New York Mets

Too often in baseball drafts, I see guys coming off injuries from the previous season being forgot about. And from what I've seen so far, Johan Santana has fallen victim to this phenomena.

I realize that Santana is coming off major surgery and hasn't played a regular season inning since 2010, but he's still a great talent and the unquestioned ace pitcher for the New York Mets.

The countdown of the 50 greatest players in New York Mets history continues with this Part Three portion in which the 21st to 30th greatest players will be named.

When determining who really were the best Mets ever, the criteria for this should include the players' overall numbers as a Met, the impact they had on the franchise, how much of a fan favorite they each were, the personalities they had and the overall success of the teams they played on.

Jason Bay is entering his 10th season in the MLB with his best years behind him.

Bay has lost his power and is getting up there in age—34 at the end of the 2012 season.

The 2012 New York Mets still have a lot of question marks going into the upcoming season. While Jason Bay's hitting, David Wright's trade possibility and the health of Johan Santana are going to be three big topics of discussion throughout the entire season, no other Met is as big of an X-factor to the team's potential success than Mike Pelfrey.

In part eight of the greatest Mets in team history, we move onto outfielders.

The Mets have certainly had their fair share of talented outfielders. Whether it be power, speed or defense, many Mets outfielders have excelled in at least one or two aspects of the game.

Jason Bay, Angel Pagan and Lucas Duda are the current starting outfielders for the Mets. All three have been disappointing this year, but hopefully, they will improve soon.

With this being said, here are the top ten outfielders in Mets history.

Yesterday, on July 1, Bobby Bonilla received a check in the mail from the New York Mets.

The payment was worth $1,193,248.

This is just the first of 25 checks that the 48-year-old Bonilla will receive from the team every year on July 1.

The story of why Bonilla is receiving checks from the Mets is fairly well known.

The New York Mets had their six-game win steak snapped last night in a 4-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. They still showed the same fight and clutch pitching that had brought them to this point, but fell a bit short.

Now the Mets will look to start a new win steak when they head to Philadelphia for a three game set with the Phillies.

In a story that made headlines all over the country, Major League Baseball took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers this week.

This decision came in response to the ugly divorce involving Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt.

Perhaps it's just coincidence and happenstance, but it seems like the New York Mets have had the worst luck and/or timing when it comes to collecting talent on their roster.

Whenever they would obtain a perennial All-Star-type player or former MVP, that player would prove to be a huge bust and completely tank with the Mets.

On the flip side, the Mets seem to always trade away or let go of players who would go on to lead All-Star, MVP and even Hall of Fame careers.

The New York Mets are only 6-13 on this young season, but the possibilities of a mid-season fire sale are quickly becoming a reality if the team continues playing uninspired baseball.

Honestly, the worst thing that could happen to the 2011 Mets is they play bottom-of-the-barrel baseball, and when the July trade deadline comes around, GM Sandy Alderson plays no favorites and puts a majority of the team on the trading block.