The Amazin' Avenue Offseason Plan Contest: Finalists

This year's Amazin' Avenue Offseason Plan (AAOP) undoubtedly a success. With 65 entries from the community, it wasn't easy to pick just five for the final vote. If the real Mets are working under the budget restrictions we used for the contest, it's going to be a challenging winter for Sandy Alderson and his staff.

Voting for the AAOP champ begins now, of course, and will close at 5:00 pm EST on Thursday, November 7.

The prizes

First place: Carlos Beltran autographed baseball.

Second place: Dwight Gooden autographed baseball.

Third place: Omir Santos autographed baseball.

All entries were subject to the official rules, found here.

The finalists

It's Time to Begin, Isn't It?, by MattT516

"Now, the ill-advised Johan Santana and Jason Bay contracts are only going to cost us $8.5 million this year. In turn, we can move on with salary flexibility and a rebuilt farm system. Despite the loss of Matt Harvey this upcoming season, it is finally time to take some chances. With help from the beloved MSPaint, it’s your move, Sandy…"

Elvis Has Entered The Building, by nerfan

"This leaves the Mets with an ~80-82 win team, but that is a conservative estimate and realistically, with Harvey out, this team should be positioning itself for 2015. In 2015, D'Arnaud, Andrus, Harvey, and Lagares will be 26, Wheeler will be 25, and Wright and Choo should still be valuable offensive players. Even if 2014 is a total bust wrecked by injuries, we should still be in pretty good shape for 2015 with a number of valuable assets who could be projected to roughly the same amount of wins as in 2014."

Becoming the Bride, by Ogre39666

"The 2013 season saw the Mets' offense stifled with various forms of regression and disappointment (12th in wRC+, 14th in wOBA in the NL) while the pitching was promising, yet middling as a whole (8th in ERA, 7th in FIP in the NL). With Matt Harvey on the shelf for 2014, it would be naive to expect us to contend for a division title. However, even though we will be without Harvey, I aim to put the pieces in place so that when he returns, the team is ready to take the step into legitimate contention with him."

Anustart, by Russ

"The Mets need A New Start as well as a vanity plate telling everyone about this new beginning. Unfortunately, "A NEW START" doesn't fit on a license plate. We'll have to improvise, and do what they did on Arrested Development. We'll compress the spelling to 8 letters."

You down with AAOP?, by ryangillman

"Based on my WAR projections, I have this team at 94 wins, which should definitely be enough to make the playoffs, especially with the second wild card around. Obviously, those projections will vary and so will the win total, but hopefully this team can make the playoffs. If not, the team should still be set up solidly for 2015, when they get Matt Harvey back."