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Last night, in a win against the 
Angels, Jose Reyes was 3 for 5 with a triple, two singles, three runs scored and a stolen base.
…what’s more, he was quite lively on the field, in the dugout, on the top step next to Jerry Manuel, all while smiling and joking with and his teammates…basically, he looked great…
…in fact, the photo, which you can click on for a larger version, says it all i think…
In his last 159 at bats, dating back to May 11, Reyes is batting .340 with 20 extra base hits and .394 OBP, while raising his batting average from .249 to .297.
He is currently on pace to hit around .300, with roughly 20 home runs, 70 RBI, 120 runs scored and 60 stolen bases.
thats Gangsta!!!
Yesterday was the first time I saw the Reyes that we all fell in love with in 2005 and 2006…I think that if anyone needed Willie gone, it was Jose, and if “as Reyes goes, Mets go”, this should have been done a long time ago. He looked loose, relaxed, in the game and on the ball, and hey, he even looked like he was having fun playing baseball! Glad to have you back, Jose, I hope you’re here to stay…
Thats just gangsta!
That and if Beltran, who showed some signs this week of coming on, will make this lineup dangerous once again!
in other words, he’s playing up to ‘06 level, and with better defense. keep it up, professor!
Chone Figgins does look alot like Willie
I said the same exact thing last night. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking like that.
holy crap. chone figgins looks willie’s son. that’s too funny.
the ghost of willie. leave him in anaheim.
glad i’m not the only one who looked at the photo and immediately realized this
That’s not Figgins…it really is Randolph. LAA asked him to play 3rd last night since he was so familiar w/ the Mets…just sayin’.
Reyes is looking great. I’m so glad he started after many yesterday said he should be benched for last night’s game. WE need him and his hamstring looks strong after that triple.
way to take the series against a good Anaheim team. I’m sure there are many relieved Mets today and the flight out was probably one of the best of the year. LETS GO METS.
Reyes has been pretty darn good recently, and with DWright finally getting a clutch hit last night maybe he will snap out of it…
I think we all know that this team wins when those 2 play well…period, regardless of the manager….now if it turns out reyes wasnt playing his best cause he didnt like Willie…well then we should all turn on Reyes, not Willie, as Jose let us down, but only fools would believe that…Reyes just wasnt hitting cause his hitting coach should coach 1B and not be a hitting coach.
Can’t wait for Trot Nixon’s little brother (Ryan Church) to come back.
But that’s ridiculous. Reyes has been hot since April 27. Willie was the manager then. It was a SLUMP. That’s it.
Call it what you will, but I’ll call it as I see it. Even when he was hitting with Willie around, he didn’t seem like the Jose of old. He did yesterday. He seemed like he was having fun. He seemed like he needed this change more than anyone. A lot of you may disagree, and honestly, we’ll never know if that’s the truth, but it has certainly looked like it yesterday. May be the next month will be a better indication.
zer09,
It was so obvious that Jose and Willie never saw eye to eye after that ridiculous benching in Houston last year. Willie was right to bench Jose, but he was wrong to not bench, Delgado, Wright and Beltran when they all did the same thing (not run out a weak grounder).
Later Willie!
I posted this above: “I think that if anyone needed Willie gone, it was Jose, and if “as Reyes goes, Mets go”, this should have been done a long time ago.”
I hope this is the beginning of Jose being Jose.
Who would have guessed Reyes would have a higher SLG and BA than Wright at this point in the season?
Wright is going to get hot again. He got a hit the other way last night and he also lined out hard (not to mention tying the game of course).
I think he’s close to getting hot.
The problem is, the guys around them suck so much that we put too much pressure on Wright and Reyes (and Beltran) to be GREAT to give this team any chance to win.
We need Church back and I think this team can go on a run.
Actually, it was Reyes turn. Those two have alternated being better than the other for three years, and last year was Wright’s turn.
My prediction? Reyes plays this well all season and shuts up all the talk about Phillie and consecutive MVPs.
In the face of adversity, Reyes is quietly playing even better than he did two years ago.
But it’s going to be hard for me to accept anyone putting up better numbers than Chase Utley right now. Hitter’s park yes, but the guy is a baseball god right now. It would take a collapse of Mets-like proportions for him not to be the MVP come Sept.
Chase Utley is what we can only hope Wright and Reyes can become when they’re his age.
Oh please
Chase Utley is hitless in his last 20 at bats bringing his average down below .300. It’s the law of averages. He is not going to have a second half as good as his first. When all is said and done by the end of the year, his numbers will be good, but nothing like the ridiculous pace he was on.
true…last year at this point people were already printing Prince Fielder’s name on the MVP trophy: how’d that work out? Lets let them play the whole season. That said, CBP does make it difficult for a player to have a lengthy slump, and I’m sure there are some voters out there who might be inclined to vote for Utley b/c of the historic “3 MVPs from the same team in a row” factor.
3 mvp’s, 0 world series
Watching Reyes these past few weeks has actually brought me back to this team a little bit. It has been depressing and ugly at times, but the excitement Jose brings to every play, either at bat or on the bases, is worth the price of admission in itself. I’m glad to have him back. I think he, more than any other guy, can single handedly turn this around. He is a game changer as we saw last night. O.G.
The sad part is that he’s 4th in NL SS Balloting for the All-Star Game. But that’s what happens when your team doesn’t win games. Ryan Theriot is above him, come on. I say we push to our fans to vote him in to the All-Star Game. I have tickets and would like to see him at Yankee Stadium. Vote People!
I got rejected for all my ticket chances, but I agree.
I want as many Mets there as possible for prestige, and also so the announcers can’t help but mention that “Hey, Shea over that way is also going away” and it’s not just some love fest to the decrepit Yankee Stadium.
well if you want to avoid an unbearable yankee lovefest, i suggest watching something else that night. because there’s no way rat ass joe buck will shut up about it for 2 seconds.
wasn’t he immature last night, I can’t follow everyone’s mood swing
I’d rather have an immature Reyes of 2005 and 2006 rather than a sulking one of 2007 and first month 2008…
when you are not performing up to your ability the adjective changes from “exciting” to “sulking” and dare I say when his attitude was “cheery” this year and he was not peforming people said he did not care…
I prefer to take Reyes back to April 27, because that is when everything clicked again:
48 G, 228 PA, .325/.399/.535/.934, 40 R, 26 BB, 29 K, 21 SB
I finally voted on the all star ballot.
Go ahead guys, tell me again how he didn’t have a problem with Willie. He despised Willie…
Welcome back Jose.
Cuban, if that is the case and Jose played worse with Willie around that means it had to be intentional and we should all hate Reyes for letting us down for the last year. Either he purposely didnt try as hard or…nope thats the only possibility if you think Willie was why Reyes didnt play well…
Its not the case howveer, its an asinine statement, I still think Hojo is the prob, but Reyes got hot, hes a streaky guy, and hopefulyl it continues into september htis year…
He sulked under Willie. Have you ever had a job you hated? Did you perform at your best? Were you motivated to be there or just going through motions until something better came along?
Luckily, I think something better came along.
I dont disagree with you….but that makes me furious with REYES…not Willie.
If I was a shareholder of my company and I found out an employee wasnt doign their job because they didnt work well with their boss….I would be pissed….that guy cost me $$…and Reyes has cost us if what you say is true, and if lost games on purpose to get willie fired….then he is to blame, not anyone else, including any manager.
I would love to know what your job is and who you have worked for to believe that an employee always gives one hundred percent no matter his working conditions.
I know that the way my boss treated me has always impacted me. If my boss was a jerk, I dreaded coming to work, and watched the clock until 5:00 pm, and my performance suffered. When my boss played favorites or treated me differently than the rest of the staff, my performance suffered. When my boss made it hard to succeed at my job, my work suffered because I couldn’t imagine putting out full effort on a project that was bound to fail: I’d be yelled at when the project failed, no matter my performance.
If you think the failure to work up to potential is a conscious decision, you’re wrong. If Reyes’ performance suffered under Randolph after that benching it was subconscious.
Couldn’t have said it any better Mex.
then you deserve to be fired and you would be unprofessional. hope the sulking was worth it,.
the willie hatred has reached infinitely stupid proportions.
Yeah, that doesnt mean YOU ARE NOT AT FAULT….YOU ARE AT FAULT!!! and if I was your boss Id fire you in a heartbeat….
EITHER WAY IF REYES DIDNT PLAY UP TO HIS POTENTIAL TO SPITE WILLIE THEN HE OWES ALL OF US (EXCEPT YOU 2 IDIOTS) AN APOLOGY FOR COSTING THE OWNER MILLIONS, THE FANS THOUSANDS, AND GUISEPPE FRANCO…WELL, NOTHING.
HOW CAN YOU DEFEND REYES IF YOU CLAIM HE PURPOSELY DIDN’T PLAY HARD TO GET WILLIE FIRED?!?!?!?!?!?! IDIOTS.
I’d fire you for your lack of reading comprehension skills. I never suggested it was okay for a player to intentionally play hard. I was simply pointing out that when you have a poor boss who treats his employees poorly, unequally, and makes it hard for them to succeed, then the employees will not either be able to work up to their potential or will subconsciously not work up to their potential.
When a real smart CEO reviewed an underperforming unit he would identify whether the boss gave his employees a chance to succeed or not; if yes, the employees go, and rightfully so, if no, then the boss goes and rightfully so.
When you graduate from school and your paper route into a real world job come back to me and let me know how often you gave one hundred percent.
When did Willie treat Reyes unprofessionally? When he played him every day? When he benched him for lack of hustle (that his teammates admitted they were mad at Reyes for…see WFAN interviews from that period)…what?
Willie gave Reyes every chance to succeed, played him every day, admonished him ONCE for something Reyes WAS AT FAULT FOR, and defended him to the media and everyone else…dang, WIllie even got the offical score keeper to overturn a call and award Reyes a stolen base through a formal appeal…no other manager in baseball wouldve done that…yikes, get your facts straight, and dont try and defend an insubordinate and bash me in the process, sorry that degree from Subway U. didnt work out for you.
Uh, Randolph did treat Reyes unequally; Reyes was benched for not running out a ground ball, Wright, Delgado, and Beltran were not. It was widely reported that Randolph got on Reyes’ case in front of other players, but dealt with others in his office.
By the way, you were the first to throw around the insults:
HOW CAN YOU DEFEND REYES IF YOU CLAIM HE PURPOSELY DIDN’T PLAY HARD TO GET WILLIE FIRED?!?!?!?!?!?! IDIOTS.
you are right, I just looked up and was the first, my bad. My fault.
Howveer, the 25 guys in the clubhouse didnt take offense when the other guys didnt run, they did when Reyes didnt because Reyes can beat out plays even when they AREN’T errors. Delgado is out either way, so there is a difference.
Also Reyes is given the green light on the bases and Schneider isnt…unequal? no just baseball logistics.
Right, no problem, I don’t want to get into an insult contest, just want to defend myself like a gangsta’ would.
But, dude, come one that’s casuistry at its finest if you are arguing that ins some cases some players can’t be expected to run as hard as they can on a ground ball because they are slow. It also ignore the case in point for Reyes, he thought the ball was going to go foul when he didn’t run it out. In Delgado’s case, the fielder could make an error. Also, it ignores that two players who do have some speed, Wright and Beltran, weren’t benched for failing to hustle.
Dude, I get what your saying is my point is, if Reyes purposefully didnt play his to his potential out of spite for his manager that he let down the people who pay him (owners) and the people who love him (us)…and no matter how much you hate Willie Randolph, if any of the 25 players that we watch day-in, day-out for half of every year are cheating us, the fans (the people NOT getting paid millions)…than I will hate that player, period.
Now I still maintain Reyes has slumped for a year because of the worst hitting coach in baseball, hojo, but if your theory of why he sucked is correct, then I now hate Reyes more than Hojo, Rickey & Bonilla, thast all Im saying
I just think you attribute too much conscious agency to people. I mean, I do things all the time without thinking about it: pick fights with my girlfriend, prevent somebody from merging into traffic, half-ass grading a paper. It would take an enormous amount of attention and tremendous acts of will to always monitor whether I am shortchanging people who don’t deserve it, and then correct it.
I don’t believe for a second Reyes intentionally played to less than his ability, but I can easily imagine he subconsciously sabotaged his own efforts, even when he wanted to give one hundred percent, because of unhappiness with his work environment which Randolph may have caused. So, I could understand the idea that somebody thinks he will improve even more now that Randolph is gone.
In truth I think Reyes’ poor performance from June on last year was mostly a slump, but one that was exacerbated by the tension between him and Randolph. But, I think he and Randolph patched things up over the winter, and Reyes’ poor start was just a slow start we will forget about when his stat line looks like: .310 BA/.370 OBO/110 runs scored.
and you got all of that from an infield singe, a triple and bloop single?
who do you explain the month of May in his role despising Willie, or how he embarrassed his brand new manager the night before
I think at the end of the day you will find that much of the interpretation is all a bunch of BS
Reyes did look incredible last night/the last few weeks with a few brain farts here and there. At this point in the season he’s actually out slugging Beltran. Who would have guessed that? I know the Mets do not exactly have much depth, but if Church and Alou find a way to play well and come back from their injuries sooner rather than later, this team could be at the front of the pack for the Wild Card by the All-Star Break.
speaking of church, i thought i had heard he was supposed to be back after this road trip. i guess when they start playing the mariners. is that still on track as far as anyone knows?
Don’t forget he’s also got 34 extra base hits which happens to be 18 more than the player Mad Dog thinks is better than Reyes Yuneal Escobar. Its amazing how everyone on tv and radio keeps talking about how badly Reyes is playing and how to get him to start becoming the player he once was. They are still stuck on last September and the beginning of this year and no one seems to be paying attention to how he’s picked it up big time. On a pace for 123 Runs 200 hits, 300 average 20 HR’s and 80 RBI’s. A 470 Slugging and 360 OBP.
Yes the defense has been sloppy but I fully believe that will be fixed and he’ll be back to the defensive Reyes of old in the second half of the season.
holy crap, I’m surprised the mad dog even knew who Yunel Escobar is?!?!?
Great points. I do remember Puppy dog raving about how great Escobar was and how much better than Reyes he was, etc. It’s only 2.5 months into the season but still, Reyes slumped badly and with all the tools he has you could not expect him to underperform over the course of the entire season.
well, if this is reyes playing “badly”, i for one cannot wait for him to start playing “well”.
Reyes won’t be voted in, but hopefully Hurdle selects him as a reserve. And hopefully, having played here, Hurdle sees fit to give the Mets a nod in filling out this roster, given the game is in their backyard. I need something to make the Yankee love-fest tolerable.
I saw several positive actions last-nite that I truly believe could be a solid stepping-stone for the remainder of 2008.
First, not only have I put the Manuel-Reyes thing behind me – I now believe it was something that we could be glad it even happened – as I witnessed a Jose Reyes possessed to play his heart out! Additionally, Mr. Reyes had quite the game with no bigger run-scored than the game-tying run, which didn’t necessarily end with Reyes touching home plate.
I’ve been posting to this effect for a month now, but just a comparison between Reyes and some other NL shortstops (plus one AL SS just for fun):
Reyes: .297/.359/.488, 8HR, 29 RBI, 52 RS, 6 3B, 26SB 124 OPS+
Rollins: .289/.353/.468, 6HR, 25 RBI, 33 RS, 1 3B, 14SB, 110 OPS+
Escobar: .300/.377/.404, 6HR, 30 RBI, 43 RS, 1 3B, 2SB, 109 OPS+
Tejada: .292/.328/.465, 9HR, 41 RBI. 50 RS, 2 3B, 5SB, 107 OPS+
Theriot: .309/.387/.370, 1HR, 21 RBI, 42 RS, 1 3B, 13SB, 98 OPS+
Guzman: .316/.336/.448, 5HR, 25 RBI, 45 RS, 2 3B, 3SB, 105 OPS+
Jeter: .272/.328/.377, 4 HR, 32 RBI, 37 RS, 3 3B, 4 SB, 91 OPS+
Ramirez: .294/.384/.513, 15HR, 32RBI, 61RS, 3 3B, 17SB, 137OPS+
The only one who is clearly better than the rest is Hanley Ramirez, and Reyes comes out looking like the second best. He’s 4th in average, 4th in OBP, 2nd in Slugging, 3rd in Homers, 1st in triples, 5th in RBI, 2nd in runs scored, 1st in stolen bases, and 2nd in OPS+. In other words, he’s the second best SS in the National League, he’s having a damn good season, and he’s much better than Jeter.
Thank you for this. I have been screaming from the mountaintops.
He’s also (according to THT) 3rd in Win Shares among SS in all of MLB (as of 6/16), behind only the Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez and Chistian Guzman of the Nats.
H Ramirez – 12.7
C Guzman – 12.4
J Reyes – 10.9
M Young – 9.8
M Tejada – 9.4
R Furcal – 9.5
Y Escobar – 8.1
O Cabrera – 7.2
R Theriot – 7.2
J Rollins – 7.1
Numbers aren’t everything, but IMO Win Shares is a pretty good stat.
haha… 9.5 is actually greater than 9.4 here on Earth, so switch up Furcal and Tejada, but you get the idea…
if you have the inclination, can you explain how they formulate that stat?
It’s a Bill James stat (from his book “Win Shares”), and from what I can tell, it’s one of his more complicated ones. The following is from its Wikipedia entry:
“[Win Shares] considers statistics for players, in the context of their team, and assigns a single number to each player for his contributions for the year. All pitching, hitting and defensive contributions by the player are taken into account. Statistics are adjusted for park, league and era.
A win share represents one-third of a team win, by definition. If a team wins 80 games in a season, then its players will share 240 win shares. The formula for calculating win shares is complicated; it takes up pages 16-100 in the book. The formula contains many seemingly arbitrary constants and educated guesses. The general approach is to take the team’s win shares (i.e., 3 times its number of wins), then divide them between offense and defense.”
If you’re looking for more detail or additional splits, it’s worth checking out thehardballtimes.com, which is a good (and free) site devoted to stats.
Also, this article:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/2004-win-shares-have-arrived/
Last link, I promise, but this one actually details how Win Shares are calculated.
http://www.baseballgraphs.com/main/index.php/site/details/#sharecalc
Let’s make sure we vote for him.
our jose is back! the jose we all know and love. it was the first time all season he looked and played like his old self. as he goes, so go the mets…
except for when the same thing but better happened the day after Beltran told him to stop trying to not be himself
I loved that the team came back to win yesterday but the brightest sight for me was to see Reyes running out to short smiling and joking the whole way. That is Jose and that is what Beltran was telling him to do back in late April. Be yourself because the team needs it. He is a spark that usually translates to good things for the Mets as a whole.
where do you find the win shares stats? I love baseball-reference, but there’s a few stats it’s missing, and I don’t know where to find them (win shares, VORP, WARP, etc.)
thehardballtimes.com is really good for what you’re looking for… it’s a really good site for stats like that… baseball-reference and the baseball cube are also good…
Jose looked like his old self. I hate to say it, because it would mean that my favorite player was dogging it… but I think Jose’s problem was with Willie. He looked way happier than I’ve seen him in a long time. The whole team did.