You cannot will yourself to be a good hitter by trying harder. It’s different than football. Gripping the bat and swinging harder usually lead to worse results. Learning to think along with the pitcher is a part of being a good hitter. Even if you never saw him before your leadoff man will tell you something, you can see something from the on deck circle, see what’s he’s got, patterns, favorite pitch to conclude an AB with, pitch he sets that up with, varies his routine, can’t get a certain pitch over. It’s all information that you process without even realizing it. At some point you begin to understand what the pitcher is trying to do to you. These guys face the same pitchers over and over. They know them like a book. They study them on film and in person, they get thousands of keys.

Jose is not a good “bad ball hitter.” Yet he continues to go after the bad pitch. Usually fouls it off or pops it up off his front foot. Pitchers know this so they keep throwing it because the worst thing that can happen is the count remains the same. They could also get him out or put him further in the hole. No downside for them whatsoever, unless they miss but that’s the same with every pitch.

If Jose would resolve to just NOT SWING at stuff off the plate his gullibility is so well known he would instantly be handed bushell fulls of good offerings to hit. Go ahead swing at the first pitch to open games with. For Jose this is probably the best pitch he’ll see all day. Change your routine, vary your approach. Play with the pitcher. Out think the pitcher. Set up the pitcher not the other way around.

With Jose’s combo of speed/doubles/triples/HR’s he really could be a .400 hitter, I’m not kidding. How do you defense the guy? 40 bunt singles, 100 singles, 30 doubles, 15 triples, 15 HR’s = a .300 BA with ZERO walks based on 667 AB’s. Does anyone doubt he couldn’t reach each one of these totals?

Same exact number but add in 100 walks and he’s hitting .352 but now that he’s taking the free pass he’ll be seeing a lot more hittable pitches. One more hit a week and he’s at .400.

Pitchers cannot help walking people. When your facing a Lee or Halliday that’s one thing but even players who can’t hurt the pitcher get loads of walks, Castillo, Thole, Tejada. How do these guys get walks?

Their just careful at what they swing at.

But in real life there are professional athlete’s who got to where they got today in their own way and nobody is going to change them. Reyes is a good example of that. You can remind them everyday, and some seasons will reflect text book batting approach more than others.

You just cannot change them. Like Keith Hernandez said on the broadcast the other day, they are not robots and you cannot churn these players out to all play exactly the same way.

And after all is said and done, again, the sum total (team) is greater than the individual parts and you’re going to have to win with players who excel in their own way and contribute in different ways.

If he stays healthy and the rest of the team hits Reyes will not only give you everything he gave us in his best year he might even improve on them!

They might considering the fact that unless Cliff Lee can make up the difference between his replacement and those 89-99 RBI he used to provide they could lose some games they did not last year with them.

But was he worth the money? Hardly!

I am sure they can find another 100 RBI for less money than Werth got!

And we might get more OBP from someone other than Reyes but if thats all you look for then your going to miss out on those 29 doubles (scoring position) 10 Triples (Scoring Position) 11 Hrs (Actual self generated scores) 54 RBI (43 not himself)

And if you don’t look at them you might not notice that his repleacement has .030 more OBP which consist of mostly singles and walks and very few RS because he doesn’t get into scoring position as much as the guy who got on base less but made better bases and got MORE MASES in total!

If your up 2-1 you can look for a specific pitch in a specific location and your more likely to get something you can launch.

If your down 1-2 you have to shorten up, cover the whole plate, be ready for any pitch. It’s just harder to have to look for anything, anywhere, than just 1 thing in one place. It is MUCH harder to crush a pitch when you have to cover anything, anywhere. I just don’t see how this can be so hard for real baseball fans to understand.

No one should go up to the plate looking for a walk, what you do is go up there looking for a pitch to hit. Get it, hit it. Don’t get it, don’t swing at it. Pitchers are going to get you out but don’t help them by swinging at stuff you can’t do anything with. Take the walk. A healthy BB% is only indicative of a hitters good eye and his maturity at the plate.

The Rays knew they couldn’t keep him – but they do have OF prospects in Desmond Jennings, Matt Joyce…etc.

The Phillies – They have Mayberry, Francisco, and top prospect Domonic Brown (even though he was recently injured) – so they weren’t afraid to let Werth walk.

What leverage do we have? We have nobody in our farm system that can replace Reyes. That’s a major problem. Reyes holds the leverage.

Even if he does put up a good season, at what point does logic prevail and people admit that his contract offer from another team just isn’t worth it. We won’t know that till we see his performance and what other offers might be on the table, but there’s a very large amount of baseball “insiders” who think even Crawford’s deal was way, way too rich.

And what value that has will depend on if he is traded or not.
It will be that trade value that will largely determine if we re-sign him as well.
If they decide he isn’t bringing back enough in a trade then they will probably resign him right after the Trading deadline to keep him.

I don’t see the issue of his contract waiting until the season is over so what he does for most of the season won’t even enter into the decision to sign. What he does before the trading deadline will be the key to the decision and what they get offerred for that performance.

It’s definitely baseball time. I can’t wait. Spring Training isn’t good enough, ha.

You are a drama queen extremist, this has NOTHING to do with “a couple of walks” and if you had half a baseball brain you’d know that, but NO, you’re rather just rag on about nothing because YOU don’t like Alderson.

Keep repeating yourself and keep on proving what little you know, this isn’t little league baseball, you are just another whiner behind a keyboard, a wannabee.

Pathetic……..inspite of Alderson…………the only good thing the Wilpons have done in YEARS bringing in Alderson.

A couple of walks……………yeah ok……….genius………

You basically gave a statline close to last year’s numbers – and I get you, because I expect him to improve off those numbers this year – and it’ll justify a big contract. I don’t think he deserves the big money dependent on his past but logically, on his present. But I do think, right now, he deserves a fair amount of money and a contract.

Concerning the statement about the money, I’m not saying just throw the money at him no matter what. I’m saying throw a contract at him. The money should be worked out according to the way he plays this year (and taking into account his past performance) but…I just think the Mets need to sign this guy because he’s neccesary to our success.

Like I said, if Reyes returns to his ’06-’08 numbers, then he has to come back. But even if he’s healthy, and his season totals in 150 games look like this: .270/.330/.400 with 8 HR, 50 RBIs, 30 SBs and 15 CS and 18 errors, how can you justify giving him big money, regardless of what his “potential” is. Just because he’s a fan favorite and has tremendous talents, doesn’t mean he’s exempt from having to earn his contract.