If the season started today, the Mets lineup, could look something like this (of course with some players switched around):
1. Andres Torres (CF)
2. Daniel Murphy (2B)
3. David Wright (3B)
4. Ike Davis (1B)
5. Jason Bay (LF)
6. Lucas Duda (RF)
7. Josh Thole (C)
8. Ruben Tejada (SS)
9. Pitcher
Obvisously this may not be actually how the lineup is constructed. Ruben may be bumped up to 2nd with Murphy dropping to 5, pushing everyone back or Thole and Tejada may be switched. Whatever, we can discuss that later (this lineup right now is constructed to keep the leadoff hitter in a traditional role, and then for everyone else the best hitters the most amount of AB's)
Even without Jose Reyes, and I know this feels crazy to type, this is still a good lineup. Like really good. If Wright and Davis remain healthy, and Murphy returns to is 2011 form (and Torres his 2010), this could be a really dangerous lineup.
At the same time, this could be a really bad lineup. And that is what the state of the Mets is. They have a lot of players that could be really good. These are names like Murphy, Torres and Duda. And the Mets have players that should be really good, like Jason Bay. If things go right, then this is an excellent team. If things go bad, then this could be a disaster. At the end of the day though, this team was 6th in the National League in runs scored, and while that had a lot to do with Reyes, the Mets still did that with Reyes being injured, with Pagan in a down year, with Bay not himself, with injuries to Wright, with a major injury to Davis and so forth. I still have a lot of confidence in the offense of this team and while it will be hard to be competitive next season, there is no reason yet to completely write off the New York Mets. (That is to say I'm not going to be crazy and say we are contending for the Playoffs, but we still have every chance to be competitive).
