That said, don’t sleep on the Mets’ farm system. Fernando Martinez is going to be 21 this year, and played quite well in two months at Buffalo before prematurely being called to the majors. Ike Davis played very well in moving up the system and showed good power potential at first base. Josh Thole is capable of being a good hitting catcher. Plus, they have guys like Jenrry Mejia (pitched very well in AA Binghamton as a 19 year old), Jeurys Familia (the Mets 2009 Minor League pitcher of the year), Reese Havens, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Brad Holt, Wilmer Flores, Jefry Marte…there’s talent here. Don’t let the newspapers fool you, this is at worse a middle of the road farm system with some players who will play in the majors, some of whom will be stars.

But this is wishful thinking! Also, the Mets farm system isn’t all that good or probably worth the wait of not pulling the trigger on a big trade. There’s really no one in the farm system or on the roster aside from Wright and Reyes that wouldn’t be off limits to get Fielder or Gonzalez. Now, if we can just get the Rays to option the buy-out of Crawford then you have a run scoring dominant machine of a team

I’m scared to death that they’re just going to sign a Holliday, sign a second tier pitcher like Marquis, and go to war with Omir at C and Murphy at 1B. Neither of them are short-term solutions, Santos is definitely not a long-term solution. Piece together a few placeholders for 2010, hope for a comeback seasons from Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and Santana, and if that fails, build around the kids in 2011. It’s better than anything they’ve done since Omar gave Beltran his contract.

I love the offensive signings of Byrd and Everett. There are a lot of defenders out there on the FA market and they’re perennially undervalued. We can pick up a couple on the cheap and easily improve a MLB worst defense. It’s the best way to get bang for the buck. It doesn’t hurt that Byrd can post a .800 OPS at the same time.

We get better offensively, defensively, our pitching staff is better, and we’ve got more depth. All without payroll going through the roof. And we keep every prospect in the system. This team would certainly be able to handle injures better than the 09 team. Murphy can cover 1b/3b if needed, Everett 2b/ss, and Pagan lf/cf/rf. Not to mention we go about 9 deep in the rotation: Santana-Lackey-Harden-Pelfrey-Maine-Perez-Niese-Nieve-Figs-etc.

The plan (all plans) counts on a return of the 08 quantity/quality of production from Wright-Santana-Reyes-Beltran. Give us that on this new roster and the Mets can get back into the playoffs. And if we don’t? The only new contract that goes past a year is for a legit 1/2 starter, and we’ve got a full farm system to work with.