Reese Havens

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

A few off-season prospect lists Reese turns up on:

Matt Hagen at the Hardball Times puts Reese at #5, but is worried about his low batting average.

John Sickels at Minor League Ball has Reese at #6 and gives him a B- grade. He's not worried about the batting average, but is worried about the injuries.

Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus is a little down on Reese, ranking him 11th.

Reese is not without his flaws, of course, but I think Goldstein's putting him a little too low. While his ability to stay healthy is a legit concern, Reese's batting average was hurt by a very low .272 BABIP. If you go over to Minor League Splits and neutralize his stats for luck, his 2009 slash lines (AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS) go from .252/.363/.431/.794 to .282/.388/.469/.857, which is more like the AFL line he put up in a (very) small sample: .368/.478/.658/1.136.

I'm biased, of course, but I think Reese's only real obstacle to becoming a league-average second baseman is his ability to stay on the field. The BA will come around.

[Edgy MD]

Fran Healy will tell you, that may be a small sample in the AFL, but it's got to help his confidence.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Well, yes, a parent's got to be supportive.

I, however, could give a crap. And I'm with you on the BA, worried about the injuries.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Toby Hyde puts Reese at #10 in the organization. His biggest concern? Injuries (surprise!):

Dr. Pangloss Says: The median number of HR hit by 2B of NL teams last year was 11.5. Havens has above average power for the position which, combined with his plate discipline will make him an above average contributor at the Keystone. Debbie Downer Says: The Injury Bug continues to bite Havens and he never finds the fields enough to hold a starting job in the big leagues. Or his strikeout rate balloons at the upper levels, killing his batting average.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Reese is slated to head to Buffalo, but starts the season hurt. An oblique injury, it seems. D'oh!

EDIT- whoops, just saw this mistake. I meant to say Binghamton.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Guest

[MFS62]

Reese is off the DL and is playing at St. Lucie in order to get his swing back and to enroll in Second Base 101. Here are some notes from Inside Pitch (subscription):
Reese is now hitting .313 and his timing and rhythm look very good. He got two hits, including a home run, off two lefty pitchers last night.
Defensively, transition to second base looks promising, showing range to both sides and quickness to the bag. His release isn�t the quickest, but he gets the ball out.�

Later

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Rees is killing it in High A since coming back. In 39 PAs he's hitting .333 with a .385 OBP and a .611 (!) SLG. He should be up in Bingo any day now.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Vince Coleman Firecracker wrote: Rees is killing it in High A since coming back. In 39 PAs he's hitting .333 with a .385 OBP and a .611 (!) SLG. He should be up in Bingo any day now.

Well, yeah, he should be killing it... that's a bit like sending Dabidrye to AAA.

[MFS62]

Reese Havens was just brought up to Binghamton as will be available starting tonight. I gather from that he is performing well at second base.

Later

[Edgy MD]

There was no room for him at second in St. Lucie anyhow, and Pellot has been performing poorly for Bingo. Perfect match and a due promotion.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

In his first game in Binghamton, Reese goes 3 fer 5 with a double. Last night he went 0 fer 5. So now he's 3 fer 10.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

aaaand Reese is hurt again, this time with a "nagging back injury." Think healthy thoughts, Reese.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Reese is back and hit his first HR in AA yesterday. His slash numbers for his 32 PAs in AA are pretty nice: .345/.406/.586 for a .996 OPS.

[MFS62]

Last night, he went 3-4 with 3R, 3 RBI and 2 HR.
He's now hitting .351.

Later

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Alex Nelson at Amazin' Avenue names Reese his Star of the Night and suggests he be moved up to Buffalo. Reese's .351 BA/.415 OBP/and .703 SLG agree with that assessment. I think a few more healthy weeks in AA won't hurt.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, let's calm down a bit here.
I'd like to see the guy succeed in AA for more than three days at a time without getting hurt before we start revving up the Promotion-of-the-Month Club.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

And now Ted Berg at Tedquarters is suggesting that Reese could wind up on the major league roster by the end of the year. Berg's not advocating for it, just saying there is "a non-zero chance Reese Havens will be starting games at second in Flushing by the end of the season."

Again, I think the organization should take its time with a kid who has been very productive at the plate, but consistently injured and sometimes shaky in the field. I mean, he's played all of 23 games at second. In his life, for all I can tell (his high school website lists him as a shortstop or pitcher going back to 8th grade). I think his bat will play in the majors right now (better than Cora, definitely. Perhaps better than Castillo (whose .347 OBP ain't bad, but is slugging .277). But I think he needs more time in the field in a low-pressure environment.

This past Monday, the B-Mets lost 7-6 to the Akron Aeros. They lost, in part, because Reese made an error in the first and didn't cover first on a ground ball in the seventh. Two days later, he has his two home run game. He didn't seem to get too down on himself after his flubs, but I'd still rather have him go through his growing pains at second away from the spotlight.

[Edgy MD]

Good post.

I like that "I think his bat will play in the majors right now" coupled with the dose of humility, accepting that just because you think it, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Toby Hyde at MetsMinorLeagueBlog offers a nice take on the Reese-to-the-majors bit:

Toby Hyde wrote: I got into a twitter discussion last night about whether the Mets should call up Havens if Luis Castillo needs to hit the DL. The answer is simply �no, not yet.� Look, gang. That�s a great first nine games in AA for Havens. It also took him almost three weeks because he missed nine days with his latest back problem. He has 37 at-bats above a-ball. Yes, watching Castillo limp around the diamond might be almost as painful for fans as it is for Castillo, but Havens needs time in the upper minors before he�s MLB ready.

He offers Reuben Tejada as an alternative, and I agree with him.

[MFS62]

Two more home runs last night, and a shout out:

From # 8 on BAs hot sheet. No. 8 REESE HAVENS, 2B METS Team: Double-A Binghamton (Eastern) Age: 23 Why He's Here: .360/.560/.840 (9-for-25), 3 HR, 1 2B, 1 3B, 6 RBIs, 6 R, 5 BB, 6 SO The Scoop: As discouraging as it was to see Havens miss yet more time with injury this season�in this case a strained oblique�he's proven to be worth the wait. He homered twice off Orioles righthander Chorye Spoone and once off Indians reliever Bryan Price this week, while continuing to show a discerning batting eye. That's not an anomaly. Power and patience have been Havens' strong suits�he has walked in 12 percent of his minor league plate appearances while boasting a .199 isolated power. For a middle infielder in the New York-Penn, Florida State and Eastern leagues, that's pretty darn good. Taken four picks after Ike Davis in the 2008 draft, Havens just might join Ike on the right side of the Mets infield later this season.

Later

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Apparently, he forgot to cover first again on Friday. And in yesterday's game, this happened:

New Britain Bottom 3rd Juan Portes strikes out swinging. Chris Cates walks. Ben Revere reaches on a fielder's choice, fielded by second baseman Reese Havens. Chris Cates to 2nd.

Which might have been a mistake (of course, it's possible he might not have been able to make the play. According to the recap, Reese had to dive for the ball and his throw to second didn't get there in time).

But! Not to be a total wet blanket here, this also happened:

New Britain Bottom 1st Ben Revere grounds out, second baseman Reese Havens to first baseman Nick Evans. Brandon Roberts grounds out, second baseman Reese Havens to first baseman Nick Evans. Rene Tosoni grounds out, second baseman Reese Havens to first baseman Nick Evans.

And, in the eighth inning, this happened:

Rene Tosoni out on a sacrifice bunt, catcher Mike Nickeas to second baseman Reese Havens. Brandon Roberts to 2nd.

So he covered the bag on this play. And then he wins the game in extra innings with a home run.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

It learns!

[it's also a pretty damn good hitter when it isn't on the DL, isn't it?]

[Frayed Knot]

Havens lands hisself on this past week's 'Hot Sheet' in [u:4h1sqgch]Baseball America[/u:4h1sqgch]

Why He's Here: .360/.560/.840 (9-for-25), 3 HR, 1 2B, 1 3B, 6 RBIs, 6 R, 5 BB, 6 SO
The Scoop: As discouraging as it was to see Havens miss yet more time with injury this season�in this case a strained oblique�he's proven to be worth the wait. He homered twice off Orioles righthander Chorye Spoone and once off Indians reliever Bryan Price this week, while continuing to show a discerning batting eye. That's not an anomaly. Power and patience have been Havens' strong suits�he has walked in 12 percent of his minor league plate appearances while boasting a .199 isolated power. For a middle infielder in the New York-Penn, Florida State and Eastern leagues, that's pretty darn good. Taken four picks after Ike Davis in the 2008 draft, Havens just might join Ike on the right side of the Mets infield later this season.

[MFS62]

Beat ya' to it.
Later

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Reese was removed from Friday's game early after re-aggravating his oblique. That's... aggravating.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Toby Hyde has a post up about Reese's latest injury. He notes that since signing with the organization, Reese has played in less than half of his teams' games, and wonders about Haven's offseason conditioning. He includes a quote from B-Mets manager Tim Teufel:

"Reese had some soreness,�� said Binghamton manager Tim Teufel. �I took him out as a precaution. Let the trainers deal with him. �It�s something that he�s dealt with before. That�s how I�ll leave it."

Hyde categorizes this as frustration, but it also seems a bit hostile, no?

Anyhoo, perhaps conditioning could have played a factor in preventing these injuries, but I'm not sure if I buy that. Guys like Reese Havens and Fernando Martinez are in fantastic shape, and they didn't get there by eating donuts in the off-season. I think it's much more likely (unfortunately) that some people are just physically predisposed towards injury. Hopefully, Reese is just having a string of bad luck or can grow out of his injury-prone-ness (like Jose Reyes has).

[Edgy MD]

Or it's just bad luck.

Or it's just that injuries tend to beget injuries.

Toby Hyde is fine, but as much Havens is exhibiting the "Fernando Martinez problem," Toby's exhibiting the blogger problem. You're an outsider working with the facts that the insiders cull for you, and rather than follow up with inquiries and fact-finding of your own, so you fill in the gaps with speculation.

His speculation is as reasonable as any, but who knows? Really, he didn't speak in person to the manager, so how much can he meaningfully infer from Teufel's tone?

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

In AA's Daily Farm System Report, some bad news:

INJURY UPDATE: Most recent word out of the Mets is that Reese Havens is not doing well with the oblique he re-strained in late June and may miss the rest of 2010. Awful news.

I hope this is somehow inaccurate. Bummer.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Adam Rubin with some bad news.

According to an organization source, Havens is in New York, where he received injections for season-long injury trouble that started with his oblique muscles. If the trouble is not relieved within a few weeks, surgery may proceed.

Yuck.

[Edgy MD]

Well, anybody who had him in the secondbase pool...