Oliver Perez

This point may be moot, due to a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme (I'm still rooting for a, "Bernie Madoff Made off with My Team's Payroll and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt" promotional day) but if there is a choice for the Mets between going for it or rebuilding, they should rebuild.

It may be just a spring training exhibition match, but the opening game of the season could set the tone for the entire year. 

Mets fans have wanted Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo off the team for a long time now.  They might get their wish very soon.  With all the negativity swirling around the Mets ownership with the Bernie Madoff situation, the team might be desperate to give the fan base something to be happy about.

The New York Mets of 2011 could be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline.

They probably won’t have their ace, Johan Santana until the All-Star Break, so the question becomes whether Mike Pelfrey, Chris Young, Jon Niese and RA Dickey can keep the team afloat until then.

If they can’t keep the Mets in contention, there could be a firesale in New York with a ton of pieces that would help clubs in the playoff hunt. Among them is shortstop Jose Reyes, who is owed $11 million in the last year of a four-year, $23 million deal.

New York Mets fans have been begging for Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez to be shipped out of Queens for a while now.  Both aging players have two of the worst contracts in the league, clearly not living up to their worth, and it will be almost impossible for the Mets to find a team that would take them in a trade.  That leaves the Mets with one option: cut both players.

Earlier today, New York Mets GM Sandy Alderson sat down with ESPN's Adam Rubin and addressed several of the issues surrounding the team heading into 2011.

Rubin is an excellent Mets writer and definitely asked the questions fans are most concerned about. Alderson, to his credit, answered all of them fairly well, but left a lot to the interpretation of the fans.

It's always sunny in Philadelphia recently, but the prediction in New York is stormy weather for the foreseeable future. There are a lot of holes in the Mets organization, and the fans are sick of being rained on, over and over again. This list encapsulates the top nine ten players, theoretically an entire team, that the Mets need to replace during the 2011 season.

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New York Mets pitcher Oliver Perez continued to struggle with his command in his fifth start of the winter with the Tomateros de Culiacan.

The 29-year-old left-hander walked six and yielded two runs on three hits while striking out five over six innings, as the Tomateros defeated the Naranjeros de Hermosillo, 13-2.

The Mets now have to contend with the quartet of pitching that is the Phillies. Not to mention a young Atlanta team that seeks revenge. Florida? We'll see. And then, there are the up and coming Nationals, with a hot new pitcher, albeit hurt, a catcher quickly gaining attention, and a multi million dollar Jason Werth deal. Not to mention Nyger Morgan, who brings his quirky optimism, but also isn't afraid to charge the mound. Count on them in the not-so-near future. So what do the Mets need to do to contend? Well...

With the Winter Meetings in full swing, teams are scrambling to find pieces to add. The New York Mets held nothing back in telling fans that they wouldn't be big players in free agency, but would be bringing back players.