilt his swing twice, struggled whilst doing it, recovered to be an almost unstoppable juggernaut.
It was pretty obvious in ST that he was struggling to fully understand what was being asked of him after apologizing for tripling off the fence on a line drive. There’s nothing wrong with covering one and launching it a long way, as long as it’s with a level swing. However, he shouldn’t be going for the fences as a matter of course. And he should probably take a lot more first pitches. Mind you, after I said that last night, he took the 0-1 pitch deep for 3 runs, so what do I know?
Maybe he doesn’t like basketball?
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