It Can't Hurt...

...Can it? Tonight is the first night of the "Jose Reyes Hitting 3rd" experiment.

I say, hey, why not? This offense is anemic right now. Jason Bay should be paying the Mets for how poorly he is swinging the bat. David Wright is wrong. And Jeff Franceour has come down to Earth as we all expected. Angel Pagan is one of the few guys hitting and by listening to him talk, he seems to prefer hitting leadoff. The numbers back it up - .333 as a leadoff hitter compared to .231 in the 8-hole this year. So yeah, if he can get on base and if Reyes can hit to the gaps like we know he can, that will bring some runs.

Now most people will say having Reyes on base with Bay or Wright up will take away his aggressiveness - you don't want to run with your best hitters at bat. I'm not sold on that theory. If I have seen one thing from Reyes over the years it's that he really messes with pitchers minds. How many time do we see the pitcher concentrate solely on Reyes and forget about throwing strikes? Speed kills. It causes mistakes. One mistake pitch to Bay or Wright and they can break out of their slumps. So yeah, why not? If it doesn't work, but him back in the leadoff spot and move Ike up in lineup. Something has to work.