USA Today: Santana going to Mets

[sticknstring]

 Quote:

there is something to be said for trading him out of the American League...

Exactly. The Twin's are notorious for making deals this like one... trading talent for prospects. Raising studs out of their farm system and getting rid of them when they can't afford them is what they do. You knew it was coming. I think Gomez is a 5 star guy which the Mets brought straight up from single A. The Twin's might season him up a bit in AAA for awhile but I think in a few years (new stadium era) we can look back and see it as a worthwhile trade. At least Morneau and Cuddy are locked up.

[DinkADunk]

 Originally Posted By: ozzie

Regarding his poker stare down...we could have countered and started him every 4 games and pitched him 250+ innings and wore him out...that is called a re-raise!!!

Absolutly, tell him to sign our offer or start him every 3 days and make him throw complete games every time out. If he blows up he wrecks his free agency worth, if he tries he blows up his arm.

[MinDak Hunter]

From ESPN

Greediest owners in sports

Here's a list we believe you'll have some fun with: Page 2's top 10 greediest owners in sports.

Carl Pohlad

The Twins win despite Carl Pohlad.

After taking a look at our list, check out our readers' choices for the greediest owner in sports. And be sure to vote in the poll to crown the No. 1 greedy owner in sports.

1. Carl Pohlad (Minnesota Twins)

Make no mistake ­-- the Twins are winning these days despite Pohlad, not because of him. Ever since the Twins won the 1991 World Series, it's been downhill, largely because Pohlad, who has an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion, has kept his wallet clamped shut. When the Minneapolis City Pages asked readers to send in epitaphs for the aging owner's stone, one fan suggested, "In memory of the man who gave us Kirby Puckett, (and who took a treasured team and did his best to (ruin) it."

[fishyguy]

 Originally Posted By: ozzie

Regarding his poker stare down...we could have countered and started him every 4 games and pitched him 250+ innings and wore him out...that is called a re-raise!!!

So if you were selling a rare sports care in mint condition, couldn't afford to keep it, and couldn't sell it for what it is worth, you would then stop parking it in the garage, stop changing fluids, run it off road and let your kids eat and spill in it so no one else would get it in mint condition, and then have to sell it cheap.....

Or would you just sell it for what you could get for it?

[Windy City Walleye Hunter]

I'm wit you Fish,

As a Pale Hose fan I am glad to see him go but the notion of "making him" pitch every 3 days, complete games, my question would be this. How many "get me over" change ups or BP fastballs would it take in the first two innings of each game to get the management to change their minds? Fielders would get tired of watching taters fly into the baggie. I think the Twinks may have overplayed their hand and decided to get out of the game with a few free tickets to the all you can eat buffet. They did not get the championship poker braclet and look whose wallet gets fatter. The player. It's always the player, that's the way the deck is stacked these days when you get owners who will flinch.

Windy

[Maximum12]

I've been a huge Santana fan & I'm a happy guy who never wishes ill on anyone...but I now wish ill on Santana. Greedy bastard.

If you want to blame the Twins, they own a share. But Santana's been manipulating the process the whole way. Gee I want to resign. Not for $80M though! Trade me before spring training or I won't waive my no-trade clause. Wait, trade me by Tuesday.

[PoorWordUsage]-off. He held all the cards & he played them like a baseball version of Sadddam. It's guys like this who give the game such a bad rap as a bunch of greed-heads. I'll miss that sweet arm, but he had me fooled - I always thought he was a genuinely good guy. No more.

[Scott K]

The alternative to that would be to let him sit a rot. Dont play him, see how well his free agent value holds up when he hasnt pitched all year!

I think the Twins did the right thing, they got hosed in my opinion, but atleast they tried to get everything they could, it just backfired. I dont look down on the Twins for this deal, they didnt give in or back down, it didnt work out for them this time, but next time it may!

Johans value for trade was so low because other teams didnt want to give up all the players and fork out a huge contract when they know if nobody signed him, they could just compete for him next year on the free agent market and not give up any prospects, knowing then that there would still only be a couple teams in the market for him do to the high dollar contract.

[ozzie]

Well I know Johan can hit also so when he starts giving up the long ball (which would hurt his overall value) throw him in the outfield and make him play the whole game regardless!!! People pamper the athletes way to much especially pitchers!! Johan is a greedy pig and I hope he blows out his arm in NY!!!!

[Fishing_High]

LOL I hope he doesn't blow his arm out. I wouldn't mind seeing me go 15-13 again and give up a bunch of long balls then NY might regret giving him whatever offer he wants.

[ozzie]

Your right I don't want to see him blow his arm out I would rather see him get shelled every outing. He had to be tiping off pitches last year the way he gave up the long ball but I hope he has a horrible rest of his career!!!

[PierBridge]

 Originally Posted By: slim1

seems we are the farm system for all other teams, be it baseball, basketball or what ever

Pretty good farm team considering we have a better record on the field then 90 percent of major league teams in the last 8 years!

Also I'm still waiting for all these Great players we have developed and traded away/let go........ waiting???????

[Willy]

Open your eyes. Santana, Hunter, Moss, KG, Culpepper. Those are the guys he is talking about. The Twins have not really regret many decisions they have made as far as player contracts, trades, etc go. But they may regret this one. The offers they had earlier from both the Yankees and Boston trumped this one by far IMO.

Johan pretty much bent them over his knee and told them what they MUST do. The only way that could have been avoided was to sign him last offseason when he came right out and said he wanted a long-term deal now!!

That falls on TR, I have no doubt with the kind of offers/whealing dealing that [PoorWordUsage] has done so far that he would have signed Johan last offseason if he had that power. Last year we may have signed him to a 6/100 million dollar contract. Now he is going to get a huge bump from that and we are left with a package of prospects that by popular opinion, are not A level.

Also, looking back, maybe we should have dealt Johan earlier and made a run at signing Torri. The Twins FO had to know that Johan would demand the most outrageous pitcher contract ever given and he was the one with the no-trade clause. 150 is a whole lot more than 80.(I don't think Hunter is worth 5/80 by the way) Either way you slice it, they should have visited both of these situations LAST offseason. Make some good offers, find out where people stand, then deal the ones you can't keep while you still have a little leverage.

[mnwild]

All this talk about Santana and its not even a done deal yet. I would be really shocked if the Mets and Santana can't agree on a contract, In turn he will still be a Twin.

[mr_jman]

My guess is something will be inked before the deadline. But kinda funny if it doesn't. I'd have to agree with everyone saying that we didn't get the best offer presented throughout this whole trade ordeal.

However, the Twins seem to make things work with what they get! We've made some great trades in the past and looked like we knew what we were doing. These players may not help up this year, but give them 2 or 3 and with the players we have signed Mauer/Morneau/Cuddyer we could have a good team. In two or three years our relatively inexperienced pitchers will have a good amount of it. If the Twins are smart they'll keep some of these guys around if they do well. Who knows what we might get for prospects/players/draftees the next few years.

My opinion is the Twins are focusing on a new stadium and trying to fill it with a new banner (whatever it may be Division/AL Champs/WS Champs) at the end of the 2010 season. If it takes a bad year or two to have several more good ones than I guess I can live with that. Keep in mind the AL Central is perhaps the toughest in all of baseball this year. If these players are duds than we made a horrible deal.... Time will tell!

I just hope they can win a few more than the Wolves!

[Fishing_High]

I don't think the Mets would have made the trade in less they were certain to be able to work something out with Santana.

[Windy City Walleye Hunter]

I say the Twinks strap a case of Miller Lite on his back and make him sell beer at all the games. They you will get 4 solid hours of work out of him every home game, that's half the season!

Sorry, a little gallows humor there. I have to agree with most of the postings, I hate it but the players hold almost all of the cards and the owners who cave enable them. If there was more collusion and price fixing like the good ole days you would see players stay in the same uni for their entire careers, like Ernie Banks of the Cubbies. Don't you think somebody like Ernie in today's market could draw much more salary compared to what old man Wrigley used to keep him at?

That is what is taking a little of the shine off of the game.

Windy

[Dahitman44]

 Originally Posted By: Fishing_High

I don't think the Mets would have made the trade in less they were certain to be able to work something out with Santana.

I don't think anything is CERTAIN with Santana and his agent.

I wonder how much he will like pitching with how NASTY the media and fans can be. That would be a big eye-opener for him.

He could be cheered for and have beer thrown at him in the same inning -- BY HIS HOME FANS!

Hey -- Santana be careful of what you wish for and BTW the green is almost NEVER greener on the other side of the fine. Especially when we spray-paint ours

[walleyeaddict]

I hope he gets shelled in the nl! Maybe somone will bean the greedy sob in the head!!

[blue_healer_guy]

The money he will sign for wont be that much more a year than what the twins offered. Leads me to believe he was sick of how they run things here. Cant say I blame him. Remember folks, 2nd richest owner in baseball.

[mnwild]

I agree with you, I really think he wanted out of Minnesota because they will never field a competitive team. I am just glad he went to the NL, we only have to see him maybe every 4 years in interleague play.

[Schloogs]

I think it was obvious that he did not want to play here anymore and think he made this clear last year. Personally, don't let the door hit you in the _____. Santana's best years are behind him. The twins may not spend the most money, but we are competative more often than not. It's not like they haven't made the playoffs for 10 years. We may struggle a little this year with starting pitching but the minor league system seems to do pretty good with young pitchers, so lets see where we are at in a couple of years.

[Scott K]

" he wanted out of Minnesota because they will never field a competitive team."

How can you say they arent competitive, look back in the last 10 years at our record, we one most of the Division titles. I would call that competitive!

I dont think the Twins should have paid Hunter 90 million, and I dont think they should sign any pitcher more then 5 years! These two players were just out for big money, thats all!

[mnwild]

They may have won division title's over the past 10 years but how many WS title's are to show for those, none. Looking back at the division the teams weren't that good we just happened to have the better team out of the bunch. Once they made it to the playoff's they always got beat by a better team with better players. Just my opinion.

[Scott K]

Well there is 30 plus teams in the league, and in the ten year reference that would make over 300 teams to compete to get to the world series, and of them 300 teams only 10 have won the world series. The Twins could be alot worse off then they are. If you add up our win loss ratio over them ten years we are at the top few spots. So I still dont understand how they arent competitive?

[mnwild]

I did alittle research on their record since 1997, they have gone 889-890 1 game under .500. You can call that what you want.