What If the Mets Players Return to Form?

Looking at the Mets lineup, or the potential Mets lineup, there is definitely some reason for excitement.

For kicks, I looked looked back at the 2007 to 2009 seasons, and picked the best year for each player in our potential lineup.

In this analysis there are more than a few assumptions, so please don't take this for anything more than it is.

I think Carlos Delgado will be back, so I penciled him in at 1B.

I also think Josh Thole is going to win the primary catcher job and turn over partial duty to Santos or Blanco or whomever else looks the best in Spring Training. Now for Thole's stats I used a very scientific method...they are totally made up, and they are conservative.

So with that said, let's look at our lineup and the best season from these guys over the last three years:

	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Reyes	688	113	204	37	19	16	68	66	82	56	15	0.297	0.358	0.475	0.833
Castillo	486	77	147	12	3	1	40	69	58	20	6	0.302	0.387	0.346	0.733
Wright	604	113	196	42	1	30	107	94	115	34	5	0.325	0.416	0.546	0.962
Beltran	606	116	172	40	5	27	112	92	96	25	3	0.284	0.376	0.500	0.876
Bay	531	103	142	29	3	36	119	94	162	13	3	0.267	0.384	0.537	0.921
Delgado	598	96	162	32	1	38	115	72	124	1	1	0.271	0.353	0.518	0.871
Francoeur	642	84	188	40	0	19	105	42	129	5	2	0.293	0.338	0.444	0.782
Thole	400	50	115	25	2	3	45	40	50	4	3	0.288	0.352	0.383	0.735

Not too shabby! A nice mix of power, speed, average, OBP and an absolute ton of doubles.

Of course this is a dream world, but it also presents us with hope of what could be.

Adding Jason Bay was a terrific move. If the players in front of him all stay healthy and produce, the Mets will not have trouble scoring runs.

Sure, that is a lot of "ifs", but hey, it's January, 20 degrees outside, and the possibilities are endless.