2 parts to love about the Mets starting lineup, 1 part to dread

The New York Mets have given us a variety of lineups this season as any team will over the course of a year. We’ve already seen Tommy Pham bat leadoff. Changes in the lower part have been more frequent as Buck Showalter tries to find the best combination of nine bats on any given day.

A few elements of a typical Mets lineup are consistent. We know where we’ll usually find Pete Alonso. We realize Tomas Nido probably won’t hit higher than eighth as long as there are healthy bodies.

In the early days of the season, what should we love and what should we dread about the lineup cards?

We love the top half of the NY Mets starting lineup

What’s half of nine? It’s 4.5 which in this case means we can love the number one through five hitters half of the time. This is the case even if it’s an imperfect first five in the order.

Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte at the top are chef's kiss worthy. Follow that up with Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Add in Jeff McNeil. While McNeil isn’t an ideal number five hitter, his ability to put the bat on the ball makes him a constant threat to drive in runs even if he’s far more likely to single four times in a game than pick up an extra base hit.

There isn’t much messing around to do with these first five. Daniel Vogelbach has been getting frequent starts in the number five spot which is acceptable. He does need to do a little more, though.

So far, what we love most about the Mets starting lineup is how it starts. The complete opposite is what we dread most.

We dread the bottom third of the NY Mets starting lineup

It hasn’t been a crisp beginning for the bottom part of the lineup. Hopefully, if Francisco Alvarez starts regularly and hits low in the order, he can provide some spark.

The dread comes from seeing Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, and Tomas Nido all in a row. Omar Narvaez was hitting well before landing on the IL. We should remain optimistic that Alvarez picks up where he left off even if starts aren’t as frequent as we’d like to see.

Even if the team starts to get contributions from Canha, Escobar, and even Nido, we know their success may be short-lived.

Having three near-automatic outs in the bottom part of the order has been a nuisance for this ball club. It hasn’t killed too many rallies, but it has wasted some opportunities with runners already on base. If there’s any consolation prize to take away from this, at least it means Nimmo or Marte get to lead off when the bottom part of the order goes down quickly.

The trouble the Mets could face is finding a way to get more out of these final three. Moving someone down in the order isn’t a solution because of what it does in other places. The Mets will simply need to mix in a guy like Luis Guillorme every so often or even try out Tommy Pham against righties.