AAOP: Pitching wins.

I'm going to keep the offseason as simple as I can.  I want to try to protect as many draft picks as I can because I believe in Miracles and the first Miracle that is going to happen is, the Mets are going to start putting money and attention on the draft. 

With that in mind I'm mostly going to be signing high risk high reward guys who don't cost draft picks to fill holes. 

My two major free agent acquisitions cost me no compensation:  Brad Penny for 2 years 6-8 million dollars.   I'm willing to go higher in years with some buyouts.  Penny is a former ace and workhorse who is on the comeback trail from injuries.  His mostly (two horrendous games) impressive second half will continue this year and I look for big innings and farely steady (better than Maine, Pelfrey and definitely Perez) performances from him.

Second, Ben Sheets:  He was out of baseball with injuries last season but, he is a no. 1 stud so I take a heavily incentive laden contract on him and go the patient route with him.  Hope for a mid season rebound and an ace next year.  So the incentives include a team option for next year and some acheiveble numbers to lock him in for a third and fourth, (innnings and era based).  This contract would be a base of a couple million with incentives taking it to 10 or 12 million per with acheived innings and era.

With Penny aboard I now have the room to deal some starters and I start shopping for the big fish.  NO, not Holliday.  Great pitcher that could easily become Kevin Appier during  his astronomical contract.  No, the fish I speak of is the King Fish, King Felix.  I know he's said to be off the table.  But I'm going to call and ask and ask and beg and see what it's going to take.  He's worth the price of say...you pick two Pelfrey Maine Niese, and F-Mart , Parnell, Brad Holt, Tejada and Wilmer Flores.  See if that gets it done.  I'm willing to give more if need be, only Ike Davis is off the table.  If this works, I have the best number one and two in baseball with Penny to slot in third with the remaining of the above three at four and Perez on day five...see what happens.  Still have Sheets and Nieve waiting in the wings.

Now my pitching is fixed.  Still have holes, I know.  I've got it, worry not.  I'm dealing Castillo to the Cubs in a three way trade that gets me Fontenot from the Cubs and Met killer Pat Burrell from the Rays.  Yes, Burrell, I said it, deal.  He's got the gap power we need regardless of his defense which I have a partial fix for.  Now the free agents:

I sign some non-compensatory guys:  Hank Blalock to share time with Murphy - he's going to have a huge year raking doubles at Citi. 

Reed Johnson:  Killer utility guy gets his jersey dirty every day and will be a great defensive replacement for Burrell in the late innings as well as being able to give Beltran a blow when need be.

Chad Bradford, Dannys Baez and Mark Prior for the bullpen hoping the latter can have a bullpen resurgence based on no more than the history of former Cub stud starters doing so.

Bring back Ramon Castro for the platoon behind the plate.

And coming to play second base ...Juan Uribe.

Go with those moves and you've got huge upside in the rotation at the plate and a lot of moveable parts in the field.  It addresses the positions in need, gets rid of the cancerous Castillo and protects all of our picks.  The trade hurts the already pathetic farm system but, all of those guys are huge question marks anyway and if you can get Felix and lock him in for years ...uge huge huge.

Lastly, sign Wang if he is indeed non-tendered.  You then have two huge pitching potentials in the wings.

Lineup:

Reyes SS

Beltran CF

Wright 3B

Francour RF

Murphy / Blalock !B

Uribe / Fontenot 2B

Burrell LF

Santos / Castro C

Pitchers:

Johan Santana

Felix Hernandez

Brad Penny

Maine Niese or Pelfrey

Oliver Perez

BP

Feliciano

Bradford

Prior

Baez

Stokes

Green

K-Rod

Bench - Pagan, Johnson, Uribe/Fontenot, Castro/Santos, Blalock/Murphy.  See how well those platoons look when their counterpart is on the bench?  A thing of beauty! 

Now we play some ball with good defense (except in left - what's new) great pitching and some gritty grinders like we love.  GO METS!!!

It took some discipline to stay away from a prime time second baseman but...defense and utility rule here.  Honestly don't like the available options enough to throw the money and draft picks at them.

BTW - I call Delgado and beg him to turn down arbitration and offer it to he and Tatis.