It’s been about two weeks since the last time the plethora of Mets’ injuries came up in this blog, so I thought now would be a good time to catch up.

The Mets’ DL trio of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgado are all due back by mid-August – which I take to mean sometime between the 9th and 22nd. That’s quite a range. Beltran seems like he will be the first player to return as he is already taking batting practice. Reyes had a minor setback last week but looks like he will be back on the field before Delgado.

Ironically, the injured Mets star most likely to return the soonest is the player who has missed the most time: Billy Wagner. Wagner has been perfect working two innings of relief in Single A and his next step is to pitch on back-to-back days. JJ Putz is about a week behind Wagner’s rehab schedule. Both players are expected back by the end of the month. John Maine, on the other hand, has not begun rehabbing his fatigued right shoulder. There’s no timetable for him to return and if the Mets do not climb back into the playoff hunt, I suspect that Maine will remain on the DL for the remainder of the season.

Speaking of climbing back into the playoff race, the Mets have played eons better as of late (I think I’m making up that unit of measurement to describe good play). While it’s refreshing to watch them compete and play with heart again – and also exciting to think that they will be getting back three of their best hitters over the next few weeks – it is insanely unlikely that they will make the playoffs. If there are a lot of Mets’ fans out there like me, we have been collectively gaining hope. The team was playing well and after winning their series against the then Wild Card leading Rockies were surprisingly only 5.5 games out of the wild card.

But when it comes to hope, I always remember the conflicting opinions of Andy and Redd from Shawshank Redemption. At one point in the film, Redd warns Andy that “[h]ope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” Later on in the movie, Andy writes Redd a letter that explained: “… hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” In the case of the Mets’ fan, I’m going to have to side a bit more with Redd’s opinion. I think every fan should keep faith in the team and hope that they have a better season next year. But to hold on to that hope for the playoffs this season will absolutely drive you insane, especially if the Mets keep up their improved play. (It’s like dangling a Yodel in front of a fat kid; he’s never going to reach it but he keeps coming so close.)

And if you need any more reason (aside from being a life long Mets fan) to let go of that playoff hope for 2009, the Mets have less than 2.3% chance to make the playoffs this year. This statistic is from CoolStandings.com which predicts that the NL Wild Card team will have to win 90 games to make the playoffs. The Mets would need to go 40-18 the rest of the season to reach 90 wins.

Hold on to that kind of hope if you want, but I’ll settle for a shrug to a mediocre year mared by injuries and save my hope until next year.