Jose Reyes
According to Mike Puma, Jerry Manuel is planning on batting Reyes third in the lineup.
“Reyes, in my opinion, has evolved,” Manuel said. “I could really stretch our lineup out if [Reyes] is able to handle that spot.”
Manuel went on to say he envisions Pagan leading off, followed by Castillo or Murphy, then Reyes, Bay, Wright, and Francouer. Additionally, Manuel hopes “the experiment is successful, allowing him to perhaps keep Reyes in the third spot when Beltran returns.”
According to Brian Costa, “Manuel said if Reyes is doing well in the No. 3 spot when Beltran returns, he would keep Reyes there and bat Beltran second, fourth or fifth.”
Adam Rubin has Reyes’ reaction:
A few of us, including trs, have been hoping Manuel would make this move, especially since Reyes won’t be asked to run as much batting third. With Beltran out, it makes even more sense. What’s really interesting is that Manuel suggested Reyes could keep the spot when Beltran returns.Asked if it’s different now compared with last spring training, when he seemed upset with the prospect, Reyes said: “I didn’t say I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t say that. It’s no different. Whatever spot he puts me in the lineup, I’m going to be able to do that. Whatever is best for the team, I’m going to do it. So let’s see what happens.
Updated 2:55 p.m.
Potential 2010 Lineups:
| Pagan | .281/.331/.443 | Castillo | .292/.369/.354 |
| Castillo | .292/.369/.354 | Beltran | .283/.360/.496 |
| Reyes | .286/.337/.435 | Reyes | .286/.337/.435 |
| Bay | .280/.376/.519 | Bay | .280/.376/.519 |
| Wright | .309/.389/.518 | Wright | .309/.389/.518 |
| Francouer | .271/.311/.432 | Francouer | .271/.311/.432 |
| Murphy | .275/.331/.437 | Murphy | .275/.331/.437 |
| Santos | .254/.290/.381 | Santos | .254/.290/.381 |
39 comments
Mr North Jersey
2/19/2010-2:06pm at 2:06 pm (UTC -4)
Case i think u have a typo “ording”?
ceetar
2/19/2010-2:07pm at 2:07 pm (UTC -4)
acc
CaseStreet
2/19/2010-2:18pm at 2:18 pm (UTC -4)
thanks
Hazmet
2/19/2010-2:19pm at 2:19 pm (UTC -4)
If he wasn’t coming off injury I’d be more in favor of this. With Beltran out, yeah, I could see it. I just hate to have Jose having to think about other things like performing to the expectations of a 3 hole hitter at this time. I’d rather he be in his comfort zone at the top and prove he’s healthy before messing around with him and what he’s used too. Then again this could be typical ST chatter at this stage and he has no real expectation of batting him 3rd. Either way, did he really have to bring this up? Why not just slap him in the 3 hole in some meaningless ST game and let the questions evolve from there. Why does Jerry feel compelled to discuss the idle chit chat going on in his head?
CaseStreet
2/19/2010-2:25pm at 2:25 pm (UTC -4)
It’s because Jose is coming off of a leg injury that it makes sense. The pressure to steal bases will be less, therefore less chance of him re-injuring his leg.
Hazmet
2/19/2010-2:28pm at 2:28 pm (UTC -4)
Very good reasoning. I’ve been swayed. Thx.
trs86
2/19/2010-2:29pm at 2:29 pm (UTC -4)
LOL, damn that was easy. Me it would have taken an entire page and then Nj would start questioning me and wanny would come in… It would be ugly. Thanks for making that easy.
Hazmet
2/19/2010-2:33pm at 2:33 pm (UTC -4)
Hey, when something makes sense it makes sense. What’ya expect from a guy standing next to a Baboon Reserve sign?
Hazmet
2/19/2010-2:34pm at 2:34 pm (UTC -4)
Should explain, my facebook avatar popped up on the side….
GravediggerHebner
2/19/2010-2:52pm at 2:52 pm (UTC -4)
Pelfrey on Reyes: “He looks good to me, running around 100 miles an hour with his head cut off like he always does.”
stickguy
2/19/2010-2:54pm at 2:54 pm (UTC -4)
If Pelf says he’s good, that is enough for me.
Hazmet
2/19/2010-3:10pm at 3:10 pm (UTC -4)
Objects appear to be moving faster when falling off the mound. Just kidding.
Pelf looked mean & lean last night on Hot Stove.
stickguy
2/19/2010-2:53pm at 2:53 pm (UTC -4)
I like the reyes 3rd piece, but why does he insist on Castillo in the 2 hole?
The only real reason to have him there was you had Reyes entrenched in the 1 spot. With him hitting 3rd, go all the way and put Mr. OBP 1st.
metsfan4decades
2/19/2010-2:56pm at 2:56 pm (UTC -4)
To be fair, Jerry didn’t lead off with these thoughts on Reyes. The media asked him about moving Reyes down in the lineup….
Isn’t that what ST is for? Try it out, if it’s not a disaster, start the season off with Reyes 3rd, at least until Beltran returns.
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-3:10pm at 3:10 pm (UTC -4)
That sounds like the Jerry we all know…
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-3:19pm at 3:19 pm (UTC -4)
I didn’t hear him speak, but I bet you he went something like this:
“Isn’t that what ST is for? Wahahahahahaha… Uhhhh…. Yeah.. Try it out…….until Beltran returns”
metsfan4decades
2/19/2010-3:45pm at 3:45 pm (UTC -4)
Sorry…..Jerry didn’t say those comments in my second paragraph. Those were my thoughts…
Don’t want to add to what we all know are random thoughts Jerry often throws out there – LOL.
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-3:47pm at 3:47 pm (UTC -4)
Oops. But it does sound like what Jerry would say… Or perhaps you are really Jerry Manuel?
metsfan4decades
2/19/2010-2:58pm at 2:58 pm (UTC -4)
Gotta love Pelfrey here on WFAN.
Joe asks him about the WS last year. Two teams most Met fans hate. What did Mike feel about that?
‘They are two very, very talented teams. But it was tough to pick either one to root for.’
stickguy
2/19/2010-3:03pm at 3:03 pm (UTC -4)
SHould have just said I didn’t watch.
CaseStreet
2/19/2010-3:07pm at 3:07 pm (UTC -4)
As usual, someone is sitting on the fence. Reminds me of Humpty Dumpty!
GravediggerHebner
2/19/2010-3:12pm at 3:12 pm (UTC -4)
Geez man my shell is fragile, back off!
Oh, you mean Master of Ceremonies…
CaseStreet
2/19/2010-4:09pm at 4:09 pm (UTC -4)
Once upon a time, a large egg sails across the blogosphere and upon “discovering” a good domain, he is made Wizard of the blogging world. Years go on as his myth and legend grows. Then one day a group of commenters confront the wizard egg and their dog otto trips a screen over and reveals the egg sitting on a wall and causes him to fall.
THE END
GravediggerHebner
2/19/2010-4:19pm at 4:19 pm (UTC -4)
The Christopher Columbus analogy was sublime. But Humpty Dumpty in the Through The Looking Glass context works too:
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t – till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.
“They’ve a temper, some of them – particularly verbs, they’re the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”
CaseStreet
2/19/2010-4:34pm at 4:34 pm (UTC -4)
hmm, that does fit quite nicely.
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-3:13pm at 3:13 pm (UTC -4)
It does stretch the lineup little bit and reduces some pressure off his leg. But what about his swing and his approach to the plate? We all know what happens if Reyes tries to swing for the fences.
GravediggerHebner
2/19/2010-3:15pm at 3:15 pm (UTC -4)
Based on history that’s a fair legit point, but it also assumes that Reyes is going to be the exact same hitter he has been forever without any maturation or without developing any understanding through experience. I hope that assumption is incorrect.
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-3:31pm at 3:31 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah you are right. The reason I’m kinda against it is that I just don’t see Pagan/Castillo being a good leadoff guy. The stats are there, but Reyes on 1st base with no out in 1st inning is a lot different than Pagan on 1st.
whataputz
2/19/2010-3:28pm at 3:28 pm (UTC -4)
I am the biggest anti-reyes batting 3rd person here. Especially if he has his legs back. I’ve had this argument here millions of times, but to re-state my opinion, I don’t like him swinging for the fences, and I don’t like the idea that most of the time gets on there will be outs or other guys on in his way. When Reyes leads off an inning and gets on it almost always equals runs. In ’06 we had so many 1st inning runs, and got in the heads of other teams early in games.
metsfan4decades
2/19/2010-3:48pm at 3:48 pm (UTC -4)
Can we just clone Jose?
Seriously, to me he’s one of the best lead off hitters, if not the best, in the game today.
But I see the merit of him batting 3rd, especially with Beltran out. I’m concerned too he may start swinging for the fences in that position. Jerry said something about if they did move him down, making sure he understood what his role was in that position. I took that to mean making sure he wasn’t going up there swinging for that HR every time.
whataputz
2/19/2010-3:51pm at 3:51 pm (UTC -4)
Jose or Johan: who ya cloning?
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-4:04pm at 4:04 pm (UTC -4)
Johan…. sorry Jose..
whataputz
2/19/2010-4:08pm at 4:08 pm (UTC -4)
johan, but only because if they ever brought up the other jose Reyes, there’d be utter chaos.
GravediggerHebner
2/19/2010-4:14pm at 4:14 pm (UTC -4)
Jose A. Reyes the catcher?
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-4:45pm at 4:45 pm (UTC -4)
No way Jose~! :d
CaseStreet
2/19/2010-4:41pm at 4:41 pm (UTC -4)
I really don’t understand the “there will be other guys on base in Jose’s way” argument.
I presume you don’t like a guy being on 2nd while Jose is at 1st, because then Jose can’t steal. There’s no point in him stealing since there’s already someone on 2nd.
Can’t argue w/ your first inning runs argument, except that by having OBP guys like Pagan-Castillo-Reyes followed by Bay-Wright-Frenchy could equal even more first inning runs than 06.
DNDJohan aka kistics
2/19/2010-5:02pm at 5:02 pm (UTC -4)
I disagree on OBP argument. If you go by the OBP to arrange batting order, Wright should be the leadoff guy. He has good speed, hits for average and has really good OBP. Does that make him a good leadoff guy? Not really, because his power and ability to drive in runs outweighs his ability to create runs. Same thing with Reyes. Yes he can drive in runs and potentially hit 20 HRs if he’s batting in the right position. But his ability to create runs (making singles into doubles, doubles into triples, stealing bases, and psyche on the pitcher) outweighs much greater than his ability to hit for power. I just think his value to optimized when he is leading off.
Having said that I cannot argue with the fact that Reyes batting 3rd while Beltran is gone stretches the lineup AND reduces pressure on his leg.
I’m still against it, but will understand the logic.
whataputz
2/19/2010-5:21pm at 5:21 pm (UTC -4)
Because, Reyes can get from first to second without someone getting a hit. Yes, Castillo and Pagan have speed, but Reyes is a whole other animal. Pitchers get distracted and throw to first every other pitch when he’s on base.
whataputz
2/19/2010-5:24pm at 5:24 pm (UTC -4)
people underrate this factor so much. Sure Pagan can swipe some bags, but when reyes is on, it really messes with pitchers, and results in some mistakes, which result in some Beltran/Delgado/(not anymore)hr’s. Or whoever is batting in the 3 and 4 spots.