April 26, 2005
Hillenbrand and Reyes
Jose Reyes had an at bat tonight that epitomizes what's wrong with his never walking. In the bottom of the 7th, Reyes stuck out swinging at a ball head high. It was the level of his eyes; he had no chance to hitting the pitch. At this point, there's absolutely no reason to throw the man a strike. Twenty games into the season, he has not drawn a walk or a hit by pitch.
Shea Hillenbrand has drawn one walk. But when he puts the ball in play, he gets hits. If you are not going to walk, you better be able to hit in the high .300s. With his 3 for 4 tonight, Hillenbrand is hitting .388. And while he has only 1 walk, he's gotten himself plunked 4 times for an OBA of .422. It doesn't matter how you get on, just get to first.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:06 PM
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If Reyes played for Pinella he would be fined. Randolph is too soft. If Mets wants a Pennant this year, these guys have got to play smart basebll.
But, Hillenbrand won't finish the season hitting near .400, and he'll still not get walks. That's why the Red Sox didn't mind parting with him.
Awesome site, by the way.
My friend was talking early on about Randolph having unleashed Reyes. This is back when Reyes was batting over .300 of course. Now, he's hurting the team as a leadoff hitter. Meanwhile, the SS for Randolph's old team is on pace for a career high in walks and OBP. I as a Yankees fan do not mind that at all.
Hillenbrand is the poster child for low OBP, but a funny thing has happened. His OBP is actually starting to get semi-respectable. Last year it landed at .348, which is a lot higher than his critics would have expected. I don't think he'll put up a plus-.400 OBP this year, but it wouldn't amaze me to see something around .350. That would be an improvement over his career .328, but not an enormous outlier.
As for Reyes, I happened to see one of his at-bats on Extra Innings last night. Keith Hernandez actually pointed out how Reyes was bailing out badly and thus couldn't hit the ball with any authority. The replays, especially the overhead camera, confirmed Keith's criticism. Have to admit I was impressed that a hometown announcer would offer such a sharp critique of Reyes.
I watched a lot of the Mets telecast last night and was impressed with Keith. He made Fran Healy palatable. At one point Fran asked him if pitchers were better when he was playing. Instead of going into the typical "it was better in my day" routine, Hernandez said he believed that players were always getting better.
