The Internets: Minor snags in Santana trade?
Posted on January 31st, 2008 – 12:08 PMBy Michael Rand
Jayson Stark, not a throw it against the wall and see if it sticks guy, says the Mets are hitting some snags in their negotiations with Johan Santana in terms of years and money on his contract extension. There is even a remote possibility that the talks could fall apart, he says. It’s unclear what that would mean for the trade, but an extension was the contingency.
*Deadspin has a fairly awesome Chris Berman meltdown that just made its way to the Youtubes. It has some very salty language, but it is also hilarious.
*These background checks might be going a little far.
32 Responses to "The Internets: Minor snags in Santana trade?"
The chances of the talks falling apart completely are about the same as the chances of me and Tom Brady trading places.
Has Gisele been calling you too?
I love Berman going off with moronic stuff like “what the fu.k are you guys doing” and “shut the fu.k up” and then coming back to his crew and saying “that’s so rude” ? I mean was it this fat slob’s mantime time of month or what ? Talk about pulling a Limbaugh. Out of Oxycontin anyone ?
Can we talk about Nick Coleman’s column today?
The stadium deal is DONE. Stop CRYING about it already.
That is all.
Sass
I agree, people should not write about sports related topics unless they actually follow sports.
ok..Who’s going to go knock on Rand’s neighbor’s door and see if he’s in the KKK??
Maybe growing the Mary jane??
That Berman meltdown is priceless!
Thank you for making my day!
Look at the great Jessie Jackson is now getting involved. Expect the circus to be following shortly.
Jama: it should be noted that Jesse Jackson is absolutely right in this case.
Hey Sassbottom,
Coleman’s right. I have no problem forking over the tax dollars, but then sign the players we want, keep the players we have, and certainly add, not subtract, from a pretty good team.
Calit - We don’t own the team and can’t demand anything of them in terms of personnel decisions. Losing Santana sucks, but I wouldn’t pay them that money either, and would be angry at the Twins for giving him a 6 or 7 year deal at 25 million per. They can’t afford it.
Well, they *can* afford it. The “fiscal responsibility” method of personnel management to which they prescribe is a preference, not a requirement. Didn’t Forbes tell us Pohlad has more money than Steinbrenner?
But with regard to the Coleman column, a question: Because the stadium was partially taxpayer-funded, should the Twins now submit to the whims of the fanbase?
No, of course not. Coleman is [redacted]. The fanbase is too single-minded. And also wrong.
I agree with Smith’s apparent rationale that long-term contracts with pitchers aren’t a good deal. They made a fair offer to Santana: 4 years, $80 million. He refused, because he wants a 6-7 year deal.
Good for him. Maybe the Mets will give him what he wants. But Greatest Pitcher Ever or not, I’m glad the Twins didn’t give in.
“Jesse Jackson chastises MLB over KKK questions of umps’ neighbors”….has Jesse Jackson not chastened anyone ? Who died and made him M.L.King ?
Nick Coleman is a dork.
I agree with Sassbottom, I’m glad the Twins didn’t give in also. Frank Viola won 63 games the in the next 8 years after the Twins traded him. That works out to be 7.8 victories per year. I am not say that Johan and Sweet Music are the same but they are similar in a lot of ways.
So I guess what I am saying is that the over/under on post Twins victories for Johan is 63.
Sassbottom - You make good points, but can the Twins afford it or can Carl Pohlad? They are two entirely different things. Any good businessman only invests what he can get out, instead of over extending and not getting a return on investment.
Carl may have more money than Steinbrenner, but the Yankees have the YES network, not to mention they probably get all of their stadium revenues as well. The Twins as a business entity are well behind the Yankees.
I think Coleman and Kersten might be one and the same. Neither ever bother with the facts and neither have the faintest clue what they are talking about.
Billy Smith was put in a tough position after Ryan sat on his hands and Santana gave him a Tuesday deadline (and let it be known he did not want to stay here). Did we get a fair trade? No. Was it a bad trade? Only time will tell, but BS did the best he could given the ugly parameters he had to work with.
Not quite sure, Kay, that he did the best he could have done. I would have preferred to see Hughes/Cabrera, given the choice.
That said, Joe McIlvaine is apparently high on these kids, and he should know.
Looking forward to 2010.
I would have preferred that deal too. From what we’ve heard though, Hughes/Cabrera was no longer on the table. Hindsight is a great thing, but most believed back in December that sitting tight and waiting for the offers to improve was the right thing to do. Who knew then that Steinbrenner would let Cashman talk him out of getting Santana and that Santana would give the Twins a drop dead date?
I gotta back Berman up on this one. Trying to read the teleprompter while grips are running around is a pain. Especially when you did a line just before airtime.
Regarding the stadium and the whim of the fans:
The Green Bay Packers are COMPLETELY owned by shareholders (most of which live in Green Bay.) The tax-payers also paid for dang-near all of Lambeau’s renovation.
The residents still don’t get a say in the goings-on of the front office, and they don’t seem to care too much.
Would I run the Twins differently if owned them? Sure. Do I/Will I ever? Nope. All I can do is hope for the best outcome of their decisions.
SI is now reporting that the Mets and Santana are far apart as Santana is seeking 6 years/$150 mil. Ridiculous.
Nick Coleman hit the ball out of the park! If this happened in a town like Chicago, Philly or N.Y. the sports writers would go berserk. We had the number 1 pitcher in all of baseball and the Twinkies couldn’t even get a batboy for him. You sidney suckups need to wake up and stop giving your money to Pohlad! What other team could lose both Torri Hunter and Santana in the same season and get nothing in return! The Twins are nothing more then a Triple AAA farm team for the rest of the league. Keep dreaming of 2010 when you are sitting in the bleachers gagging from the odor and wondering if the smell is coming from the field or the garbage burner and rejoice in the fact that you gave Pohlad your money for this mess! We need a real Sportswriter in this town!!
Keep dreaming of 2010 when you are sitting in the bleachers gagging from the odor and wondering if the smell is coming from the field or the garbage burner
I’ll just assume that it’s the guy sitting behind me who continues aiming his farts at the back of my head…
Sassbottom is right. Somebody tell that crusader Coleman to quit whining about the stadium. If no stadium was built, there would be no Twins for him to cry about.
I hate to break it to some of you about this but saying Pohlad has more money than Steinbrenner does not mean that the Twins have more money available than the Yankees.
You need to look at this like a person with a baseball card collection but you have to rent the cards instead of buying them. You may be able to spend 100% of your household income on renting new cards and keeping old ones but it would be stupid to do so. This is a hobby for the Pohlad family.
Carl did not buy the Twins to make an enormous profit. In fact he has lost money every single year he has owned the team to some degree. Because of this he and his sons have set a budget, something unheard of in New York or Boston, on the operation of the team.
There is a hope that once the new stadium is put in place that the new revenue will allow the team to increase payrolls and keep their stars.
Dave, as for having “a say in the goings-on of the front office” in which case, let’s call it bridge inpections in MN where ostensibly we drive over and pay for the damn things, we have zilch to say there as well since the feds just stepped in and gave Mn an extension. Hmm I wonder what, nationally, we are spending billions on. Renovating minor league ballparks, no doubt.
calitwins,
Sassbottom is dead on. Lost in whatever point Coleman is attempting to make is his obvious disdain for taxes to be used for stadiums. It’s a reoccuring theme in his ramblings; we get it already. He’s basically showing he’ll pounce on every opportunity to avenge the passage of the stadium bill with his keyboard. What I find particularly objectionable about this character assassination of Pohlad is (1) it doesn’t even mention, consider or acknowledge that MLB’s revenue sharing is precisely what drives the inability for small market teams to pay 1 player $20 million a year, and (2) that Pohlad reportedly did offer $20 million per year for 4 years, but word behind the scenes was Santana wanted to throw on a bigger stage for a team with more means to succeed on an annual basis. I’d call it intentionally misleading to fail to mention such things when writing this sort of critical article. I’m with skolviking, Coleman is a dork and is virtually unreadable. Find a new cause already.
Pohlad bought the team in 1984 for 36 million. The team is currently estimated to be worth 288 million. When the new stadium is completed that value could jump to as much as 400 million. Do the math for yourself.
tk,
you’re saying that the Twins are now worth 10 times what he paid for them 24 years ago, right? That’s about a 10% return if he ran them near breakeven each year. For reference, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1178 in 1984 and today it’s 12,650, so it’s up more than that. And those stocks pay dividends (generally), too.
My point is that the Twins have probably NOT been Mr. Pohlad’s best performing investment - and I will bet that’s ok with him. Next time I suggest that you UNDERSTAND the math yourself.
I do UNDERSTAND the math, I am not saying anything pro or con. I am just putting the numbers out there. Some people would see that as a poor investment, others a good investment (and you get to own a mlb ballclub too!).
Do the math for yourself, form your own opinion.
