(bumped to top of page. contest deadline is 5pm today. --eric)

The season is over and the witless rumors are already afoot. As we brace ourselves to be inundated with similar baseless piffle in the coming weeks and months, the best defense against rampant speculation is, well, rampant speculation, but at least an effort can be made to be somewhat realistic in our rampancy. Having said that, we'd like to announce the 2009 Amazin' Avenue Offseason Plan contest, where you guys get the opportunity to don your general manager caps and dream up a plan to fix the Mets.

Here's how it works: we're going to set a deadline by which all entries must be submitted via FanPost. We will select the best of the bunch (three, five, it depends on how many good entries we receive), and then we'll present those finalists to the community for a vote. We will be periodically bumping some of the best plans to the front page. As for the rules and guidelines, they are as follows.

1. The title of your FanPost must begin with 'AAOP:' (no quotes). You can follow that with whatever title you want, but it must begin with 'AAOP:' so we can easily distinguish them from non-contest FanPosts. If you do not follow this rule your entry will be excluded from consideration. It's a very simple rule so try not to screw it up.
2. The deadline for FanPost submission is 5pm EST on Monday, 11/16/2009. No exceptions.
3. There is no mandatory length, but obviously you'll want to be as verbose as is necessary to elucidate the genius of your plan.
4. Total 2010 payroll can't exceed $150 million, give or take a few bucks. Same goes for 2011 and beyond, so don't try to backload your deals to skirt the 2010 payroll restriction.
5. Use spellcheck and proofread for grammar, punctuation, and usage errors. If you can't be bothered with making your entry readable then we can't be bothered with actually reading it.
6. Try to make it look good. Add some images and some tables. MS Paint something. Strong writing (and good ideas) are of paramount importance, but asthetics still count. I'm not saying that a straight essay can't win, but I am encouraging you to spice it up a bit.
7. Feasibility of plan execution is important. Don't suggest the Mets trade Bobby Parnell for Joe Mauer. It ain't going to happen.
8. Whether or not the Mets might realistically execute your plan doesn't matter as long as the plan itself can be considered realistic given the current free agent and trade markets.
9. If you have already written an offseason plan in the FanPosts, feel free to clean it up (or not) and repost it (Rule #1 above still applies).
10. ADDED: Free agent salary should be realistic. We're not going to quibble over a million dollars here or there (who would?), so if you want to call Matt Holliday $17 million or $19 million, it doesn't much matter for the purpose of this exercise.

The winner will receive, courtesy of Uncommon Goods, a small slab of rusty metal. Actually, it's a piece of steel from Shea Stadium, framed in plexiglass and suitable for display on your desk, wall, shelf, mantel, nightstand, casket, or anywhere really. You can read more about the item or buy one for yourself or someone else at Uncommon Goods.

That's it. You can start posting now. Good luck.