Or not.

Mike Lupica roots for the Mets and against the Yankees. Is this a problem? Why should I care?

It's kind of a problem when it warps his baseball opinions to such an extreme degree: "They think about a batting order of Reyes, Matsui, Beltran, Delgado, Piazza, Wright, Floyd, Cameron and see it as being as good as there is in their division and maybe their league."

Theoretically, Mike Lupica is an observer of baseball, a baseball insider, an insighful observer. Except he just suggested that the Mets are going to sign Delgado (which they didn't) and, when they sign Delgado, they will suddenly have one of the best lineups in the National League.

About a week ago, Lupica also said that the Mets might have the best starting staff in the NL, as long as they remain healthy.

What else? Best defense, best bullpen, and best coaching staff, too? Golly, they'll probably win 125 games.

As for the lineup specifically, why is Mike Piazza even included in the lineup? Is Piazza going to catch 130 games? Lupica is conveniently ignoring Jason Phillips and his intimidating career .389 slugging percentage. Maybe Piazza will make a sudden defensive comeback at the age of 36, but I'd be willing to bet that he's going to catch less than 81 games next season. Now that 1b is open, maybe the Mets will continue to play him at 1b in order to get his bat in the lineup, but had the Mets paid $12.5 million per year for Delgado, they were obviously going to play Delgado every day at first base.

But even with Delgado ... and even maxed out offensively on the day that Piazza is catching ... Reyes, Matsui, Beltran, Delgado, Piazza, Wright, Floyd, and Cameron.

It's not a particularly good lineup. It's not as good as other teams in their division, much less their league. Not even close. (Did I miss the memo regarding the early retirements of Rolen-Pujols-Edmonds?)

The Mets scored just 684 runs last season. I'm not sure how many add'l runs Beltran and Delgado can possibly add to any team ... but they can't be that good. Their presence can't possibly turn a 684-run team into a 800-run team. Unless Lupica just think Piazza, Floyd, Cameron are all going to find their strokes and achieve career peaks at the same time. Or maybe he predicts .350, 50, and 165 from both Beltran and Delgado. I don't really know, it's such a nonsensical idea, I can't figure it out.

But the Mets didn't even sign Delgado, the Marlins did.

Lupica should ponder this lineup and maybe he'd learn something about baseball:

c - Loduca
1b - Delgado
2b - Castillo
3b - Lowell
ss - Gonzalez
lf - Conine
cf - Pierre
rf - Cabrera

Now that's a purty good lineup.

The 2005 Mets might have the best lineup in their division? They might have the worst.