2006, David Wright, one of the best third basemen in the MLB, and one the best players in the MLB. 2007, more of the same. 2008, even more of the same. For those three years, Wright hit for a combined .312 average, 89 HRs, and 347 RBIs. Averaging it out, Wright played 158 games per season, .312 average, 30 home runs, and 116 RBIs. Came 2009 and with it Citi Field, and Wright's numbers dipped. 2009, 2010, 2011 were years to forget for Wright. Wright averaged 134 games played, with a .284 average, with 18 HRs and 79 RBIs per season. Wright was not just off at the plate, but also off in the field, his throws were off line, and he lost his cat like quickness that won him Gold Gloves in 2007 and 2008. Enter 2012, Wright has been nothing short of sensational both at bat and in the field.

38 games into the 2012 season and Wright's Mets are exceeding expectations with a 21-17, and it's mainly thanks to the unofficial captain, Wright. who has sat only three games all season due to a fractured pinky. After Thursday's 9-4 Mets win, Wright is now hitting .411/.513/.621 with four home runs and 22 RBIs.  Wright's .411 average, and .513 OBP lead the major leagues. So what's going (W)right this season for Wright?

First and foremost, strikeouts are down. The last three seasons Wright, averaged a strikeout once every 3.8 at bats, with a 2.04 strikeout to walk ratio. Going into Thursday, Wright has struckout once for every 5.8 at bats with a 0.88 strikeout to walk ratio. In 2006-2008, Wright averaged 5.8 at bats between strikeouts, with a 1.36 strikeout to walk ratio. Wright is seeing the ball better, and on target. The past few years Wright was late on fastballs and couldn't reach the fastballs on the outside corner. So far in 2012, as the numbers indicate Wright has been less prone to the strikeout, leading to more hits. The most telling number of such, Wright's balls in play percentage. From 2006-2008 Wright hit the ball in play 68% of the time, from 2009-2011, Wright hit the ball in play 62% of the time. This season? 67% of the time.

Secondly, how he's hitting the ball. When Wright's been hitting the ball, he's been hitting it well. So far in 2012, Wright has hit an Extra Base Hit 10.2% of the time, right around at his 2006-2008 average of 10.5% of the time. Wright has hit line drives for 25% of all balls put into play. That percentage tells us Wright has kept an even swing. In recent years, it had looked like Wright's swing had evolved into a little of an upper cut, especially since the creation of (the formerly cavernous) Citi Field. The fact that Wright has hit line drives for one quarter of all balls in play, tells us if Wright had more of an upper cut in his swing, he has since leveled it, and is no longer trying to hit 500 foot bombs, but rather just get good wood on the ball.

Last but not least, leadership. It won't show up in any boxscore, but ask any player on the Mets, any coach on the Mets, or any fan of the Mets, and they will tell you Wright is the leader of the Mets, their unofficial "captain". Monday night, following D.J. Carrassco's beaning of Ryan Braun, when the Mets came up to bat, Terry Collins quickly removed Wright from the lineup, not wanting his star player to get hurt. Wright was upset at his manager, being that he wanted to be the guy to take the hit for the team. This is finally Wright's team. Carlos Delgado gone. Carlos Beltran gone. Jose Reyes gone. Wright goes out on the field knowing that it's his team now, and he has to set an example for all the young players on the team. He goes out everyday and plays his heart out, even playing with a broken finger! In recent years there was worry that the burden of the Mets was getting to Wright, and that's why he was struggling. Wright has come out in 2012 and is trying to prove all his critics wrong, even team owner Fred Wilpon, who this week retracted from his statement last year, (calling Wright "not a superstar"),  and is ready to be the leader of the Mets in all aspects.

I think we are far enough in the season where it's no longer considered "small sample size". Watch out for David Wright.

Coming into the season, the Mets starting rotation was of question. One of the big questions, was Mike Pelfrey, who was pitching well, before going down to injury. Ever since then the Mets have been struggling to fill that fifth spot of the rotation. They tried Chris Schwinden for two starts, who pitched a total of eight innings going 0-1 with an 11.25 ERA. Since then the Mets used  40 year old Miguel Batista on Tuesday, who pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up eight hits and four runs in a Mets win. Mets manager Terry Collins has said that Batista will get at least one more start. With Chris Young at least a couple of weeks away before returning from injury, who is the pitcher to fill the fifth spot?

Meet Jeremy Hefner. Hefner was called for one game in late April, and pitched three innings in that game, pitching three innings, giving up three hits and a walk.  Hefner, who is currently at AAA Buffalo, has started six games and is 3-1 with a 1.77 ERA.  Hefner, 26, has pitched a total of 40 2/3 innings in those six starts, averaging about 6 2/3 innings per start. Furthermore, Hefner, has pitched a 0.910 WHIP, with 1.3 BB/9. While Hefner only has 5.1 K/9, Hefner throws strikes, doesn't walk people, and keeps the ball on the ground with a 39.5 GB% as well as a 3.00 GB/FB ratio.

So with Miguel Batista pitching mediocre, and Chris Young at least a couple of weeks away, why not give Jeremy Hefner a look?

So it's ten games into the season, and the Mets are 7-3, 0.5 games out of the division lead. Not many people, if any would have predicted this. The Mets have won every first game of the series so far. So, what are the Mets doing right to be successful? What can we expect to see for the rest of the 152 games of the season? As to a baseball game, there are two main keys, the pitching, and the offense.

Firstly, pitching well. Overall, the pitching staff, has pitched to a 2.43 ERA, second in the NL. Johan Santana has been great, while getting virtually no run support, R.A. Dickey has continued his success, Jon Niese has been nothing short of remarkable, Mike Pelfrey has shown signs of returning to his 2010 form, and Dillon Gee, pitched a gem last night in Atlanta. They have given up approximately 8.3 hits per nine innings, or, less than a hit per inning, while sustaining only 3.6 walks per nine innings, leading to a 1.32 WHIP. Of those 8.3 hits per nine innings mentioned above, only 0.4 of those are home runs.  Furthermore, the pitching staff has thrown strikes 62% of the time, hardly below the league average at 63%. The looking strike percentage is 29%, just above the league average of 28%. The swinging strike percentage is 29%, also just above the league average at 28%.  Those stats tell us what is necessary for pitchers to be successful. Not give up many hits, keep the ball in the ballpark, and keep runners off the bases, all the while getting only 3.8 runs of run support per game. If the pitching staff can sustain these numbers, the Mets should be successful.

Secondly, productive hitting. Starting at the top of the lineup, Ruben Tejada, has a league leading six doubles so far. In the ten games so far, Tejada, who took over as the leadoff hitter the second game of the season, has seen about 4.76 pitches per at bat, allowing the hitters behind him to analyze the pitcher. David Wright, is hitting a blistering .542. Josh Thole is hitting .375. The Mets as a team have a batting average of only .248(seventh in the league), but have .327 OBP (fifth in the league), a .404 slugging percentage (also fifth in the league), leading to a .731 OPS (obviously fifth in the league). So while the Mets aren't hitting all that often, when there not hitting, there getting on base by some other form, and when they are hitting they are tting extra base hits. Let me explain further, the Mets home run percentage, is 3%, 0.8% better than the league average at 2.2%. Their walk percentage is 10.4%, nearly two percentage points better than the league average at 8.6%. Their extra base hit percentage is 7.6% percent, a half point better than the league average at 7.1%. This is all the while Jason Bay, Lucas Duda, and Ike Davis are hitting a combined 18-104, or a combined .173. Josh Thole won't hit .375 for the season, and David Wright won't hit anything close to .542. But they should both hit over .300, and Duda, Davis, and Bay, will hit better than they have so far. So while some of this isn't sustainable, overall it could be, as long as the Mets continue working counts, and hitting the ball well.

(All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs)

The Mets are 8 games into a 162 game season. Just under 5% of the games have been played. There's a looonnnggg way to go. David Wright's not going to continue to bat .588 with a 1.577 OPS. Frank Francisco is going to have a bad outing sooner or later. So will RA Dickey. But you know what? I don't give a !@#$%.

This team is incredibly fun to watch. They employ an amazing amount of youth each and every day. Every player they throw out there on a daily basis not named Jason Bay has a chance to be apart of this club 5 years from now (that's actually pretty amazing when you think about it). And I don't believe they've even played their best baseball yet. The Mets have gotten very, very little from their 4, 5, and 6 hitters thus far outside of a few select occasions. I have confidence Ike will figure things out soon and become yet another young asset. Same for Duda, who put together a nice day on Saturday.

I'm not sure I really believed any of this was for real until Saturday's win. When David Wright stepped up to the plate and knocked the first pitch he saw 400+ feet to left center field and out of the park, putting an end to any doubt anyone had about the health of his pinky finger, I started to believe. That's a turning point kind of moment for a team. I can only imagine what must've been going through the minds of the other Mets players as they watched that at bat unfold. To see Wright not only play through the pain, but succeed in such a fantastic way, it really says a lot. It set a tone for the rest of the game. Niese was stellar for 6.2 innings. Duda smoked a home run to extend the lead. Murphy, Tejada, Ike, and Nieuwenhius in addition to David Wright all made great plays in the field. And the Phillies never really stood a chance. 

I don't care if it's only 8 games into the season. You can keep saying that if you want. But this team is fun to watch. They've got incredible veteran leadership with guys like Wright, Johan Santana, and RA Dickey. They've got lots of great, young, homegrown talent all over the place contributing to the club in meaningful ways. And to top it off, they look like they're having a blast in the process. I don't know if the Mets are going to be able to maintain this level of play for the entire year, but I do know that I'm certainly going to enjoy this run as long as it lasts.

Coming into the 2012 season, the NL East is the second best division in the Majors, behind only the AL East. The NL East contains four teams with a legit chance of making the playoffs this season, especially with the new playoff rules and now two wild cards. Those teams are the Braves, Phillies, Marlins, and Nationals. The fifth team in the division is the Mets, who have have to play a combined 72 games against those four teams, or 44% of their games all season. Expectations are low this season for the Mets. Sports Illustrated projects the Mets to go 72-90 (that's not to say they will win all the games against their division rivals and lose the rest). So what needs to go right for the Mets to exceed expectations and flirt with .500? I would split it up into two factors: bounce back, and continuation.

Bounce Back- In 2011 the Mets had a few players who had a disappointing season. Jason Bay continued his woes since signing with the Mets. David Wright played only 102 games due to injury, and had only 14 HRs and 61 RBIs while hitting for .254 average. Johan Santana missed all of the 2011 season following surgery for shoulder tear in 2010.  For the Mets to successful, they need these three players, to bounce back and play like they have in the past.

Entering Sunday, Jason Bay is 8-38 with no RBIs in spring training. The Mets need Bay to turn that around, and not be an automatic out. Wright has been hurt much of the spring, out with an abdominal tear. Wright played in his first spring game last week and has looked good. Wright needs to return to has 2010 form when he hit .283 with 29 HRs and 103 RBIs. Santana, has started five games this spring, and while not being dominant, has looked good, and is ready to return to form. The Mets need Santana to do exactly that, to be an ace, to be the starting pitcher who can stop a bad losing streak, and give the Mets a chance to win the game every time he goes out there.

Continuation- The Mets had a few bright spots in 2011. Ike Davis was hitting well in 2011, but played only 36 games before going down to an ankle injury. Lucas Duda showed impressive power, but played in only 100 games. Daniel Murphy continued to hit in 2011 but played only 109 games before going down to an MCL injury. The Mets these need three young players to continue their offensive prowess.

As mentioned above Davis played only in 36 games in 2011 before going down to injury. Davis hit .302 with seven HRs and 25 RBIs before going down to injury. In 2010, his rookie season, Davis hit .264 with 19 HRs and 71 RBis and 147 games. Expect Davis to have a year with 20+ HRs and 100+ RBIs, Duda did not start 2011 with the Mets, but was called up shortly after. It took a while for Duda to start hitting, but once he started hitting he was rather impressive. Overall, Duda hit .292 with 10 HRs and 50 RBIs with 21 doubles. A full season with Duda on his game could be scary. Murphy was hitting well, and hitting for average before going down to an injury. Murphy was hitting .320 with only 6 HRs and 49 RBIs. If Murphy can stay healthy(which he was had trouble with the past two years), he will a force to reckon with in 2012.

If these six players can play like they used to play, the Mets should be fun to watch.