Carlos Beltran

There comes a time in every athlete's life when he must adapt or retire. Some players stubbornly fight on, maintaining the same style and insisting it still works.

We feel sorry for them (I'm looking at you, Mr. Favre).

These are players who are at this point in their careers. And we plead with them to change. 

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Every baseball season, there are injuries around the league.  Some are so bad that a few can never rebound and make the same impact as they did before—i.e. Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets, who has now been forced to change positions due to injury.

Depending on the situation, whether it's Tommy John surgery, a shoulder operation, elbow tendinitis or a broken foot, baseball is a very tough sport to recover in.  This can be due to the fact that "Americas pastime," puts a high demand on muscles that aren't used in everyday life. 

While many baseball experts already count the New York Mets out of playoff contention this early in the spring, the Mets have many athletes that can surpass expectations enough to make a legitimate comeback in 2011.

As the team continues to work hard in Port St. Lucie, here is a list of the seven recovering New York Mets that will have the biggest impact on the 2011 MLB season.

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The Mets have a the fifth largest payroll in baseball. They have a shiny new stadium, they play in the largest market in America and have a roster loaded with talent.

For all this, the Mets are terrible. In every way imaginable.

Surprise, surprise. Carlos Beltran is hurt once again.

After he resumes baseball activities sometime in the next few days, who knows how long it will take the New York Mets' new right fielder to get in baseball shape?

While part of me was hoping Beltran would finally return to the field healthy and productive, the other part of me knew it was probably too good to be true.

Center-fielder Carlos Beltran made a late season entrance for the New York Mets last year. Most of his season was missed due to surgery on his right knee, one that was not cleared by the Mets. 

After having someone perform surgery on your one knee, you're more likely to favor the other one in hopes of not re-injuring it again, right?

Well, that was Beltran's thinking, but that move came back to bite him in the rear.

It took three weeks, but Carlos Beltran finally made his spring training debut for the New York Mets yesterday. The five-time All-Star has had three knee surgeries since October 2007, two being on his right knee, and the wear and tear prompted Beltran to volunteer himself for right field duty this season.

Earlier this week, the Mets officially announced that Carlos Beltran would make the full-time switch to right field for the 2011 season, paving the way for Angel Pagan to become the team's full-time center fielder.

The move had been widely speculated, given Beltran's surgically repaired knee and Pagan's 2010 performance.

Albert Pujols and Michael Young have been the main headlines heading into the 2011 Major League Baseball season.

Pujols, one of the greatest players in the game's history, is seeking a record setting contract extension from the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Young, one of the most loyal players in Texas Rangers history, doesn't want to be moved to designated hitter full-time and is seeking a trade. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the calendar has turned to March and that means that spring training is well underway and the start of the 2011 Major League Baseball season is just weeks away. It's the best time of the year, forget football and all those other sports, baseball is where it's at.

With a new year comes new and in some cases renewed optimism. Whether or not your favorite team is able to put together a great year is irrelevant right now because everyone believes that they have a chance, they just need one or two things to go right for that to happen.