It's amazing how strong of a grasp the winter offseason has on me. Sitting at my desk on the north of an island that is over 3000 miles away from my childhood home in Flushing, NY - I should take in the culture; eat black pudding and listen to premier league podcasts. Yet - I long for the voices of WFAN and the back pages of the Post. I seek comfort thru internet blogs - and I am thrilled to find this fine corner of the internet full of likeminded Shea faithful…

The Yankees have October - but the offseason, thru the first month of pitchers and catchers, is a time held dearly by every Mets fan. The winter's coldness is a stark reminder of the quiddity of our fandom: a mixture of undying loyalty, unmerited optimism, and unrelenting cynicism. The summer meetings and trade rumors are a consolation prize for a team that repeatedly falls short of expectations – even when those expectations were minimal. And as a community of fans – we have the privilege of looking comparatively smart, no matter how lofty or ridiculous or offseason plan, as compared to the slimy jokers who run our baseball team. We can delve deep into a world of statistics and explore the problems of other teams – propose trades and demand contract extensions – and then criticize the Wilpons to the nth degree when they fail to sign an Upton, rather than give millions to fat overage relief pitchers.

Without further introduction – here are ten things I would like to see this offseason:

1. The Mets sign Ichiro Suzuki to a 4-year/$28M contract. Suck it Yankees.
I would never advise the Mets to enter a bidding war with the yanks – nor do I think Ichiro is the best option in CF for the money he will demand…. But, I do think he is the type of player who would benefit from the spacious Citi-field & how sweet would it be to see Ichiro get 3000 in a Mets uniform?

2. Open the flood-gates: Cooperstown builds a “Steroids-Era” section of the hall.
Let them all in – implicated or not… Just give the “modern” player his own section. The hall of fame shouldn't lock the doors on a whole generation because of a scandal that was perpetuated by baseball’s hunger for homeruns. Without getting into a “purity” debate; Cooperstown should be a relic that preserves the memories of the game. Whether or not these clowns were on steroids – they were hugely entertaining to me as a kid. It would seriously suck if I were to go to Cooperstown with a child of my own someday and there be no monument for Piazza – I can just imagine standing in front of burly handle-bar mustached statue, getting teary eyed, explaining the majesticness of the 9-21 homerun to my hypothetical son. I even have a fond recollection of being awed by the McGwire/Sosa home-run chase. The drugs tarnish the stats – but not the memories.

3. The Mets don’t trade Wheeler, Gee, Harvey, Mejia, or Niese.
I get why people put together trade packages featuring the young arms (Generation K is the grand example), however – it would be nice to see a few guys flourish from the farm. Besides – the Mets are not in the position to replace these guys with quality starters , and I really don't want bring in another Kris Benson or Oliver Perez.

4. The Wilpons disappear
And no one searches for them

5. The Mets sign Brian Wilson.
Originally I would have suggested taking a gamble on bringing in both Broxton and Madson – but they are already off the table. If Wilson is willing to take something like 2 years/$12m – I would think he is a huge improvement above Francisco, even if he couldn't lift his arms.

6. While we are on relief pitching … Sean Burnett and Koji Uehara? Anybody.

7. Dickey, Dickey, Dickey
Either an opportunity to bring 3 more CYs to Citi… Or trade him for big league players. The minimum I would accept is to Cincy for Hanigan AND Jay Bruce (or two guys from that FINE Cincinatti bullpen)… Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

8. Jason Bay makes amends
“you know what Mets?... you have paid me enough already - please use that money to sign someone productive”. Wouldn’t it instill some kind of new found hope for humanity if something like this were to actually happen? I would even be willing to take him off the “most hated” list if he were at least willing to donate $10m worth of Mets tickets for deserving fans (Like, St. Mary’s children hospital – or to the fans who kept going to games despite Jason Bay). Instead – he will probably buy gold plated ray-bans to protect his light blue eyes from the glaring judgment of scornful fans.

9. Daniel Murphy learns how to play baseball
In a dream scenario – Murphy is sitting at home watching “Play Baseball the Ripken Way: The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Fundamentals”. To his credit – I feel like he had vastly improved in the field; it’s just unfortunate that he is such a liability despite a decent bat. I would love to know if players get to the point of no return – but Dickey was able to revitalize his own career, right?… and if Dickey taught us anything, Daniel Murphy, it’s “Do or do not... there is no try.”.

10. Anyone still reading this? I like to think Sandy Alderson took notes on all the AAOPs

Well – there is my offseason wish list. I look forward to the comforting criticism of all my fellow fans.

Cheers!