This is pure speculation by somebody that is not even in the Rays front office and is being blown out of proportion by Joel Sherman because he had nothing better to write about and he loves when people talk about him.

Kid K is NOT available…sorry

I’d much rather trade for a Lincecum, Kazmir or Matt Cain and the guarantee that they will be in our control for a few years….than trade for Santana and deliver our farm system to Minn for the “hope” that he resigns.

The risk we took with Benson was worth it as that trade included only Matt Peterson who eventually flamed out as a prospect. This deal would be bigger and would require we had Santana signed to an extension before the deal was finished and complete.

To a lesser extent, I’d include Blanton in the above group of controllable young pitchers I’d prefer to trade for.

Santana would be terrific but I am not sure I want to deliver our entire farm system for him (even if he did sign an extension as part of the deal). Especially if he got more than 5 years on his deal

People talk about the Yankees could be involved in any number or major moves – either trades or free agents – but I think if there’s one team that holds a lot of chips and are well supported by the owner’s wallet, it’s Boston. If the Sox could swing one of their younger guys (either Lester or Buckholz) and nab Kazmir they could almost write their ticket to next year’s WS.

As for the Mets. assuming the rumor is true, then you’d have to give this some consideration. Even though Kazmir isn’t the pitcher (and might not ever be the pitcher) that Johan is, he’s a good young talent and provides much more cost certainty than Santana.

With Santana you don’t even know if you’ll have him for more than 1 year, but if Kazmir shows promise then you could always lock him up with a decent sized extension and it would still be nowhere near what Santana would cost to prevent him from hitting the open market. A rotation of Pedro-Maine-Perez-Kazmir-El Duque/Injury Fill-In looks pretty good to me. It woud have to be considered at least the best in the NL East.

Additionally, if the Mets feel that cost isn’t an object for 2009 then in the 2008 off-season they might have a shot at landing one of the top end starters.

I realize Kazmir is thought of highly and he should be. But don’t discount what is here in Maine in Perez. And no, I would not trade OP or Maine in a deal for Kazmir. I would likely trade one straight up for the other but not in a package. See above post.

No Maine plus Gotay and Heilman for Kazmir type deal. It it were Maine for Kazmir, I’d probably do it. But not Maine or OP plus. That was my point

I suppose tomorrow there will be a report that the Braves are trading Chipper Jones and John Smoltz to the Mets for Willie Collazo.

It’s true … I heard it straight from the vice-president of a furniture company based in Atlanta (i.e., “an executive close to the Braves”).