Ruben Tejada Continues To Prosper At The Plate

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• alex68 August 29, 2011 at 9:49 am

  great article, is nice to finally recognize our young players instead of salivate for players from other teams, while the naysayers are complaining about our farm and the fact that baseball america has us with below avg players coming up, i like what i am seeing out of murphy, duda, tejada and hell even turner; their grow can only help us not suck as much in the future, is nice to write an article like this hojo, to let mets fans know we HAVE baseball players as well, that way some of the “mets fans” can stop gushing about the kimbrels, heywards and freeman’s of the world..
  btw, tejada and reyes up the middle = the best middle infield defense the mets can have, also that leads to WINNING
  • Russell Zanca August 29, 2011 at 9:56 am

    Like your last sentence a lot Alex!

    I am a little torn about Mets having to consider whether or not they can keep both Tejada and Turner. The fact is that if we can afford JR, then I agree with COllins that the best way to keep Reyes healthy for the long haul is to give him more breaks during the year–that is, more days of rest.

    I could live w/ JR missing 15 to 20 games if the resting strategy works.
    • alex68 August 29, 2011 at 10:02 am

      with ike davis at first, reyes at SS and tejada at 2B we can live with wright or even murphy’s defense at 3B.. our defense up the middle will help us win a lot of games
• Russell Zanca August 29, 2011 at 9:51 am

  Good one, HM. I like this kid more and more every time I see him play. Despite a few of his IF erors, he plays smart fundamental BB, and he is a really talented IFer. I feel confident he will improve his defense greatly in the next two years at the MLB-level.

  I think that even if he proves to be a lifetime .240 hitter, he will be an asset for any team. I hope he has a bright future w/ us.
  • alex68 August 29, 2011 at 9:58 am

    russell, as time goes by the players develop to be better at the plate, he’s got discipline, reyes was awful coming in as well ,then he developed and became a good hitter, tejada imo will get a little bigger as his body hasn’t fully developed yet, he will hit for doubles and whatnot, and he has good eye at the plate, plus his defense will help us win more games than lose..
    is funny, how some ppl will base his avg to be forever like that at 249, saying ohh that’s what he is, yet jason heyward is a 255 ba hitter, yet he will mature, he’s a stud, he’s a superstar in the making.. blah blah blah.. ugh.. is pathetic to see what some of these ppl say..
    not you russell, the core salutes you as always
• NJstuckinTX August 29, 2011 at 10:22 am

  It is nice to see Tejada progressing, because as of now, he is the only backup plan to Reyes in another uniform…
• vtmet August 29, 2011 at 11:03 am

  quote: expect young Ruben Tejada to go back to a utility role peppered with a couple of spot starts at second base.

  I don’t think so…I think that Tejada is going to start just about every day at either 2nd or short (when Jose gets a game off)…

  Turner is batting .234 with a .652 OPS since the All Star Break (Justin is hitting .174 with a .620 OPS in August)…Whereas Tejada is batting .379 with a .963 OPS since returning from the minors…

  Collins/Sandy have gotten a good look at Turner so far, and they know how Murphy can hit; so now is the time for them to access Tejada on an every day basis…
  • alex68 August 29, 2011 at 11:07 am

    i agree.. tejada should be our 2B from here on out.. him and reyes will make a formidable middle infield combination..
    • NJstuckinTX August 29, 2011 at 11:25 am

      Assuming health, I can’t see Havens not taking 2B in the near future. He is absolutely raking. But again, he seems to want to compete with Fmart for most time spent on the DL.
  • Donal August 29, 2011 at 11:32 am

    Agreed, Tejada has at least earned the opportunity. Let him prove if he’s legit or just hot. The thing I like is that he’s not just slapping weak little grounders and beating the throw. He’s hitting decent line drives at about a 24% rate.

    While I still question his defense, I can’t deny a definite improvement in his offense. If Reyes stays and he keeps up his current production, then 2B should be Tejada’s job to lose next Spring.
• Metsie August 29, 2011 at 11:54 am

  I give Reuben props for improving his hitting but I still don’t see enough from him to solidify his position on the field.

  Thats not really a knock on Tejada but more a testament to Murphy’s bat!

  The ONLY scenario where Tejada is a sure thing starter involves Reyes leaving. If Reyes stays it’s going to be very difficult to find a space to play him with Murphy, Turner and Havens all vying for that one base. And Rueben is not the kind of Kid who can maintain his hitting without regular playing time.

  It will be an interesting offseason to say the least, and 2B will be the HOT STOVE CORNER for us.

  My hopes is that they can get Murphy to play a reasonable Outfield (prob RF with Duda replacing Bay in LF) Which should make the space for Tejada at 2B (possible Platoon with Turner) and make dumping Bay on someone (requires paying most of his Salary) easier.
  • alex68 August 29, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    then again, murphy has been injure the past 2 years, yet noone is saying he’s injury prone… which begs the question, why noone mention him being injury prone??
    i crazy idea would be to move wright to LF, have murphy at 3rd base.. tejada and reyes up the middle and davis at 1st base.. not bad imo ..
    • JoeSmith August 29, 2011 at 2:39 pm

      Do you know how Murphy got hurt the last two years?

      If you do, then you’d know that does not make him injury prone.
      • NJstuckinTX August 29, 2011 at 2:50 pm

        Well, if you consider poor positioning will tend to leave him in a position to get hurt more ofter… But I do agree, it’s not like Murph has bad hammies or an arthritic knee or something like that.
      • Metsie August 29, 2011 at 2:54 pm

        Well not injury proned as long as he is not made to play 2nd base!

        I’m not opposed to trying him a 2nd one more time but I do think it might be better if we could get him to learn and play the outfield reliably so he could play RF moving Duda into Bay’s position and leaving Tejada and Turner a position they can be used at.
  • rickeybobby August 29, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    Agree that Tejada will see some playing time, i dont think he needs to get more then 300abs. My plan would be to let Tejada play in Buffalo in April to get him some consistent ab’s for his age/developemnt, then bring him up and get him in a platoon/spot starts (which Collins seems to have a very good measure of to keep his players sharp) at 2b (whether it be platoon w Murphy or Turner-i can see Murhry getting RF starts and Duda stealing some of JBay’s starts ) and the spot starts for Reyes as they mentioned he will def get more rest.

    Despite his injuries id still like to see Murphy play some 2b, his offensive prodction wud be better then most at that postion and any game we are winning we could bring Tejada in for 8th and 9th for his defensive replacemnet. Anyway Tejada has been impressive and as i stated in an earlier post, he has the same OBP as Reyes and has a better rbi and doubles pace all for the league miniumum in salary… we could sign Pujols and say bye-bye to Jose !!!
• OmarFan August 30, 2011 at 8:22 am

  Tejada hit .290 @ AA as a 19/20 year old. The kid can hit. He needs to get a little more pop in order to take advantage of the defense, since they play him so shallow. If he hits like Omar Vizquel one day, we will all be more than pleased. The kid definitely has a good eye. The team has a lot of depth in the infield down in the minors, that’s for sure.
  • alex68 August 30, 2011 at 8:29 am

    again, turner can play 2nd base and 3rd base, murphy can play all infield except SS. we keep them both, and imo keep everyone fresh.. giving murphy 300 at bats and turner 200+ at bats means reyes wright and davis can all be fresh down the stretch, of course when we are or if we are in a pennant race.. is good to have depth AT THE MAJOR LEAGUE LEVEL.. which it was something the mets lack when omar was here, granted,if the whole IF is out due to injury how much depth can you really have?
    but i think the maturity and development of tejada will be a blessing in the sky as we will have 6 good players to round out the IF..now, if we can only fix our Bullpen, LF, SP and Catching situation we will be fine..