I wanted to mention the Johan Santana trade. It’s not often that a high profile trade goes down where the reaction is so unanimous.

Of course this makes want to find reasons  why the Twins  didn’t get fleeced, particularly when the New York media is involved, particularly when I’m seeing headlines like Santana to Mets: Their Best Trade Ever?, in the New York Observer — home of Rex Reed — no less.

The talent the Mets gave up, while considerable, is no sure thing—as opposed to the proven track record of Santana. Carlos Gomez is an outfielder with tremendous tools. But his best position, center field, is likely to be filled by Carlos Beltran for the foreseeable future, and it is far from certain Gomez will hit well enough to man a corner outfield spot.

Ok, lets stop right here. I’m going take a wild guess that the author of this piece knows Carlos Gomez or any of the other three prospects about as well as most of us do; that is to say, not very well at all. Ditto 95% of the people writing about this trade.

So instead of listening to a guy who lives in New York (I presume) and covers the Mets and Yankees (and is probably a fan of one or the other), lets turn to a trusted source for minor league prospects: Baseball America.

Here we can find the Mets Top 10 Prospects list  and we see, in fact, the Twins received four of the 10: Deolis Guerra (2nd), Carlos Gomez (3rd), Kevin Mulvey (4th) and Philip Humber (7th). That’s Mulvey’s photo up top.

Granted, Baseball America itself doesn’t think the return was enough, but how often does the return on a trade for the best player at his position seem like enough one day after?

Part of the reason the media became so salivatory  over the Santana hot stove rumors was because it was on off-season off-the-field battle between the Red Sox and Yankees. It had all the drama…of an actual game! It was hot stove action at its best. Boy, we missed baseball in the wintertime.

In a way it was even better than a game because it led one to theorize that if the Yankees got Santana they would become even more hog-like and seemingly unbeatable — thereby setting them up for an even more delicious fall. If the Red Sox landed Santana it would lend more credence to the theory that the Red Sox, already in possession of the special secret power of Sabremetrics, would win the next seven straight World Series — perhaps leading to some kind of armageddon-led restart-button pushing.

But no. The Mets kind of wafted in and nabbed Santana and it’s created a big boring hole in the hot stove ozone that’s now being filled by obnoxious guys with New York accents that spend most evenings listening to WFAN’s hold music.

But maybe the Twins never really intended to trade Santana to a team in their own league. It’s possible. Maybe it was worth it for them to trade Santana to a team that, indeed, looks decent on paper, but isn’t going to inspire all that many people outside of Queens to proclaim them the favorites in the National League. I’ll still take the Padres, Cubs, D-Backs and Rockies over the Mets, and put them in a class with the Dodgers, Phillies and maybe even the Reds.

It’s funny how when I went down the Mariners rotation with Bedard at the top how much better the whole thing looked:

1. Bedard 2. King Felix 3. Jarrod Washburn 4. Carlos Silva 5. Miguel Batista.

Do you get the same feeling when you look at this rotation?

1. Santana 2. Pedro Martinez 3. John Maine 4. Oliver Perez 5. Orlando Hernandez

I don’t. I mean, it’s better, but it’s not great. Anyone think Maine and Perez topped out in 2008? El Duque is 42 years old and gave up 23 HRs in less than 150 innings. As much as I like Pedro Martinez he’s far from a sure thing. He was okay down the stretch last year, but he threw 28 innings. I see four question marks. How is this one of the best rotations in baseball?

I’m off track here. I don’t hate the Mets any more than I like the Twins. I don’t think the Twins got fleeced. I think the Mets got a great starter for a ton of money. I think it’ll help them, and I still think they’re the Mets.