Back to evaluating Reyes, let’s forget ’11 & look at his most recent contribution years of ’08,’10.Among NL SS, In ’08 he ranked in the top 8 (50%)of the NL in BA(4th), HR(6th),OBP(5th),SLG(4th),XBH(2nd),RBI(5th),OPS(3rd) fewest Ks(8th)
While also in 2010 he was in top 12(75%) of NL SS in all of these categories

Please note, reaspecting your concern for age’s effect on speed, I refrained from including SB & restricted the evaluation to the more traditional offensive categories, though limiting his comparatrives among NL SS because that’s what he is & that’s what u’d need to replace him with.

Jdon, repectfully, I submit, tearing it all down & starting from scratch is a relatively childish approach to any problem, typically referred to by mature thinkers as “throwing the baby out with the bath water”

My approach would be to accept the simple fact that the single most important aspect of building a consistantly successful baseball enterprise is PITCHING and commiserate with that impoortance is the extreme difficulty it is to acquire.
As this pparticular franchise is unlikely to improve it’s financial outlook much before 2016(5 yrs)reagardless of proposed new equity investment being sought. It is unlikely that the current regime will be capable of restructuring the existing franchise to their preferences as a potential contender before 2013 or 14, as such, with the current 40 roster+ the existing rosters on the AA & AAA levels you’ll find the majority of the raw materials there is to work with as such. If I were in charge, I would inventory that lot, ecaluatiing teach player’s ability to contribute toward a ’13 drive. Those seen as potentially capable are set aside as priliminary keepers(until better is found or attained) those not are currency to be used to acquire the future contributors still needed.
As such, I specifuically would judge Reyes,Wright,Davis as foundational keepers to build upon, not for their past but for their potential whatever I needed to do payroll wise to keep those 3 I would certainly be sure to accomplish. BTW, with them secured I focus on young pitching to add to my preliminary rotation of Harvey,Familia, Cohoon, Holt, Niese, Gee, Pelfrey as all would be viable ages by ’13,’14.
Before u vomit all over my listing of Pelfrey, here’s mt ratrionale, every rotation needs a #5 & as I guess, today, Harvey sems destined as 1, Familia 2 the rest as battlers with my additions & each other for 3,4,5, pen and as with any player in his 20s regardless of his past failures improvment is definitely a possibility

Reyes gets on and into scoring position and Wright needs that to drive in runs.

Reyes is a good leadoff hitter no doubt. But a good leadoff hitter is not enough to win games.

Wright is a good RBI guy but he is too streaky and the reason he has those RBI’s is mostly due to Reyes!

Truth is Beltran is the most valuable part of our Lineup as he is the one who is most consistent and the hardest guy to get out, But many of us abandoned that ship long ago!

Wright will never carry this team.
Reyes will not either but when he does well the other guys do well too.

Reyes is a catalyst and he would make ANY player batting behind him better!
With a guy like Reyes on base a single is an RBI where in other instances it would take a double to get one. This make Reyes a “FORCE REDUCER” He reduces the requirement of success needed to score a run when he gets on. And this is largely why Sandy wanted to see his OBP go up because the more he gets on then the chance of him scoring is greater than the average base runner.

Reyes makes Wrights job easier! The problem is Wright is streaky and not consistent and that leaves Reyes stranded until someone else does the job.

I love Wright and would like to keep him because I think he CAN be consistent and carry this team provided he changes his mind about some things like the fact he thinks he is a HR hitter which he is not.

But at this point you have to say Reyes is more valuable to this team from a baseball perspective. and they are about even in value as a DRAW to the stadium.

If either one goes it will kill attendance.

That said if I had to say who is the better player to keep based on their recent performance I would have to go with Reyes.

And the truth is with David’s back no one would trade for him anyway so he is now relatively safe from any attempts at a firesale! So it really doesn’t matter which one we like or think is best, If Sandy decides to cash in on star players Reyes is the one who will go!

Amen. Reyes is more athletic, a better hitter, can actually play adequate major league short stop and is a lot more fun to watch.

Also, I was going to include the Flores issue but that would spark the debate the he is a shortstop techniqually.

A decent rotation can be gleaned from simply going over slot on 15 highly rated prospects and signing 15 more in the International market over a three year period.

Develop them with care, avoid the one’s who’ve been abused in college and 5 out of 30 should form a good rotation but it takes time.

How many pitchers could we get for Reyes? Would Zach Wheeler alone be enough? Could we do better with the two picks? Why couldn’t we nab five first round high school pitchers in the 5th-tenth round and PAY them to give up their scholarships draft other arms 1-5 and keep Reyes too.

It’s not just watching him run. It’s the lack of either defense, offense or both at a position that is currently a plus (compared league wide) in both categories.

Keep Bay and lose Reyes? I don’t see how that helps us now or later.

Reyes may be more motivated this year but it is also his first year fully healthy since 2008.

With regard to Reyes being in his walk year and in his prime. I’m sorry but he is a professional baseball player and if you’re going to try and tell me he is in NO WAY influenced by the fact he is due for a major pay day then I don’t really know what else to say. You don’t think there’s a chance even a slight one that he took care of himself more this off-season because of his payday? I mean I’m sorry but I will take evidence from 2003 through 2010 as my basis to judge Reyes, not his 2011 season only. To say he’s only entering his prime now?

I mean really? He’ll be 28 in a few weeks… are you trying to tell me a player ENTERS his prime at 28? My goodness, Tulo is only what 26? That guy is gonna be a monster! Reyes peaked in 2006. That was the start of his prime. A guy who relies on speed as the major part of his game doesn’t enter the prime of his career at 28. He starts to decline around 29 or 30!

Are you truly telling me you expect Jose Reyes to steal 50+ bases at age 31, 32?

To answer your question “WHO ON THIS TEAM HAS PROVEN TO BE A WINNER TO U?” — Nobody. I’d blow the whole darn thing up and start over. I really would. I don’t see the point in keeping players who PROVED they couldn’t get the job done in 07, 08 and then as a franchise have had nothing but poor luck since.

If the Mets are going to be an under .500 club, I’d rather them be under .500 with a farm system growing, not with fringe players who we fall in love with because they go 3 for 4 one day.

And I recognize they are Top 5 at their positions. I truly do and am happy with that. My point about getting rid of them BOTH is I cannot for a second believe the Mets are presently constructed will win with them here. I haven’t seen this team build a farm system with viable arms in ages if ever and until that day comes, they aren’t winning in today’s major leagues. The answer isn’t signing 30 year old free agents, the answer is developing talent.

The best way to jump start that process is to deal your valuable commodities.

I’m sure we would both agree that that would be dependent on what value we would get going forward for them.

Say a total of 6 prospects in A+. Two A’s, two B’s and two C’s. That could go along way added to what Omar left behind. Any cost to a team acquiring Reyes would be mitigated by the two high draft choices if he didn’t sign or be worth it to many teams if he did because of the position scarcity.

Two tough years to go through and then a full fledged talented team with depth, a bench, a pen and a rotation would be worth it to me but I still feel that Jose would be worth resigning for 5 years. He could very well turn into 2 early round picks in 2017 as well. He probably did arrive in better shape this year but with the carrot of FA out there for his age 33 season (not unusual for a SS in these days) we could nab the picks to keep it going after it finally gets built.

Signing Reyes would keep us at least interesting in the interim and unless the Angels were talking Trout or the Braves Delgado or the NYY Banulos I’m not sure the return would even be that great.

Wright I would let go for picks unless overwhelmed beforehand and realistically, teams (other than us) build for today and tomorrow with all the decisions they make. Why can’t we do both?

We use what we have, Reyes, to ‘make do’ for what we don’t have!

ALL too often we’ve been forced to endure that which we do have when Reyes is not available & IT AIN’T PRETTY NOR COMPEWTITIVE!

Why? What has Reyes done for the Mets? I mean really. He’s not a future hall of famer, he’s a good player with speed.

That’s enough to change your allegiance to the Boston Red Sox? I mean, how in the world can that be taken serious?

Signing either of them to one would be to please the idea of a lifelong Met, and not a better ballclub.

Are they good players? Absolutely, but we’re talking about them as though they are future hall of famers and they are not. You sometimes have to look past the uniform and look at the player and their performance.

Just because a player came up through the Mets system, doesn’t mean he’s worth paying over $100m to. In fact in almost every instance, it means he isn’t

Personally, if I were GM, I would believe my most likely opportunity to restructure this roster back into contention is 2013 and as such, I would examine my existing 40 combined with Buffalo & Binghamton to assess those that presumanbly will remain contributable toewards that result & pedal the rest for the most I can get in return. If I may generalize, my opinuion is that Santana is not of this group as his contract expires in ’13 & retaining him for his ’14 option(in case I miss in ’13) is unfathomable as to keep him ONLY through ’13 is a $55M minimum commitment adding another $20M for ’14 if needed. IMO, with current financial restrictions it is very unlikely we can retain ALL the necessary ingrediants for future ’13 contention with that millstone liability tied around their financial necks. esp for a questionable pitcher as shoulder recoveries claim velocity as their first sacrifice leaving Santana most likely with a short disparity with his change thus eliminating it from his arsenal. To keep Santana at the cost of Reyes or Wright + that outrageos salary level is rediculous. Without the offense imporoving it’s un;likely Santana’s W% improves.
With current payroll @ approx 143M which includes Santana(25M), Reyes(11M), Beltran(18M), K-Rod(12M) the thought of losing the single MOST dynamic aspect of our offense for less than 10M in order to keep the image of an ACE is ludicrous. my $10M figure is based upon worse case scenerio of Reyes getting $20M for ’12. The resulting net payroll increase is a mere 9M.
Forget the financial as[pect & let’s purely consider this based upon simple SUPPLY & DEMAND concepts. What is the supply of good hitting, good fielding 3B in MLB? Off the tyop of my head I can think of at least 4 capable of Wright production: Zimmerman, Sandoval, Rodiguez,Rolen, Jones are 5 u can discard one. As for Reyes, certainly Ramirez & Tulo can replace some of his contributions; but definitely not ALL as in SB,RS.
Trade value to me is meaningless unless u are actually trading to improve of ALL the potential assets we possess Reyes, by far, is the least likely of improving upon.