Twins try to justify Santana trade

DeeEss57 · Post by **DeeEss57** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:24 pm

From the Twins:

February 2, 2008

Dear Twins Fans:

On behalf of the entire Minnesota Twins organization, I'd
like to take this opportunity to follow up regarding today's
announced trade of Johan Santana to the New York Mets in
exchange for outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Deolis
Guerra, Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey.

Trading a pitcher of Johan Santana's stature and character
was a very difficult decision for the Twins organization.
Since being acquired as an unknown 20 year old by the Twins
in the 1999 Rule 5 Draft, Johan has emerged as one of the
game's elite pitchers, as well as an ultimate competitor,
teammate and role model. The Twins organization is
incredibly thankful for Johan's significant contributions to
this franchise and wish he and his family all the best going
forward.

As the club has stated many times, our first choice was to
sign Johan to a contract extension ensuring he remained in a
Twins uniform for years to come. Despite the largest
multi-year offer in Twins history - one which would have
rewarded Johan with the highest annual salary among all
pitchers in Baseball - the team and Johan's representatives
respectfully were unable to reach agreement. Only at that
juncture did the team and Johan's agent begin considering
trade options.

As has been well documented, the Twins organization has a
rich history of acquiring quality players via trade.
Examples include the acquisitions of Joe Nathan, Francisco
Liriano and Boof Bonser from the Giants; Eric Milton and
Cristan Guzman from the Yankees; and Rick Aguilera and Kevin
Tapani from the Mets. With that history in mind, Bill Smith
and talent evaluators such as Mike Radcliff, Rob Antony and
Terry Ryan engaged in a process aimed at helping ensure the
long-term competitiveness of the franchise.

With hopes of repeating that trade success, the deal brings
four high quality young players to the Twins system:

----------------------------------------------------------
Carlos Gomez - OF - 22 Years Old - Ranked as Mets' 3rd
Best Prospect by Baseball America
Native of Dominican Republic is a true five-tool athlete
with game-changing speed and an above average arm ... Made
Major League debut with the Mets in 2007.

----------------------------------------------------------
Deolis Guerra - RHP - 18 Years Old - Ranked as Mets' 2nd
Best Prospect by Baseball America
The Venezulean native was the Opening Day starter for Mets'
Class A Port St. Lucie club at the age of 17 ... projects to
be an impact starter ... pitched in the 2007 Futures Game

----------------------------------------------------------
Philip Humber - RHP - 25 Years Old - Ranked as Mets' 7th
Best Prospect by Baseball America
Won championship game of 2003 College World Series for Rice
... Was the Mets first round pick - third overall - in the
2004 draft ... Has a great curve ball.

----------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Mulvey - RHP - 22 Years Old - Ranked as Mets' 4th Best
Prospect by Baseball America
The Mets top pick in the 2006 draft, throws four pitches for
strikes ... Was the Mets Minor League Pitcher of the Year
and pitched in the 2007 Futures Game.

----------------------------------------------------------

These acquisitions only add to the Twins impressive nucleus
of young, impact players. Ron Gardenhire can take comfort in
knowing he has a lineup anchored by some of the game's best
young offensive stars in Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Michael
Cuddyer and Delmon Young; a veteran bullpen led by all-star
closer Joe Nathan; and a young emerging starting rotation
featuring Scott Baker, Boof Bonser, Kevin Slowey and the
return of Francisco Liriano. The pitching rotation will be
young, but talented, and we are confident that Ron
Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson will mold this
group into a successful unit.

Once again, thank you for your incredible support of Twins
baseball. We look forward to seeing you at the Metrodome
again this spring.

Win Twins!!!

Dave St. Peter
President

I hate to break it to Dave, but they ain't gonna see me at the Dome in the spring or ever again. They can try to justify this any way they want, I don't buy it.

Dawn
EX Twins fan

Swaps · Post by **Swaps** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:30 pm

i'm really glad the pohlads are matching the contribution the fans made to the stadium.

I can't wait until that thing is built and pohlad sells the team so he can get a little "profit".

not like he needs the money, he'll be dead in 3 years and is worth billions...

Demi · Post by **Demi** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:39 pm

"We caught lightning in a bottle once, we're going to do it again!"

Give me a break.

Be nice to know where these mets prospects rank overall.

They were happing winning back to back divisions, Pohlad has his world series, he doesn't care. And he even won that with some help from guys taking less pay.

Low revenue team/state, cheap owner = entire team of "young talent". Which will lose to "old talent" 10 times out of 10.

John · Post by **John** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:43 pm

Does anyone think the Twins (or any smaller market team) could have matched the deal he got from the Mets?

I know how you feel, Dawn, I watched them become the Red Sox farm club when Cal owned the team and my stomach turned. But that is major league baseball. I'm still a Twins fan, upset at the moment too, but I'll watch a while longer to see how this deal works out.

Demi · Post by **Demi** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:00 pm

The least they could have done is taken the Red Sox or Yankees deal. At least then they'd get a true top prospect. Instead they thought they were geniuses and master negotiators and ended up screwing themselves over.

wang_chi7 · Post by **wang_chi7** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:03 pm

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/artic ... cleid=7089

Very good article on the prospects in return and the trade in general. Two of the players are (probably) the real deal and the other two are decent players but nothing great.

Demi · Post by **Demi** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:08 pm

I do like Gomez, but just what we need, more potential. While they're developing we're losing whatever players we have now.

I'm far more sure that the rumored offers from the Yankees and/or Red Sox were not as good as we think they were.

Yeah, because our GM decided to try and yank them around.

PurpleMustReign · Post by **PurpleMustReign** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:51 pm

John wrote:Does anyone think the Twins (or any smaller market team) could have matched the deal he got from the Mets?

Why not, John? The owner is millions richer than any other owner (including the team with a payroll in the $200 million range) and they are getting a brand new stadium to help increase their revenue. I was shocked that all it took was $150 million to sign him. I figured it was going to approach $200 million minimum. This move confirms what every Twins fan has been thinking: Carl Pohlad is not in it to win, he's in it for the money. He's just like Red McCombs.
I'm glad he is paying for a good portion of the new stadium, but you know what? He'd make that money back in a hurry if he keeps Santana. I think Santana would get them closer to a World Series than any other pitcher in baseball.

CalVike · Post by **CalVike** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:47 pm

I think it was a baseball not just a market driven decision. It's simply too risky to sign a pitcher, any pitcher, for that length of contract for that amount of money. It makes far more sense to work with the prospects. It may just work out better for the Twins this way. Santana was simply too high priced, a better argument is that they should have paid the Angels money and signed Hunter. Santana's deal was just absurd.

Minniman · Post by **Minniman** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 2:00 am

When players are getting $150 million contracts, why is the public paying for ballparks?

John · Post by **John** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:29 am

PurpleMustReign wrote:
Why not, John? The owner is millions richer than any other owner (including the team with a payroll in the $200 million range) and they are getting a brand new stadium to help increase their revenue...

...and he didn't get that money by making unfavorable deals. The team would be in the red with that contract (and those some teammates might demand as a result). We aren't going to see contracts like that in MN.

Swaps · Post by **Swaps** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:37 pm

Pohlad is one of the richest owners in Baseball.

He has more money then Steinbrenner by leaps and bounds.

He just doesn't spend a dime.
He can afford it.
The twins aren't in fiscal dire straits like they want you to believe.
They're making plenty of money.

Demi · Post by **Demi** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:59 pm

The twins aren't in fiscal dire straits like they want you to believe

They're in the worst fiscal situation in the entire league. And still spend more then over 10 other teams.

Enrage · Post by **Enrage** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:29 pm

Demi wrote: They're in the worst fiscal situation in the entire league. And still spend more then over 10 other teams.

Agreed, they are lucky to pull a profit every year. Maybe that will change with a new stadium but I don't know.

viking_guy · Post by **viking_guy** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:31 am

Swaps wrote:Pohlad is one of the richest owners in Baseball.

He has more money then Steinbrenner by leaps and bounds.

He just doesn't spend a dime.
He can afford it.
The twins aren't in fiscal dire straits like they want you to believe.
They're making plenty of money.

actually Pohlad is THE richest owner, and is almost 1 BILLION dollars richer than the next closest. And he is by far the CHEAPEST owner as well.

If the Twins were in as bad financially as they would like people to believe, why doesn't Pohlad sell the team? Cuz he's making money, not losing it.