More Small Ball For Reyes

John Harper at The New York Daily News writes about Jose Reyes and how Willie Randolph wants him to slow down at the plate a little bit:

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."

"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."