It is not just that the Mets are eight games up in the division. It is not just that they are 13 games over .500 after a 2021 season in which they had peaked at 11 games over. It is not just that they are finding ways to weather injuries to three-fifths of their starting rotation and have not received one inning from Jacob deGrom this season.

They are winning – usually, at least – in the most entertaining ways possible. And even when they lose – like the insane, seesaw 13-12 loss to the Giants on Tuesday night – they never quit, and they fall in fascinating fashion.

To fully contextualize how satisfying the first nearly seven weeks of the season have been in Queens, let’s take stock of how the Mets have been winning and how they have not been losing. It’s impossible to quantify how fun a team is, but if Statcast developed a FUN index, the guess here is the Mets would be the major league leaders because of their style of play.

First, let’s characterize what makes a team fun by judging decibel levels of applause at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium. Fans like to see their teams record hits, make contact, mount rallies and play clean defense, right?