Now that Hank Steinbrenner is speaking openly about his trade discussions with the Twins for Johan Santana, I'm bracing for the predictable fallout from the Mets' fan base when he actually arrives in the Bronx. You can bet if the Baby Boss is yakking about Santana, the Yankees are pulling out the stops for him. And if that's the case, the Mets won't be able to outbid their crosstown rivals.
Once that happens, fans will be criticizing everyone from Omar Minaya to Ethan Wilson for the Mets' failure to get Santana. But if there's no match, what can they do? Better to set your sights on the second-tier guys like Dan Haren and then try not to be too upset when Livan Hernandez is backing up his half-brother in the rotation.
Put yourself in Minaya's shoes for a minute and think about it. Is there a deal you can put together that gets Santana? And forget about moving Jose Reyes. That's not happening. Not so easy, is it?
Comments (15)
Yeesh, where did you acquire your baseball knowledge ? Dan Haren, who was the AL starter in the 2007 All-Star Game and had as many wins and a lower ERA than Santana, is a "2nd tier guy", and Paul Lo Duca is a good offensive player ? LMAO !
Dan Haren will probably cost as much to acquire as Santana, as he's signed to a very reasonable contract for a few more seasons. Think Milledge, Martinez, Heilman, and Humber.
There's no getting around it - the Mets are going to have to make a risky signing if they want to acquire another starter. Teams like the Tigers will no doubt drive up the price on Livan Hernandez. If the discussion moves to a 3 year deal, the Mets have to back out. And big-money deals for Loshe or Silva clearly is not the way to go.
While it may seem ridiculous, the best option might be a salary-dump trade for Jose Contreras or a 2 year, low base, incentive-laden deal for Bartolo Colon. Both would receive a performance bump moving from the AL to the NL, and have much more upside than any of the "top" FA pitchers (Hernandez, Silva, Loshe) . Plus, it would leave them with enough resources to sign Dotel or Riske.
And you better believe there will be a fallout of epic proportions if the Mets allow Santana to go to the yanks due to incompetence shared by this writer and some fans on the reluctance to include our immature over-hyped SS Jose' Reyes in the trade!!!!
'And forget about moving Jose Reyes. That's not happening.'
Oh, I forgot lennon, you're also Omar's boss with FULL imput to the decision making. Do yourself and the rest of us a favor and report facts NOT your (worthless) opinion.
It will truly be sickening to have to watch the yanks acquire J. Santana!!!!!! And would just add further proof to fans the Mets organization is amenable to 2nd. Class status in this great baseball city!
Published reports stated Santana turned down a 4-yr. 80MM extension by the Twins. They will now entertain trade talks for Santana. It's believed the yanks have the most talent of anyone in baseball to acquire Santana. Says who???? If the Mets were to package Reyes, Milledge and Humber would that trump the yanks offer of Hughes and or Chamberlain and or Cabrera and or Cano??? You betcha!!!!!!!!! And since it’s unlikely the yanks would trade BOTH Hughes and Chamberlain it stands to reason the Mets could offer more value for Santana.
The inclusion of Reyes a possible franchise / MVP player (not in my opinion) in a trade is twofold. For one it makes for quite an impressive package and secondly with a direct link to the future, it would help avoid the fleecing of our minor league talent. Starting in '08 and then '09 the Mets are going to be in the market for corner outfielders. Who is going to play LF in '09 after Alou?? Resign him for another year at the age of 43?? Probably not a wise move. With another year under his belt Carlos Gomez would make the seamless transition to LF in '09. A future star that would provide an immediate upgrade in defense and blazing speed. Who is the starting RF for '08 especially if Milledge is traded?? It could be the highly touted Fernando Martinez who will be 19 in '08.
Anderson Hernandez would more than adequately replace Reyes at SS.
The Mets should trade from their strengths not their near-future needs.
GET SANTANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And you better believe there will be a fallout of epic proportions if the Mets allow Santana to go to the yanks due to incompetence shared by this writer and some fans on the reluctance to include our immature over-hyped SS Jose' Reyes in the trade!!!!
'And forget about moving Jose Reyes. That's not happening.'
Oh, I forgot lennon, you're also Omar's boss with FULL imput to the decision making. Do yourself and the rest of us a favor and report facts NOT your (worthless) opinion.
It will truly be sickening to have to watch the yanks acquire J. Santana!!!!!! And would just add further proof to fans the Mets organization is amenable to 2nd. Class status in this great baseball city!
Published reports stated Santana turned down a 4-yr. 80MM extension by the Twins. They will now entertain trade talks for Santana. It's believed the yanks have the most talent of anyone in baseball to acquire Santana. Says who???? If the Mets were to package Reyes, Milledge and Humber would that trump the yanks offer of Hughes and or Chamberlain and or Cabrera and or Cano??? You betcha!!!!!!!!! And since it’s unlikely the yanks would trade BOTH Hughes and Chamberlain it stands to reason the Mets could offer more value for Santana.
The inclusion of Reyes a possible franchise / MVP player (not in my opinion) in a trade is twofold. For one it makes for quite an impressive package and secondly with a direct link to the future, it would help avoid the fleecing of our minor league talent. Starting in '08 and then '09 the Mets are going to be in the market for corner outfielders. Who is going to play LF in '09 after Alou?? Resign him for another year at the age of 43?? Probably not a wise move. With another year under his belt Carlos Gomez would make the seamless transition to LF in '09. A future star that would provide an immediate upgrade in defense and blazing speed. Who is the starting RF for '08 especially if Milledge is traded?? It could be the highly touted Fernando Martinez who will be 19 in '08.
Anderson Hernandez would more than adequately replace Reyes at SS.
The Mets should trade from their strengths not their near-future needs.
GET SANTANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time out. Can we all take a deep breath for a minute? As for Jon from New Jersey, Paul Lo Duca is a career .288 hitter and batted .318 for the Mets in 2006. No Mike Piazza, but I'd say pretty good for a catcher. And Haren? You're right. He's just as good as Santana. I don't know what I was thinking to say he was a notch below. I must have slept through Haren's two Cy Young seasons.
Yeah, Reyes had a bad 2nd half, so lets get rid of him. Brilliant logic. This is a player most people said would never fit as a leadoff hitter due to a complete inability to judge the strike zone, then he pulled off a 54 point bump in OBP from 2005-2006.
He needs to be more consistent, sure. But "overhyped" is ridiculous. His potential is still immense, and the Mets would be insane to deal him for Santana. He's 24 friggin years old - check out the numbers of Jimmy Rollins when he was 24. Heck, Chase Utley's rookie season came when he was 25.
Where did I say Haren was as good as Santana ? I didn't. I said calling him a 2nd tier pitcher was inaccurate, and a simple perusal of his statistics supports my claim. And you won't be "settling" for Haren, because you'll have to give up just as much for Haren as you would for Santana. You think you're fleecing Billy Beane ? When has that ever happened before ?
One of the biggest pet peeves I have with the Met fans and the NY media regarding Paul Lo Duca is this notion that 2006 was "the real Paul Lo Duca", and 2007 was an aberration. This is simply not the case. Johnny Estrada, who your collegue Wallace Matthews referred to as a poor acqusition, had a "down year" in 2007 by everyone's accounts and still had a higher OPS and as many RBIs as Lo Duca.
Lo Duca is a hitter who needs luck to be successful. In 2006, he had a .335 BAbip (.318 average). In 2007 ? .271 BAbip (.272 average). It's not rocket science. Forget his impressive 2001 season, the days of Paul Lo Duca coming close to an OPS of .900 are LONG gone. And past performance is hardly a good indicator of future success when you're talking about a 35 year old catcher.
In 2006, he was in arguably the best postion of any hitter in the NL - inbetween Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran (who had a near-MVP season). Down in the lineup in 2007, down to a sub .700 OPS. What a surprise.
An Estrada/Castro platoon will provide much better offense than Paul Lo Duca would have with another 120 starts in 2008. Willie has proven he won't ever play Castro over Lo Duca (or even increase Castro's playing time) no matter how much Castro outperforms the "starter". And that's not factoring in a potential surprising season from Estrada, which is not out of the question if you consider his health (offseason surgery) and motivation (negative press, contract year).
I'll clarify my comment on Haren by saying this: If Santana is on the first-tier, then Haren is on the second. And the best way to guarantee Castro's offensive numbers will plummet is to play him every day. If he doesn't go on the DL first.
Ok, that's fine. Haren is not Santana, but Haren is hardly a classic "2nd-tier pitcher". Pointless, though, as he'll require the same package it'd take to net Santana. (only difference is Beane would certainly want Milledge over Gomez)
On Castro, I never said play him every day - I said play him more. There is a happy medium, somewhere, in between 45 starts and 120 starts behind the plate. You can find it without declaring that Castro is the starter. Castro had an .881 OPS last season (200 points better than Lo Duca). When Lo Duca was healthy, Castro deserved more than 1 start a week. You want to argue that he'd break down if given the role of the starter on the basis of one 5 game slump in early August ? Fine. But that hardly means he doesn't deserve more than 1 start a week, because he does.
Ramon Castro does not have a long enough career as "just a backup catcher" to claim he isn't good (or durable) enough for 80+ starts behind the plate. It's not like the Mets received an amazing offensive season last year from Sal Fasano, Castro had 466 ABs before joining the Mets in 2005 - hardly an extended history of "nothing more than a backup".
I think that anyone that is in favor of trading Jose Reyes is, well for lack of a better word, INSANE! If you lined up all the GMs in baseball and told them they were going to start a team who do they want, I would be willing to bet big money that Reyes would be one of the first 5 players taken by each one. I can only think of a few that might be picked before him when you consider what he can do both on offense and defense, the position he plays, and oh yeah HIS AGE. We need PITCHING absolutely, but not at the expense of Jose.
If Omar could use a Jedi mind trick on his counterpart in Minnesota to take Milledge, Pelfrey and Heilman for Santana, that would be great. If not, let the damned Yankees have him and we'll be happy with Haren for the above-mentioned package. Better yet, try like crazy to get Dontrelle Willis, which would be even better.
You do not trade an everyday player who is arguably the best at his position for a pitcher, even the best pitcher in the game as arms are fragile, Santana has a wealth of innings on his arm, the mileage suggests a potential problem, especially as he is a short armer more than a 4 year contract would be a major gamble. PS if the Yankees get him, big deal the Mets are not competing with the Yankees, the sooner the Wilpon's accept this the sooner the franchise can build for the long term. The city will always be a Yankee town, accept it. Now the Mets need to build their team to win the National League pennant and that is the competition. Haren or Blanton will pick up the slack and rebuilding the bullpen is especially necessary. As to Reyes and Wright they are the long term future of the franchise and you don't trade that for pitching regardless of whoever is available!
Look at the picture you printed here, this is an elbow problem after a certain number of career innings. Has he hit the magic numbwer yet? Whoever gives him the long term deal is going to find out. Elbows are tricky, Jobe is a magician, but it still requires a year plus with rehab. What would you be saying if the Elbow blows and Jose is the allstar SS in Minny? Omar wouldn't even entertain that thought. The probable result is Santana is in Minny until the trade deadline gets closer. The deal for him needs to blow the Twins away and the Mets will need to mortgage the entire future on one arm. They are not that dumb. By the way the Mets are not exactly a weak team here at the moment, everyone is talking like this is a lower division club. They are still a force without much change, another starter and 2 additions to the bullpen which needs to include an 8th ininng/closer type as Billy is also a walking arm injury.
THE TWINS ARE GOING TO NEED AN OF AND ANOTHER PITCHER.,; JUST OFFERED MAINE AND MILLEDGE FOR SANTANA.,; THEY WILL GO FOR IT
It's going to be HILLARIOUS when Omar pulls the plug and deal Reyes for Santana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A proposal I've made since the last day of the SORRY '07 season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMAR MAKE THIS HAPPEN! GET SANTANA!
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