If you think it, we are pretty far into the offseason already. Its been more than a month since the World Series ended, and we already know who is in the Free Agent Market. Its December already. That means that soon, everybody is going to start signing, whether its the big names or not. We have this month, but something tells me nobody will sign contracts on Christmas, and then January, when everybody is rushing to hurry up and sign a good deal, and then February, Spring Training.

So I think C.C. Sabathia is definitely going to sign in the next week, with several smaller names going along the way as well. After that, veterans like Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek will probably sign right away, just so they can relax for a while, then get ready for Spring Training and move in with their lives as long as they have baseball. I thikn Mark Teixiera will make a bunch of headlines and change his mind a lot but overall will sign fairly quickly, as he doesn't seem like the type to make a huge deal of things despite the reported 10 years he commanded. Around this time several smaller big names like Brian Fuentes, Jon Garland, and Orlando Hudson will sign, along with a bunch of other middle and lower level free agents.

Francisco Rodriguez will want lots of money, and he obviously isn't going to sign right away, and his price will drop. I think he will then keep dragging it out, and be one of the latest signers.

Now, there is one big name missing from here: Manny Ramirez. I think Manny will be Manny 24/7 as soon as the Hot Stove heats up, and he won't stop until the season starts. He is going to want gigantic money, and more years than anyone is willing to give him. 5 years is a lot for a 36 year old. I honestly have no idea whether he wants to go back to LA, sign with the Yankees, or something in between, but I do know that he is going to drag this thing out as long as possible, and finally sign in the middle of February, right before Spring Training, and he will certainly get the sportswriters mad.

You can expect the Hot Stove to start burning real soon, folks.

Don't do it! Don't make any trades, Omar! I am telling you, SAVE THE FARMSYSTEM!!!! Do not trade Eddie Kunz or Jon Niese or Bobby Parnell for Jermaine Dye or Javier Vazquez; do not trade them AT ALL! These men are the future of our club, how can you even consider it? Don't trade Daniel Murphy, either, as he is potentially the next David Wright, or with the position issue, the next Ryan Braun. Don't trade Nick Evans, or Mike Pelfrey. We must rebuild our farmsystem and build a good team. Everything in the world should strike a balance, and in baseball, that balance is between big name free agents and building a good crop of home grown talent.

There is one rumor of a trade, however, that I've heard and I support, although the Mets once again disagree with me. I'm not sure if its true, but rumors suggest that in order for the Rockies to trade Huston Street to the Mets, they are asking for Aaron Heilman and Pedro Feliciano. The Mets are completely open to making a trade for Street revolving around Heilman, but they don't want to trade Feliciano. I would make this trade in a heartbeat. I understand that Feliciano is a rare solid lefty specialist, but Scott Schoenweis can easily have a bounceback year, and I thought the Mets were going after Brian Fuentes and Joe Beimel anyway? If they push the right buttons, this team can easily have a good bullpen in 2009. Here is what they have to do:

• Trade Heilman and Feliciano for Huston Street. If the reports are true that the Rockies would accept this with no extra players, go for it. Street is your set up man.
• Sign Brian Fuentes. He is a left hander who can be our closer, and we won't have to spend extra money on Francisco Rodriguez.
• Sign Joe Beimel. No matter what, we have to sign him. You can't rely on Schoenweis anymore until he proves himself, and although there is no way Beimel will have as good an '09 as did an '08, he is easily one of the best lefty relievers in baseball.

If played correctly our bullpen will look like this:

Closer - Brian Fuentes

Set Up - Huston Street

Middle Relief - Joe Smith

Scott Schoenweis

Duaner Sanchez

Lefty Specialist - Joe Beimel

Long Reliever - Brian Stokes

In my opinion we really have a surplus of relievers. Claudio Vargas, Tony Armas, and Nelson Figueroa can all be long relievers, and Carlos Muniz could be back. Jason Vargas might make an appearance, and who knows, we still have Kunz, Niese, and Parnell!

Omar Minaya has to really choose his cards wisely. With a little work, the bullpen can get better. It really doesn't have as much cleaning up to do as it seems, as long as Minaya  takes a conservative approach.

I haven't posted in a while and I just wanted to let everybody know that I will continue to be blogging, so don't worry. I know the previous post kind of sounds like I'm saying goodbye, but rest assured, I will keep blogging so keep reading and keep commenting! I will always try to comment back at your blog so it is a win-win.

But in the meantime, I feel like blogging but there is no really no Mets news going on, and I think it will be like that a lot this offseason, so I am going to randomly post my projection of the 2009 Mets from a combination of what I think should happen and what I thikn will happen. Let me know how your projections match up!

Starting Rotation:

1. Johan Santana

2. Jon Garland (if I were GM he would be my most targeted starter)

3. John Maine

4. Oliver Perez (as I said earlier there are several reason why the Mets will resign him)

5. Mike Pelfrey

Bullpen:

Closer - Francisco Rodriguez

Set Up - Joe Beimel

Middle Relief - Joe Smith

Aaron Heilman

Duaner Sanchez

Lefty Specialist - Pedro Feliciano

Long Reliever - Brian Stokes

Lineup:

1. SS Jose Reyes

2. 2B Luis Castillo (Give him a second chance, he actually had the highest plate discipline of all players on the Mets)

3. 3B David Wright

4. CF Carlos Beltran

5. 1B Carlos Delgado

6. RF Ryan Church

7. LF Daniel Murphy/Fernando Tatis platoon (but I think they will both get hurt and we will eventually have Nick Evans, Endy Chavez, and Angel Pagan all getting a turn to play there regularly at some point or another)

8. C Brian Schneider/Ramon Castro platoon

9. Pitcher

Bench:

OF Endy Chavez

OF Daniel Murphy/Fernando Tatis

IF Damion Easley

IF Argenis Reyes

C Brian Schneider/Ramon Castro

What do you think? 

I remember waking up on March 25 at 5:00 in the morning, just to watch Opening Day in Japan between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's. I couldn't care less about the teams. I just was glad that baseball was back.

But ever since the last out was recorded and the Phillies wrapped up their second franchise World Championship, baseball never really ended. The Hot Stove has been burning like mad with the unusually large free agent pool, and we've already seen quite a number of trades, including the one made today, when Coco Crisp was traded from Boston to the Royals for Ramon Ramirez. But where are the Mets? Nowhere. They haven't done anything. But baseball is still going on. And thats all that I really need.

I remember the news that the Mets had acquired Johan Santana. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on MLB.com for the first time. I just say there, staring at the picture of him, saying, "This is the year, now everybody is picking us the win the World Series."

I remember coming home from school on Opening Day for the Mets and rushing through my homework faster than ever, just to watch the Mets play at 4:00.

I remember getting into Shea Stadium for Opening Weekend for just $2.00, and watching the Mets get squashed by the Brewers.

I remember Johan Santana giving up a grand slam to opposing american league pitcher Felix Hernandez.

I remember waking up one morning after a win and seeing Willy Randolph was fired. I knew it was going to happen eventually, but I couldn't believe it. Just seeing it flash across the screen, BREAKING NEWS: METS MANAGER WILLY RANDOLPH FIRED AND REPLACED BY BENCH COACH JERRY MANUEL just glued my eyes.

I remember coming on here and creating my blog.

I remember voting for the All-Star game like crazy every day.

I remember the Home Run Derby, and Josh Hamilton belting out 28 homers in Yankee Stadium, a few of them over 500 feet.

I remember very clearly the last play of the All Star Game, Micheal Young hitting a high fly ball to right field, and Cory Hart catching it and gunning down the line and Russell Martin waiting for what seemed like forever but only a couple of seconds, and stretching to his right and diving into the plate on top of Justin Morneau and waiting for the umpire to make a call and watching his arms fling out, SAFE!

I remember the Mets great 11 game win streak snapped right after the All Star Break.

 I remember the Trade Deadline and Mark Teixiera going and Pudge Rodriguez, and CC Sabathia going, and the biggest news of all, Manny. I remember going out to lunch shocked by the news that he was a Marlin, and then coming home to see the deal fell apart. Then an hour later he was a Dodger.

I remember the mad pennant races.

I remember saying every game was a must win and then being shocked by the fact that the Mets were still in the race.

I remember Johnny Damon crashing into the wall, and the ball staying up there.

I remember jumping up and down in front of my TV when I saw Johan Santana get an infield hit when it turned out his bat broke and the ball ricocheted off of it once it passed the pitcher's mound.

I remember Jim Edmonds crashing into the Ivy at Wrigley Field and seeing two baseball pop out.

I remember Zack Hample's amazing run, catching home run balls at Yankee Stadium on consecutive days and then the last homer ever hit by a Met at Shea Stadium.

I remember watching Carlos Beltran hit that same home run, and jumping up and down as excited as I could be.

I remember SNY flashing into the Brewers highlights and seeing them win as Ryan Braun hits a home run in the bottom of the eight and CC Sabathia pitches yet another complete game.

I remember watching Ryan Church come up with a man on first and two out, and him hitting it to deep right field, thinking, "Holy cow, this may actually go out" and holding my breath. I also remember it dropping into the outfielder's glove, and I remember me crying and realizing what a horrible way it was the finish in Shea.

I remember everything in the playoffs, from the Cubs getting swept to the Phillies winning the World Series.

I remember all the awards, including how Jerry Manuel was snubbed of MVP.

I remember Albert Pujols winning MVP, and not CC Sabathia, even though Sabathia single handedly put the Brewers in the playoffs. To me he is the easiest stand out MVP I can remember.

I remember Dustin Pedrioa winning AL MVP, and knocking off my predictions and a spot as MLB.com's insider (just kidding).

It truly was a year to remember. And as far as I am concerned, the year is not over yet, we still have another month and a half.

But the point is, baseball never stops. It is truly part of our lives, part of our hearts. Part of us. Baseball is beautiful.

If you remember correctly, on October 21 I blogged about Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols winning the MVP awards. I later found out and blogged about two days later that it was not the MVP, instead the Most Outstanding Player award, something completely different. But I made a note that they could still very well be the MVPs, and perhaps I discovered a possible leak that the players knew about when they voted. I guess it wasn't a leak, as MLB.com wrote stories about it (Pujols, Hamilton), but I know that it could still happen that they both win MVPs. The first half of my prediction came true today as Albert Pujols took the NL Award. I want to congradgulate him for a job well done. I thought he should have won, just for keeping his low expected Cardinals in contention for the Wild Card for so long.

David Wright finished 7th, Carlos Delgado finished 9th, Johan Santana finished 14th, Carlos Beltran finished 22nd, and Jose Reyes finished 24th.

Since not much has been happening lately and I am absolutely DESPERATE for some baseball, I went out and found this website, BaseballBoss.com. You are the owner of a team (or multiple teams if you want) and you manage your team using baseball cards. You can either build your team around a payroll and play division ball, trying to win a certain amount of games and get bumped up to a higher division with a higher payroll and less limits, or you can build the team however you like to make it strong and try to complete the milestone tasks, such as sweeping a certain team or beating the World Champion Red Sox in a 7 game series (there are three updates, 1907, 1957, and 2007, so Luis Castillo, for example, is still on the Twins and Nick Swisher is still on the As, more on that coming up). Each time you complete a milestone task, you get tickets, and with tickets you can buy more cards. You can also auction off cards, and there are some real bargains. There are two kinds of packs, Spires and Nationals. Spires cost about 9400 tickets and give you 5 good cards, as opposed to Nationals which cost 2000 tickets and give you 2 good cards and 3 bad ones. So you are better off just buying the card you want in the auction. I bought an Xavier Nady for just 150 tickets!

The cool thing about Baseball Boss is that you can use cards from 1907 or 1957 if you want. There are Herb Score, Mickey Mantle, Christy Mathieson and more! It is pretty cool to be playing, decide you want a starting pitcher who is cheap but good and that you can get just by trading an old Matt Treanor, realize there is nobody, then remember there are oldies you can get because so many people don't realize their value just becuase they've never heard of them!

My team is called the Sacramento Slayers. Join up and play, you know you need more baseball.

With the trade yesterday of Kevin Gregg to the Cubs for Jose Ceda the Cubs have announced that they will not be resigning Kerry Wood. That means that if the Mets do not sign Brian Fuentes or Francisco Rodriguez, they have a fallback option of somebody who is not named Trevor Hoffman. Last year, Kevin Gregg blew 9 saves, which is why he was on the radar of many a team, because he could be next year's Brad Lidge. Statiscally though, Gregg was not much worse than Wood was. While Gregg blew 9 saves, threw 68.2 innings in 72 appearances, went 7-8 and tossed a 3.41 ERA, Wood blew 6 saves, threw 66.1 innings in 65 appearances, went 5-4 and tossed a 3.26 ERA. Wood obviously was a bit more consistent, but the number really aren't that different. So if I had a choice between trading a middle-named prospect for a low-expectation Kevin Gregg and spending some nice numbers in free agency to sign Kerry Wood, I think I would actually go with Gregg. But I'm no general manager, so if Omar Minaya got Wood instead I wouldn't be dissapointed. But right now I think the Mets will actually sign K-Rod.

Yesterday, the White Sox also traded Kanakoa Texiera and Nick Swisher to the Yankees in return for Wilson Betemit, Jhonny Nunez, and Jeff Marquez. This should in no way affect the Mets, except for the possible price of Jermaine Dye in a trade going up.

And I'm back in the Latest Leaders! Huzzah! Thank you for all your support. And I finished atop Zoe Rice, the most popular Mets blogger in all of MLBlogs! Double Huzzah!

Congragdulations to Tim Lincecum, the 2008 NL Cy Young, and Lou Piniella, the 2008 NL Manager of the Year.

I really wasn't expecting Johan Santana to win. In fact I wasn't expecting him to finish as high as he did (3rd place). But to see him that close and lose bothers me. If I got to vote, I would probably go Brandon Webb first, Santana second, and Lincecum third, and it would be a very tough decision. If the bullpen hadn't blown 7 wins for Johan, I think he would've gotten closer, but I still don't think he would've won it. Its not like Lincecum or Webb never lost a win because of the bullpen, either. Its a fair deal. Sure, Santana was at a bit more of a disadvantage, but I still don't think he would've won.

Secondly, they announced the Manager of the Year awards and the winners were Joe Maddon and Lou Piniella. What a surprise. And Jerry Manuel didn't even come close. He came in sixth place, and he only got 10 points (its a 5-3-1 point scale, for first, second and third place respectively). Piniella, Charlie Manuel, Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Torre, and Tony La Rusa all came higher. If you want to give the award to C. Manuel because his team won the World Series, go ahead. But to me, Piniella didn't deserve it. To me, the Manager of the Year Award is about doing a lot with a little. Its about taking a team with low expectations and turning them into a great team. Joe Maddon did that. But Piniella took a great team with fantastic expectations and met them. Jerry Manuel took an underachieving team in mid-June with a sub-.500 record at a time when they were in fourth place and had little hope of achieving. Jerry Manuel turned them around and made them into what was easily the best team in the league (even with the bullpen they were still in the top 3 at least) at one point, kept them in the race until the very last day, and despite countless injuries and a horrible bullpen, the Mets still had a record of 89-73. To me that is what the Manager of the Year Award is about. I think the voting panel was insane.

Hey, it seems the world is finally realizing how great I am! :) Two Latest Leaders ago, I made my debut at number 16! And although I missed out this time, Mark is such a great guy that he quoted me on the front page of MLB.com Check it out!

And lastly, I would just like to say that yesterday, November 11, 2008, baseball lost two great pitchers and two great people in Preacher Roe and Herb Score. Roe was a beloved member of the Brooklyn Dodgers during their glory days, and Score was well known for being hit in the eye by a line drive and ruining his career. Although it didn't get much publicity I want it to be known.

Finally! The time has come, my friends! It is beautiful! The offseason is here, and we finally have some action going on! Already, just yesterday, Matt Holliday was traded to the A's for Gerg Smith, Carlos Gonzalez, and Huston Street. The Mets wouldn't have gotten Holliday anyway, so I am just glad he is out of the league, but what I am thinking about is Street, the star of the package. The Mets did show some interest in acquiring him (or at least the newspapers did), and now it seems they won't get him. And although this pretty much guarantees that Brian Fuentes won't resign with the Rockies, what about Manny Corpas? Will he steal away the closer role as he did in 2007? It happened to Street this year, rookie Brad Ziegler stole it. So will Corpas be a set-up man or the closer? Perhaps he will be a closer, but for the Mets. Look for him to be talked about.

And another trade happened yesterday, too. The Marlins again. This deal was similar to the Jacobs to Kansas City deal. It was Josh Willingham and Scott Olsen to the Nationals for Emilio Bonifacio (who as you may remember was traded from Arizona at the deadline for Jon Rauch) and two minor league prospects, PJ Dean and Jake Smolinski. I can't decide if this will help the Mets or hurt them. Neither Willingham or Olsen had great years, but I remember them before, they have fantastic potential and can, have, and will hurt the Mets. The thing is I can't decide if I like them better in D.C. than in Florida. This could turn the Nats into a contender like the Marlins were last year (although I highly doubt it and see this as helping just as much the Ryan Langherhans deal did), and it can either shoot the Marlins up or send them down. Bonifacio would fit into their lineup perfectly, they had so much power and such little speed or defense, and Bonifacio brings both speed and defense into his contacthitting package. Since he is a second baseman and Florida has already made two quick trades without much warning this offseason, I think the chances of them dealing Dan Uggla are very high.

Willie Randolph is the bench coach for the Brewers.

Congrats to Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto, the 2008 Rookies of the Year. Today the NL Cy Young will be announced and that award has plenty of deserving pitchers.

No, I don't mean for the Phillies that they won the World Series. I mean for the fans, it sinks in that the season is over. Over the past week and a half, I've been bored sick. I have had absolutely nothing to do. I've been scouring baseball websites for hours and hours at a time, only to find myself reading the same article 20 different times. When somebody asks me if anything good is on TV tonight, the answer is always the same: No, and there won't be until April. I turn on ESPN or SNY or even YES, and all I get is football, or basketball, or hockey, or NASCAR. But no baseball. I can't wait until January 1, 2009, the day the MLB Network comes out. When asked what I want for Christmas, this is the only thing I ever say, but I just realized it doesn't come out until next year. I hate to say it, but baseball this year is over.

I would also like to congradgulate David Wright and Carlos Beltran on the Gold Glove awards, they certainly deserved it. I am not surpised that Jose Reyes didn't get one, they said he would this year but I just saw too many errors. Maybe next year. But I want to see Reyes blossom as a hitter. He has shown signs of power, but after his 19 homers in 2006, the past two years that number has dropped to 12 and 16, respectively. I want him to just explode and go on a tear, I want him to prove that he is better than Hanley Ramirez.

And I don't want the Mets to trade Carlos Delgado. I love watching his home run swing too much.