Reyes: Fantasy and Reality

Let me preface this post by saying I love fantasy sports, especially baseball, BUT I think in analyzing a players talents and abilities stats aren't always the greatest indicators. I'm still convinced the most effective way of establishing the value of a player is by the "eye test."

That being said, in an article for ESPN.com insider, Eric Karabell discusses players that are worth watching this Spring Training, both for the purpose of establishing their value in fantasy, and reality.   In this article Karabell focuses on Jim Edmonds, Jake Fox and Jose Reyes, and says of Reyes, "the fact is Jose Reyes might be this team's most indispensable player. If he plays in only 36 games again, the Mets will be sunk..."  Karabell is mainly focused on the fantasy angle overall, and talks about how Reyes has been going around the third round in most fantasy drafts, which is down from where he was a year ago.  But Karabell seems to find himself making interesting statements that qualify both in fantasy relevance, and otherwise.  He talks about the Mets catching situation as being an interesting one to monitor from a fantasy perspective.  The most interesting statement Karabell makes about the Mets might be the following, "Basically, if there was only one team you had to watch this spring, it might be the Mets."

I couldn't agree with Karabell more.  I think Reyes is the most important cog on this team, as you can see in my rah-rah post from the other day.  Jose Reyes is the heart and soul of this team, and they CANNOT go down like they did last year with this guy healthy, he just won't let it happen.  Reyes is too fiery and has too much talent, passion and pride to let his team go down like that again.  Unfortunately for the Mets and their fans, he leads by example, and last season he couldn't lead from the bench.

As for the Mets being the team to watch in Spring Training for fantasy purposes, I completely agree.  Fantasy owners want to see how Reyes looks, the catcher battle, 1B battle and CF play.  But to Mets fans, Spring Training will be most important for re-vitalization a fan base that couldn't feel any lower right now.  And a healthy Jose Reyes will be a huge step in the right direction...