I look at the Mets and I know without a shadow of a doubt that they are not a sub .500 team. They may not be stacked with talent but they should be able to keep pace in their division. I feel like the general mood of the disillusioned New York fan is possibility making the team weak in mind. You boo, they lose. You cheer, they win. Some may question the influence a fan can have on a team, but we at least exist as a form of inspiration. Like many have said in the past about New York, there is no better place to win and worse place to lose. We may not be fully responsible for Delgado whiffing and Heilman throwing meatballs, but we sure as hell don't help them by booing. A deflated ego can injure a player as bad as a bad hammy.

The following is a list that the New York fans must get into their minds to stay sane and make this season bearable for the rest of us who aren't whinny little babies:

1. Stop calling for Willie's head; He doesn't deserve the amount of scrutiny he's been getting...plus if we get rid of him, guess who Omar puts in his place...nope, not Bobby V...wrong again, Keith "the Mustache" Hernandez loves his freedom away from the burden of being on the road...Omar will hire within, that means say hello to your new manager Sandy Alomar Sr. or Jerry Manuel...who wants that?

2. Stop Booing; you make everyone sick around you...it's human nature to be upset when a team looks uninspired, but you're not helping anyone by booing. Be a part of the solution not the problem.

3. Expect to win and accept a loss.

On a final note, one thing that you can feel good about is...We're not the Yankees.

Every Mets fan is wondering one thing right now, is this a new team or just the same weak 2007 squad with a few patches applied.  After watching all of early season games, it's hard to make an accurate assessment of this team's potential when there is not many games played to take examples from.  We know they can win, we know they have superstars, we know they are a  good mix of veteran experience plus young natural talent, but we also know they can choke worse than almost every team in the history of baseball.  So we must sit wait and watch the games the way we watched them early last season...With hope and belief that they have all the necessary tools to take it all.  It's not absurd the believe that we have the future 2008 World Series Champs in Queens.  We have three former Cy Young winners(eventhough only one is healthy right now), a legit and explosive bullpen, a strong bench and fast yet strong position players all around the diamond.  So if you call yourself a Mets fan and you attend a game at Shea this season, don't boo...that doesn't help them do better, that just makes us lose our home field advantage.

I was lucky enough to be at Shea this past Saturday for Johan's first Mets home game and it was the first time in 25 years of attending games that I left unhappy and I've been at games where they lost by 10 runs.

Lets give them time and if they are below 500 and down 5 or 6 games in their division in late June, then it's time to start getting more realist about the team's expectations, but for right now, rout on your team like a real fan or don't attend a game and ruin it for the real fans. 

Omar's latest trade with the Naties seem to anger quite a few New Yorkers today, but to me it makes sense. Next week at the Winter Meetings, the Mets organization will solely concentrate on pitching rotation and bullpen support. I will miss Lastings and many people think his trade value could've been higher, unfortunately when Omar went sniffing around other ball clubs, no one was interested except Washington.

My speculation on Milledge's performance next year is 150GP, .260 avg, 12 dingers, .325 obp, 60 rbi's and 20 sb.

My speculation on newly acquired Ryan Church's performance next year is 110GP, .270 avg, .340 obp, 12 dingers, 50 rbi's and 5 sb.

In short not much of a difference...Church will produce more extra base hits though.

I'm not quite sure about Schneider yet, but I've been rooting for Castro to be our starter all along, so I don't really care.

Our Lineup opening day:
1. Reyes (SS)
2. Castillo (2nd)
3. Wright (3rd)
4. Beltran (CF)
5. Delgado (1st)
6. Alou (LF)
7. Church (RF)
8. Schneider (C)

I give it two weeks of evaluation before there is a Anderson/Church platoon and Castro/Schneider platoon in effect and a month before Castro gets the job.

On to pitching, the Mets seem determined to get the ace caliber starter that they lacked in '07. Will they get it, hmm, probably not. Who will they settle on, probably Livian Hernandez. He's durable, relatively young and easily assimilated into the club house. I was very hopeful earlier in the off-season, but it's becoming terribly clear that the Mets have their chips on the table and no team seems to eager to call. They all know we need pitching desperately and also understand that if we really wanted an ace, then one of our prized young infielders would need to be anted up...and I'm not talking about Gotay.

So it's looks like '08 might be an up hill battle from April on. Then in '09, when a lot of great arms hit the open market, we will burn a whole lot of Citi's blood money. Probably heap loads if we finish under .500 and/or are 3rd/4th in the division.

If we finish last our rotation could look like:
Peavy
Penny
Bonderman
Maine
Perez

and if Santana makes it to free agency, just put him at the front of the list and move the rest down.

Well we won't get all of them, but maybe Peavy or Bonderman would be sporting the blue and orange. I'm sure the going rate will put Zito's contract to shame...maybe 8 yrs/180mil? If Santana gets his 7 yrs/150mil contract as a result of a trade this off-season, don't be surprised if Jake tries to top him.

My final thought is this, does anyone out there still believe we can pull off a decent trade for star quality pitching this off-season. If so, who are we putting up and who are we getting?

I wanna hear something original not like the Heilman, Mulvey, Gomez, Pelfrey and Humber for Haren and Blanton idea.

So it looks like some young arms are being used as trade bait early in this off-season. Scotty Kazmir's name has been mentioned but I put about as much stock in that as I do in A-rod rescuing us from the abyss of mediocrity.

A trade that might work is Tim Lincecum from San Fran...they want a big bat outfielder...hmmm...I think we might have a few of those.

He would make a great edition to the team, it would be sad to see Carlos Gomez or Lastings go + Pelfrey or Humber but it will help us in the long run.

I'm still all for a trade for Dontrelle Willis, I think we could probably grab him for Heilmann + Pelfrey or Humber + another minor league bat.

That would make our starting lineup:

SP1 - Pedro Martinez (R)

SP2 - Dontrelle Willis (L)

SP3 - John Maine (R)

SP4 - Oliver Perez (L)

SP5 - Tim Lincecum (R)

If we can't get Lincecum or Willis, we need to sign Carlos Silva...probably 4 yr/45-50million

In relief pitching:

We are going to need to spend some bucks...Riske for about 3 yr/12 mill and I think we should make a go for Fransisco Cordero, he could share closing/setup duties with Wagner and take over when Billy leaves...He's gonna cost a lot, but for a team who is even considering picking up the A-rod contract, he's still a small price to pay.

In a perfect world, our bullpen would look like this:

David Riske (R)

Joe Smith (R)

Duaner Sanchez (R)

Pedro Feliciano (L)

Scott Schoenweiss (L)

Fransisco Cordero (R)

Billy Wagner (L)

Our bench is shaping up to look like this:

Endy Chavez (OF)

Damien Easley (IF)

Ruben Gotay (IF)

Marlon Anderson (OF)

Carlos Gomez (OF)--if traded then Anderson Hernandez (IF)

and finally our starting lineup:

1. Jose Reyes (SS)

2. Luis Castillio (2nd)

3. David Wright (3rd)

4. Carlos Beltran (CF)

5. Carlos Delgado (1st)

6. Moises Alou (LF)

7. Lastings Milledge (RF)

8. Ramon Castro or Yorvit Torrealba or Paul Lo Duca (C)

9. Pitcher

I gotta say, I'm happy to hear Moises is coming back next season, he may be old and injury prone but I love his hustle, he plays the game aggressively and full speed...I only hope Reyes watches closely next season because he could really learn a lot from Alou, if only Jose could sit still for a minute or two and stop dancing...Friggin' A.D.D. boy.  

I'm not a 100% sure about the effectiveness of Easley next year.  He got banged up at the end of the season and I think he might be a waste of bench space come the spring...I hope I'm wrong, though, he added a lot of depth to our bench early in the season....I'd like to see Marlon Anderson re-sign too.

So I was a little off on my World Series prediction.  I called it back before the divisional series for Boston over the Rockies in 6, well the Sox swept.  I think if the Rockies had a tough NLCS, they would've played better against Boston...all the waiting in Colorado hurt them.  The World Series in general kinda fell flat this year.  I loved seeing Boston win, but the games were boring and unbalanced  I guess it was a fore-gone conclusion in the beginning of the season that the American League was far superior to the National League...hopefully that isn't the case next year and my Mets can get back to kicking some butt.

In a previous blog, I wrote that I hoped the Mets got Arod this off-season, I am officially retracting that.  He is bad ju-ju and I think the Mets have enough of that already, we don't need a new breed of clubhouse cancer in Queens.  Keep the infield the way it is, if the Mets don't resign Castillo and LoDuca, we need to look at trade options, maybe Orlando Hudson at 2nd and who knows for the catcher spot.  All we really need is pitching and more pitching.  Starters who will give us 200 innings...Dontrelle...oh lord, please Dontrelle...he had a bad year, but he's a gamer and if he is on a team in contention for the division, he'll step it up.  Just no Arod...i think he'd be happy as a pig in shit in San Fran, he wouldn't have to worry about performing in October and he'd still have his ridiculous pay check...win win.