This is why you want Santana

I have to admit, it's been a pretty quiet season for Johan Santana in his first year in New York.

I just assumed that by moving a power pitcher into the eye of the media hurricane it would mean non-stop Santana from March to October. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just an observation.

One of the things that I noticed about Santana when I lived in Minnesota was that regardless of the skid the Twins were in, when Johan took the mound, everyone expected the win. More often than not, they were right.

His numbers after the All-Star Break were ridiculous, he rarely lost two consecutive starts and in most cases, he got the win over a no decision. Whether it was the psychological impact on the other team's hitters or the belief that all the Twins needed to scrape together was a run or two and Santana would take care of the rest, chances were that the team was ending the night in the win column.

This is why the Mets made such a major play to pick up Santana in the offseason, staring down offers from the Red Sox and Yankees.

Tonight's game was a must win for the Mets with the Brewers gamely trying to tumble across the finish line despite streaky play and the firing of their manager. Holding a one-game lead over Milwaukee, Santana took the ball and shut down the Cubs.

Granted, Chicago is coming off a clinching win and is more concerned with making it through the next week without incident, but Santana still went eight innings, scattering seven hits and allowing two runs against the Cubs.

Was it playoff intensity for Chicago? Probably not. Was it a game the Mets had to have to stay alive? You bet.

That's why you pay the big bucks for Santana.

(Image from: ESPN.com)

A true subway series

In addition to the regional rivalries gearing up again this weekend - including Cubs/Sox on the heels of a sweep at Wrigley last weekend - New York will see a relative rarity today between the Mets and Yankees.

After playing the afternoon game at Yankee Stadium, the teams will head to Shea for the nightcap.

This marks the third time in Major League history that the teams will do this, providing a scheduling quirk for fans of both teams to enjoy. Aside from Chicago and the Bay Area, this is a tough schedule to swing in a single day.

If nothing else, this serves as the warning prior to tomorrow morning's SportsCenter - those tired of New York coverage on the national baseball beat might want to sleep in Saturday.

ESPN debates who sucks worst/most

ESPN.com took time out Tuesday to open the debate on which MLB team has been the biggest disappointment this year with two months in the books.

While perennial basement dwellers like Florida and Tampa have surged out of the gate and proven their worth, some big name clubs - most notably the Mets, Tigers and Indians - have not lived up to their preseason hype.

In all honesty, I think the Tigers still have time to turn things around but they might be lacking the know-how to do so. I see it as the Yankee syndrome, where the team is built of All-Stars who don't know how to play together until mid-June and then finds a way to turn the season around.

The hitch with that is the Tigers don't have the star power New York traditionally has and the two big imports in Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera are injured and struggling.

The Mets are a bigger surprise after bringing back the core of a powerful 2007 team and adding one of the best pitchers in the game. With fans calling for the manager's firing and the usual menu of New York based craziness in the media, this can get out of contrl quickly if the team doesn't start performing soon.

Yet, despite these two front-runners for "Bust of the Year," ESPN came to the conclusion that Seattle is the biggest letdown so far.

Seattle?

Citing the worst record in baseball (OK, that's valid) and the signings of Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva, the Mariners were awarded the dishonor of being the biggest letdown to date.

That just makes no sense, especially compared with the other teams in the mix. While signing Bedard was a coup in the offseason, Silva is hardly a difference maker, despite what some of his career numbers might suggest.

No one expected the Mariners to win their division, much less the pennant, while the same can't be said for Detroit or New York.

Of course, the whole point will be moot in another month or so when another frontrunner falls by the wayside and the baseball world throws up its collective hands and asks, "How could that happen?"

The same way it always does - a lack of timely hitting, pitchers that can't locate their pitches and stupid fielding mistakes. There, I've successfully predicted the future - someone hook me up with my own 900 number so I can compete with Miss Cleo.

(Image from: ESPN.com)

Johan Santana needs some boxes and a friend with a pickup

Cheer up, Mr. Met - maybe the addition of Johan Santana will make your long-suffering ballclub suck a little less. Then again, maybe not.

Honestly, I'm OK with Santana to the Mets. I have a feeling that Minnesota was asking for half of the farm club from either the Red Sox or the Yankees (wait, wouldn't the rest of the league be the farm clubs for those teams?) and this deal puts him in a major market without escalating the Cold War showdown in the AL East.

See, it's win-win for all parties! And we don't have to suffer through any more ESPN speculations of where he's headed or more Yankee/Red Sox coverage.

On a related note, how badly is Santana going to destroy the NL hitters this year? If Bronson Arroyo can come into the league and beat down batters, exactly how much damage will Santana do? I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I imagine it'll look a lot like Pros vs. Joes through the All-Star Break.

According to USA Today, which appears to have broken this story:

The Mets paid a high price in prospects to land Santana, agreeing to send the Twins outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey... While the deal drains much of the talent out of the Mets' farm system, they did manage to hold on to top prospect Fernando Martinez, an outfielder. Instead, they headed the package with Gomez, who turned 22 in December and spent 58 games with the Mets last year.

Well, enjoy that Twins fans - first you get bitch-slapped by mother nature, then your hometown papers can't seem to keep up with this news (I was shocked to see this coming from the McNewspaper and not from one of the local dailies) and now you get a handful of prospects for one of the top pitchers in baseball.

We're just another step closer to my prediction for the the 2010 Twins - Joe Mauer and the 2008 Rochester Redwings! Maybe a little Nick Punto thrown in there to spice things up.

Update: There's two. And the second is from Peter Gammons, so I think it's safe to say that Santana can call his realtor now.

Update 2: Same song and dance from the Star-Tribune, but they're running the headline "Twins trade Santana for four of Mets best prospects." Well, if they're the "best" prospects, I'm sure that'll make the fans much happier with the situation.

(Image from: Cardnilly.com)

Holding patterns

The big news in actual baseball this week - that would be dealings that take place outside of the courtroom - seemingly all came out of New York.

* Alex Rodriguez will likely stay a Yankee. For the next decade.

* Mariano Rivera is also opting to keep his pinstripes. For a significantly shorter period of time.

* Paul Lo Duca was never given an offer from the Mets. He's deeply hurt on a personal level because of this.

* Yorvit Torrealba won't need to apply for Empire State license plates just yet.

It really makes you buy into the whole East Coast bias conspiracy theory, doesn't it?

Despite all of the NYCentric developments, the impact felt by the moves and non-moves made by the ripples are being felt in the Windy City, especially on the city's South Side.

Case in point are the rumors that have died to a whisper of a possible Johnny Damon to the White Sox deal that would get Joe Crede out of the way for Josh Fields at third. With Rodriguez now apparently set to spend the next 10 years in the Bronx, the White Sox need to find other possible suitors for Crede, who returns from back problems.

Cribbing heavily from Bugs & Cranks, the top two teams in the mix should be the Red Sox and the Phillies. With the possibility of Mike Lowell letting the Red Sox off the hook and excusing himself from a contract in Boston, that would leave room at Fenway for Crede, while the Red Sox have enough young talent to keep Chicago interested.

No word on whether or not Coco Crisp would be a throw-in to balance the karma of Lowell's addition with the Josh Beckett trade. The White Sox would be rolling to their second World Series next year before you know it.

I'd also be interested in knowing what Florida is thinking here, with rumors that Miguel Cabrera is on the move - cash concerns not withstanding. That team seems to fit the same bill for cheap, young talent and a hole at third.

The wait to see what the Yankees and Mets will do seems strange as noise on the free agent front has been limited to the Cubs trading for Omar Infante and shipping Jacque Jones to Detroit and Craig Monroe to Minnesota for a player to be named later.

Seems they're making amends for the outfielder-friendly spree they engaged in this summer.

The Cubs, too, are seemingly locked up waiting to see who keeps and who trades in their Yankee pinstripes, as they were players in the Rivera sweepstakes in lieu of their closer-by-committee for 2008.

Wake the rest of us up when you're done New York - we'll fight over the leftovers here in flyover country.

(Image from Brooks.MLBlogs.com)

Oh, Mr. Met...

In a shirt you won't find later on MLB.com, T-Shirt Hell has unleashed this nasty bastard for the fan that just can't help but rubbing some salt in the gunshot wound that was the Mets' collapse.

What a classy way to commemorate the event.

I've got to say, though - that was really, really fast. Even for the Internet.

So, for a scant 18 bucks, you can now torment any Mets fan in America.

I'd just like to know what the alternates looked like.

(Image from TShirtHell.com)

Someone is going home tomorrow

OK, maybe not immediately, but it's coming down to the last game of the season for either the Phillies or the Mets to seal the deal.

With a 13-0 win over the Marlins today, New York roared back after hitting rock bottom on one of the worst collapses in Major League history. Call it karma for 1969.

This sets the stage for tomorrow when the Phillies close out their season versus the Nationals and the Mets face Florida. Both games are at home.

One of the strangest occurances at the end of each season is taking mental stock of all the games pissed away over a 162-game season. Simple acts that cause losses over the course of a season, from stupid plays to pitchers blowing out in the middle of the third inning to wearing a Royals jersey come back to haunt fans when teams fall just a few games short of the postseason.

For all of the fans going through that this weekend, my sympathy is with you. Rest assured, though it will all be forgotten next year and we'll be back to letting the losses fade away again.

Just as easily as we let them go this year.

(Image from TheShowdownMovie.com)

That would never happen in 100 years

I don't agree with announcers often, but they might be on to something here.

Stuffing lead in into the head of your bat must be the new cork.

What'll Santana do next?

One of the interesting stories on Ballhype today poses the question: "Who's better - Pedro Martinez or Johan Santana in their respective primes?"

I'll warn you that as a link from The Hardball Times it's a little thick and stat heavy, but it's an interesting comparison. If nothing else, it helps to illustrate just how dominant Martinez was in his 20s (and what a mistake Tommy Lasorda made in shipping him off to Montreal) with some of his unreal numbers.

What it has me thinking of is how similar the two pitchers are, not on paper, but in terms of putting butts in the seats. Need any further evidence? Just look at Santana's line from Sunday.

One of the hallmarks of any great pitcher - and especially the power pitchers - is the spike in attendance when they take the hill. Martinez certainly had that in Boston and Santana is the undisputed champ of the "Are there tickets?" test in Minneapolis.

I've seen this before when Kerry Wood and Mark prior were healthy in Chicago and any fan can rattle the names of the big pitchers who they'd pay to see when they come to town. It's not just the pitchers you're happy to see pop up on the probables list when you have tickets in hand, it's the guys who you'll actively seek out when there name pops up.

Off the top of my head, I'd also put Felix Hernandez and Daisuke Matsuzaka on that list (with Matsuzaka subject to a mandatory one-year review during next year's Spring Training) of guys you just can't miss because something big might happen.

That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy seeing other pitchers or wouldn't pick up a ticket if I happened to be in town - for instance, if I had a chance to see Dontrelle Willis in Florida or Jake Peavy in San Diego I'd jump at the chance - but those three top my list of pitchers that I'd actively feel I was missing something each time I missed a start.

Sure, Martinez has the edge in pure numbers, but Santana is just as capable of delivering a performance for the ages each time he takes the hill.

What else can you really ask for?

(Photos taken for Siberian Baseball)

How did I miss this?

One of the strange things about going to Twins games was always the man lurking on the Astroturf who was responsible for one of the most devastating incidents in Chicago Cubs history.

There, prowling the infield, was the man whose bat sparked what is arguably the most crippling fly out in baseball history.

Luis Castillo, a happy, reliable little second baseman always made me a little angry, even at the Metrodome. With a simple pop foul down the left field line, Castillo changed the course of baseball history.

Reaching base on a wild pitch, Castillo kept the rally alive and the rest is both history and a constant highlight whenever the Cubs play in a do-or-die game.

The piece I hadn't put together until tonight is that Castillo now shares a locker room with the left fielder who couldn't get to the ball - old Pee Hands himself, Moises Alou.

It'd be like Mookie Wilson sharing a bench with Bill Buckner or Bobby Thomson holding an elevator door at the team hotel for Ralph Branca. This should be a major strike against free agency - it's too hard to keep the hatred alive for more than a few seasons.

Then again, Derek Lee was also key in the same inning, so I guess I should keep my stupid mouth shut, huh?

Still, I honestly wonder if they ever talk about it. I'd like to think Alou made it very uncomfortable for Castillo when he arrived in New York.

It make me feel better.

(Image from Wikipedia.org)

As long as you have the shovels out...

It's pretty funny that the same day I get the groundbreaking announcement for the Twins' new stadium - slated for this Thursday at 7 p.m, get your plane tickets now - is the day they trade away their starting second baseman to the Mets for prospects.

I guess that if you're going to have the shovels around, you might as well start burying the 2007 team while you're at it.

Keep in mind that the trade that got rid of AJ Pierzynski brought in Joe Nathan, Boof Bonser and Francisco Liriano, but this seems to hint that while it'd be nice for the Twins to rally again this year, the front office isn't feeling the warm fuzzies right now.

This weekend had talk about buyers versus sellers and heartfelt assurances from the Dome that the Twins were still very serious about contending through October - and they kept selling that line right through today's announcement.

So with the Twins just seven games back of the Tigers in the American League Central race and 6 1/2 out of the Wild Card, the decision to move the veteran player seemed to be taken by the team as a sign that the club had chosen to put their focus on the 2008 season rather than this year.

But Ryan vehemently denied that notion.

"We're not giving up at all," Ryan said. "We're 6 1/2 games back, and we're better than we were a week ago. If we didn't think we could absorb this, I certainly wouldn't have done that. Now I know the perception sometimes when you give up a veteran player in late July is that it may not look good. But I still think we can absorb this."

With series against the Indians, Mariners, and Angels - a lot against the Indians - in August, this could get ugly quick.

But don't worry, there's a rookie who is on a plane for the Twin Cities right now.

To replace Castillo as the club's everyday second baseman, the Twins promoted infielder Alexi Casilla from Triple-A Rochester. Casilla, who was hitting .269 with the Red Wings, will be making his second appearance with the Twins this season.

No, I agree. The Twins are still totally in this thing.

(Image from the Minnesota Twins)

Weekly Wrap-Up 4/8

We'll give this a short test drive to see if it's doable through the course of a baseball season. Depending on how diligent I am about keeping up during the week, it could be a simple link dump and weekend recap, but at least to get off the ground, this is a great place to start.

* We've seen nothing but parity in the 3-4-5 spots in most big league rotations this week as teams flew out of the gates only to come back to reality when their second-tier pitchers had to take the ball on Wednesday and Thursday.

This is why so much is being made of the starters and proven stars, as well as the Mets rotation shocking the National League by handcuffing the Cardinals to start the season off officially.

Watch for plenty of ink to be spilled regarding injuries to Chris Carpenter as well as Pedro Martinez and the return of Roger Clemens. It's only the first week, but it really does look like pitching will dictate who will be the major players in both leagues this year - go figure, huh?

* It'll come up in a day or so when I can post video, but Jonathan Papelbon needs to stay right where he is as the closer in Boston. He wasn't screwing around tonight when he took the mound with one out and the bases loaded in Texas.

I can't place it, but he's lost the goofy kid vibe and looked like a madman in the ninth. Needless to say, I like this turn of events.

* With the Cubs trailing 6-0 against Milwaukee, it was refreshing to see the team surge and try to make a comeback and not just because it was the third game on a Sunday afternoon on the road, but because the Cubs haven't had a lot of spark recently.

To paraphrase Ron White, "That team's got a lot of quit in it."

I'll need to see more, but the fact that the starters didn't get a 45-minute head start on the Tri-State makes me think things might actually be different with Lou Pinella in charge.

* Alex Rodriguez took Chris Ray deep to notch a walk-off grand slam and silence his critics who claim he's a world-class choke artist and that he can't deliver in the clutch.

Yeah, he sure rocked the Orioles in the fourth game of the year with his team down by three runs... That'll show 'em.

* Finally, the biggest story of the weekend is that everyone was too cold to play baseball - ask Paul Byrd how that worked out for him - and there were a few places where games were snowed out.

I'll admit that weird stuff happens when the weather goes cold like that, but it didn't provide quite the opening week we had all hoped for. Instead, we had pitchers taking it easy, players being overly concerned with pulling muscles and pitchers being given the A-OK from the umps to blow on their hands.

There were plenty of odd moments to open the season and while no team can get into trouble in just a week, it was a good enough opening act. The important thing - as I've been saying for a week - is that baseball is definitely back.

(Photo from the Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The prom queens of the NL: Your New York Mets!

Think back two years to the winter that Carlos Beltran was on the market.

He'd had a monster postseason in 2004, taking the Astros down to the wire against St. Louis and after wasting away in Kansas City, he'd suddenly exploded onto the national scene.

It's not overstating things to say that Beltran was the hot property in that year's free agent class. Teams came and went on the rumor mill columns, with the big bank teams leading the charge.

Would he take the Yankee money? Would he stay in Houston? The man could write his own ticket at that point and most people - myself included - saw the Mets buzzing around and immediately wrote them off.

Two years later, they not only picked up Beltran, but Pedro Martinez, Billy Wagner and a handful of other guys to take them to October this year.

Where is all of this going?

This evening, the Rumor Mill promo on ESPN.com has a Barry Zito to the Mets headline. Doesn't seem so strange anymore, does it?

* The Cubs have reportedly signed Mark DeRosa for $13 million over three years and fills a hole at second. While we're on the subject, he can play pretty much anywhere around the infield, with time at second, third and short, which is always a good thing for anyone who read at least two injury reports from the Friendly Confines last year.

According to MLB.com:

DeRosa, 31, is coming off a career year in which he set highs in batting average (.296), doubles (40), home runs (13), RBIs (74) and games (135).

I always get nervous about guys coming off career years, but as we're fond of saying at Wrigley, "He can't be worse than the last guy, right? Who was the last guy, again?"

* The Red Sox have "won" the right to work out a deal with Daisuke Matsuzaka for paltry $51.5 to $40 million dollars.

For the right to negotiate with Scott Boras.

At least $50 million.

That's not the contract, or anything... I hope the Boston brass gets a free "I fucked the Yankees" t-shirt or something.

That's great and I'm pretty excited overall, but I'm still stung over the NL Rookie of the Year announcement. I thought Moneyball was supposed to make the cost of running a successful team cheaper.

* And finally, the Oakland A's are eyeing a new home where they won't have to fork over funding for a tarp to cover half he seats every season and Cisco Systems is happy to slap their name on the new front door.

Two things:

First, they have plans for a spa at the park - I have no idea what to do with this information, but I'm pretty sure my sperm count just dropped.

Second, they better play The Thong Song before every home game, or the terrorists win.

(Photo from: Photofile.com)