14
2011
Reyes Making An Early Case For MVP
An article by Former Writers
Given all the turmoil surrounding the New York Mets coming into 2011, not many expected anything from the team, during 2011. Coming into the season, speculation arose; perhaps 2011 would be a wash year for the Mets and phase-1 of a long rebuilding process.
But, here we stand June 13, and the New York Mets are flirting with the .500 mark and are very much alive in both the National League Wild Card race and the National League East race.
When both, Ike Davis and David Wright went down in mid-May with injuries and were placed on the DL the talk of a fire-sale began to heat up.
The team was destined for a tailspin right? This was a team that started the season 5-13 with everyone, outside of Jason Bay healthy. Now with two of their top sluggers out, how would the Mets field a competitive team, let alone win and continue to remain in the race?
The answer, shortstop Jose Reyes.
Since Reyes’ option for 2011 was picked up, it’s been adversity after adversity that has faced the soon to be 2011 All-Star.
It began in Spring Training with the media starting rumors of when the 28-year-old two time All-Star, would be traded given the Mets financial struggles, it was stirred when owner Fred Wilpon came out and said the dynamic shortstop was not getting Carl Crawford money from the Mets, but through it all Reyes has somehow managed to keep it on the back-burner and is putting together the best season of his career.
With no clear-cut legitimate MVP candidate sticking out in the National League is it to early to make the case for Jose Reyes?
If it is too early to start talking possible MVP candidates, then when does that time come? With the MLB season approaching the halfway mark I think now is when you get a good idea of who the front-runners are.
Where would the Mets even be without the offensive production and stellar defensive play of Jose Reyes? Certainly not in a position to challenge for a division title, or wild card berth.
Coming into tonight’s play against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Reyes posts a stellar .346 batting average, tops in the NL while he also leads the Majors in triples with an impressive-11.
Reyes trails just teammate Carlos Beltran in the league lead for doubles (Beltran, 20, Reyes 19).
His twenty stolen bases trails only the Houston Astros speedy center fielder Michael Bourn’s twenty-five.
The speed demon, is tied for fifth in the league with forty-seven runs scored.
Maybe, more impressive than any one of these stats in Reyes impressive multi-hit games, where the Mets shortstop has recorded a multi-hit game thirty-two times, while playing in just sixty-three games.
At the pace the young electrifying shortstop is going, Reyes would finish with a league best 230-hits, which would shatter his previous best of 204 during the 2008 season, where Reyes finished 24th in the MVP voting.
The one thing that may hold Reyes back in the discussion is the lack of home runs. With just three, he may not be the sexy pick, but the numbers Reyes has put up in every other aspect of the game cannot be overlooked.
Despite just three home runs Reyes’ OPS is still a mind-bottling .921, a number most power hitters struggle to reach and maintain throughout the course of a 162-game season.
Now whether Reyes wins the MVP or not, will be contingent in all likelihood on where the Mets finish in the standings.
If the Mets continue to win, and somehow sneak their way into the postseason, one would figure it would be due to Reyes continuing to excel and carrying the Mets to a place they haven’t been since 2006.
With no one separating themselves from the pack to this point, and with many in the NL clustered together in the standings, Jose Reyes stands as good as shot as anyone to take home NL MVP honors.
About the Author: Former Writers
93 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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If the season ended right now Reyes is the MVP no question, but it’s still a long way off to worry about it. The only thing I’m worried about is if Reyes will be a Met next season.
I agree 100%. I can’t see Reyes leaving, just can’t I think the Mets muster up every penny they have and throw it has way and called it a day. He won’t be traded that’s for sure, so if he goes, he walks at the end of the season when free agency starts
So you think Reyes will sign for Reyes money vice Crawford money?
I think Reyes gets about a 5 year 100 million dollar deal right around there give or take a few million here or there
He will never take those peanuts in a 150 million years. Teams are going to be frothing at the mouths to sign him. He probably won’t even finish this season as a Met. Your whole article is a pipe dream, you are obviously deluded.
MVP!!!
MVP!!!
MVP!!!
MVP!!!
MVP!!!
MVP!!!
MVP!!!
to think the mets have NEVER had an MVP before is just crazy.. the latest cases could’ve been made for thing was:
beltran 2006 (pujols & howard were on fire all year and beltran got hurt at the end wright 2007 (the mets choke job)
Delgado 2008 (ANOTHER choke job cost him the MVP)
but i think this year with everything that’s been going on with the mets, with no real offensive threat on the team, if jose keeps up this pace, or similar to this and the mets are in contention come september (if they are it will be largely due to him) i think there’s a puncher chance this man can finally be the mets first MVP!!
The Mets have been a little unlucky with MVP voting.
In 1986 Carter, Hernandez and Strawberry took away votes from each other.
In 1969 Tom Seaver should have won the MVP but finished second.
In 2000 Mike Piazza got screwed by cheater Barry Bonds, and Jeff Kent who had 100 more AB than Piazza and still had fewer homeruns and only 12 more RBI.
at that time you wouldn’t have guessed barry was juiced up… i think the 2007 year was wright’s to lose it, but the mets choke it up.. there was no clear cut winner, it pretty much came down to the last day between rollins, holliday and wright. and well, the rest is history
Yes, just like Beltran the year before which you mentioned. I dont think Wright will ever come that close to winning an MVP again. I’d even say Wright peaked that season and has been in decline ever since.
i think if we get players that can handle the #3 spot wright can be productive as our #5 hitter, after all, in 2007 he was only our #3 for the last month of the season..
If the Mets make the postseason in 08 I really, really thought Delgado should have been MVP. He was just so dominant and meant so much to that team from June-September. Plus it doesn’t hurt when Delgado is my favorite player of all time so there is that bias but in all honesty that 3-month stretch was incredible.
If you think Wright choked in 2007 you need to shut off your computer now and go straight to the doctor. YOU HAVE NO IDEA what you are talking about. NONE
My bad – you said Mets choke.
Imagine winning the MVP for the Mets (I dont believe Reyes will be traded), and then Reyes signing with another team because the Mets couldn’t afford to beat the Yankees or Phillies offer?
We will all look back at these days when the Mets could have signed him without any competing offers and DIDN’T!!!
if that happens, blame the saberidiots who needed to “evaluate” him and see how his “obp” was at the end of year
Where exactly did this idea that Reyes’s OBP was going to make or break his contract come from?
from the saberidiots.. isn’t sandy alderson (a man who NEVER play baseball) a big saber metric guy? and reports indicated jose reyes didn’t fit “his style” of ball player..
Sandy does use some sabermetric stats, sure. But where did it say anything about OBP specifically?
isn’t OBP a big sabermetric stat? here’s something for everyone liking on the saber idiots who think because they went to ivy league schools know baseball: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabermetrics
No, OBP was invented in 1947 under the orders of Branch Rickey. I’ll wait for you to wiki him and then you can tell us how he didn’t know anything about baseball either.
And I’m sure you’re aware OBP is not a sabermetric stat, right?
is not.. read what i post it to prove you wrong about alderson and his sabermetric dumbas-ses.. in my post 2 things stand out, #1 is sandy alderson is ON TOP of the list on baseball sabeheads, and #2 the word NERD relative to this article lol..
That entire article doesn’t mention OBP even once, and about Sandy being on top……..that list is alphabetical. Sorry, you lose.
ok ,let me shut you up AGAIN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Alderson
Where are you shutting me up? First of all, you’re using wikipedia to “prove” things, and I’d advise against that. Secondly, no one argued with you about Sandy ever playing before or being a saber guy. I agreed with that. It’s very wide knowledge. I’m waiting for you to show me where some Met official said they were waiting for Reyes’s OBP to do something before they re-signed him.
And what does playing have to do with anything? Know who did play? Sabermetric guru Billy Beane. Know who drafted him? I’ll bet you can find it on Wikipedia.
again, a baseball guy, who never play baseball, was indulge into baseball because family own a team, then, was too busy to watch or go to games, so read box score.. and went from there.. keep drinking the kool aid ppl. this man has never done anything worht mentioning, other than allowed steroid heads like mcgwire and canseco win him a WS, nothing worth nothing.. NOTHING
no, he was not related to the owner, please stop lying. It makes you look worse.
Again, this man never played baseball in HIS LIFE!!! and only was introduce to bseball because his daddy in law bought the team…
No, that’s not what happened.
One of the partners at the firm Alderson worked at was the son in law of the As new owner. Alderson was hired as the general council and eventually worked his way up to GM.
Again, why do certain people of a certain philosophical bent have to lie about what others say or do in order to support their position?
key word.. NEVER PLAY BASEBALL nor was intersted..
Frank Cashen never played baseball
Brian Cashman never played baseball
Theo Epstien never played baseball
Lots of successful executives never actually played pro baseball. Its the outside perspective of a guy not married to ideas because “thats the way we always did it” that works in a lot of cases.
donal,
they don’t act like they know more than the game do they????????
They don’t invent hollow cliches that make no sense to hide the fact that they’re over their heads
Lost in all this is the fact that Alex never once showed anything that said Reyes OBP has to be at a certain level for Alderson to re-sign him. If you’re so sure that this is true, why are you having a hard time proving it.
Also no, they don’t act like they know more than the game. Explain to me how they do. Try not to use Wikipedia this time.
I don’t even get what that is supposed to mean. I’m going to need that defined before I can ever take that seriously as an argument.
let’s see, do you know more than heyman? he report it first, then alderson in a interview said he takes OBP very in account when scouting a player!!
he can take his OBP and saber stats and shove it up hisAS-s!!!!
and again, this man thinks he’s got the world of baseball wrapped around his hand, you suckers are in for huge surprises.. it may have very well started with their draft choices
Right. Alderson looks at OBP. So what does that mean to you? He ONLY looks at OBP? Alderson couldn’t care less about anything else? Can you show me where someone connected to the Mets said that Reyes won’t be resigned if his OBP is under a specific threshold?
And once again, OBP is not a sabermetric stat.
“let’s see, do you know more than heyman?”
There I days he leads to believe that I do. Why do we care what a Yankee shill has to say?
“he report it first,”
And which Mets writer confirmed it?
“then alderson in a interview said he takes OBP very in account when scouting a player!!”
Because it is very important. Its not the be all and end all though.
“he can take his OBP and saber stats and shove it up hisAS-s!!!!”
I think the plan is to build a successful franchise, actually. But you do whatever feels good to you and your butt.
“nd again, this man thinks he’s got the world of baseball wrapped around his hand,”
I think you mean wrapped around his little finger. And how so? Can you define that? Can you give us some examples? Because, from all accounts, he’s very respected and held in high regard by many executives and other knowledgeable baseball people.
“you suckers are in for huge surprises.. it may have very well started with their draft choices”
I’m so glad to see who is rooting for the team to fail now. It helps us separate the real fans from the frightened know it alls.
If the Mets should win the World Series within the next few years, will you be abstaining from any celebrating?
i forgot xtree-micon, when i want mets news and report i should go to you since you know more than the writes, beat writers and ppl on the organization
“i forgot xtree-micon, when i want mets news and report i should go to you since you know more than the writes, beat writers and ppl on the organization.”
You haven’t provided one single quote from any beat writer or anyone in the Mets organization. You “quoted” Heyman, the Yankee shill, and paraphrased something Alderson said that didn’t even prove your point.
Please answer the original question. What does Reyes OBP have to be for the Mets to re-sign him and please link us to where you heard/read that.
And if you can spare us the time, what does it mean that Sandy thinks he knows more than the game?
“Reports?” You have got to be kidding me. You take as gospel every “report” filed by writer, blogger, anonymous source?
Wow! World class gullible I’d say.
Perhaps Alderson (with no money on hand and a dozen spots to fill) should have just come in here and made every decision 100% correctly in his first week. Yeah that would have been great. Another shoot first and analyze what went wrong after the fact type around here. As if we haven’t had enough of these types.
Look. The answers to off season questions have to be provided a year or two ahead of time. That’s how you avoid being painted into a corner like Omar was with Alou/Murphy/Bay in LF or Castillo at 2B or Perez and Maine in the rotation.
Reyes should have had another couple of club option years included at 12 an 15 M or at the absolute least been approached about an extension in 2010 if not 2009 after his surgery.
The Mets just never keep their eye on the ball because their always so busy trying to make up for work left undone 5 years ago.
NEWS FLASH: You cannot make up for the fact that you blew the 2006 draft by signing Jason Bay to an 80 M dollar contract. What you could have and should have been doing was allocate the money to the safer bet going forward who has been an iconic NY Met during his peak years, not spending on someone else’s post prime years.
The Mets just can never see the forest through all the trees.
NOW you are making a fool of yourself. Stop making up crap seriously, you are a fool.
Well look at the Phillies they signed Cliff Lee 5 years 100 million that was a year less and 38 million less than what the yankees offered him. I think if the Mets make that same type of offer to Jose Reyes just the familiarity and love the fans have for Reyes and Reyes has for the fans, he stays, plain and simple.
Justin, that’s not true. Lee signed a five year deal for $120 guaranteed with an easily vesting 6th year option. The maximum value of his deal is $135 over six years. The Yanks offered him $132 over six years with a 7th year option.
Correct…
5 years/$120M (2011-15), plus 2016 option
11:$11M, 12:$21.5M, 13:$25M, 14:$25M, 15:$25M, 16:$27.5M club option ($12.5M buyout)
option becomes guaranteed if Lee 1) is not on the disabled list at end of 2015 season with injury to left elbow or left shoulder, and 2) has 200 IP in 2015 or 400 IP in 2014-15
limited no-trade protection
award bonuses: $50,000 each for Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, All-Star, LCS MVP; $0.1M for WS MVP; $0.1M for Cy Young ($75,000 for 2nd in vote, $50,000 for 3rd)
Cliff Lee didn’t take a bad deal for his career in order to play somewhere he enjoyed.
That common misconception irks me somewhat. Like Lee is some sort of saint because he’d rather use food stamps than play with the Yanks. I get it, Mets fans don’t like the Yankees. But with that option, Lee took MORE money than the Yanks were guaranteeing. He only lost $16 million dollars over 7 years to go to Philliy.
It was Texas who actually offered him the most money.
AND Lee is 35 years old, Reyes is 27 and plays THE premium position on the field, AND he’s the best lead-off hitter in baseball. Do you understand the importance of those things dude? Ask the Yankees.
Reyes should have been extended a couple of years ago but Minaya was too busy signing such luminaries as Castillo, Perez and Bay to concern himself with any year other than the next one.
agee, reyes signed a very cheap extension in 2006. i don’t think the mets were gonna be in extension talk with him while he was hurt in 2009 or battling all kinds of issues with him in 2010.. but after the 2010 season he should’ve been sign i agree..
Gotta love the debates. Thanks guys, keep it going interesting points being made from both sides. Very interesting to take your take on the current situation that is Jose Reyes and The New York Mets Front Office.
i am sure that jeter play he made in 2000 to throw out j giambi at home plate in the 7th inning of a 1-0 yankees leadin on game 3 whith the yankees trailing the A’s 2-0 is a sabermetric stat right? it came out on the boxscore right?
You mean the one where Giambi was actually safe but the ump blew the call? Or if Giambi had slid, he would have more clearly beaten it?
Yes, you can measure how that changed the win probability in that game.
oh man.. i don’t see it in the box score? do you??
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200110130.shtml
That’s because WPA and LI aren’t stats.
jahajahajahajahajahaja, the what and the what!!????? lmao.. i am not a saber head bro, talk to me in BASEBALL TERMS!!!
They’re not saber things, either. Didn’t you just read how the NFL uses WPA? Do you just pay attention to certain things?
err, heart….grit…dirty uniforms…stupid cliches passed off as wisdom…amphetamines are just part of the game…
Why you don’t know baseball, you still wouldn’t understand.
The column marked WPA denotes the effect each individual player had on the team’s win probability.
And generally, percentages aren’t on score cards. They are there to record the outcomes. You then take those outcomes and figure out whatever percentages you want later.
Leverage is how important an individual at bat is.
Win Probability is the odds of a team winning at a certain point in a game. The otucome of each at bat affects the WP of the team.
“Win Probability is the odds of a team winning at a certain point in a game. The otucome of each at bat affects the WP of the team.”
Furthermore, WPA is the effect of the specific play defined by the change in WP. If the Mets have a 60% chance of winning the game and the Beltran homers and they have a 65% chance of winning, Beltran added 5%.
don’t tell or show that stat to the 2008 new york mets bullpen!!!!
Again……not a stat.
Well, I think colloquially, you can call it a stat. Kind of like how “theory” is different when a scientist uses than when most people use.
ok… glad to know
If you guys want to hear more on this topic and more Mets News!! Tune into my show today at 4:30 PM on blogtalkradio.com and weekdays from 4:30 to 5:30 PM here’s the link for the show http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jsilberman/2011/06/14/mets-talk-live
Send a shout out to alex68 and the CORE !!!!
The core idiots!
somebody woke up needed some coffee..
alex68: “then, was too busy to watch or go to games, so read box score.. and went from there”
Yeah, screw Sandy for serving in the United States Military and supposedly keeping “busy”!
the best part about your failed wikipedia argument (which quite frankly is embarrasing), is that you think OBP is a sabr stat. Proving yet again that people like you who come here and talk about saber”idiots” don’t even know what sabermetrics are.
Branch Rickey would be the first “saber idiot” by your criteria, and something tells me many GMs in baseball would love to be as good as Branch Rickey someday.
I know you then flipped your argument to “never played the game” which is funny to me because Kevin Towers, Doug Melvin, Ruben Amaro Jr, Neal Huntington, Jed Hoyer, Kenny Williams, Jack Zduriencik and Billy Beane are the only GMs I think with either professional or documented successful collegiate baseball success. So less than 30% of the sports GMs “played the game”.
sooner or later i knew you were gonna come in defend since you’re the top Sabermetric guy in here..
ask ralhp kiner (as he said on the air) what he thinks of those sabemetric guys who think everything is #’s in baseball.. can you see in your saber metric sheet how not bunting and getting murphy thrown out at 2B change the complex of the game? or how tabata catch in the 8th save the game for the pirates!??
Ya, lets ask Ralph…why he thinks OBP and slugging percentage are great stats and better than batting average. In fact, he said that OPS is the best way to see a hitter’s all around proficiency.
“can you see in your saber metric sheet how not bunting and getting murphy thrown out at 2B change the complex of the game? or how tabata catch in the 8th save the game for the pirates!??”
In fact, yes. You can measure how both outcomes changed the leverage of the innings and the win probability in the game.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What????!!!???? there’s a stat for that too??
Ya, leverage and win probability. each event and outcome has an effect on the game.
Leverage index and Win Probability added. It’s not a stat so much as it’s a tool. It doesn’t measure anyone’s performance. The NFL has used WPA for a few years now. Santonio Holmes was blowing everyone away in WPA for most of the season this past year, but I never checked to see where he ended up.
Hey, want to ask David Cone what he thinks of advanced metrics?
http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2011/05/david_cone_on_advanced_stats_t.html
Aww, but what do him and Ralph know about playing the game?
or Davey Johnson……….
alex: First of all thank you. Thank you for the honor of being “top Sabermetric guy.” It’s 100% untrue, but thanks. The only sabermetric stat I’ve ever discussed on MMO is OPS… and OPS is the most generic/popular saber stat that even the biggest saber haters use. So I’m not really sure how I earned “top sabermetric guy”
The point of my reply is that you
A) Used wikipedia to make a really poor argument
B) Your argument that Alderson is somehow not qualified to be a GM because of his lack of playing means you also disqualify over 70% of the men in charge or running teams
C) OBP is not a sabermetric stat.
D) Sandy Alderson has never stated on any record that the NY Mets were going to be evaluated based on sabermetric stats
Jessep the only thing about you that is 100% is that you are always 100% wrong. remember “who cares that we dont win the ws as long as we play meaningful sept games”…lol that statement sums you up completely.
don’t forget the “oliver perez is a good pitcher, with upside, and he’s worth the contract” stupid article he wrote..
the urinal article was another classic
LMAO!!!! i forgot!!!
will: The best part about that quote is that I never said that.
What I said is that we are baseball fans and to have your team in the MLB playoffs is a luxury for almost every fan base.
From 1999 to 2006, the Oakland A’s gave their fans quality baseball each and every year while spending less than $50m on their team. During that span they made it to the playoffs 5 times and averaged 93 wins out of 162 games played.
I would GLADLY take that stretch with no World Series appearance or win, than any other franchises recent 8 year stretch outside of NYY or BOS.
That doesn’t happen often…and if you’re a fan of a team that gets to see that, you’re lucky.
When you get to the playoffs, things change. Colorado making it to the World Series, were they the best team? No. They were hot. The playoffs are a crapshoot.
Getting there is tougher than winning 11 games out of 19 in my opinion. It doesn’t mean winning it all is not important to me, but it means I’ll gladly sit by my tv for 8 straight years and watch a 93 win team play because once they get to the playoffs, anything can happen
how many times has oakland come out of the first round?? once!! would you like that also? typical loser mentality?? what’s next, you’re gonna count how many times the mets have finished 2nd and call those successfull year? oh wait.. i am sure you sign for that as well
The point is, the A’s were in that fight a lot more than the Mets. Everyone has a puncher’s chance in October.
he already has despite his denial….
alex: They went to a Game 5 4 years in a row in the LDS…its not as though they made it in and then got swept.
Tell ya what… from 1999 to 2006. Tell me which franchises you’d prefer to have been a fan of other than the Oakland A’s.
Would you have rather spent 8 years as a DBacks fan from 1999 to 2006 solely because they won it all in 2001? Averaging 82 wins a year…
The Angels because they won in 2002? 84 win average over 8 years
How about the Marlins?
The point is that it is INCREDIBLY difficult to sustain excellence in MLB over an 8 year period, and pair that with the fact their average payroll was less than 50 million?
If they had won a World Series in say 2003, that time period would have been labeled one of the most successful in recent memory.
And as a fan, if your team gives you that… you should be lucky and grateful
would you prefer the braves of the 90′s or the yankees’s of the 90′s??
mind you, the yankees went to the postseason 6 years, the braves ALL 9!!!!
I’d take Atlanta’s because every day or every year from 1991 through 1999 I would have enjoyed watching my team… plus they got a WS ring out of it”
ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!?????????????????!!!!!????
LOSER MENTALITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Braves didn’t go to the playoffs in 1990.
It’s kind of a lackluster question. You’re asking me to pick between 2 dynasties. I’d take Atlanta’s because every day or every year from 1991 through 1999 I would have enjoyed watching my team… plus they got a WS ring out of it.
The yanks were not relevant 90-93…
I don’t really get the point of your question though
WOW you are just as dillusional as your boy Alex68 here. People state ACTUAL FACTS and you tell them they are wrong.
Stop wasting the bandwidth – Pick up Alex68 and head to homeroom now.
Keep the comments coming! Let’s break 100. Lol