New York Mets

Everything is seemingly going wrong for the Mets these days. They're making fundamental errors, not pitching well, and not getting clutch hits. Now, though, it's getting pretty serious.

After already losing a starter due to ineffectiveness, they've lost another due to injury. Jon Niese, who already came back this season after a gruesome injury last season, hurt himself again in the middle of a disastrous third inning for the Mets.

The Mets lost their fifth straight game as the Marlins finished off a four-game sweep.

If you think about where the Mets were on April 30 and where they are now, it's almost unexplainable.

On that Friday night, April 30, in Philadelphia, the Mets had just crushed the Phillies 9-1 and won their eighth-in-a-row.

People were wondering, how can the Mets go in to Philly and spank around the two-time defending National League champions? What's up with this new-look Mets team coming off of a 9-1 home stand?

The Mets got off to a very poor start this season. They were 2-6 and it looked like they were on their way to 100 losses.

Then all of a sudden they caught fire en route to a 9-1 home stand, eight straight wins and a 14-9 record. For a couple of days, they were actually in first place in the NL East.

Ever since that winning streak, they have gone 4-10 to drop to 18-19 and five games out of first place.

According to Webster's Dictionary, the word leader is someone who leads, guides, or is the first and/or principal performer of a group. In other words, it is someone who takes charge. When scanning through the pages of history, we see countless examples of people who have qualified under this definition and have achieved great success.

John Maine, after a very slow start to his Oliver Perez-like season, has turned the corner. He has thrown a quality start in each of his last three outings.

His string of successful starts began in game one of a doubleheader at Citi Field against the Dodgers on April 28 where he threw six innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits.

Then on May 4 at the Reds he went six innings, allowing one earned run on four hits. In his last start on Monday against the Nationals, he also went six innings, allowing two runs but was the hard-luck loser.

MIAMI-- After a start in which Oliver Perez walked seven batters in 3 1/3 innings, blaming it on cold conditions, he had abolutely no excuse for this terrible outing.

Perez, who was given a vote of confidence by Jerry Manuel and was told that he was not pitching for his spot in the rotation, gave up four home runs in 3 1/3 innings as the Mets took a 7-2 loss.

It didn't start out too terribly for Perez as he struck out two in the first inning. Although he walked the first two batters to face him in the second, he bounced back with another two strike outs to escape trouble.

The Mets should have built their new stadium for their "franchise" player. Although they probably laid out the plans for building Citi Field before they drafted David Wright, they should've changed things up a little bit once they got him.

Last season, David Wright's power numbers plummeted in stunning fashion. Although he still managed to bat .307, his home run total went down from a career-high 33 in 2008 to 10 in 2009. That's a 66 percent drop off. His RBI total went down from a career-high 124 in 2008 to 72 in 2009. That's a 42 percent drop off.

The New York Mets need to make changes in order to remain competitive in the NL East this summer.

They are 18-17, which is slightly better than some fans had them in April, before they took the three games in 24 hours sweep against the Dodgers.

There is no question that they have a challenging schedule the first half of play, and not having a return date of Carlos Beltran is certainly weighing on the minds of fans and players alike this spring.

According to Phil Hoops at Always Amazin’ , the Mets have signed minor league first baseman/outfielder Val Pascucci to a minor league deal to play for their Triple-A Buffalo affiliate.