Holy heffin’ hey, could arguably the best pitcher in baseball just get better? Well, yeah. Talked to a friend that is a Mets fan. This was his reaction, “We just got ourselves to the World Series. Who beats us? The Rockies? The Phillies? The Cubs? Padres? Please, their best hitter is Gonzalez. Maine/Santana, with our offense… Bring on October.” There’s a case to be made that he was right. I have a few random thoughts on the trade that sends Santana to the Mets.
–Johan Santana moves to a park where he has lifetime .60 ERA. This changes in ’09, but until then it’s a pitcher’s park.
–One thing that bothered me about Santana (and, frankly, there wasn’t a whole lot), he didn’t dominant the Indians, a team he faced a lot. He will now face hitters that are not as familiar with him.
–In the NL, marginal pitchers seem appealing. I found room for Brett Tomko when he was on the Dodgers and Padres. Great pitchers… They’re first rounders.
–I’m absolutely giddy to see how much Santana will go for in my NL-only auction. $40? $45? $50? Sold!
–I still like Peavy more. Before it was clear cut. Now it’s a tossup and I can see an argument that they’re interchangeable. The Padres face two weak divisional teams, Giants and Dodgers with the D-Backs a bit of a challenge but not much. Then there’s one offensive juggernaut in an offensive stadium, the Rockies. The Mets face the Nats and the Marlins, which is akin to the Dodgers and Giants. The Phillies are equal to the Rockies. The Braves are a bit of a challenge, akin to the D-Backs.
–Santana will now face pitchers and he doesn’t have to face Dontrelle. I’m Tivo’ing Santana pitching to Brett Myers.
–Santana in the NL…. This all seems unfair for the Senior Circuit’s junior batsmen, right?
