Mack Question - Reese Havens

Reese Kaplan

Re: Reese Havens - I just noticed his Ike Davis-like line in AA and know that he's pretty much on the cusp of his status as a prospect ending.  What do you think the problem is?  He's never struggled like this in any other season.

Mack:

Who the heck knows with this guy J

Reese, I would throw this out as a ‘Mack and Company’ question, but the response from our writers hasn’t been up to par lately.

Talent, ability, and execution are three different things in everything we do in life. Havens has major leave talent and ability. He’s been hampered by injuries throughout his limited professional career, but coaches and scouts agree that he “has it”.

What’s going on now just sometimes happens. I can’t prove my theory, but his problems are probably in his head (like Ike’s were) right now. John Lennon and Paul McCartney proved it took words and music to make a great song and most of the Beatles great songs were written by them together. Reese just needs to calm down, clear his head, and play every day. If he does that, the talent and ability will take over once again.

I’m sure he’s feeling the kids biting up his arse. To his benefit, Jordany Valdespin has proven he’s not a professional middle infielder and Danny Muno made a critical mistake for one stupid act. The moving of Wilmer Flores to second base means the Mets are now looking for alternative players to someday replace Daniel Murphy on second base, This was supposed to be Reese. It may still happen, but a quick cure for his woes would be to switch places. Send Flores to AA and demote Havens back to Florida. Let him work daily with the instructors there and let him get a burger every night at Duffy’s. He may still fall behind in the pecking order, but the least that could happen is he would return to trade bait before the season ends.

One thing. Word to me is the Binghamton staff is not giving up on him. You will see him play every day, mostly hitting first, until he comes out of this, but, and this is a big but, this will be his make or break time. Gavin Cecchini and Phillip Evans are just around the corner.