He had a great year, no doubt. He could just as easily revert to '06 next year or continue on with what he did this year. It remains to be seen. You can't call him one of the top 3 pitchers in baseball based on a single season. That would be delusional. Especially with what he did the year before.
See who's laughing tomorrow. That is what will be funny. If the Yankees pull out and they end up trading him to Boston for less of a package (and that is exactly what Boston is offering) what do you think their fans will say? The fans are already totally pissed at them after ponying up the money for their new stadium only to see that cheap bastard get rid of Hunter and Santana. They are totally screwed 12 different ways if the Yankees pull out. Count on it. They will probably have no choice but keep him and get nothing for him at the end of the year.
Seriously Don. If I was Hank Steinbrenner I would not be laughing. As Wallace Matthews wrote in his column, in Newsday I believe Friday or Saturday: " If Boston gets Santana, forget about winning a WS in George Steinbrenner's lifetime, they might not win one in Hank Steinbrenner's lifetime".
The point really is that the deal will get done tonight. Everybody on ESPN expects that and I strongly suspect it will be the Yankees that get him. If not then they will get Bedard or Haren. Boston gets Bedard or Haren if they lose. Either way there is no way in the world Boston becomes any stronger except in the post season and they will have to get there first for that to matter.
everything i read says that haren and bedard will cost more than santana. the a's are not budging on that they want 2/3 of kennedy hughes joba.
I doubt anything happens on the Tampering front, it rarely does, the punishments can vary a ton, could be a fine, could be compensation in the form of 1 or more draft picks. Doubt anything comes of it. However if he continues to make statements in violation of the rule and ticks off Selig you never know. I remember Torii Hunter almost got a 3 year suspension once for sending the Royals some champagne after they beat the tigers.
torii hunter has player for the twins his whole career. and 3 years? how can he just make up rules like that. this doesnt seem right to me.
That's legit, Hunter said if the Royals swept the Tigers he'd send them a bottle of champaign. It happened and Hunter held up his end of the bargain and it almost got him suspened. There were articles on it and everything. That sweep got the Twins into the playoffs to......
It's a very old rule, he got out of it because the royals returned them unopened when someone informed them about it. I think he got a small fine, but it is part of the rules to prevent gambling, and the bribing of potential free agents. It is harder to punish someone in steinbrenners position. It would likely be a fine, could range to draft picks. I believe the most drastic thing allowed is that they can suspend him from active participation in team business, but it's hard to say. Punishments for Execs aren't as well defined as for players. The Hunter thing BTW, 3 years is actually the minimum for giving or receiving gifts in exchange for performance against another team.
I just saw that on a Mets blog...... oh well baseball is not gonna be fun for anybody other than Red Sox or Yankee fans.
Now ESPN is reporting the talks are on life support. Some say the Twins won't budge on Kennedy and apparently the Yankees are having 2nd thoughts on trading Hughes as well. Some say the Twins are having 2nd thoughts on trading Santana. Interesting though....
Apparently after meeting w/ the yankees and getting nowhere (they wanted either kennedy or horne and tabata) The Twins called the red Sox and asked for Jon Lester's medical records. it appears barring a late fold by Steinbrenner that they intend to take the Red Sox original offer of lester crisp lowrie and masterson or bowden http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3140668
