Mets need to step up, sign John Lackey, Matt Holliday

It is time for the off season to roll in and for the Mets to step out from behind the other NY baseball team.   Time to discard talk of free agents like Jose Lima, Tim Redding, Freddy Garcia, Noah Lowry, and other old/injured has beens.  Let's talk about creating a position of strength on the team.  Starting pitching consisting of Johan Santana, John Lackey, John Main, Oliver Perez, and Mike Pelfrey is a position of strength in the division.  John Maine pitching against other teams threes and Perez/Pelfrey going against fours/fives sounds good to me.   Lackey is 31, testy and with a career era in the AL of 3.81, he sounds like a good fit for this Mets team.  Add in the fact that he doesn't walk a lot of guys and has 5 seasons with 198 inning or more and I am sold.  The Yankees are not going to be in on him.  The Red Sox don't need him.  The Dodgers are a possibility and the Rangers as well.  However, I don't see the Rangers dropping that kind of money with their history of bad contracts (Chan Ho Park 5 years $65 million).  I really feel the Mets could be major players in a good situation with Lackey, i.e. not a lot of powerful competition.  It all should shake out at around A.J. Burnett type money I believe (5 years at $82.5 million).  Over at SI.com, Jon Heyman thinks Lackey could touch $100 million.  However, I don't see it since the Yankees and Red Sox  don't appear involved.  Let's make a statement.

There has been a lot of talk leading up in recent weeks that the Mets may be players in the Matt Holliday sweepstakes or to a lesser extent Jason Bay.  I would prefer to see Holliday first as he is younger and more solid on defense.  However, if it does not work out with the former Cardinal, I am totally behind snapping up Bay.  Going back to what I was saying about Lackey, picking up Holliday would create a position of strength.  An outfield of Holliday, Beltran, and Francoeur is strong.  I think it is safe to assume that the Murphy/Tatis experiment has shown us that this team needs another elite hitter, especially in the outfield. 

Two additions and the Mets are primed to make themselves a name again.  Look at how this might shake out in a lineup/rotation.

1. Reyes
2. Beltran (huge fan of him in the 2 slot)
3. Wright
4. Delgado
5. Holliday
6. Francoeur
7. Santos or ???
8. Castillo

           Rotation:    Santana, Lackey, Maine, Perez, Pelfrey

Sign me up.  This is solid in any sense of the word.  We will see if the Wilpon comments about having the money to invest really comes true.  We need to address positions with front line guys like other teams that are perennially in the playoffs.