I know I’ve been slow to comment on this one, but if kids, schoolwork, getting laid, getting laid off, and life’s other travesties have consumed your time over the past week, here is my best way of summarizing the past few day’s events: Carlos Beltran quietly pulls Jose Reyes aside after one night and reminds Reyes of the importance of being yourself and not letting opposing team’s players reaction’s deter you from doing so. Reyes goes on to hit the snot out of the ball in the next few games, and Big Media and Mets Blog, always to be counted on for ignoring major issues because of an unhealthy obsession with finding a true, Jeterian-like leader for this time, falls in love with the whole Big Brother theme.
It all seems so simple- a bit too simple if you ask me. To the casual observer, Beltran has recently been earning the last few cents of his massive seven year, $119 million dollar contract; After spending most of last splitting splitting the roles of MVP candidate and a Nanacypants convalescent recovering from another ailment that would make my grandfather- a WWII veteran and high voltage electrician who only took a day off out of necessity- cringe, to playing the latter role Thursday night when it became public that he told Reyes to get back to the ostentatious dancing, brother handshakes, the real Jose Reyes, etc.
But to the slightly more astute observer I like to call myself, I think all us Mets fans need to step back and look at the bigger picture here. That involves looking at the possible connection between public enemy number one as of late- Willie Randolph- and the need for Beltran to step in and fix matters with Reyes’s head.
I am certainly not suggesting that Beltran’s pep talk with Reyes’sand the latter’s sudden improvement reflects an autonomy issue with Randolph. What I am saying is that- as one official close to the organization told me in Spring Training- Willie just does not seem to have a presence with his ballclub and just cannot connect with his players.
A little history, shall we?
Late last year, Reyes was reported to have been pressing and sulking down the stretch last year, and on several occasions, appeared to have almost “given up’ in a sense. So what does Randolph do the minute Reyes makes a base-running gaffe on a routine ground ball? Instead of trying to rectify the situation be any other rational means, he benches him.
Reyes responded in the off-season by announcing that he would put an end to his rather flashy dugout and on-field mannerisms, which while not a blatantly bad decision in my opinion at first, it also seemed to be a case of making a whole lot of hoopla out of nothing when Reyes should be focused on other more baseball-related matters.
Perhaps Reyes did so on his own accord without any nudging from Randolph and co. and that you cannot blame Willie for this. Mote likely, I believe Reyes did so because he saw the writing on the wall: A perceived lack of effort, overzealous celebrations, and youth is a deadly combination that could have you packing your bags to Washington for a league average outfielder and offensively inept starting catcher.
Of course, Reyes did not have to worry about unnecessarily refining his entire approachat the plate- Willie and his surrogates were more than happy to do so. Productivity wise, however, the fact that Willie and co. were making a concerted effort to get Reyes to hit more ground would likely hurt more than it would help. In a short study I conducted a few days back, the overall correlation between Reyes’s offensive production- using w/OBA (weighted on-base average) as my barometer and his GB% over the last two years was 0.28, which is far from significant. Big Media might be enamored with the possibility of a second Luis Castillo and inexplicably critiscise Felix Pie for hitting more home runs, complete altering his hitting mechanism probably is not a good idea at this point.
And that brings us back to Randolph’s role in Beltrans need to step in and help Reyes. Young players like the star shortstop are the future of this franchise, and having a manager that cannot connect and successfully communicate with young players like him is a problem for a franchise on the verge of building a dynasty. What was once considered Randolph’s biggest strength might be the last straw that has him headed on his way out.
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