Nymet31
09-11-2003, 07:56 PM
Matt Galante has been a regular contributor to MLB.com for three seasons, the last two of which have come while he's been a coach for the Mets. The New York native has chronicled the highs and lows of the 2003 campaign, writing a monthly column analyzing where the Mets have gone right and where they have gone wrong. In this, his final regular-season installment of the season, Galante takes a look back at the last two months, extolling the virtues of some younger players who have clearly provided some hope for 2004 and beyond.
Let's talk about some of these kids and how we've improved from the All-Star break to now. Certainly Jose Reyes played tremendously for us from the All-Star break until the day he got hurt. He certainly showed a lot of improvement defensively and with the bat, demonstrating what kind of player he will be in the future.
Unfortunately the injuries cost him a month of playing time. But he got enough time to get his feet wet and enough of an idea of what it's like here, so he won't be so awed when it comes time for him to start next season with the big club. I'm very pleased with the way he's come along.
And really, the whole team has been very good defensively since the All-Star break. Joey McEwing has filled in real well at second and short and Wiggy (Ty Wigginton) has continued to maintain what he's done since Spring Training to now. He still has a ways to go on the backhand side, but he's really making that play coming in, especially the barehanded play. And Jason Phillips continues to get better at first base.
Again, Jason has only 60 or 70 games under his belt at first base. But he continues to show improvement. And then there's a guy like Jeff Duncan, who has played center field real well. So the whole club has turned around defensively and that's part of the reason the pitching has been better. Pitching and defense always go together, so it shows some promising things for the future.
Specifically about Jose, he's learned to relax a little on the field and he's learned it's a quicker game up here. You have to be on your toes and ready to move and not have those herky-jerky motions. You have to have the nice fluid motion he's always had. We've worked on him going to his right for balls and he overcame those difficulties and got more into the flow of the game.
Offensively, the hitting part comes to young kids a little later. It's just a matter of understanding what pitchers are trying to do and getting the stroke you normally have while not trying to do too much. And he kind of found that and stayed with it for a long time. He set the club record for most hits in a month (39) by a rookie, so he's shown he can adapt. All players go through bad streaks and he showed he could make adjustments to overcome them. Wiggy made those adjustments and Jason made those adjustments so from that standpoint, there are a lot of promising things happening.
Now you look at Ty. Any time a rookie gets to the big leagues, it's going to be the most games he's ever played. It's a month more than he has normally played. Wiggy was up here last year, but there was a lot of non-playing time. He played into September, but not on the day-to-day basis that he has this year.
Partially, it's true that it wears on guys physically and mentally the first time they go through that. But he'll be better next year for what he went through this year. He's pretty much maintained where he's been. We'd like to see him improve his average a little bit and maybe a few more home runs, but he's had a real solid season for us.
If you look at Jason Phillips at first base, we're real happy with what we got out of him because we didn't know what we had when we started out. Any time you have a guy who goes to a position he hasn't really played much, you don't know what to expect. Surprisingly, we've gotten good play out of him, and I say surprisingly only because we didn't know what we were going to get.
We're happy with it and we can still do a lot more good things with him. He knows he can get better than he's played. He's still learning which balls to go for and which balls not to go for, which balls to stay on the base and which balls to leave the base and which ones to cut off. It's a learning process, but he's done a real good job for a guy who hasn't been out there that much.
So I'm very happy with the second half, especially the defensive play. There have been major improvements there as well as the pitching. The biggest thing to be happy about is the promise for the future because of these young kids.
Let's talk about some of these kids and how we've improved from the All-Star break to now. Certainly Jose Reyes played tremendously for us from the All-Star break until the day he got hurt. He certainly showed a lot of improvement defensively and with the bat, demonstrating what kind of player he will be in the future.
Unfortunately the injuries cost him a month of playing time. But he got enough time to get his feet wet and enough of an idea of what it's like here, so he won't be so awed when it comes time for him to start next season with the big club. I'm very pleased with the way he's come along.
And really, the whole team has been very good defensively since the All-Star break. Joey McEwing has filled in real well at second and short and Wiggy (Ty Wigginton) has continued to maintain what he's done since Spring Training to now. He still has a ways to go on the backhand side, but he's really making that play coming in, especially the barehanded play. And Jason Phillips continues to get better at first base.
Again, Jason has only 60 or 70 games under his belt at first base. But he continues to show improvement. And then there's a guy like Jeff Duncan, who has played center field real well. So the whole club has turned around defensively and that's part of the reason the pitching has been better. Pitching and defense always go together, so it shows some promising things for the future.
Specifically about Jose, he's learned to relax a little on the field and he's learned it's a quicker game up here. You have to be on your toes and ready to move and not have those herky-jerky motions. You have to have the nice fluid motion he's always had. We've worked on him going to his right for balls and he overcame those difficulties and got more into the flow of the game.
Offensively, the hitting part comes to young kids a little later. It's just a matter of understanding what pitchers are trying to do and getting the stroke you normally have while not trying to do too much. And he kind of found that and stayed with it for a long time. He set the club record for most hits in a month (39) by a rookie, so he's shown he can adapt. All players go through bad streaks and he showed he could make adjustments to overcome them. Wiggy made those adjustments and Jason made those adjustments so from that standpoint, there are a lot of promising things happening.
Now you look at Ty. Any time a rookie gets to the big leagues, it's going to be the most games he's ever played. It's a month more than he has normally played. Wiggy was up here last year, but there was a lot of non-playing time. He played into September, but not on the day-to-day basis that he has this year.
Partially, it's true that it wears on guys physically and mentally the first time they go through that. But he'll be better next year for what he went through this year. He's pretty much maintained where he's been. We'd like to see him improve his average a little bit and maybe a few more home runs, but he's had a real solid season for us.
If you look at Jason Phillips at first base, we're real happy with what we got out of him because we didn't know what we had when we started out. Any time you have a guy who goes to a position he hasn't really played much, you don't know what to expect. Surprisingly, we've gotten good play out of him, and I say surprisingly only because we didn't know what we were going to get.
We're happy with it and we can still do a lot more good things with him. He knows he can get better than he's played. He's still learning which balls to go for and which balls not to go for, which balls to stay on the base and which balls to leave the base and which ones to cut off. It's a learning process, but he's done a real good job for a guy who hasn't been out there that much.
So I'm very happy with the second half, especially the defensive play. There have been major improvements there as well as the pitching. The biggest thing to be happy about is the promise for the future because of these young kids.