"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring".

I think enough time has passed now (and by that I mean the phillies won as many games as the mets this post-season and the yankees aided by "the plague of 2007" have once again gone one and out in the postseason) for us to look ahead to the 2008 season. So I give you this:

Counting down to Spring Training 2008!
141 days 19h 28m 39s (as of 4:30 10/11)

Now the mets have a lot to do between now and then. Starting with, obviously, a total revamp of the bullpen. Here's my take on that:

1. Mota MUST go. Not only was he HORRIFYINGLY bad this year, but signing him to that disgusting backloaded so his bank account wouldn't suffer through the steroid suspension left a VERY bad taste in my mouth.

2. I am not sure what, if anything, we will get from Sanchez - If he can get his act together and look remotely like his 2006 self I am all for having him in the pen.

3. A lot of people are down on Aaron Heilman. Me not so much. I know sometimes he can make you crazy but really is the market for solid 8th inning guys flooded? I think not so I would rather "go with what ya know"

4. I don't know what the deal with Wags was for the last few weeks of the season but I am confident that 141 days 19 hours 28 minutes & 39 seconds off hanging with his bizzaro-llamas will do him to world of good.

5. There has to be someone (Pelfry, Humber, Smith - hell even 77 year old El Duque) that will have a breakout season to pick up some slack next year? Doesn't there??? DOESN'T THERE??

Now that that's out of the way let's move on to problem number 2

(drumroll please)
.......................................

The starting rotation:

1. Mainie and Perez (crappy last game aside) have proved themselves a solid part of the rotation next year. See above for my thoughts on El Duque. If Pelfry promises to spend less time chewing on his mouthpiece and more time on keeping his head in the game I think we have the making of something special there. Pedro clearly showed he's still got some gas in his tank. Beyond that.......I've got nothing.

2. I have heard some CRAZY trade ideas for the mets to land Santana. Most of them include trading away "the most exciting player in baseball." Look people I know he had a crappy finish to the season. I know he looked like he didn't give a shit. But - can any coherent (this is an important word) baseball fan justify trading him away for his performance the last month of the year? I would love to land Santana but NO WAY does Reyes go.

3. The crop of Free Agents is pretty horrifying - Led by Jamey Wright and Kip Wells and the ever retiring Roger "the Dodger" Clemens, I can't imagine giving ANY of these losers a BIG FAT multi-year deal that will have the fans blowing up the Mike and the Mad Dog show calling for Omar's head only to have one of them throw the mets first no-hitter followed by the worst 5 starts in major league history. I can almost TASTE this scenario. I think picking up a young guy like Jeremy Affeldt (who is a lefty - they give me goosebumps in a good way) and signing him to a decent shorter term contract would be ideal.

Tune in next time for my ranting on:

mets free agents and what to do with them

potential infield/outfield/bench guys

words I taught spellcheck: Affeldt, Duque and bizzaro-llamas