Jose Reyes
From Bob Klapisch today -
What, exactly, is his ceiling? The trend line says [Jose] Reyes might outperform everyone in New York, even beyond his Mets teammates. That’s no small endorsement, with competition like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. But Mets starter Tom Glavine said, “There’s no one who shines at both sides of the game, offense and defense, like Jose. Some might be as good as him at one part, but not both.”
I don’t get it. Last season, Reyes batted .300 – and had an OBA that was barely a tick over league average. Now, because he has an OBA of .400 after the first seven games of this season, he’s a force at that plate? Huh? People, it’s seven games. Alex Rodriguez, after the Yankees first six games this season, has a SLG mark of 1.080 (in 29 PA). So, does this mean that A-Rod is going to slug over a thousand this season? No, of course not.
When Jose Reyes is able to reach base, over the entire course of a season, around 38% of the time, then I will be impressed and willing to say he out-performs A-Rod or Jeter.
Right now, Reyes runs and fields better than Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. No question. It’s hands down. But, you can say the same thing about Felipe Lopez – he’s better than A-Rod and Jeter in terms of fielding and running too. Is Felipe Lopez a better player than A-Rod or Jeter? No, don’t be silly.
That’s as silly as saying that Jose Reyes is in their class, at this moment. Reyes might be there at the end of the season, sure. But, first he has to post an OBA of .380+ over 502 PA in a season before he has a case. And, that’s yet to happen. So, let’s wait for October before we go too crazy here.
It’s been years since we’ve seen this kind of hysterical, over-the-top hype about a Mets player. It bothered me for a minute or two. But, hey, they said Strawberry was the black Ted Williams a generation ago. Look how that turned out. (and don’t use the drugs as an excuse…he never was able to sustain a HOF level of performance regardless)
Why are you commenting about a Mets player anyway?
I don’t know, I find Reyes to be a great player and as a fan of baseball I love watching him. I really do. I find him to be likable and I’m glad Met fans have a player they can really root for. I don’t have any animosity towards the Mets or their fanbase. I just don’t want the Yanks losing to them.
I hate it when people talk about Reyes and try and compare him and Jeter, it is obvious that Reyes has more natural talent than Jeter. He might not have Jeter’s eye and ability to get on base, but he has some really good skills. However, I don’t think it does Reyes or Jeter any justice to compare them. They are unique players and good at what they do, albeit they do it differently.
Comparing Jeter and Reyes is like comparing a standard drop back passing quarterback with a running quarterback. They have a different approach and even though they play the same position, their style of play is not alike and thus it is hard to compare. That’s just my opinion.
Reyes will be a star and I hope he is a star, one is because I’m Dominican and two is because not all star players have to be on the Yankees. I help coach little league and I see kids try and emulate Reyes and it is pretty cool. The same way I find it cool to see little kids trying to be like Jeter.
I love Grady Sizemore, too. I want to see the Yankees win, but I also want to see great players on other teams. It is exciting to watch and Reyes is exciting to watch.
RE:Garcia:”Why are you commenting about a Mets player anyway?”
He’s responding to an ESPN article which mentions Reyes in the same vein Arod and Jeter. See the quote? Its from the article.
That’s the point, it mentions ARod and Jeter as the competition as far as star power is concerned. Both of those players have quite a bit of star power, so to me it made sense that when talking about Reyes we have to consider the other stars that are shinning brighter than him in New York. Putting things into context, as Klapish did, by using ARod’s and Jeter’s name makes perfect sense to me.
What I don’t get is why Steve goes on to read more into this than what Klapsish intended. I don’t see where he puts Reyes above ARod or Jeter, or even at their equal. Just that with all due respect to those two players, Reyes is getting a lot of press and when considering the star power behind those other two players then it something that should be mentioned and I think it is appropriate. It is all based on the energy and excitement that Jose Reyes seems to generate.
That’s all. I don’t get why he goes on to look at ARod’s numbers, or OBP, or anything else for that matter, and even pointing out the fact that we are 7 games into the season. People got all pissy with Steve about him going off on the Yankees pitching staff so early, but it’s OK he prefaces Reyes stats with the amount of games he’s played so far. I wasn’t one of the people going off on Steve about the Yankees pitching either, I undersood the point he was trying to make but here he does care about the # of games that Reyes has played and realizes that the stats don’t translate because of the small sample size. However, yesterday it didn’t matter that he was only looking at a small sample, as far as the Yankee starting pitching is concerned.
Consistency. That’s all.
I find it silly when I see these comments.
If Glavine were on the Yankees he’d say the same thing about Jeter. If he were on the Braves he’d say the same thing about Jones. If he were on the Sox he’d say the same thing about… about… shit… I got nothin’.