OVERHAUL UNDERWAY

Quite an eventful winter meetings for the Mets. Clearly, the bullpen needed to be re-worked, and that's what the Mets did.

Gone are Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith, Billy Wagner (though he'll still be paid...a LOT of money), and now Scott Schoeneweis. Even Endy Chavez off the bench.

In are Francisco Rodriguez*, J.J. Putz, Sean Green, and now Connor Robertson. Even Jeremy Reed on the bench.

It's a good shakeup. As they stood, the Mets were not built to win - obvious the past two seasons, when not enough was done to shake things up between 2007 and 2008.

But there's still work to be done. Now the Mets have to address the starting rotation. I'm a little envious of what the Yankees have done - they played the initial game, too - getting C.C. and A.J. (The Mets only landed J. J.) I would have loved Burnett as a Met. I have no idea which direction the Mets will go - but I'm kind of hoping the Mets don't go for the 'big-name' starter (Derek Lowe) and go more towards the middle...I'm just not sure Lowe's the guy.

I like the direction the Mets are going this off-season...though I'm not going to go overboard until the Mets make it through September intact.

I'm just afraid now that with all the addressing of the bullpen needs the Mets have done this off-season they haven't left themselves with a 2009 rotation that will remind us of the 2008 bullpen.

THE SOUTHERN BUREAU WOULD WANT ME TO MENTION THIS: News out of Atlanta is that the Braves will not offer a 2009 contract to Chuck James, who will miss the season recovering from shoulder surgery.