Offseasons Past and Present

With the World Series over and the Hot Stove gathering heat, we are officially in the depths of the offseason.

Offseasons are tough on a sports blogger. It's easiest when a prize is identified early on and coveted for months at a time.

Two years ago that prize was Barry Zito. A guy with an awesome track record and a suspect future, Zito was the perfect offseason quandary. To sign or not to sign? Was he a great AL pitcher waiting to be a dominant NL pitcher? Was he bizarrely, incomprehensibly past his prime at age 28?

The questions were many, and so were the posts devoted to the topic. The first post of the offseason concerning Zito came October 26, 2006, or one week after the season ended.

The first few posts after that October evening were spent in mourning; from the ashes of that failed season came a cavalcade of posts about the man who would be the leader of the Mets' rotation. It was a good two months until it all ended rather unceremoniously on the Glass Man's 24th birthday.

Offseason 2007-2008 was spent coveting Johan Santana. It was a fairly straightforward proposition: if you could get Johan Santana, you should get Johan Santana.

Really, there were only two questions up for debate: one, was it possible for the Mets to offer a more attractive package than eith ther Yankees or Red Sox? Two, was it possible to pry Santana away from the Twins without sacrificing Jose Reyes or another player of his ilk?

In the end, Omar Minaya handled the negotations masterfully, and the Mets received the ace they needed.

It was all joy in Metsville. It lasted until Sunday, September 28.

* * * * *

And that brings us to today, to offseason 2008-2009. On the face of it this offseason shouldn't be much different. What befell the Mets last season was, predominantly, a bullpen only slightly more reliable than an unrestrained Joe Biden.

But where does that lead you? Does it lead to K-Rod, he of the gaudy statistics and violent, injury-waiting-to-happen delivery? Does it lead to Brian "Braden Looper in Waiting" Fuentes? Both candidates come with question marks.

More importantly though, will the Mets be able to construct a team with sufficient depth to make it through 162 games? The Mets have been old and injury-prone for far too long, and they can't make the same mistake again.

To me, then, the point this offseason isn't to find a savior, it's to find a collection of guys who, individually, might be worse than a K-Rod or Carlos Delgado, but who collectively make the Mets a more complete, competitive team.

The point is to put together a team like the one in 2006, where one night you'd win on a homer from Beltran, the next on a tapper from Michael Tucker, and you'd win the game on Sunday with a gutsy bullpen effort featuring Darren Oliver, Chad Bradford and Duaner Sanchez

Happy memories are always nice. For two years in a row though, the predominating memories smack of disappointment.

If the Mets are going to get their mojo back, it's going to take more than one great arm in the 'pen.

So for all of us here, welcome to an offseason of great uncertainty.

- A.F.O.M.G.