{"id":1591,"date":"2011-11-10T10:07:25","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T14:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2011-11-10T00:37:58","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T04:37:58","slug":"there-is-no-replacement-for-jose-reyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2011\/11\/10\/there-is-no-replacement-for-jose-reyes\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is No Replacement For Jose Reyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There is an interesting juxtaposition among Mets fans that talk about things like trading Wright or letting Reyes walk. \u00a0The same people that justify this with statements about not competing for years and being in rebuilding mode seem offended that some (I’d say many) Mets fans suggest they’ll be much less interested in the Mets if Reyes leaves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There’s always a lot of comparison, as well as attempts to avoid comparison, to the Yankees with the Mets. \u00a0They share a city and compete for the same entertainment dollar. \u00a0 The common rhetoric among Mets fans is that the Yankees fans are front-running morons that only care about yelling about how many rings they’ve won and that Mets fans are truer fans that love the team, good or bad. \u00a0 If a vastly diverse group of millions of Mets fans can agree on anything, it’s that Jose Reyes<\/a><\/strong> is a talented baseball player that’s fun to watch. \u00a0 At what point does it stop being about watching your favorite players play your favorite game and start becoming about being a\u00a0consistent\u00a0winner?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is baseball without the season, with the ups and downs of a 162 game scheduled filled with bad breaks and huge hits and the ebbs and flows of stress and emotion? \u00a0I don’t follow the Mets for optimal lineup constructions and high-value controlled commodities. \u00a0I watch the Mets because I love baseball and I’ve formed an attachment to the players that have worn the uniform year after year. \u00a0Jose Reyes is one of those players. \u00a0He’s a life-long Met and it’s hard to imagine him anywhere else. \u00a0The Mets have other good players, but there is something special about Jose Reyes and his fun-loving attitude. \u00a0Perhaps it’s the way he seems to love playing the game as much as we love watching him play it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sure it’s possible to make arguments about injury risks and long contracts that suggest perhaps giving Reyes too much money or too many years may be detrimental to the long term success of the franchise, but frankly I’d rather take my chances with Reyes. \u00a0Those risks exist with every player in every circumstance, and if you’re not going to take a chance with a fan-favorite and top of the line player at a sparse position, what are you even doing? \u00a0 Reyes is already bordering on legendary Mets status, and that’s not something that comes along every day. \u00a0 Mike Piazza<\/a><\/strong> came here when he was great, Dwight Gooden left in 1994 and Darryl Strawberry before him. \u00a0Ignoring that there is long-term financial value to having legends to invite back to Citi Field in the future, do we really want to let one walk away for what’s some kind of \u00a0‘smart process of value contracts and prospect development’? \u00a0A couple more years and the Mets record book will be Jose Reyes’ biography, with a guest\u00a0appearance\u00a0by David Wright<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Mets have struggled for years now with collapses followed by injuries followed by just about everything else. \u00a0Now you want to take the most exciting player on the team away too? \u00a0 While I’ll always be a Mets fan, there comes a point when it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. \u00a0It’s easy to say that we need things to\u00a0stabilize, for bad contracts to work their way off the payroll and for prospects to mature and contribute at the fraction of the cost, but in the meantime other teams are playing baseball and competing for the postseason and doing all sorts of wonderful things. \u00a0Taking seasons off is not the way to build a perennial contender. \u00a0Every year the Mets spend in rebuilding mode, defined by me as letting Reyes go and not replacing him with at least as much talent, is a year that customers find other ways to spend their entertainment dollar. \u00a0Some will go to the Yankees, some will switch to other sports. \u00a0 Some will stop watching with their kids who will spend more time on video games, movies, or something else entirely. \u00a0 Husbands will take their wives out to a nice dinner instead of to Citi Field, because maybe without Reyes, and winning, they don’t feel it’s worth the traffic and the rushing home from work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Building a winner will eventually repair the damage, but even if you could\u00a0guarantee\u00a0repeated success it takes time to rebuild a fan base. \u00a0The Yankees had a healthy amount of fans show up, but even in 2000 they were 8th in total attendance. \u00a0The difference was that payrolls hadn’t yet skyrocketed to the levels they are at now. \u00a0The Yankees payroll in 2000 would be \u00a0the 13th highest payroll in 2011. \u00a0It was still possible for teams to maintain a rebuilding payroll and keep some talented stars while keeping revenues at or above payroll. \u00a0The way I see it, the Mets can’t easily get their payroll down that low, so they need to work on keeping revenues up. \u00a0Reyes can’t do it all by himself, but coupled with the right moves he could be the difference between the Mets raising\u00a0attendance\u00a0to 2.6 million or it dropping to 1.7. \u00a0 Just in ticket prices alone, a swing like that more than pays Reyes salary per year. \u00a0Factor in revenue associated with advertising prices based on TV ratings and fans in the seats viewing them on the walls and it’s an even starker difference. \u00a0 I find it hard to believe that having Jose Reyes playing baseball in New York can’t be profitable, and it’s certainly possible, even likely, that Jose Reyes can be a part of the success even four years from now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is never a\u00a0guarantee\u00a0that smart moves focused on the long term will lead to continued success. \u00a0There is no formula Sandy Alderson can follow that means the Mets will definitely be a\u00a0perennial\u00a0contender in 2014 and beyond. \u00a0Prospects, even highly touted ones, hurt themselves or flame out. \u00a0Free agent acquisitions that look like can’t misses age badly or under perform in a new\u00a0environment. \u00a0 Other teams in the division and\/or league do a better job, or get luckier, in scouting and signing players and suddenly no one knows what the solution is for out-performing them. \u00a0It’s not hard to get into a cycle of suck like the Pittsburgh Pirates, constantly looking for All-Star prospects that maybe have a good year or two and than take off for greener pastures while the team struggles to even play at .500. \u00a0The best you can do is put yourself in a situation every year where the right set of circumstances gets you into the playoffs. \u00a0For the Mets that means keeping Jose Reyes. \u00a0It probably also means hoping Johan Santana<\/a><\/strong> stays on the field and is still pretty good at pitching, and that other players stay healthy as well. \u00a0 It may be a long shot, but if you don’t keep yourself in the game you often miss opportunities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was at the game this year when Jose Reyes felt that first hamstring tightness and left the game. \u00a0It was a packed house for a Subway Series game, and Tejada jogging out to shortstop was like a punch in the gut. \u00a0I watched the rest of the game in a daze, barely caring about the result. \u00a0 Reyes had such a great first half that there were road games in May that I was reminding myself to make sure I turned the game on in time, because Reyes would lead off and I might miss something special. \u00a0There are reasons to watch bad teams because even bad or average players hit for cycles, throw pitching gems, and smash home runs. \u00a0They can stage remarkable comebacks and rock opposing aces and there’s always the looming possibility that someone will throw that no-hitter. \u00a0Without Jose Reyes the chances of something magical happening go down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Faith and Fear in Flushing<\/a>, in an awards presentation to Jose Reyes, makes similar points and sums up my feelings pretty well in this quote.<\/p>\n

except for habit and a lifetime of devotion, I can\u2019t think of a good, rational reason to get squarely behind\u00a0this<\/em> team if you\u2019re not on it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an interesting juxtaposition among Mets fans that talk about things like trading Wright or letting Reyes walk. \u00a0The same people that justify this with statements about not competing for years and being in rebuilding mode seem offended that some (I’d say many) Mets fans suggest they’ll be much less interested in the Mets … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “There Is No Replacement For Jose Reyes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1248,19,15,3],"tags":[2968,2362,5,2303,2359,1083,2358,1885,14,2357,2310,1343,1326,2361,2360],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1591"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}