Almost every Mets fan wishes they could sit in the GM's chair and make the big trades/aquisitions for their team.  I am no exception, so please excuse me while I try trivialize Omar Minyia's job.

Last year, I wrote a post on building a dream team Mets line-up.  As a result, I was lucky to receive some gem comments such as "What are you smoking?", "Were you licking a window, while you wrote this?" and my favorite "I hate you and wish we didn't share any common interests such as both being Mets fans!".  Anyway, I figured, since we ended the same way this year, I'd attempt a new roster idea. 

First disclaimer, as you can see below, I traded both Carloses because most important improvement for the team is a face lift to their core.  When it comes to Delgado, we must sell high and he is suited to play in the AL for the remainer of his career.  Of course, first we have to pick up his 12mil option and then trade him, though.  The Beltran trade is a beast of a different color because I wouldn't have considered it until the reports on Metsblog this past week about the Cubs interest.  Trading him makes perfect sense now, it frees up money and it hands the teams leadership to Wright and Reyes.

Please reference http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/10/offseason-out-8.html and http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/2009-mlb-free-a.html for more info on how I gauged available salary and who was available.

1 - Jose Reyes
2 - Milton Bradley (2 year/10 mm)
3 - David Wright
4 - Derek Lee
5 - Orlando Hudson (4 years/45 mm)
6 - Church (Arb from 2mm to 4mm)
7 - Schnieder
8 - Felix Pie

Bench - Ramon Castro, Endy Chavez, Daniel Murphy, Marlon Anderson, Argenis Reyes

SP - Johan Santana
SP - Mike Pelfrey
SP - John Maine (Arb from 400K to 4mm)
SP - Oliver Perez (4 year/55mm)
SP - Carl Pavano (1 yr/2 mm)

RP - Will Ohman (sign 2 year - 6 mm)
RP - Jeff Affeldt (sign 2 year to 9 mm)
RP - Brian Stokes
RP - Joe Smith
RP - Carlos Marmol
RP - Jon Rauch
CL - JJ Putz

Trades:
Delgado & Heilman to Mariners for JJ Putz
Beltran, Matt Carp & Pedro Feliciano to Chicago for Felix Pie, Derek Lee & Carlos Marmol
Castillo + part of the 18 mm left on his contract (maybe half?) & Schoenweis + 2.6 mm of his 3.6mm contract  to Arizona for Jon Raunch & Jamie D'Antona(or other minor league prospect)

We would be spending an additional 45 million a year on new salary but also we'll remove Beltran, Delgado, Schoenweis, Feliciano, Heilman and Castillo contracts which total somewhere around 35 million.  The additional annual salary cost would really be 10 million.

Improvements

• Our offense would be built of solid average hitters who have some pop. We would have a hot-headed, fiery player like Bradley and a strong, out-spoken club house favorites like Lee and Hudson. 
• Our starting pitching stays close to the same as 2008, which was an area of sucess for the team.  The only difference is not resigning Pedro and instead taking a risk and picking up Carl Pavano.  His health will most likely scare off other suitors but we should be able to sign him for cheap and if he doesn't work out, we could promote Jon Niese or Bob Parnell from the minors.
• Our bullpen is the most different with JJ Putz taking the closer role, with the additions of two free agent lefties(Affeldt & Ohman), trades for two hard throwing righties (Marmol & Rauch) and keeping some of our strong performers from last year(Smith and Stokes).

Overall I just hope to see some good baseball in the first year at Citi field and I'm confident that Omar will provide us with that by making some smart moves this off-season.