For me, our top priorities are starting pitching, left field, catcher, another relief pitcher, and maybe a first baseman, in that order.

Now obviously we do not have unlimited money. Forgive me if I am wrong but I think we have about $20 million coming off the books, and I heard that Wilpon is going to allow for a larger payroll this year if he really has to in order to win. So I figure we can spend about $25-30 million this offseason. Here we go.

1. Starting Pitching

Assuming we have Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, and Perez in our rotation, and Niese will compete in Spring Training to see how far the injury has set him back, we really only have one question mark. However you can never have enough starting pitching. You know there will be an injury or two along the way (if you would consider that lucky I would not criticize you) and of course someone *coughOlliecough* may not perform at his expected level. So I say we need to sign two starting pitchers this offseason, and if we absolutely have to we can sign a Livan Hernandez type mid-year. For this I think we can sign about $15 million in 2010. That means no John Lackey, but if he wants a 5 year deal I would say no anyway. Here are my options:

·         Justin Duchscherer, Type B $8 million, 1 year deal with team option for $12.5 million
·         Ben Sheets, $7 million, 1 year deal with club option for $12 million
·         Erik Bedard, Type B $9 million, 2 year deal, mutual option for $14 million
·         Rich Harden, Type B $6.5 million, 1 year deal with incentives and vesting option

Do you guys think these are reasonable prices for each of these pitchers? I would sign two of these, and since neither Sheets nor Duchscherer pitched in 2009, my preferences would be Bedard and Harden. Both of them pitched well in 2009, Bedard with a 2.82 ERA and 1.19 WHIP and Harden with a 4.09 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. Bedard did get hurt in July and was done for the year, but for the month and a half he did pitch, he was very, very good. I wouldn't be upset if the Mets signed Duchscherer or Sheets but I would prefer Bedard or Harden.

2. Left Field

For left, there are the obvious choices: Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, Johnny Damon. All of them would provide something the Mets need: power. But all of them would be expensive, and none of them would provide what we need most: defense. With Citi Field's large outfield, we need as much speed and defense as we can get out there. My dream would be Carl Crawford as he brings good batting average, decent power, amazing speed and great fielding. However I don't see any reason why the Rays would not pick up his $10 million option, and the Mets do not have the prospects to trade for him. So instead of getting an expensive, long term option to block up Fernando Martinez, lets get a cheap, short term option and then re-evaluate F-Mart later in the year. Here is my choice for left field:

• Scott Podsednik, $2 million, 1 year deal

Seeing as he hasn't made $1 million in either of his last two seasons, I think this is more than enough money needed to sign him. Now obviously his stock has risen this year which is why I suggested 2 million, but I don't even think he would cost that much. This year he hit .304 (.353 OBP) with 7 HR and 48 RBI and 30 SB. Bill James expects Podsednik to hit .275 next year which is a decline but still pretty good. He adds speed to the team and is very capable of playing everyday (he played 132 games this year plus 10 in the minors). His UZR/150 this year was -2.3 but that was as a center fielder, and with Beltran in center Podsednik's defense should not be a major issue.

3. Catcher

For catcher, I believe we need someone who can handle a pitching staff well and plays good defense. It would also be nice if he could hit above the .218 average that Brian Schneider gave us this year. And unless we can get Joe Mauer, I do not want to acquire a long term catcher. Instead I want a veteran, someone to mentor Omir Santos and Josh Thole and someone who has grit. And for me, that someone is:

• Jason Kendall, Type B, $4 million, 1 year deal

This year, Jason Kendall played a lower number of games than he has most years of his career, only 134, but that is still an extraordinary amount of games for a catcher. This shows he has the grit and passion that the Mets need. This year he only committed 1 error for the first time in his career. Now I can't find his catcher ERA for this year but I could find this article that shows the Oakland A's starting pitching staff from a few years ago with their ERA when Kendall catches and their ERA when Kendall does not catch. With Kendall:

Dan Haren 10-3 2.30 ERA
Joe Blanton 8-5 3.28 ERA
Chad Gaudin 8-3 2.88 ERA
Lenny Dinardo 3-5 2.72 ERA

Without Kendall:

Dan Haren 5-6 4.15 ERA
Joe Blanton 6-5 4.89 ERA
Chad Gaudin 3-10 6.30 ERA
Lenny Dinardo 5-5 5.27 ERA

Now like I said this is from a few years ago, but that should not affect Kendall's ability to call a game. Also another thing I liked about Kendall this year: he hit .241 which is not bad for a catcher and also stole 7 bases in 9 attempts.

4. Relief Pitching

I think a bullpen core of K-Rod, Feliciano, Parnell, Stokes, and Green is great (as long as Green can fix his issue as to which windup to use and his consistency over a ful season). However Feliciano has been taxed a lot in the last few seasons and his arm is not made of rubber. He will need a left handed partner. My choice:

• Joe Beimel, Type B, $3 million, 2 year deal

Ever since 2006 he has been one of the most consistent and reliable relief pitchers in the bigs, with his highest ERA in that time being only 3.88 back in 2007. His BABIP has been a bit higher than one would like, but we would probably just be using him as a situational lefty and middle reliever so as long as he does not allow the runs to score, which for the most part he hasn't, this should not be a major issue. Ever since becoming an established pitcher in 2006 with the Dodgers, Beimel has never really had a problem performing under pressure. According to FanGraphs, his Clutch average over his career (which includes his first 3 years in the bigs when he was not that good, posting ERAs of 5.23, 4.64, and 5.04) as opposed to his performance in non-pressure situation has been .10, which is not great but shows that he is slightly better in pressure situations than in non-pressure situations. And late in the game with Ryan Howard or Chase Utley at the plate with the tying run on third with nobody out relieving Oliver Perez, this may be pretty important. Lastly, the Mets seem to have had interest in Beimel the past few year but never got him, now is a good chance since we have established we need another lefty reliever.

Also, because it is not good to have a revolving door of nobodies named Takahashi or Switzer occupying a bullpen slot for the year, and because Putz and Wagner are gone now so there is no hope of any help coming further down the road, I think we need to sign another reliever, someone who has proven himself. I say:

• Takashi Saito, $3 million ,1 year deal

Saito has been great since coming over from Japan, posting a 2.05 ERA in four year. His WHIp has been phenomenal at 1.01 and so has his batting average against at .198. He has had great control, only walking 77 batters in 245.1 innings pitched, and throwing a 2652/1497 Strike/Ball ratio in his 4 years in the bigs.

5. First Base

I am an Ike Davis believer and I do not want to block up first base long term so I don't want to blow the farm for Adrian Gonzalez. Instead I just want a righty hitter who can platoon with Murphy. I have three choices:

• Trade for Jorge Cantu, or sign him in non-tendered
• Trade for Ryan Garko, or sign him if non-tendered
• Sign Tony Clark to a minor league deal/non roster spring training invite

I would love to trade for Dan Uggla, but he is going to be getting paid too much next year and will cost too much in a trade for someone we would only be using for a year until Ike is ready. As for the other three choices, I will not get too much into the advanced statistics because this is just a first baseman platoon and is my last, least important need (as in, we can afford to upgrade there but it is not  that important to me) but Cantu has always had great slugging percentage, and good home run totals, and Garko has been very consistent as well in his slugging, home runs and batting average. As for Tony Clark you probably think I am crazy and honestly, I didn't put much research or reasoning into him, but 1. he used to be a great power hitter and perhaps he still has some power in him 2. no other teams have interest in him and 3. a spring training invite and possibly a minor league contract is not a big risk to take so there is very little harm in signing him.

And in case you were wondering who we would trade for Cantu or Garko, I think Maine or Pelfrey would be pretty fair straight up, and if we signed two starters like I said we should then this should not dent the rotation much.

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Closing Words

I think you can get a lot of these players for less than I suggested, but what I suggested were what I thought were fair values (some of them being a "bit more fair" for the player but I did that purposely because Minaya is known to give horrible contracts sometimes). If you follow my guidelines you will spend about $29 million this offseason which I certainly think is alright for the Mets. As you can see, I did not give any players long term deals and I did not exactly "build for the future". However, I did do a nice job giving the team a nice, contending roster that should satisfy the casual fans who just want to win now, if I do say so myself. Also, I did not sign any Type A Free Agents so I did not cost us any draft picks, nor did I trade away any top prospects so I did not hurt the team in the long run either.

Thank you for reading and I appreciate any and all feedback.