For a Mets fan, this time of year always brings us to a fork in the baseball road:  Go after the exciting, “win now” free agents (I’m looking at you, ManRam) or sign some other team’s boring leftovers and hope they become a steady presence in our ball club (Well hello there, John Maine).

Although I must admit it’s very tempting to just throw money at “proven” players and slowly morph ourselves into the Yankees, I’ve come to realize that in more cases than not, winning teams in the past few years have had a nice blend of veterans, homegrown talent and overachieving youngsters.  This trend becomes even more evident in the bullpen, which was our obvious weakness all year long.  Let’s take a look at what two teams playing the LCS have done with their bullpen:

Tampa Bay Rays:

Veteran:             Troy Percival

Homegrown:     David Price

Overachiever:    Grant Balfour

Los Angeles Dodgers:

Veteran:             Hong-Chih Kuo

Homegrown:     Jonathan Broxton

Overachiever:    Joe Beimel

Much of baseball, specially pitching, SPECIALLY bullpen pitching, is a bit of a crapshoot.  Having said that, I hope Mr. Minaya takes this blend into consideration and doesn’t blow it all on one proven veteran, as this is a team that has many holes to fill.