Commenter Kerel Cooper (who runs his own blog at OnTheBlack.com) brings up something I have not touched on yet: Whether or not the Mets public collapses over the last two years, mostly due to the faulty bullpen, will cost them as they try to rebuild and tweak what is left.
The Mets bullpen has been generally decent for the beginning of the last two season, but due to overuse and mismanaging, has turned into a seieve at the end of the year, costing the team valuable wins and leaving them on the outside looking in during the playoffs.
As the Mets pursue big names such as Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes, the players and their agents will obviously know the team is in dire need of help, and will hike up the price because demand is so high. This may seem like simple economics -- supply and demand -- but the Mets will be hurting after they finally decide on who to sign.
As I've said time and time again, I'm pretty apathetic to who the Mets sign, as long as they don't spend too much. Even with the $20 million a year they'll be getting from Citigroup (whether you like it or not) they have to spend so much to fill the many holes in their entire pitching staff. Three players should stick in the bullpe and three in the starting rotation. That leaves a team sorely lacking the amount of arms needed to win games.
