What A Difference A .323 Average Can Make

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• jessep August 6, 2012 at 3:43 pm

  It clearly doesn’t matter but I doubt the Wilpon’s call them “christmas bonus”. Aren’t they jewish? I thought I read somewhere that Alderson practiced judaism also? I could be wrong there.

  But to the point. I think they had faith that Tejada could be a legit starting SS. Do I think they knew in year 1 he’d take off? No. But I do think they saw this coming at some point.

  Tejada’s lack of speed is concerning though. It makes him an odd scenario in a lineup. He’s a prototypical leadoff guy but his speed is that of a 7/8 hitter. Very odd.

  During Reyes’ 3rd year he turned 22
  190 Hits, 24 doubles, 17 triples, 7HR, 58 RBI, 60SB, .273/.300/.373 with a .644 OPS

  Tejada is CLEARLY a more disciplined hitter than Reyes. In fact I won’t even both looking it up but I’d wager that outside of last year’s “magical career year”, Reyes has never finished with a OBP higher than Tejada’s right now.

  Reyes was undoubtedly a more exciting player. But Tejada seems to be proving he’s further along as a HITTER and DEFENSIVE player at age 22 than Reyes was.
  • Donal August 6, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    Actually, over the last 7 years, Reyes has had a .350 OBP or better for 6 of them. So, you can’t say it is a huge disparity. Tejada is presently at .368.

    That said, not sure what Christmas bonuses and mortgage payments have to do with anything.
    • jessep August 6, 2012 at 3:57 pm

      I think he’s just saying money saved from not overpaying Reyes was used elsewhere.

      Which I frankly highly doubt. Though they proved they are not the greatest at handling $, I’d hope the Wilpon’s know how to separate “mortgage money” from “team payroll money.”

      Well there ya go about Reyes. My point is valid then. Tejada at 22 is proving to be a more disciplined hitter than Reyes for every year minus 1 “magical” year.

      That’s my point. If Tejada can do this at 22, what can he do at 26, 27, 28?
      • Donal August 6, 2012 at 4:05 pm

        “I’d hope the Wilpon’s know how to separate “mortgage money” from “team payroll money.””

        If they didn’t the IRS would explain it to them. Over the course of 10-25 years.
        • jessep August 6, 2012 at 4:09 pm

          haha true story.
          • Amazin August 7, 2012 at 7:24 am

            AW so cute, donal and jessup have a conversation with himself. On a more serious note jessup, any need to bring up someone’s religion other than showing some of your bigotry to go along with your baseball and obviosly lifetime ignorance on people in general and their beliefs? Shame on you. You truly are a major league schmuck. Schmuck is a Yiddush word. You are the definition of a schmuck.
            • alan August 7, 2012 at 9:38 am

              Thank you for your comments about the stupidity that Donal and Jessup have demonstrated today! Combine that with their lack of knowledge about baseball…and what do you get?

              guys who think they know more than the experts because of their fantasy league fun!

              I love this website…but days where I have to read this kind of stuff ……disgust me !
              • Alex68 August 7, 2012 at 11:43 am

                I love this website…but days where I have to read this kind of stuff ……disgust me!”

                Let me apologize to you and those who have witness those 2 slurp their way to nothing… This site is pretty good, please understand that joe D has to allowed even those with lack of baseball experience to participate in discussion. every hero needs a villain to be a hero..
• Des August 6, 2012 at 3:58 pm

  Ruben has become a very good contact hitter. I didn’t think he would be as good as he is. But let’s not go overboard on his talents. He’s a Jeff Keppinger kind of ballplayer with more defensive skills.

  He’s got little speed both on the basepaths and doesn’t get as many many opposing team’s ground balls up the middle as Jose would. Recently his defense has started to become porous. Keith and Gary have brought this up a couple of times. With Ruben the Mets are a station to station, base to base offensive team.

  When you factor in productivity for the dollar, Ruben provides an interesting contrast to Reyes. As the season wears on, no one would say he provides nearly the sheer talent of Jose.
  • jessep August 6, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    wow! A Jeff Keppinger kind of player?

    That is harsh.

    He certainly needs refinement but at 22 years old he’s a solid ballplayer. He lacks speed though. I don’t know if he’s slow or just not equipped to steal yet.

    I don’t mind the lack of SB, I mind a leadoff hitter clogging the basepaths
    • Donal August 6, 2012 at 4:33 pm

      stealing bases is not all about speed though. Rickey Henderson was never a great sprinter. He just knew how to read pitchers and had a great first step. Tejada may not be slow, he just doesn’t have a good first step.

      And there are no base cloggers in MLB. Even Adam Dunn can get around the bases if the guy behind him hits. If Murphy jacks a double into the RF corner, Tejada can score.
      • Des August 6, 2012 at 10:06 pm

        Donal — You make some creative comparisons. I’ll give you another.

        RICKEY HENDERSON BREAKS SPEED DATING RECORD
        Rickey Henderson has broken the Newark, NJ speed dating record with 65 women checking “interested” in his score card in under two hours.

        http://thisisthesports.com/2011/09/12/rickey-henderson-breaks-speed-dating-record/
    • Des August 6, 2012 at 6:55 pm

      Jessep — Harsh? I don’t think so. I’ve always regarded Jeff Keppinger as a damn good hitter. To put Ruben in that category was intended as a compliment. Jeff is a .285 kind of hitter who hits four or five homers a year. Not bad. He’s had some very good seasons. One season he had .332/.400/.477. Ruben is currently .323/.368/.395 .

      One issue that I give little credence to is age or experience. When age is brought up, it’s almost always used as a way of saying Player X will get better. We don’t know what a player will do in the future and the measuring stick is the current season. (When Murphy was put for the very first time at 2B, I don’t remember too many fans cutting him slack. He was expected to perform immediately. So too should it be for every player if it is for any one player.)
      • Vinny B August 6, 2012 at 8:35 pm

        I always thought a good comparison to Ruben was Placido Polonco – Both don’t have much power and speed, but are good average hitters, play solid defense, and have good baseball instincs.
        • Des August 6, 2012 at 9:37 pm

          Vinnie B — Placido makes for a pretty good comparison too. On average, he hits for more power and steals more bases, though.
• Ceetar August 6, 2012 at 4:20 pm

  yeah, damn, so glad the Mets have one less good player this year!
  • Donal August 6, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    You are just a bundle of sunshine.
• Christopher Masiello August 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm

  “he’s got great baseball instincts, probably better than Reyes”
  That’s an understatement. He has a good baseball IQ, which puts him in a different mental stratosphere than Reyes.
  Reyes has the worst Talent to Baseball IQ ratio of any player I have ever watched. Reyes is the Jeff George of baseball. Million Dollar body with a Ten Cent head.
  You know what the stupidest thing Tejada has said all year?
  Yeah, me neither. That’s just the way I like it.
• Lisa P. August 6, 2012 at 4:27 pm

  Jose who? I cant wait to see what Ruben does in his prime.
• Vinny B August 6, 2012 at 4:32 pm

  I was always a big supporter of Tejada, but he’s even exceeding my expectations of him. He’s playing great, and what makes his performance more impressive is that he’s only 22 years old!
• srt August 6, 2012 at 5:22 pm

  Wonder how long it will be before Met fans stop lamenting about not resigning Reyes.
  I wanted Jose to stay but it’s over an done with.

  We all knew there wasn’t any possibility the Wilpons were spending any money saved by not signing Jose. Not when they needed 10 some odd minority investors to make payroll. Or rather it was spent, but not on improving the team – more like spent to pay bills so the Wilpons could hold onto the team.

  Don’t expect that to change for 2013.
• Jon August 6, 2012 at 7:10 pm

  Joe — I guess none of you guys really thought of having both of them… Reuben at second and Jose at short.
  Reyes
  Tejada
  Wright
  Davis
  Hairston
  Duda
  Nenehuis
  Thole

  2nd place hitter is much more suited for Tejada. If you add a major league catcher to this lineup and a solid bullpen we are still playing for something now and the future even better

  To be clear if Reyes had missed 50 games with a strained quad all of you would be killing him on this blog. Reyes ops is far better than Tejada and always will be – he has pop.
  I thought the Jeff Keppinger analogy was harsh. Ryan theriot seems more like it.
  Tejada is a nice punch and Judy hitter with good defensive skills but he strikes out a lot and doesn’t walk much
  • Mets2012 August 7, 2012 at 2:09 am

    Thanks for a great post.
    Tejada is great for the second base and No.2 hitter which have been great needs for the Mets this year.
    comparing Jose and Ruben is pretty silly.
• Metstheory22 August 6, 2012 at 7:21 pm

  I thought we should have both also. Miss him as a lead off hitter. Tejada has been GREAT, but can’t steal bases and put preassure on opposing pitchers like Reyes would.
• Gregg August 6, 2012 at 7:41 pm

  Hhaha well I’ll be the lone pessimist on this one. If Ruben Tejeda keeps up this level of skills then he will never hit .300 in any season, including this one.

  His BABIP is .390 with hardly any power. Which basically means that he has been extremely lucky up to this point. He resembles more of a utility player, and to use his numbers through 4 months is overreacting to a very small sample size.

  Right now comparing Reyes to Tejeda makes the Mets look O.K., maybe even good. In 2 years the only part of this article that will remain relevant is the first line.
  “Nobody will ever mistake Ruben Tejada for Jose Reyes”

  Sorry for the pessimism. I respectively disagree. Mainly because I think the .323 mentioned in this article will be a lot lower come late September. Much like Lucas Duda was eventually exposed, I believe Tejeda’s time is coming too.
  • Jon August 6, 2012 at 8:25 pm

    Good point on the high babip…..
  • nathan August 7, 2012 at 12:45 am

    Tejada’s sample is not small. Look at last years OBP. His BA may be slightley elevated because of his BABIP but BABIP is usually elevated for plaers with low flyball percentages.
    • Donal August 7, 2012 at 7:59 am

      You’re kind of right. BABIP is higher for guys with high line drive rates. Slight difference.

      Tejada presently is hitting line drives about 31% of the time. 20% is considered good, so he’s a nice little surprise. Even if he will regress, his career line drive rate is a little over 26% and has increased, so a .300 batting average or so should be sustainable.
• Joey D. August 6, 2012 at 11:08 pm

  Many of us thought with Tejada in the wings, not re-signing Jose for the long term was not a bad gamble. But we have a right to be angry being told the money tied up to one individual was going to be used for obtaining multiple players and then told the goal was to reduce payroll to around $100k instead.
• Just_Da_Damaja August 7, 2012 at 12:17 am

  What I wanted to see was this…

  1 – Reyes – SS
  2 – Murphy – 3B
  3 – Duda – LF
  4 – Wright – RF
  5 – Ike – 1B
  6 – _____ – CF
  7 – Thole – C
  8 – Tejada – 2B

  our infield defense would’ve been MUCH better…

  our outfield defense would’ve been MUCH better…
  • BadBadLeroyBrown August 7, 2012 at 5:22 am

    Just_Da_Damaja,

    Wow, I see everyone is leaving Metsblog these days lol….I even saw a ChestRockwell sighting.
• Alex68 August 7, 2012 at 7:35 am

  Well, as soon as i saw this post i knew what some of the regulars will say… This imho is a silly debate…
  While tejada is sporting a 323 BA, however his OBP is onl y 40 point higher than that, same people praising him for having great discipline are the same people who accused reyes of having such a high OBP to his higher BA, double standard? You bet, also, let’s put it this way, that 323 BA imo has meant nothing, he doesn’t run, hits mostly singles (383 Slug %) so he is not your prototypical leadoff guy.. I like the kid, and i hope he becomes even better, but to compare him to reyes is just silly, just like carlos beltran reyes is adjusting to MIAMI, he’s struggle big time there yes, but, the season is not over, he’s riding a 24 game hitting streak, his AVG is up to 288, his OBP which a lot of you talk sh** about is 350 which is like 10 points higher than his career Avg, his Slug % is 432, he also has 27 SB, on pace to about 35+, his season wasn’t like last year, but if he keeps the pace he might end up with a good all around season… Imagine how good we would’ve been had we had Reyes AND tejada playing defense up the middle and hitting 1-2 in the lineup with the kind of year wright is having, we’d be talking wright be around 100 RBI right about now..
  My opinion is, he is not a met, let’s move on, i am please with tejada at SS, but he does not bring what reyes brought, passion, electricity, energy, good solid player, not reyes i am sorry… Tejada is not the type of player that i’ll stop and say, hey, let me watch this At bat and see what he does type player, however, he’s been a solid player for us.
  • BadBadLeroyBrown August 7, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    Stop making sense Alex….

    You are supposed to overrate our players at all costs even if it makes you look stupid…take a slurp of this Kool-Aid lol =]