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…i have to say that i didn’t expect to be this excited about the trade…i guess it was the lack of giving up a fifth prospect, and the reality that Johan Santana is actually on the Mets now that allows me to be so elated…
…this is almost as hard to grasp as the Giants winning the Super Bowl, but both are definitely real…
…this one move changes everything in the NL East, and subsequently the whole league…
…i think it’s a great trade for many reasons…santana takes a burden off the bullpen by pitching more innings per game…his aura and clubhouse presence should contribute to a winning vibe…the Mets have a bona fide ace at the top of the rotation, which makes the fifth spot much better…and now we have something to look forward to as Mets fans, instead of looking back at the train wreck that was 2007…
The Johan Santana press conference will air live this afternoon on SNY and MLB.com at 1 pm EDT.
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…i agree, Regis…however, i’m not that shocked that it happened…which could be because i did nothing but obsesses over this thing for the last few months…despite that, though, it always seemed possible to me because a) he wanted to be here, b) the Mets had to get him, and c) the Yankees and Red Sox were never that serious…
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between the giants and the primaries, I feel bad for Fred and Omar that this is being somewhat lost in the noise. They deserve mountains of props for this.
Oh well, we’ll thank them with dollars spent at shea, I guess.
I guess I just never though I’d get to say that the best pitcher in baseball is a New York Met.
After seeing aces get re-signed all throughout the league, I was worried we wouldn’t get out shot at getting not just an ace but THE ace.
I’m ecstatic.
I am baffled that some fans here say things like they would’ve been disappointed to give up a 5th “prospect” for Johan…I mean, they didn’t want Pelfrey and we knew we didnt have to give up FMart when Boston & NYY dropped out…so if we had given them a 5th signle A pitcher…who cares, how bout a 6th, yes it was a steal at only giving them 4…but lets be honest here, our farm was terrible and besides FMart no one was even a top-tier prospect and if we had had to give up a couple more guys who none of us knew their name until the Mets leaked them to bulk up their value…so what.
to make a long post longer…we were never in the driver seat, it is amazing we only gave up 4 players, and this wouldve been a great trade still if we had had to give up 11 (as long as one was not FMart)
Well, most of the discussion was always adding an F Mart , Pelfrey or Heilman type as the 5th guy (a top prospect).
I don’t think anyone would have gone nuts wanting to pull back if they asked for a couple of low level A ball roster fillers to punch up the deal.
How can you say that none of them were top tier prospects? Guerra and Gomez are 1 and 2 in the Twins farm system now.
I wanted the trade to happen and think it was a great deal for BOTH teams.
Thank you. I know it’s hard to accept for some given the widespread perception that the Mets farm system even before this trade was in complete shambles, but I hope the realization that the Twins (an organization well respected throughout baseball for their scouting and development) not only wanted these players but that 2 of them immediately became the 2 best prospects in their system, shows how wrong that perception is.
This is why they waited until after the super Tuesday
primaries and for after the G-men ticker tape parade.
Real Met fans will be watching or listening today with
great interest. Who cares about the others?
Johan Santana, the young, left handed, 2 time Cy Young award winner, top of the rotation ace for the Mets. Now that’s sweet!
I’m just as excited at you, Regis. I think we all are! I came in early to work today JUST so I can take a long lunch break, and watch the press conference!
I thought this deal could happen all along. And in the days leading up to it, it seemed even more possible. That still didn’t stop it from seeming almost too good to be true and being hard to grasp. It’s one of those things where the magnitude of just what happened is still sinking in, and might not fully hit me until I see him pitch for us.
And yeah, the Giants Superbowl still seems too good to be true as well.
I’m with Regis. I was always one of the voices of reason (pessimists?) about the trade. Mostly because I was worried that they were going to totally gut the farm for him.
I guess I was more worried that a win at all costs move for 2008 was going to backfire, and not only might they not win, but they would be worse over the next few years.
now that it happened, I am more excited, I guess since they gave up what is a manageable prospect pool (although it will still have an impact on moves this year, depth and potential 2009 replacements).
But overall, the cost/benefit for 2008, and the future, looks like a win for both sides (Mets and Twins).
If a couple of the remaining young guys hit their stride, and Omar makes the right adjustments (trade or FA signing to plug upcoming holes), they could be real god for a decent number of years beyond 2008.
Oh, Starz31 up above mentions not thinking the Mets would ever be able to claim they have the best pitcher in BB.
Well, if you want to include 2008, they probably can say that they have had the #1 for ~ 20% of the time they have been in existence. Which ain’t bad considering how many teams there are.
Sure you can debate it, but I am basing this on the years that Seaver and Gooden can be considered to have been the #1.
Of course, I am not including the Trachsel years!
Plus, for 3 years now, while he hasn’t at all been at his peak, we have had Pedro on our roster, who has an argument for the best there ever was, in my eyes…
You are correct, they also had a few damn good number 2’s along the way. Looking at the stats from those guys leaves you in total awe, from the CG, number of shutouts, and the era’s.
That’s why I was never impressed with Glavine, six inning pitcher his whole carreer on great teams in Atlanta, get to the HOF on his win total. Sit down and line up his stats with Koosman and remember the offensive support that Koosman and Seaver had and you’ll see.
Santana does remind me of those workhorse guys, and it will be great to see a master practicing his craft at Shea again.
Cerrone deserves a lot of credit for sticking with this story while everyone thought it was dead. Until about 2 weeks before the trade, many in the MSM were reporting that the Mets were a distant third place in this trade. Cerrone reported on this trade for the past three months with about 3 posts a day. Many thought he was reporting on news that was not really news (including myself) and posted comments making fun of his pie in the sky reporting.
Well, he was right and the conventional thinking was wrong.
I just thought that this was just not the way things work for mets fans, we are always the bridesmaids never the bride, never able to finish the job.
For instance when Tyree made that spectacular catch in the Super Bowl, I thought of Endy’s catch. Both were game saving utterly spectacular catches by back-ups. Difference was that the Giants caried the momentum of that catch into the end zone and a championship. After the pandemonium of Endy’s catch, the Mets did nothing and were eliminated from the playoffs a few innings later.
Well hopefully this trade is a sign of things to come.
How can anoyone be surprised about getting Johan?
I know I was looking past Zito and towards Johan as soon as it became apparent that Zito was going to cost crazy $$ in 2006. There were a few others that post on Metsblog that shared the same sentiment.
I’m just glad Omar had the same foresight that some of the fan base did and didn’t go crazy and blow his financial wad on a mediocre (and now clearly overpaid) pitcher like Zito.
BTW, where are all the idiots that were clamoring for Omar to be tossed out on his butt after he wisely passed on Zito?
“c) the Yankees and Red Sox were never that serious”
I think that is incorrect. I think the fear of losing Santana to their competition in an auction paralyzed both teams.
The Yankees had the greatest need. How many times have pitchers failed after initial promise? What if the Yankees has a few losing games in a row? Psychologically this move could fracture their upper management. There could be war in the Steinbrenner family if the Yankees don’t win the World Series.
The jankos are crazy if they think both Kennedy and Hughes are going to give them the 170~210 great innings they are going to need from each pitcher if they are going to be a competitive team this year.
And don’t think that if Hughes and Kennedy get off to slow starts that the janko “faithful” won’t start riding their stars of the future.
Every bad start by those two will be contrasted and put under the microscope and compared to the brilliance that Johan will be demonstrating in Flushing. All the janko fans will start wondering why they held on to these two and compare them to Johan and that will be it.
The jankos made a horrible mistake letting Cashman stick to his plan. The mere fact that his plan all along wasn’t to get Johan, like Omar’s plan was from the moment Zito’s agent wanted crazy $$, shows that Cashman is only the GM because he used to drive George around when he was a kid.
I agree that the Yankees are likely to regret it, but I look at it differently from that point on. I actually have garnered some respect for Cashman because for the first time in a decade the Yankee offseason approach was not “throw money and see what sticks.” They may actually be running a baseball team with a philosophy that isn’t strictly “how much?” in the Bronx now.
I understand that this is heresy to many Yankee fans, but to MLB fans of almost every other team this is called reality. Of course, I hope “reality bites” for them, but still it’s kind of refreshing.
But GH, look at the crazy amount of pressure that Cashman has just inadvertently placed on Hughes and Kennedy. Basically he stated that these two are so good that we don’t need the best pitcher in baseball.
The jankos are already a second place team stuck behind Boston. The fact that both Cleveland and Detroit are superior teams means that getting the AL wildcard is going to be really tough. Counting on two rookies to give all those quality innings in the pressure cooker of a stretch run is not a wise move.
Also, look at all the money that comes off of their payroll next year. between Giambi, Pavano and Mussina that’s over $40M. $40M on non essential, non starting players.
And we thought Bonilla had a ridiculous contract!!
WARF WARF WARF!!!
I really believe the luxury tax had a big thing to do with the Yankees and Red Sox actually not pulling the trigger. Both teams have good young starters that can contribute now and don’t cost anything. If either of the teams obtained Santana, they would be paying close to $100 million in luxury tax
Today is Ash Wednesday, which for one of us baseball nuts is kind of fitting: Today we get the press conference, and the whole Johan thing becomes truly real, then for the next 40-some days we wait for April with longing and reflection, until the sun finally comes out and they play ball.
I can’t wait to utter these words, “hey man, I got no one to take my other ticket tonight, feel like comin out to Shea? Johan’s pitching.”
I’ve always been somewhat jealous of the older Met fans who got to see Seaver at all, and Gooden at his prime. I’m 23, which just cuts me off from seeing really top-notch Doc. My dad talks about them…
But now I’ve got a month old son, and I’ll get to see Johan in his prime and tell the kid about it. Nice.
yeah c isnt totally correct Matt, they both wanted Johan….ONLY to prevent the otehr from getting him, it seems they both backed off when they realized the other wouldnt bid…
and wouldnt you know it that is how we got Johan. No one else could pay him and the twins were forced to settle for our prospects who they admitedly didnt like, but if you think Bill Smith is getting ripped now imagine if he pulled a Jim Bowden and just let his guy walk at the end of the year…
Best part is, we didnt even give them the full package being discussed….anyone who says a bad thing about Omar now is just ignorant…
Matt,
You were all over this story from day 1…even when all the main stream outlets were reporting that the Mets did not have the prospects to complete the deal….job well done!
The most annoying part of it all was how the main stream media still decided to bash the trade saying the Yankees were so kind as to let the Mets have Santana….In my opinion, John Harper, Bob Klapish, and ESPN presented inaccurate, biased presentations that failed to look at the facts. To be honest, it was so easy to figure out that the Yankees were never going to be players in this trade for a variety of reasons that their editors should come down on them for such lack off effort in their reporting….
Anyway, I am getting off my soapbox so I can cheer, “Let’s Go Mets!” Lets go 6-0 versus the Yanks this year!
I’ve been reading Mets fans commentary in the Twins blogs about the Santana deal for weeks now, so I thought I’d weigh in on some reality checks you all might want to consider regarding the “god” you think you got. First, there is no bitterness with most of us regarding what we got in return, because we knew Santana’s real trade value was going to be alot