NL East

Valdez has likely played his last game as a Phillie.


With Jimmy Rollins slated to make his return to the lineup, someone will have to face the axe in order to make room on the roster.

ATLANTA—Things have gotten so bad for the Mets that their general manager has decided to watch them in person on the road.

After yesterday's 10-8 loss to the Marlins, it was announced that GM Omar Minaya was making the flight to Atlanta to watch his team play.

When a GM of a team heads on the road to see his team, it means one of two things: Either he wants to give his team a vote of confidence, or he's all set to fire his manager if the team continues to lose.

Former Mets first baseman and current television analyst, Keith Hernandez has said a few times during the course of the season that a team is never as good as they look during a hot streak, and is never as bad as they seem to be during a cold streak.

Well, the Mets have seen both sides of the coin early in this young season, which leads me to believe that they'll end up, eventually, some place in the middle.

Right now, that middle seems to be the .500 mark, where the Mets are now hovering close to at 18-20, following a dismal four-game sweep at the hands of the Marlins down in Miami.

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 listened closely enough this past Wednesday, you could hear the collective groan of a city when we were all informed that Brad Lidge would be leaving Denver in the middle of a series with the Rockies to head back to Philadelphia for an MRI on his surgically-repaired elbow.

Ryan Madson is already out for a couple months and the bullpen probably wasn't up to snuff to begin with, so losing Lidge would be an absolute catastrophe.

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.

As it turns out, the Florida Marlins had suspected the Phillies were guilty of stealing signs long before the Philadelphia bullpen coach was caught gazing through binoculars at Coors Field earlier in the week, which has led to a reprimand from Major League Baseball.

"We've always had our suspicions," said Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez.

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.

There has been a lot made of the Mets lineup since Jerry Manuel dropped the "Jose Reyes to hit third in the order" bomb on us this spring. Well, he’s been there for a couple of weeks and the results have not exactly been thrilling.