So finally something worth talking about in sports not about Football ( hey cut me some slack I’ve been counting down the days to spring training since like week 6 of the NFL season, thanks Chad/Kellen ) and let me just tell you this is a really great week for NY sports teams, of which I am not a fan of. Of course I couldn’t be happier about this trade, really I couldn’t, OK maybe if the Yankees could of got him without giving up Melky or Hughes but I’d also be happier if those money trees I planted in my back yard would start growing. So let’s be real this is a wonderful thing all around, well probably not for the Twins so much but w/e w/e w/e.

Yesterday morning I woke up rolled over and flipped the TV on Sportscenter then of course proceeded to roll back over and stay half a sleep while I listened to them talk about the same 794 things they have been talking about the last week or so, when it happened and it jolted me wide awake. ” A deal has been reached between the Mets and the Twins which would send Johan Santana to Queens ” said someone on Sportscenter. ( I said I was half asleep and yeah the news jolted me awake but who cares who was saying it, Johan is a Met ) Now I know some of you are probably scratching your heads like wait Ty I thought you were a Yankee fan ? Well yeah but see most of us Yankee fans still root for the Mets, we still want the Mets to be the second best team in baseball, I mean last I checked they repped NY too right ? They are in a different league and this is our city we just let them play baseball here, so why would I hate the Mets ? In fact as soon as I heard I started sending out mass texts to all my friends who are Mets fans congratulating them and telling them to start getting tickets cause I might actually go to the dump that is called Shea Stadium to see Johan pitch. Some of my friends took the congratulations with some shock, some of them just thought I was being nice, cause shit how can you not congratulate someone for landing a pitcher like Johan ?

Others however know me all too well and know that my happiness was more about Santana no longer being in the American League and more importantly him not ending up on the Red Sox, I understand the Red Sox not wanting to part with their young players but if they could of added Santana to their team this year there would of been no point to playing the season, with him and Beckett as the # 1 and 2 no one would beat them in the playoffs and they could probably gaurantee at least the next 2 maybe 3 world series, a small price to pay to give up some young talent. Now what is also amazing is I’m actually glad that Johan ( easily the best pitcher in baseball and the gaps only gonna get bigger with him moving to the National League ) didn’t get traded to the Yankees. Like I said if we could of gotten him as cheap as the Mets than fine no problem but because the Yankees are the Yankees teams expect them to overpay to get what they want, but those reckless days are over with the Boss taking a back seat and the Yankees aren’t gonna pay the Yankee tax just because they can anymore.

Yeah it would be great to have a pitcher like Johan but he is at the peak of his career with a couple great years left and then he will start to decline ( note: the decline would happen much sooner and more rapidly if he was still in the American league ) and to give up 2 young stud pitchers and a great defensive center fielder and energizing bat for one 29 year old pitcher I’m sorry that is just too much. I spent all last season listening to the hype about Hughes only to watch him come up and almost throw a no hitter before he tweaked a leg muscle. The kid was better than advertised, the movement on his pitches were filthy I remember saying I can get used to rooting for this guy and that I did, don’t take that away from me. Same goes for Melky, yeah I realize he probably won’t get all that much better than he is now but I’d argue he doesn’t need to be. He saved so many runs last year with his speed and strong rocket arm in center and if they to replace him with Johnny Damon all those runs Johan would save them would be given right back on plays Damon couldn’t make. Would I haven given up Kennedy for him ? Sure but not on top of Hughes and Melky. The Twins tried to hold the Yankees hostage and the Yankees called their bluff, thinking they would ship him to the NL and not the Red Sox. So when the Yankees pulled the deal off the table and refused to get back in the Twins knew they slow played their hand and messed up their bargaining power and now they have to take the best offer out there, ( Also most people don’t realize Santana was quietly telling the Twins management to hurry up and get a deal done ) and after not getting the Sox or Yankees to bite on overpaying them they decided to ship him off to the NL for a package much less desirable than they could of gotten from either the Yankees or the Red Sox.

So this leaves me just as excited about the next couple of years of Yankee baseball with a rotation of Hughes, Chamberlain, Wang, Kennedy and Pettite this Yankee team is gonna be awfully hard to beat. The last couple of teams to win the World series all got big boosts from young pitchers to carry them and the Yankees finally have the arms to match the other teams. If they can shore up a hole or 2 in that bullpen I see no reason why they won’t be right back in the World Series this year, but the truely great part of this trade is that it sure seems like we could have another Subway series on our hands.

So enough about how I love this trade as a Yankee fan because there is another team that will greatly benefit from this trade as well. Mr. Minaya did a great job, helped of course by Cashman’s great job of not overpaying. He laid in the cut patiently waiting for the Red Sox and Yankees to keep refusing to bite ( if either of them did or a team like the Angels or Dodgers stepped up, they could of given a much better package of major league ready player, than Omar and his Mets would of been in some deep trouble next year. ) and because of his waiting, it allowed him not to have to give up either of his 2 most prized youngsters.

Now if you ask me the Mets still have a lot of holes, especially pitching ( I refuse to count on Pedro, Perez and Maine are a real real solid 3 and 4 but still no real # 2 pitcher and the bullpen is still a mess, who really still trusts Bill Wagner ? ) but Johan really is THAT good that he can make up the difference for all of that and get the Mets back into the series. ( to win it they will need to fix the bullpen and add a # 2 ) Johan’s ERA will probably drop almost a full point now that he doesn’t have to face 8 batters and a DH now he gets a pitcher every 9 at bats and he can work around line-ups a whole lot easier, on a whole the National League scores a lot less than the American League and a dominate performance from one pitcher is much more likely to seal the game. The Mets offense is fine, ( they do need to address the first base issue as Delgado killed them last year ) but they are gonna need to find a way to not go on any big long scoring droughts like they did last year. The Mets biggest problem is still gonna remain and that is the Phillies. The Phillies have a much better offense, better at every position except 3rd, even at shortstop, yes I’d rather have a healthy Jimmy Rollins than Jose Reyes, it’s the consistency. The Phillies are a deeper team and its even hard to argue that the Mets have the better 1-2 pitching punch cause a combo of Cole Hamels and Brett Myers might be better than Johan and Pedro, but the Mets now have the best pitcher in baseball and for a team who was right there at the end last year only to self destruct mostly because of terrible pitching thats sure not a bad way to start. It could even be all they need to get them to the mountaintop, where they will of course get quickly knocked off by the original rightful owners of said mountaintop, yup who else you know got 26 different rings ?