Good stuff from nj.com from a longer article about why the Mets need Reyes, and some quotes from Hojo about it’s time for the mental part of the game to catch up with the physical, specifically patience at the plate.
(A)s the years accumulate, Reyes may need to sharpen his approach. In their book “Baseball Between The Numbers,” researchers from Baseball Prospectus studied the aging patterns of different types of players. Players with speed and power, they found, retain their skills longest.
Players who rely just on speed must develop an extra skill, like a refined sense of the strike zone or an infusion of power, to last.
Otherwise, BP’s Nate Silver wrote, “once such a player loses a step or two, he’ll steal bases less effectively, won’t be able to leg out as many base hits, won’t reach as many balls in the field, and will quickly assume a spot on the bench.”
via For oft-injured Jose Reyes, future with Mets uncertain as contract runs out | NJ.com.
