The New York Mets, in the thick of a pennante race now could separate themsleves from the rest of the division next year. The Mets have a few needs. They need to get a starter to replace Oliver Perez, a reliever to the terrible bullpen they have, a left fielder not as injury prone as Moisis Alou, and a first baseman if they decline Carlos Delgado’s club option. The Mets should start by picking up Delgado’s option. Effectivley 8 million for a solid first baseman is a bargain. My Top 50 Free Agents predicted them to sign Manny Ramirez to fill left field. This team is a great fit for Manny. They need a power hitting left fielder, and the Mets seem to have a club house that gets down when they start losing. (Like when they couldn’t win a game to end the 2007 season) Manny would change that. This would be a major signing for them. I also picked them to sign Francisco Rodriguez. They badly need bullpen help, and there’s no one better than K-Rod. Plus, Billy Wagner has been injured and has been shaky when healthy. If the Mets had an 8-9 inning punch of Wagner and K-Rod, the game would effectively end in the seventh inning. If they dole out all this cash for Manny and K-Rod, plus Johan Santana’s new contract is starting, they would not have much money to  get a front-line starter with. They will try to resign Oliver Perez, but might not be able to match Scott Boras’s demands. If they fail out on Perez, they could sign a different Boras’ client, Kyle Lohse. They had interest in Lohse last offseason, and could get him this year instead of last. If the Mets lose out on Manny or K-Rod, look for them to be big players on starters such as Ben Sheets, AJ Burnett, and Derek Lowe. This has the potential to be a world series caliber team, they just need to spend their money wisely.