Mack’s Morning Report – 8-5-15 – 2015 Bats, Mike Hessman, Columbia Fireflies, Rafael Montero

Good morning.

We seem to be entering a new era of Mets baseball this month. The addition of Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto, and Travis d’Arnaud has instantly changed the offensive makeup of this team.

And there might me more by the end of the month with the return of Michael Cuddyer and David Wright.

That would be seven additions to the 25-man, and amount no team could pull off without some major changed in their roster.

The addition of Wright would probably doom Eric Campbell from the 25-man and my assumption is Juan Lagares would be coaxed into shutting down early and having his arm works on for a clean start in 2016. The Mets can’t make him do that, but they can try and make him understand that his time in the Mets outfield for the remainder of the season is going to be limited to late inning defensive replacement work. I’m sure that’s not going to make the sensitive Lagares happy.

There always is the possibility that Cuddyer would remain on the DL with whatever they can sell to the league is a legitimate injury.

Folks, this is a completely different offensive team and I see so room for Sandy Alderson to add anyone else during the waiver trade period. Maybe a relief pitcher, but definitely not a bat (I can’t believe what I just said!).

A nice story on ex-Met minor leaguer Mike Hessman http://nypost.com/2015/08/04/ex-met-claims-title-as-real-life-crash-davis/ .

The Savannah Sand Gnats will officially become the Columbia Fireflies next season. I don’t expect to see an official news release from the boys over in Savannah, even though ownership doesn’t change here. We’ll see.

What I will tell you that there is no long story here. It’s just a rich owner that wanted a southern city to foot the bill for a new stadium and the city of Savannah would have nothing to do with it. The Sand Gnats have played in Savannah since dirt and the town council called the team ownership’s bluff when they said they would move the team unless they got major funding for a new stadium. It didn’t work and a historic town loses a historic team.

I’m not defending either party here. It’s just sad to lose this part of Mets baseball.

Going into Tuesday night’s game the Mets are 5^th in runs scored since the all-star break. Also, 2015 Mets 21.7 total WAR… 2015 Nationals 19.7 total WAR.

Grant Bisbee writes:

It's working out for the Mets. The Mets, who are completely weird with their injuries and improbably cheap, have the best front three in baseball, and all of the pitchers are recent prospects who could have immolated. Maybe you'll still take Clayton Kershaw/Zack Greinke/anyone, but Jacob deGrom/Noah Syndergaard/Matt Harvey troika has been dazzling, and Harvey still has room to get better the further removed from Tommy John he is. They're even better than the Nationals' front three (or four, or five) was supposed to be. That's how we're here.

                 

Mack – I agree.

I love the 1-1 game against Miami, but pitching got us in this position and it will be pitching that gets us to the playoffs. The Bartolo Colon victory Monday night was just icing on the cake.

And let’s not forget how much Washington by not using their top two relievers during the three games they lost to the Mets this weekend.

David Wright just took full BP in Miami prior to Tuesday’s game and raked. Hit a HR over the ribbon board in LCF and a one-hopper off the State Farm sign in right-center.

Terry Collins’ comments yesterday about Rafael Montero were interesting. TC said he was going to make a special stop in St. Lucie this week to see Montero and let him know that the Mets need him and that the pitcher needs to step up his rehab program. It’s obvious that Mets doctors cleared him to pitch when they flew him to New York last week, so it remained unclear what the delay was.

Lastly, it was reported late in the day yesterday that outfielder Yoenis Cespedes wants to remain a Mets ‘for a very long time’. This could easily just be the politically correct thing to say during the first week in August, but it also could serve notice to the Mets front office that they are going to have to put an offer in Cespedes’ hands once the World Series is over. Could it be possible that… nah, I’m not even going there…