Mack’s Morning Report – 8-9-15 – Yoenis Cespedes, Sandy Alderson, Elwood

Good morning,

It's just one lost that killed a seven game winning streak.

Win on Sunday and the series is yours.

All of us, including the Mets, need to remember this is a two month marathon and we're not in control of what Washington does except for the games we play them.

Things will go back and forth but, right now, we have the 1 1/2 game lead and winning will prevent that being taken away from us.


Michael Cuddyer went 0-4 in his St. Lucie rehab last night, but will still return to the Mets and join the team, probably tomorrow.


Curtis Granderson took a ball off his right foot in the 9th innings last night and there is a chance he could sit out the final today against Tampa Bay. The decision will be made in the morning when he arrives at the park.


Since trading deadline with other teams:

Most of the people that surround my life these days know that I write ‘something’ about the Mets. Some aren’t sure who I work for and if I am employed by the team while others are still trying to figure out where all the old newspapers went and what the hell blogs are.

They also have spent most of their time laughing at the t-shirts I have been wearing, outwardly mocking the team I ‘represent’, but that has changed since the all-star game, in general, and specifically, the acquisition of OF Yoenis Cespedes.

I’ve replaced the majority of my Mets shirts with one I particularly like that I bought recently online. It says: ‘Life is Too Short… Don’t Waste it Being a Yankees Fan’.

Now they, and strangers, stop me on the street and comment on the resurgence of a team they thought would be dead forever. We talk about this and we talk about that, but the conversation eventually gets around to Cespedes and the difference the team seems to be playing with him in the lineup.

There’s no question he has made a difference, but frankly, so have all the players that Sandy Alderson brought in since the trading deadline. It’s impossible to predict at this point if the Mets make the playoffs, or how far they would go in them, but even the biggest cynic has to tip his hat to Sandy right now for his transformation of the offense on this team. Yeah, they’re all going away next season but that doesn’t mean anything right now, does it?

Alex Torres has been outrighted to Triple A Las Vegas

And lastly… a special email received this week from ‘Hobie’:

          “Mack, As the Mets pull another out 4-3, I just gotta tell you this story.

A dear long-time friend. a babe at 61 and a rabid Mets/Jets fan, was on a quest to visit every major league park.  No 19 of 30 (he didn’t count 8 which no longer exist) was Minute Maid Park where he suffered a massive H/A during BP and passed last weekend.

At the wake on Tuesday a UPS truck pulls up and delivers a package,  It was a baseball bat inscribed “To one who loved the game as we do” and was signed by the entire Houston Astro club—now my favorite non-Met team.

And, oh, the Mets have not lost since Elwood has been up There.”