What's Wrong With The Mets?

The New York Mets came into the season with pretty high expectations having a near healthy roster plus they must've been pretty embarrased coming off a season with a record of 70-92.

But they have now started the season with an NL East worst 18-20 record.

So what has been the problem?

Well the offense has been average so far, having accumulated 167 runs in 314 hits.

The pitching has been the problem so far this year.

Starting pitchers for the Mets were 9-5 in the month of April including the period of time when they were on their 8-game winning streak.

But so far in the month of April, the Mets starting pitchers have been 0-5.

Now lets examine each starting pitcher.

Johan Santana- He started off the season well with a sub-2.00 ERA along with a 3-1 record. But a rough outing against the Phillies in which he gave up 10 earned runs through 3 2/3 innings shot his ERA up to 4.53 and gave him the loss. What lies ahead of him during the course of the season is unknown but the Mets need him to perform if they want a shot at the postseason

Mike Pelfrey- Mike got off to a hot start, going 4-0 with a league best 0.65 ERA. He also went for over 23 scoreless innings straight. But like Santana, he had a bad game against the rival Phillies and raised his ERA to over 2.00 and gave him his first loss of the season. However, Pelfrey is at a very young age and has tons of room to improve. He could very well be an All-Star pitcher in the MLB someday with hard work and time.

John Maine- Maine started off 0-2 with an ERA over 6 but struck out 9 in an outing against the Dodgers. But recently Maine hasn't been performing to his potential. The Mets need him to be solid or else he might get the boot to one of the lower leagues in a couple of years.

Jonathan Niese- He was a reliever a couple of years back backing up the starting pitcher's strong performances. Now he is a starting pitcher himself and has been "so-so". A couple days back, he left a game against the Marlins with an injury. This will cause the Mets to call up a pitcher from one of their minor leagues if this is an injury that will throw Niese onto the DL.

Oliver Perez- I still can't believe this guy had a 15 win season several years back. He has really been struggling this season despite a couple of strong first 3 innings this year. All this has caused him to lose his starting pitcher job to leading candidate Hisanori Takahashi (which I strongly support). Takahashi has been effective as a reliever for the Mets this year and should become a starting pitcher as soon as possible.

Now that we have gone through all the starting pitchers, lets talk about Jerry Manuel. I personally think Jerry has done a great job running this team and should keep his job until the end of the season.

Jerry was brought in to replace Willie Randolph in the middle of the 07-08 season and the Mets nearly made the postseason if it hadn't been for the bad play of their closers.

The following year, the Mets got off to a strong start but injuries to Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Delgado hurt their chances of even getting anywhere close to a wild-card spot.

I think Jerry has received alot of bad criticism and should really be praised for how concentrated he has been through these times and not getting frustrated.

My keys for the Mets to try and snag a postseason berth is:                                 

-Jason Bay needs to start living up to his contract

-Mets starting pitchers have to elevate their game

-Get Carlos Beltran back and healthy

-Angel Pagan needs to keep his hitting ways going

Well, I hope all you Mets fans are out there enthusiastic of a great season ahead of us!