Jose Reyes and Curtis Granderson did NOT play like OLD MEN last night.
They played like it was 2011 again, their glory days.
Jose Reyes is actually not old, as he does not even turn 34 until next month, but he played like he was through April 22, when his batting average was not I-95, but .095, and with zero RBIs.
Since then, though, the real Jose has stepped up - way up. He's gone 12 for 34, with 3 homers and TEN RBIs.
Keep it up, young man. Forever young.
Curtis Granderson is also, truth be told, not old, having only recently turned 36, but he had played REALLY old.
Last night he faced ancient, 43 year old Bartolo Colon (1-3, 6.27 in 6 starts), and Grandy realized "hey, now THAT GUY IS OLD, NOT ME", and went 2 for 5 with 3 runs scored.
Rome can't be rebuilt in a day, and Grandy still sits at a depressed .137 with just 7 RBI and 10 runs in 26 games. But it is hopefully the start of a youthful surge.
I just hope Juan Lagares, whose bat recently is stirring and is a far superior outfielder, gets to split playing time with Granderson, as any ideas of Grandy being benched in the Mets' braintrust are just that - ideas.
Not to change the subject, but two other older guys named Rivera (Rene and TJ) had 3 hits apiece last night.
Rene is a month younger than Jose and hitting .286 in 42 at bats, while old-at-28-for-being-a-rookie TJ has leapt to .278 in 36 at bats after a 1 for 13 start to his season. Hitters hit, says TJ's bat.
TJ also just politely reminded me that the fact that he is a 28 year old rookie is not his fault, if he could have, he would have called himself up at 23, and that he is still a year younger than low minors Tim Tebow and can throw a football further than Tim can, too.
It is so good to have really good news about the older Mets on this team. Bad old news was getting old.
2 comments:
Tom -
Love the quote!
Tom, I do not know if you fought in a war, but this season is sort of fox hole mentality. You can not win the whole war... you only can protect your buddies in the fox hole with you and kill as many enemies that try to get in your fox hole.
I do not expect either Cespedes or Syndergaard to come back soon. I also expect both Lugo and Matz to be out for another month (they started soft tossing to each other this week). Therefore, you go with the hot hand.
Right now, leave Reyes and Granderson in the lineup. Grandy's eyes seem to light up after his two doubles last night. We know he's a streakyi hitter and I expect a big May from him.
Also Reyes. Big smiles from him brings hits.
Build the lineup around them and wait for the Bruce cool off that is predictable.
Pitching wise, who the hell knows.
I am coming around in that direction, Mack, but Lagares is also perking up with the bat, so I would try to keep him in the line up for 2 or 3 starts per week. A challenge coming up with Flores back so quickly is what to do with playing time between him and the now-suddenly red hot TJ Rivera. Flores smoked the ball in his rehab games, so divvying up time is a challenge for sure in the games ahead.
With Rene Rivera I would go with him as the hot hand for now at catcher.
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