1) Stop pretending that a Nationals setup man can be your closer, even for a month or two. Get someone, anyone. Bring up the AAA closer, I don't care. Can't do worse than what we have now.

2) Trade Castillo for a bucket of balls at this point.

3) Run Heilman and Schoeneweis out of town on a rail. I'm sure the minute we do Heilman will turn into a star closer somewhere, but the point is he never will in New York so why keep him around.

4) Wagner's gone, don't make any pretense that he's coming back or worth it now or in a year.

5) Learn how to move runners along, manufacture runs, turn 1-run innings into 2's and 3's, bring runners in from 3rd on outs, need I go on?

6) Somehow keep every tight late-inning game from turning into an inevitable loss when some nobody comes up and hits a late HR (or in today's case, two of them....Uggla, the same shlub who couldn't catch a ball or make contact during the All Star Game, costing the NL home field in the WS).

1. Revamp bullpen-Fire Heilman Ayala Feliciano,and shoenweiss. Sign Francisco Rodriguez and a couple more relievers.

2. Sign AJ Burnett- With Maine's future questionable the loss of Pedro and up and down Ollie, This would give the Mets two aces.

3. Get rid of Luis Castillo one way or another- I was obsurd when the mets gave this chump a four year deal when he can't hit the ball out of the infield. A. Reyes and Fernando Martinez are the future.

4. Sign Carlos Delgado and Ollie Perez- Delgado has shown he has a bit more thunder left and Perez is the definition of a big game pitcher even though he struggled at the end.

5.Release Wagner and Pedro- Even with wagner this year the Mets struggled after Tommy John surgery there's no way he's hitting over 92 on the gun. EARTH TO OMAR GET K-ROD. Pedro is done he'll never be the pitcher he was, sad to say this but Pedro has to go.

1) Bullpen makeover: Job one is to get Francisco Rodriquez. I don't care what it costs. I like the looks of Brian Stokes so we should keep him to set up. Beyond that flush it all.

2) Second Base: Move Dan Murphy or Nick Evans over there. Put the one who isn't at second base in left field.

3) First Base: Bring back Carlos Delgado. He has earned another season with the Mets. Who could we get that would be comparable offensively?

4) Starting Pitching: CC Sabathia is a free agent after the season? I would try to sign him first and Oliver Perez second. Note to Scott Boras. I think what we saw yesterday that Oliver Perez is no Johan Santana. Not even close. Therefore Oliver Perez shouldn't try and get Johan type money.

Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez and Billy Wagner have all played their last games with the Mets. And I think that all of their careers are done. I bid them a friendly goodbye and thank them for their service.

Definitely. A blog from the NY Post indicates that Jerry Manuel will be the manager of the Mets next season. I'm happy to hear it. I think Jerry's approach to management turned out to be better than that of Willie Randolph.

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/mets/archives/2008/09/manuel_coming_b.htm...

ideas you said i like:
1. getting cc or burnett. cc will carry johan type money, as will holliday, but i think we should try to get one of them. paying for johan and cc/holliday long term will mean we won't be able to sign anyone else big in the near future, but we won't need to. and ben sheets is already availible. i really think a rotation of johan, cc, pelfrey, maine, ollie would be the best in the majors, and if we could land burnett or sheets also we would legitimately have an ace going out there every single game.
2. moving murphy to second base. we could keep his bat but lose his costly glove, which has killed us.
3.taking advantage of our now pretty solid minor league system.

ideas i don't like:
1. flushing the whole bullpen. the old guys, i'm fine with. but i think the only way we could possibly make our bullpen worse would be to fire joe smith. have a bullpen of smith, stokes, wise (who was injured this whole year, btw) parnell, kunz, and somebody we get in the offseason. that would work.
2. putting fernando martinez at second base. i think latorre prolly just didn't realize he was an OF, but when he comes up we need him to focus on his bat, not learning a new and more difficult decision.

Ben Sheets, CC Sabathia, Francisco Rodriguez, Jake Peavy, Matt Holliday, Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixara, AJ Burnett, and Pat Burrell are all either free agents or availible for trades this offseason. that is quite a list, and such a talented freee agent pool is a rare opportunity that must be taken advantage of. Minaya loves to make big moves and if we have te money, i would bet at least one of those guys would be ours. lets hope the phillies stick to their history and don't spend a dime in the offseason, and that the mets get at least one of the above guys. i would rank the best options in this order: cc sabathia, matt holliday, Jake Peavy, Manny Ramirez, Ben Sheets, Burnett, burrell, teixara. teixara didn't even do that well this season.

Burnett and K-Rod. Let's not kid ourselves with talks about CC or Manny. both will have incredibly high price tags and I'd rather not have them on the team if it means that much money. As for Texiera/Holliday, Holliday is by far the better choice in my opinion, though again, we can't spend too much on him. I still think Ben Sheets is overrated and overpriced (even though it may not be as high as others). Peavy would be another excellent choice, but to be honest, we don't need many of these players. K-Rod is most important, our bullpen needs to be rebuilt. If we can get the likes of Peavy or Burnett for less than it would take to resign Ollie, go for it, but we should not be spending much money for a 5th guy to replace Pedro. Hopefully, some of our offensive players can heal up over the offseason (Church, Angel Pagan, Tatis, etc) and we won't need to throw money at an offensive player. To be honest, I'd rather not spend so much this offseason, things happen, injuries occur, players start to stink, and we'll regret not having any kind of wiggle room.

Imagine this if you will:
1. Jose Reyes
2. Angel Pagan
3. David Wright
4. Carlos Beltran
5. Carlos Delgado
6. Ryan Church
7. Fernando Tatis
8. Shnieder/Castro/Cancel (whoever we end up keeping)
9. -

and reserves if something happens:
Daniel Murphy
Nick Evans
Endy Chavez
Luis Castillo/Damien Easley (i think we'll have to keep one of them)
Ramon Martinez
Argenis Reyes
Trot Nixon (if he stays)
Marlon Anderson (if he stays)

As you can see, a big name bat would be nice, but it's not needed (when you consider the pricetag).

i really disagree. the mets are going to have lots of money floating around this offseason. we just lost the huge contracts of moises alou, pedro, el duque, and likely oliver perez as well. i just read an article that said with those contracts gone the mets have freed up over 30 million dollars already. and easley and tatis, though with lower contracts, are also free agents. if we fire heilman/feliciano it would free up even more room, and if we go after k-rod we can fire the oft injured wagner, freeing up even more cap space. with all the expiring contracts and the abnormal amount of great players availible, this is a great opportunity for minaya to shed some age, make the list of great players we have on this team even bigger, and do so without overly increasing our payroll from last year. and i think omar will take advantage of this opportunity...the mets didn't just extend his contract to sit on his ass while we there are great players up for the taking!

On the one hand, I would like to see the Mets spend the money to get top players. Heck, the fans are going to pay anyway since the team never asks anyone before raising ticket and concession prices. On the other hand we see that the team in the 2008 playoffs aren't the ones with the highest payrolls. So there's something to be said for making smart moves to pick up undervalued players in order to make the team better.

obviously, making good inferences and taking chances on only the right kinds of players is what makes a good GM. some teams like oakland and kansas city have to rely on their minor league systems to carry their teams for years and years as they slowly save enough money to make a move just as their young talent starts to develop, in hopes of one or two great seasons before the players' contracts expire and they leave to a bigger market for more money. that requires much more skill and insight and can be successful (the marlins, for example, do terribly every year, except for the two fluke years when the right combination of undervalued guys got them a world series). there is something to be said for such a strategy. but here in new york, we don't have that problem. we have 8 million people in our home town! every game we play is watched by millions and nearly every home game graws near full capacity. frankly, the mets have plenty of dough. and it doesn't make sense to just let that money pad the wallets of the team owners when there are great players to be gotten. so as long as we've got the money, why not seize the day and put the best team out on the feild that we possibly can?

Note, also, that the phillies lose burrells contract this year and have lots of money sitting around also, and they're hungry for starting pitchers. every major player we get is another that they can't. wouldn't you feel much more comfortable heading into the season if we had CC sbathia and johan at the top of our rotation than if we didn't and the phils had hamels and CC? we'r enot just helping our team by signing free agents, we're hurting our competition, especially if we can link them to a long term deal.

My quick thoughts:

1. Why do we keep overpaying for used vehicles driven hard by the prior owner? K-rod has been closing for six seasons...and now the Angels keep OK with turning the job over to Arreodondo or someone else out of their bullpen.

2. He wants Mariano money. The Yanks paid Mariano to reward him for all the success he provided the team. Lets use the money on a bat instead (take the pressure off Wright and Beltran).

3. He already has lost a game with a JD Drew shot. Closers don't fare well the next year after a rough post season (and lets add the big salary and NY pressure on top of that).

So...how do we fix the pen?

1. Find out if Heilman is hurt or done. I don't want to see him healed and winning 15 or saving 25 for someone else 'cause we were pissed.

2. Trade for another team's excess...like Pena on the D'backs.

3. Parnell.

4. Lots and lots and lots of spring training invitees...

I definately want to see Heilman get a shot at starting but I was looking foward to seeing Jon Neise in the 5th spot in the rotation.

I would like to see if the mets could get thier hands on Royals closer Joakim Soria. In 63 games he had 43 saves and a 1.60 ERA.

The news that I'm hearing here in England is that the mets are going to make a big move for Derek Lowe, Huston Street, Raul Ibanez, Orlando Hudson and Gregg of florida.
Also heard on the grapevine that Omar is keen on trading for Bengie Molina. Has anyone else heard the little rumours that the Yankees are interested in trading Hughes and Cano for Beltran which is an awful idea for the Mets.

The only arm in the current ball pen that the mets should keep is Joe Smith. I would easily like to see them get rid of the rest.

matt i haven't heard that, but i don't like the idea. molina is washed up and beltran is still excellent and i like our lineup. our lineup is not the problem. we need bullpen help! i do like the huston street idea though