A Boy Named Seo

Pagan just hit a laser off the top of the LF wall. On fire, Kruk tells me.

My first bit of spring action today. Kevin Burkhardt's been in the booth since I turned on. I like him. They prepping him for later or is he going to be in the booth some this year?

There's potentially some alarming stuff in this article. I think better pitch recognition and selectivity will come for him. In the meantime, I wouldn't screw with his approach. ]Mets want 'small ball' from Jose Reyes Tuesday, February 26th 2008, 4:00 AM PORT ST. LUCIE - Jose Reyes swore he was just trying to hit a line drive up the middle, or even to the opposite field, as instructed. Yet with a flick of his wrists he hit a screaming shot that crashed high off the 20-foot fence in center field, 408 feet from the plate. The ball was hit so hard, in fact, off Joe Smith in an intrasquad game yesterday, that catcher Robinson Cancel, who was on first base, was nearly thrown out at the plate, while Reyes cruised into third with a triple. Afterward, Reyes was practically apologizing for the shot, knowing the Mets are trying to resurrect his game after last season's killer slump by urging him to think small and slow his body down, at least in the batter's box. "I don't know how I hit it that hard," Reyes said sheepishly. "In my mind I'm trying to slow down my body a little bit, hit the ball the other way and use my speed. It was a fastball and I just use my hands." Such is the dilemma for the Mets this spring: Harnessing Reyes' explosive ability in an attempt to avoid the kind of meltdown that crippled the team last September, is tricky business, indeed. As hitting coach Howard Johnson put it: "In a perfect world we'd love to have Jose hit ground ball singles every time up, but he can do so much more. So I'm just trying to make sure that he's committed to slowing his approach, that he's not getting too excited and jumping at the ball." Yes, Reyes is much too dynamic to be a slap hitter. But when he gets in the habit of chasing high fastballs and popping up, he is wasting his extraordinary talent, and the Mets aren't nearly the same ballclub. Call it the evolution of a potential MVP, and Reyes was making steady progress until he went off the rails last August and September in what was surely the single most significant factor in the Mets' stunning collapse. So now the equation is complicated by the mental strain that Reyes endured as such an obvious culprit. The Mets were concerned enough about his state of mind that it seemed most everyone in the organization visited him in the Dominican Republic during the offseason to send some love his way. After all, Reyes went from being serenaded for years with the soccer-style "Ole-Ole" cheers to being booed at Shea as the Mets' division lead slipped away in September. And even when he returned to the Dominican, Reyes couldn't escape blame. "It was a tough offseason," he said yesterday. "Everybody talked about, 'What happened to the Mets?' 'What happened to you?' That hurt me and I thought about it a lot in the offseason. "But now I have put it in the past to make sure that doesn't happen this year." HoJo and manager Willie Randolph are trying to help by attacking the problems they saw late last season, when Reyes became impatient and jumpy at the plate, the usual symptoms of a slump exacerbated by the pressure of seeing the Mets' lead slip away. "The urgency to win," is what Randolph called it yesterday. "Jose tried harder, harder, harder - and more was worse for him. But we forget that he's still young, and the reality is that you're going to struggle. People are making adjustments on you, and Jose is such a free swinger that he doesn't make adjustments on the fly. "We need to slow him down. It's hard because he's in attack mode all the time. Jose's all go-go-go, and you love that, but good pitchers exploit that aggressiveness. ... Jose knows he's a better hitter when he hits the ball down, but when you struggle the way he did last year, you don't think about those things. I think Jose will be fine." Randolph said his only real concern would be if Reyes gets off to a slow start, and the boos of last September resurface. "It looked like he pressed more," said Randolph. "I'm sure he was a little taken back by the reaction. He's human, I'm sure it affected him in some way. "But I don't think he's going to carry that over. I think he learned from it and he can't wait to get back to where he was." Meanwhile, HoJo is talking to Reyes, reminding him to slow down, telling him to think small. "We don't want Jose to feel he has to carry the load," said HoJo. "He's handled everything well. I'm watching him like a hawk and everything he's doing is right on track." So is last year's nightmare over for Reyes? One swing in an intrasquad game is hardly an indication. Indeed, it was just a reminder of what the Mets were missing when it counted most last year, and that slowing down Reyes is a concept easier executed in February than, say, September.

Tickets for Glen and Marketa @ Radio City Music Hall go on sale tomorrow for any of you interested. 05/19 | Radio City Music Hall | New York, NY | PRESALE 02/27 10 am/EST - 02/28 10 pm/EST | password: once | link

Frank Viola could rock a nasty circle change.

Best Foreign Film at the Spirit awards yesterday. Seen it a couple times now and still just love it.

Apology accepted. No, seriously, awesome work keeping track of all that crap. I check it lots.

Looks like they made all the coaches sit on a stool, hold a bat, and sometimes (Nieto and Conti) hunch over to make sure you know they're old or something.

Check it. Some observations. Olmeido Seinz does not look like a baseball player. He could maybe pass for a pro bowler. Maybe. That guy and a couple others still have the stickers visible on the underside of the bill of their brand new hats. Rick Peterson looks way uncomfortable. The Shea patches look pretty cool. Where's David Wright? Dunno. But when I searched the Getty site, I found this. http://cache3.gettyimages.com/xc/79088153.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF193516E2A05E1E1229305030B1BFDDF7A61329DF394FE942516 Edit: found a pic I can link to... Molly Beers is her wonderful name and she's, wait for it, a model. Nice haul, Davey. This site has a handful of the photo day pictures without the "Getty" stamp over them.

]I also shrunk the free-agent list so it didn't dominate the posts. It looks sharp on my screen, and I hope it does on yours. Looks sweet. Your picture of my boy Carlos Muniz looks to be Willie Collazo. Here's Muniz. Mets.com has him in a blue cap even.

Moistest Alou is a winner. Nicely done.

Gooner Met digs the Arsenal, I bet. We could use another soccer dork here.

Yup. I'm too predictable.

Awesome.

Rep. Cummings to Clemens: "You're one of my heroes, but it's hard to believe you."

McNamee looks like Eminem in 20 years.

USA! USA! America! Fuck Yeah! I love you, Roger!

Roger's having a hell of a time trying to answer why he continually employed this guy who is supposedly a real scum bag. He's stammering and stumbling his way through this one...

Rog: "I'm hurt by that statement. I was just doin' ya'll a favor."

="metirish"]="AG/DC"]Here comes Carolyn Maloney. Who thanks Clemens for his professional accomplishments....barf. But then she hit him with some very hard, very basic questions. Asked him why he repeatedly told peeps he never knew Mitchell wanted to talk to him when on 60 Minutes, he told Wallace he opted not to based on his lawyer's advice. Clemens then threw his agent under the bus saying he was never properly notified. She then asked him if he'd agree that his agent did him a great disservice, to which he of course, responded yes. She asked him next if he fired any of these people who kept this damaging information from him and fumbled a bit and said no. Did that next guy just ask him what hat he'll be wearing in the HOF???

bmfc1 wrote: I vote for 24, then 48. Same here.

holychicken wrote: I keep all my old blood and cum around. . . . just in case. I laugh every time I read that. The fact that Clemens is going around smiling and shaking hands and trying to meet these peeps in person indicates to me that he's nervous and trying to use his extreme likability, charm, and charisma to win these guys and gals over. Good luck with that.

I'm still not crazy about the drop-shadow. But I'm not going to bitch. Those are beautiful.

Uh, oh. Could be scary for Rajah that this news "breaks" the second he's done testifying for Congress.

This one's cool.