Carlos and Carlos Return Today

After watching players like Eziquel Carrera and Daniel Murphy take the field for the past few weeks, we finally get our 4 and 5 hitters back. Carlos Beltran, after recovering from knee surgery, while CarlosDelgado is returning from a hip injury as well as his recovery from a broken hand suffered in the game we will not mention.

I think the Carlos' are going to be the key for the Mets this season, at least from a hitting standpoint. As the Carlos' go, the Mets go. Yeah, it's easy to say that the key to the lineup is almost 25% of the lineup, or that it's the cleanup and 5 hitter, but let me explain:

Obviously when Reyes hits, the Mets do better. But I think we know what we can expect from him (he'll be better than his last September). Who knows what we're going to get from Castillo, but when he hits, he's not going to win games singlehandedly. David Wright is clearly going to continue to be amazing. Church, and Schneider; We don't expect too much from them, just keep their heads above water and don't screw too much up. Left field is a problem and some players are going to have to step into a more prominent role than they are used to to keep the Mets contending.

Who knows what we're going to get from Carlos Delgado. He is a big wild card here. I don't think we can ever expect anything he did with the Blue Jays, but are we going to see something closer to his 2006 numbers (38, 114, .265) or is he on the decline and his 2007 numbers are going to be Carlos Delgado from now on (24, 87, .258). If Delgado hits, the Mets should be fine on the offensive attack. What if Delgado doesn't hit? Are the Mets in trouble?

They could be. But here's where the faster Carlos comes into play. We clearly saw over the last two years that he is able to handle New York pressure. Hitting 41 and 33 home runs over the last two years with 116 and 112 RBIs, we need him to continue this. If Delgado isn't hitting, we might need to see more out of Beltran. If Delgado hits, Beltran would be able to slip back a bit, as his knees are going to be a lingering factor throughout the season.

The Carlos Crew needs to be consistent, or at least one of them at any given time needs to strike fear into the opposing pitcher. Having both of them have a average year won't do the job for the Mets. They are going to have to pick up each other up throughout the entire season if the other can't come through.