Johan Santana

Alright, I think its time I finally tackle this one. The Minnesota Twins traded Jo-hizzle to the Mets for four prospects. Gomez has the most name recognition, while reports are saying Guerra could be the best one. I don't really care. Now, before I get all excited, I'm not knocking the Twins organization for this trade. They traded Santana before the season, which was a good move, got him out of the AL, which can't hurt, and they got some talent back for him. Besides, these guys know a lot more than I do about Santana, Gomez, Guerra, Mulvey, and Humber. I have no doubt the Twins got the best offer available to them at that time. I think the Twins biggest mistake was not getting someone who is ready to play center. That's not to say the Twins aren't prepared for this year. They have three young guys fighting for the spot, plus four corner guys who are proven big leaguers. One of them, probably Young or Monroe, could play center. Monroe is good buds with the recently departed Torii Hunter and has shown interest in getting a shot to play center inside the giant inflatable toilet. The reason this is a problem is that the Twins will try a bunch of guys out in center, and probably use an older guy at first, thus blocking the progress of a younger player. Its like signing Ponson last year. He just got in the way. And when you're that fat, you're hard to move. But other than that, I'm fine with this trade. And I'm not so sure that there isn't something wrong with Santana. The Yankees and Sox passed on him when the asking price wasn't that high. The best pitcher in baseball, on the right side of thirty, and they can't do better than the Mets? Something smells funny. I think the Twins wanted to unload him before signs started popping up during the season. I mean, he gave up thirty some dingers last year. That's a bit of a caution flag. His fast ball is slowing down, and he doesn't throw the slider as much any more. Is he a one trick pony? Alright, his one trick would be like a pony pulling an elephant out its ass. That changeup is good. But can he dominate with one pitch? I don't know. That's what we'll find out this year I guess.

Spring Training Thoughts

Ahhhhh..... Atlast, my favorite season is upon us... that's right, Baseball season. Spring Training is under way across Florida and Arizona, and I couldn't be more excited. There's so much going on this year and I have a lot to say about it. I'm saving my biggest one, the Santana trade, for last. First off, I want to talk about what teams I'm excited about this year.

The Mets - Who isn't excited about them this year. They got the best pitcher in the game, Pedro claims his arm feels better than it has in ten years, and they still have a bunch of young talented players. Uh, last I checked, Pedro won quite a bit of hardware over the last decade. I know he's not going to be able to throw it 95 any more, but every Mets fan must be excited about him being able to throw more than five innings and 80 pitches. Here's my biggest problem with them though. Reyes is saying he's getting rid of the handshakes. Oh-Kaaaaayyy... what's that gonna do? Is that why you broke down at the end of the season? I know it's hard to memorize a bunch of handshakes and steal around 70 bases, but can't you do like The Manny Ramirez and take a month off around August, when you aren't really needed, then come back strong and ready to go for the post season? Worked well or him. Hell, the way he performed in the playoffs last year, and if he can do it again this year, is going to keep him making twenty plus million a year.

The Angels - First of all, I have to say, Torii Hunter for 90 mil is a bad deal. But if it gets the Angels to loosen up, have some fun, and it keeps Big Bad Vlad happy, who gives a damn? The Angels are ready to handle any injury to the outfield with very capable replacements or steroids fall out. (On a side note, does it bother any one else that the "steroids scandal" is now just referred to as "PED". Can't someone come up with a better way to talk about steroids and HGH than PED? It sounds too close to PDA, and if we start getting PDA conspiracies in baseball, then we have a problem.) Also, the Angels got a nice pitcher pick up in Jon Garland. I've never been a huge fan of Garland, but he's reliable and can give a team a boost as long as he isn't one of your top pitchers.

Milwaukee Brewers - Little bias here because I have now been living in Milwaukee for three and a half years. But the Brewers do make this list while my beloved Twins are left to the "intrigued, but not excited about this year" pile. Actually, the Twins remain on a permanent pedestal in my heart and will always excite me, even if we have a 260 pound guy named Boof as our number two starter and God knows who playing center, third, short, and second. But that's OK! This is Twins Territory! The Brewers are doing what the Twins did 8 years ago and are trying to so again. Building with a lot of young, talented guys who grew up together. They get along great and can lean on each other for support. If Brittle Ben Sheets could ever put together a year without throwing out his shoulder, getting a blister, pulling a hamstring, quad, shoulder, or back muscle, the Brewers would be locks for the central division. That's right. If Brittle Ben is healthy this year, I guarantee I'll be drinking Miller Lite and eating a Polish Sausage at Miller Park in October. Count it.

Teams with a lot of hype that won't be that exciting or, for that matter, good.

Yankees - I'm not saying they'll miss the playoffs. But this team is going to have a rough year. Pettite might as well retire and move to Alaska. This guy could not be in a worse situation. He followed Roger Clemens all over America for the past several years, then finally says "hey, F-you Roger. You ate all my thin mints back in 2000 and I'm still mad about it! Remember when you told me about taking HGH? Guess who I'm gonna tell." A Rod will do his thing.... bash fifty homers and a hundred and a million RBI's, bat three something, and still wonder how to win games by himself. Phil Hughes and or Ian Kennedy will choke big time against the Mets or Sox or anyone and all of New York, and especially that Steinbrenner cat, will start asking why the number one selling jersey in the world isn't pinstripes, the number 57, and Santana stitched across the back. Wait, do the mets have pinstripes? Hughes and Kennedy will lose it because they're young and if they aren't as good as or better than Santana, no one will like them. Young pitchers don't like that. I just hope Posada buys some Kleenex with all that money he got this year.

Cardinals - They were winning a hundred games not too long ago, but are a train wreck now. Aside for Pujols, they don't have much. There is one reason I will pay attention to them though. Juan Gone is trying to come back. It's either going to be another train wreck (like the team as a whole) or he's going to remind everyone why he was once considered among the best hitters in the game. Either way, I'm tuning in, at least for a little while.

Seattle - Yeah, they spent a lot of money this offseason. Yeah, they look like a better team. But they still don't have a big threat in the middle of the lineup. Their pitchers are ok. Hernandez I think still has a ways to go before he's in the Ace category. Bedard can strike some guys out, but I'm not convinced he's an ace either. Did anyone ever hear of him until last year? And then he got hurt. I want to see him stay together and put up good numbers for another year before I decide he's the real deal. And I've watched Silva for a few years. Yeah, the guy is going to pitch a bunch of innings and play decent. Unless he doesn't. Which he could do. As soon as he loses it for one game, its gone for a LOOOOONG time, maybe even the whole year. He lacks confidence, can't finish games because he's in bad shape, and gets sick all the time because he can't handle big games. Yeah, here's 48 million. The toilet and trainers room are down the hall to the left, next to the motivational speaker's office. Call us when you're ready.

Well I have to go do some actual work that doesn't involve sports so I'm not excited about it. More baseball soon, with an in depth look at Johan Santana, the trade, and the state of the Twins (and Minnesota).

And The Team That Wins The Honor To Lose To The Patriots Is...

Grab a brat, throw some cheese and mustard on it, sit down with a case of beer, and get ready for the game Sunday. That's right, coming to a TV and Super Bowl near you are the Green Bay Packers. In the past three years, the Packers have gone from 4-12 to 8-8 to 13-3 and are playing in the NFC Championship game. Not only are they playing in it, they look like the favorites to have the honor of losing to the Greatest team ever assembled in the Super Bowl. But they might not lose. Now, I don't want to get ahead of myself. I know how the sports gods work. as soon as you concede a team will win and start looking to the next week or next game, that team gets surprised and loses. Well for the rest of the week I'll be knocking on wood, avoiding ladders, running away from cats, placing all mirrors in bubble wrap and setting them in safe places.

(Actually, check that. I'm NOT putting mirrors in bubble wrap because I might start popping the bubbles and accidently break the mirrors. I'll just calmly place them on the other side of my roommates bed. No one, especially any women, ever lays there. Also, that way, if somehow a mirror breaks, I'll know my roommate is sleeping with either angry Bears fans or some loud annoying girl from New York.)

The Giants are going to put up one hell of a fight. Or maybe they won't. I don't even know. They have been playing so well and remind me of a couple years ago when the Steelers won it all. Not because they're a hot team with a good D that runs well. It all has to do with Eli. Ben Roethlisberger had an extreme amount of confidence that year. That's what Eli looks like now. That's why these Giants remind me of those Steelers. And as a Packers fan, I am worried. Favre is going to get hit. In the cold. And it will hurt.

But I know who's going to win. I can't say who, because that might jinx it. So I'll leave you with this. Brett Favre has broken several records. But there is one record that he set that will never show his name nor any stat he has put up. But anyone who saw this record happen knows it was all Favre. The player who holds the record I'm talking about is going to lose on Sunday.

And if you know who that is, you know he owes him one

NFL Awards

First off, it's been almost an entire month since I've written anything. There's two reasons for that. First, I went back to Minnesota to visit my parents for Christmas during my break from school. They still have dial up internet, which is essentially no internet at all. Second, I found out I have a blood clot and blocked arteries. Not good stuff, but I'm on the way to recovering now. Hopefully I can have a good year where I get back to where I was, and then I can work on living a healthier life.



Alright, on to some sports. I'm going to offer up my choices for the NFL award winners this year, as well as a couple honorary nominees who didn't quite have enough stuff to win.



MVP - Tom Brady
I want to pick Brett Favre. Not picking him is like not picking America to win at anything. Not picking Favre is like rooting against democracy. If you don't love Brett Favre, you're a communist. But Tom Brady accomplished a LOT this year. Yeah, he had an awesome team around him, but damn.



Offensive Player of the Year - Randy Moss
Brady means more to the team. Moss means more to the offense. If Brady wasn't such a damn good leader, Moss would have won both.



Defensive Player of the Year - Ed Reed
Bob Sanders won it. But until you show me how Bob Sanders is better than Ed Reed, I'm taking Reed.



Offensive Rookie of the Year - Joe Thomas
I love Adrian Peterson. He is an absolute stud. But there's a problem. He couldn't break a hundred yards rushing COMBINED in his last three games. I had the pleasure of finally watching AD while home in Minnesota and what does he do? NOTHING. Asshole. I drive six hours and he can't even give me a fifty yard touchdown run? Hell, I would have settled for a fifty yard touchdown reception. The point is, Joe Thomas played awesome as a rookie. Cleveland was actually good this year. I think he helped a lot. I don't think Thomas is better, but Peterson let me down and looked absolutely human the last couple weeks when teams figured out how to stop him.



Defensive Rookie of the Year - Patrick Willis
No debate. Stud. I wish I could watch him play more often. This guy is a tackling machine and will probably keep getting better.



Wide Receiver Who Might Have Kept His Job If He Just Caught One Ball But Instead Lost His Job - Troy Williamson.
In the last game against the Broncos, Williamson blew by every defender, sat down in the middle of the field, read the paper, got up, and then had a wide open touchdown as long as he didn't drop it or get struck by lightning and....... coming to free agency this offseason, the #7 overall draft pick in the 2005 draft, Troy Williamson.



(How do the Vikings get Williamson one year with the seventh pick, then a couple years later get Adrian Peterson with the seventh pick? Doesn't it seem like one of those two should have been drafted a lot higher than the other?)



Guy Who Had A Really Good Year And I Think Is Really Good But Maybe He Isn't Because No One Else Is Giving Him Credit - Nick Barnett
He had something like 131 tackles and was everywhere on the field. I watched every Packers game this year and I haven't seen someone tear ass wild up and down a field like Nick Barnett did in years. He was literally everywhere. His body split up down to the molecular level and spread out across the field, then reconverged around the guy with the ball to make the tackle. Amazing. He should be in the Pro Bowl next year.



The Michael Irvin Award - T.O.
Star receiver. Hall of Fame bound. Will only be remembered for his mouth, not his stats, because he played udring the same time the best receiver ever played. (Irvin played when Rice was around, who at the time was the best receiver ever. T.O. plays at the same time as Moss, who is the best receiver ever).



Quarterback Who Played Well On The Road All Year, Yet Everyone Is Waiting For Him To Self Implode, On The Road, During The Playoffs - Eli Manning
8-1, including the first playoff game, on the road this year? I don't know how he did it. Eli always sucked in hostile environments and pressure situations. That's every road game. How did he do so well? I don't know, but Peyton better make sure he didn't steal his good luck charm.