"How do you attempt to improve a 77-win team, while cutting payroll by about $30 million? Well, uh, we don't know, because the Mets' offseason hasn't really started. Yeah, Sandy Alderson and his men have engaged in discussions with agents and rival teams, but they have not yet acquired any major league players.

That follows last year's pattern, when the Mets made their initial acquisitions at the winter meetings. So by Thursday, when baseball clears out of Dallas, the 2012 Mets roster will probably be a little fuller than it is right now. And who knows — Jose Reyes might have a new team. Wouldn't that stink for the Amazin's?

The above sentence was a question. We are trying to come up with five more relating to the Mets and the winter meetings, which begin Monday morning. There isn't much happening with the club (so it goes, during a winter of transition and belt-tightening) so it is a tough assignment, but here goes:"