Neil Walker, Jose Reyes, and the likeability factor

Today’s article was going to be a straightforward piece entitled, “There’s a lot to like about Neil Walker.” It was going to point out how popular Walker was in Pittsburgh both with his teammates and the Pirates’ fan base. Then it would describe how seamlessly he has fit in as a Met and all his offensive and defensive contributions. Even if 2016 is his only season in a Mets uniform there would not seem to be anyone who will regret his having spent a summer in Queens.

But then the weekend news cycle struck. A nanosecond after 2pm Eastern time hit on Saturday the Mets signed newly released Jose Reyes. The Rockies will be on the hook for something like $44 million minus the prorated minimum salary through the end of 2017.

The Rockies released Reyes because they have an outstanding rookie shortstop, Trevor Story, and because Reyes was an ineffective and somewhat uninterested performer last year. But, of course, he was mostly released because of his 51 game suspension for domestic abuse.

It occurred to me that the common thread here is a player’s likeability. In an ideal world our sports teams are populated by exquisitely talented athletes who are also highly moral and ethical individuals. As you know, that is not the world in which we actually live.

Since I find myself understanding things better in mathematical terms over the years I have pictured a graph with a vertical (Y) axis being a player’s likeability. The horizontal (X) axis represents the skill set of the player on the field. To some extent the baseball stat WAR (wins above replacement player) captures that with a solid regular being worth about 2 WAR. An all-star figures to be about a 4 WAR player while the Mike Trouts, Clayton Kershaws, and Bryce Harpers of the world give their team 6 or more WAR.

The unfilled in graph looks like this:

For myself my favorite players have been the one who have had great talent but seem like legitimately good people too. A healthy David Wright in his prime was way up there. No scandals, no steroids, nothing on the police blotter. And while I am as anti-Yankee as one can be there has always been a soft spot for Yogi Berra. There was an outstanding player who everyone seemed to like or love (OK, maybe not George Steinbrenner but that’s another story altogether).

The greatest player of all time, Babe Ruth, was highly likeable during his lifetime because he had a sympathetic press that never revealed his drinking and whoring habits. Instead they were there to watch him visit sick kids in hospitals while promising them a home run in the next game.

And there are the players high on the WAR scale but low on the likeability axis. Just to name some: Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Chase Utley, Barry Bonds. And truth be told my Strat-O-Matic team has had Arod, Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano and others on it. It’s hard to find only good guys and still produce a winning team.

Here’s that graph with a few names thrown in there.

Of course this is subjective and you might possibly put the initials elsewhere. WF is Wilmer Flores. He tugged at our hearts wiping tears from his eyes when he thought the front office was trading him last year. It’s just that he is not a particularly talented player. NW is Neil Walker: good player, good guy. YB is Berra. Way down in the lower right is RC, Roger Clemens.

The toughest guy to place is JR, Jose Reyes. It will be interesting to see what he has left as a player. His domestic violence episode is totally unforgivable to some so that his likeability factor could be close to zero for them. Others are more forgiving.

Reyes was quoted as saying this before his first game as a Mets minor leaguer on Sunday:

“I need to be a better man, be a better husband. Be a better dad for my girls. I got three girls, I need to be an example for them. I’m a human being. I made a terrible mistake. I say so sorry to everybody. I say sorry to my wife, my dad, my mom, to everybody. They know I’m a better person than that.

“I paid my suspension to MLB. I went to counseling. I’m going to continue to be going again to counseling, whatever it takes. They will see a man who stands up for his mistake.”

Now perhaps those are just words and we know that actions speak louder than words. But if indeed Jose made this one huge mistake and wants to do everything in his power to make up for it then personally this writer is OK with that.

A question I’ve often asked myself and still lack an answer for is this. My favorite football teams are the Giants and the Jets. Would I want Bill Belichick as the coach of either team? On one hand he is a fantastic coach with an incredible track record for winning games and championships. But he is also clearly a boorish fellow with little to no respect for the rules most everyone else adhere to. How much is one willing to negotiate away on the likeability scale to move right on the talent scale?