Hi again and thanks for your patience and updates while I was traveling (across Iowa, by bike). Fun trip, very hot out there.

The Mets aren’t so hot. Lots of things are continuing to go wrong for them and as fortunate as they are to be where they are, they absolutely need to be better, not just to have a shot in the playoffs but to make them at all. There’s no way they make the playoffs any other way than winning the division.

Kumar Rocker isn’t getting signed. Bad break for the Mets but a crazy comment from the owner revealing how exploitative the draft is. Jacob deGrom is more hurt than we knew. Conforto is going as bad as he ever has since that demotion a few years back. You wonder if the “Trachsel Cure” could help but why risk it when guys like McNeil and Nimmo can barely run up the line with balky hamstrings. Kevin Pillar looks finished. Dom Smith is a singles hitter.

The Javier Baez trade hasn’t been much of a catalyst and I’m disappointed they couldn’t or wouldn’t do more. I was always a little suspicious of Baez, tremendous swings but makes a ton of outs and would seem to require a motivated teammate like Lindor at his side. Lindor’s injury is sorta like being without Cano; it wasn’t ideal when he was there but the lineup still misses him when he’s gone. At least Alonso is hitting bombs again.

Here’s the new (and old) assignments:

Akeem Bostic 71 (since reassigned to AAA)

Jay Baez 23 (I don’t think this is a middle infielder number at all, despite growing up with Ted Martinez and Doug Flynn. 7 would have been appropriate. I’m also not against adding another nine choices by starting with 0. 09 would have been great.

Baez means that IL’ed lefty David Peterson is switching, to the dreaded 46, according to the Mets roster. I missed the discussion on how or why this all went down.

Carlos Carrasco finally arrived in 59. I also have pitching coach Jeremy Accardo in 59, not sure how or even if that is working out.

Rich Hill, despite the speculation below, alighted in 21. I like pitchers who wear 21.