Mack’s Morning Report – 8-10-15 – Noah Syndergaard, Michael Cuddyer, Travis d’Arnaud, Gavin Cecchini

Good morning.


I found Sandy Alderson's Sunday post game comments very interesting.

He said that he was putting development on the back burner for the rest of the season and the Mets were going to have the best 25 men on their squad until the rosters can increase in September.

Michael Cuddyer is expected to be activated later today and everybody expected for Michael Conforto to be sent back down to Las Vegas, but that could all change after Alderson's statement. Frankly, it would be hard to find anyone that thinks that Eric Campbell is a better player than Conforto. 

My guess is Conforto will not survive the next promotion that looks to be David Wright. 

Al Jackson http://nypost.com/2015/08/09/the-mets-have-to-learn-lessons-a-computer-cant-teach-them/ on Noah Syndergaard and the rest of the young Mets fireballers:

“See all these young guys. They put more into it, when they should be putting less into it and hitting their spots. That’s more important than an extra mile or two on the radar gun.’’

Mack – Good point made by the highly respected Jackson. I’m sure Thor will continue to work his game around his blazing fastball, but if he can work it to the corners of the strike zone, his success rate will vastly increase, even higher than his recent great string of games.

I’m going to write off his last game and Jacob deGrom’s pitch count trouble in his past two starts as an aberration.

It was interesting to see that the Mets decided not to play (or activate) Michael Cuddyer for Sunday’s game. It could be nothing more than a day game/travel before his last game in St. Lucie. Or the Mets may still be just trying to figure out who the five outfielders should be that they carry next week. Lastly, there could be the Juan Lagares factor and the Mets might be talking to him.

I have a funny feeling I will have more on this before this post goes up.

I agree 100% with Michael Baron’s http://justmets.mlblogs.com/2015/08/09/travis-darnaud-has-been-sluggish-in-his-latest-return-from-the-disabled-list/ assessment of Travis d’Arnaud’s game since returning from the disabled list:

That infrequent play has showed over the last nine days. At times, he’s shown those quick hands and ability to turn on the ball, but for the most part d’Arnaud is off to a sluggish start since coming off the disabled list, going 4-for-23 with seven strikeouts in six games.

His swing looks a little long, which is causing him to miss hittable pitches in the strike zone. It’s simply a consequence of not playing very much this season, and a matter of d’Arnaud finding his timing at the plate. In a way, he’s going through what really is a third spring training in a year, as he’s still building his stamina and strength back up to full season capacity.

I was counting on d’Arnaud of becoming one of the feared members of the middle lineup but that just hasn’t happened yet.

Baron’s suggesting that the Mets should consider sending him to the Instruction League to try to find another position he could play. I have very seldom seen things like this work.

For now, we may just have to wait this out and let Kevin Plawecki spell him when needed.

In the Wild Card race, Pittsburgh owns the first slot with a 64-44 record. San Francisco had their clock cleaned this past week and are now tied (59-52) with the Mets. And the Chicago Cubs, who went 9-1 in the past 10 games are 62-48,  four games in the loss column ahead of the Mets.

The Mets play seven games at home next week… four against the Colorado Rockies (46-62) and three against the Pittsburgh Pirates (64-44).

Gavin Cecchini http://www.pressconnects.com/story/sports/2015/08/08/bmets-cecchini-progress-shortstop/31341519/ on Gavin Cecchini:

"I'm a shortstop, there's no doubt about it. I'm going to stick at shortstop. I'll play shortstop in the big leagues for someone. I want it to be the New York Mets because this is the team I got drafted by, but at the end of the day I know this is a business. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm going to stick at shortstop. I'll help a team win a championship playing at shortstop."

          Mack – What can I say? He said all the right things. You have to assume that he will play in Las Vegas next year (what do they do with Reynolds?) and his projected year as a major leaguer probably isn’t until 2017. Maybe by then the Mets will figure out who is going to be their long time shortstop.

          Me? I still happen to think that the Mets need to take a long look at free agent Ian Desmond. He will be coming off a very bad year, especially (early on) defensively) and could probably be signed for a lot less than the $11mil the Nationals paid him this year. Trea Turner will be the Nats long term shortstop so there is no chance they will resign him.

I would sign him for two years and then turn the position over to Amed Rosario.