Tag: Johan Santana

MLB Trade Rumors: Nick Swisher and the 20 Biggest Offseason Steals Since 2000

As the regular season wraps up, many teams and their fans are looking to October and, they hope, a World Series win. For other teams and their fans, they are looking to the offseason, hoping to make a few trades or free agent acquisitions to bounce them back into contention.

In some situations, these trades end up paying huge dividends, and not always for the party that was looking to get the major piece. At the same time, once in a while there’s a great free agent pickup at a bargain that launches a team into the playoffs and a World Series ring.

Starting with the 1999-2000 offseason through this past one, this slideshow notes the 20 best steals of the past decade. Some may have slipped by me, as there’s nowhere to easily find these unless one has an institutional memory of these things.

The years listed in the slides is the offseason that it took place in. i.e. a trade from November 2000 to March 2001 will be listed as 2000.

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New York Mets: Top Five Reasons to Believe in 2011

Another baseball season is nearing its conclusion and for the fourth consecutive October, the New York Mets are absent.  With the front office sending out signs that the team will not make a big free agent splash this offseason, many fans are depressed.

Many have given up on the Mets’ 2011 season already, but there are certain things that the team has in place that should keep fans optimistic.

Here are the top five reasons to believe that it will be different for the Mets in 2011.

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Johan Santana To Have Shoulder Surgery, Mets Pitcher in Doubt for Next Season

For the third year in a row, New York Mets’ pitcher Johan Santana will go under the knife, and for the second year in a row, he will have his season end prematurely.

In 2008, Santana pitched through September with a torn meniscus in his left knee and underwent surgery after the season ended. In 2009, Santana saw his season end in August after it was determined that he needed surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow. And in 2010, Santana’s season will end in surgery again.

The New York Mets announced on Friday that Santana would miss the remainder of the season due to suffering a tear of the anterior capsule of the left shoulder. The injury is located on the front and bottom part of the shoulder close to the pectoral muscle, the team said, resulting in discomfort radiating through both the pectoral muscle and shoulder.

That is a lot of medical jargon for me. The bottom line is that Santana will have shoulder surgery, and it’s quite possible that he could miss the start of the 2011 season. For me, this represents the beginning of the end for Santana.

Santana’s season will end with the fact that for the fourth season in a row, his K/9 has declined, his BB/9 has increased, the average velocity has decreased on his fastball, and for the third season in a row, his groundball percentage has increased. Those numbers combined with the fact that he has had surgery on various body parts three years in a row, means that Santana can no longer be counted on as a legitimate ace.

Santana will be 32 years old when the season starts next year, and all of these surgeries have to be taking a tole on him. These surgeries would take a toll on a 21-year-old, let alone a 32-year-old. The transformation from strike-out pitcher to pitch to contact pitcher will be complete after this surgery.

That doesn’t mean Santana can’t be an effective pitcher moving forward. Santana is one of those pitchers that can get away with mediocre stuff and still produce a solid outing. Pitching in the National League will certainly help him.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s quite possible Santana won’t be ready for the start of the 2011 season, which already puts a negative tone in the mouth of Mets fans to start the season; Something the Mets’ organization desperately needed to avoid.

No timetable as been set yet as to when Santana will undergo the surgery.

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Fantasy Baseball: Three Hot, Three Not for 9/10 (Santana, Tulowitzki, and More)

Let’s take a look at some of the bigger stories from yesterday, including another surgery for Johan Santana and the return of two must-start shortstops:

 

Three Hot  

Returning Shortstops

Shortstop is not a deep position, so having both Jose Reyes and Elvis Andrus sitting out games is going to hurt (not to mention Jimmy Rollins injury woes).  Both, however, returned to their respective lineups in the leadoff spot last night. 

Reyes, always the spark plug of the Mets offense, went 1-5 with 1 RBI and 1 R.  Andrus, who apparently has been plagued by the hamstring problem for a while (which may help to explain why he had just 9 SB from June through August), went 0-6 in his return to the lineup.  Both players can be returned to fantasy lineups at this point.  

Colorado Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki

I know we just touched on him earlier in the week, but he is just too hot to ignore.  After going 3-3 with 2 HR, 3 RBI, and 4 R last night, he has now homered in three straight games and in six of his last eight.  Over that span he’s gone 13-31 with 8 HR, 15 RBI, and 14 R.  There’s no word for it but “unbelievable.” 

Toronto Blue Jays OF Jose Bautista

He just keeps going, doesn’t he?  He went 2-4 with 2 HR, 4 RBI, and 2 R last night, putting him at .266 with 46 HR, 110 RBI, and 95 R.  Could anyone have seen this coming?

 

Three Not  

New York Mets SP Johan Santana

The 2010 season now marks the third straight year that Santana has had to undergo surgery. 

In 2008 he had offseason surgery for a torn meniscus. 

In 2009, his season ended early to have bone chips removed from his left elbow. 

Now, his 2010 season is over because he has a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. 

While it is expected that he will be ready for spring training, it really is too early to tell, as he is still seeing doctors and getting information.  Shoulders are tricky and you just never know exactly what will be found when you go in to operate. 

Obviously, this will continue to develop and we’ll learn more in the upcoming days and weeks, but you cannot like the initial news in the least.  At this point, he’s going to be sliding down 2011 rankings, though we’ll know more soon enough.  

Texas Rangers SP C.J. Wilson

The past two starts have been awful, allowing 10 ER on 13 H and 7 BB, striking out 10 over 8.1 innings.  Having worked in relief the past few years, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him tiring down the stretch.  In fact, since 2006 he hadn’t worked more then 73.2 innings in a year, though he has now worked 180.0 innings in 2010.  He also enjoyed a little bit of luck (.262 BABIP entering last night), so at this point it is probably time to move on if you haven’t already.  

Boston Red Sox SP Clay Buchholz

Clearly, he just didn’t have it last night against the Oakland Athletics.  He went an inning plus, giving up five runs on five hits and four walks, striking out one.  It certainly was ugly, but it is just one start.  He hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a start since July 21, so just leave him in there and hope for a rebound.  His next start is in Seattle, so there’s certainly hope for that.

What are your thoughts on these stories?

Make sure to check out our extremely early 2011 rankings:

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Mets Try To Even Series With Phillies, Handing It To Mike Pelfrey

NEW YORK—The Mets were let down last night in the series opener against the Phillies by their young starter Jenrry Mejia. He’s young in age, not just baseball years.

Today, they’ll attempt to even the series by starting another younger pitcher, Mike Pelfrey. Now, Pelfrey has been around since 2006, and is 26 years old. But, he still pitches like someone of Mejia’s age.

He’s consistently inconsistent, and has still not lived up to his first-round-pick hype. Every time you think he’s about to mature and reel off eight straight wins, he regresses and gets beat up.

This season has been the biggest example of that to date. It’s been a tale of four seasons for Pelfrey so far in 2010.

He got off to an unbelievable start in April, going 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA and a save. After an average month of May, posting a 3.82 ERA, he entered his second season.

From a period in mid-June through early August, Pelfrey went 2-5 with a 7.35 ERA and gave up baserunners at a historical rate. He then entered his third phase in his final four August starts, going 3-1 with a 1.20 ERA.

Now, he’s in the middle of his fourth chapter, having put together two bad starts in September.

In his last start on Monday in D.C., Pelfrey had an early 3-0 lead. He would give it all back and then some. In only 3.2 innings pitched, he allowed six runs on five hits. The Mets would lose the Labor Day affair, 13-3, and Pelfrey suffered his ninth loss of the season.

He’s still stuck on 13 wins, which is tied for the most in his career. He will get a third attempt at a career-high 14th win today.

The Phillies will counter with Kyle Kendrick. His entire season has been up and down. He’s had a rough time of it over his last four starts, pitching to a 7.84 ERA. In each of those starts, he allowed either four or five runs.

His last start came on Sunday against the Brewers and it was bad. In four innings, he allowed five runs on seven hits, in a Phillies 9-8 loss. He did do well though in his last start against the Mets at Citi Field, and that’s probably why the Phillies are going with him today.

The Mets last night got some positive news and some horrific news that’ll bleed into 2011.

The positive news is that Jose Reyes returned to the lineup and recorded an RBI double. He looked fine, with no problems regarding his frequently injured oblique.

The horrific news is that they’ve lost their ace for the season, and more importantly, the foreseeable future. Johan Santana was diagnosed yesterday with a tear of the anterior capsule of the left shoulder, and will undergo shoulder surgery.

It was originally classified as a strained pectoral muscle around his left shoulder when he left a game early on September 2 against the Braves. It turned out to be much worse, and Santana himself doesn’t have a clue when he’ll be back.

“The most important thing is to be ready,” he said. “To be 100 percent whether it’s April, whether it’s May, July, October—who knows? Time will tell how I will recover. I’ve just got to get back to being healthy.”

The statement about perhaps not returning until next October is disturbing. If Santana can’t be with the Mets next season, their next meaningful game will be 2012.

So now, the Mets are out of playoff contention, and don’t even know where they’ll be next season. It’s frustrating times for them right now, and they’ll try to at least perform well in these final three weeks.

Mike Pelfrey vs. Philadelphia this season (3 starts)
1-2, 4.50 ERA, 18 IP, 18 hits, 6 BB, 8 SO

Kyle Kendrick vs. New York this season (2 starts)
1-1, 3.86 ERA, 11.2 IP, 11 hits, 2 BB, 7 SO

2010 season series (New York vs. Philadelphia)
April 30: New York 9, Philadelphia 1
May 1: Philadelphia 10, New York 0
May 2: Philadelphia 11, New York 5

May 25: New York 8, Philadelphia 0
May 26: New York 5, Philadelphia 0
May 27: New York 3, Philadelphia 0

August 6: Philadelphia 7, New York 5
August 7: New York 1, Philadelphia 0
August 8: Philadelphia 6, New York 5

August 13: New York 1, Philadelphia 0
August 14: Philadelphia 4, New York 0
August 15: Philadelphia 3, New York 1

Sept. 10: Philadelphia 8, New York 4
Phillies lead series 7-6

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Johan Santana Is Evidence That Performance-Enhancers Were Huge In Baseball

It is clear to me now, as if it wasn’t before that the Mets ace, Johan Santana was using steroids in the early portion of his career. How do you go from being a Rule V draft pick in 1999 to getting a contract that pays about $23 million per season? How did he go from being a mediocre reliever to an All-Star caliber pitcher who won two Cy Young Awards? Please don’t tell me it was because he watched game-tape.

As a rookie during the 2000 season, Santana pitched to a 6.49 ERA in 86 appearances coming out of the bullpen. His stuff wasn’t nearly as good as it would become, seemingly overnight. So when he made his heralded return to the majors after being sent down to work on his change-up, he worked in the bullpen for half the year. He was made a starter and then started dominating the opposition.

He won his first Cy Young Award after the 2004 season in which he went 20-6 with a 2.61 ERA and 265 strikeouts. Wowie! Where did that come from? A 95 mph fastball, a hard slider, and a ridiculous change-up that left even the A-Rod’s of the world looking silly. Some pretty strong stuff for a guy who led the MLB in wild pitches only a few years before.

2005 and 2006 brought more of the same and before you know it, Johan finally got out of small-market Minnesota and right into the Big Apple to play for the Mets. The only reason the Twins decided to dump the best pitcher they had since Bert Blyleven, was because they couldn’t afford him. In the trade they made with the Mets, the Twins got relative garbage that never really amounted to anything, while the Mets got the best pitcher in the game.

From a guy who threw 95 mph during his peak years with the Twins to a guy who now throws 91 tops, it appears something has gone wrong. Despite the fact the Johan has pitched pretty well with some lackluster performances from his team, it seems as if something has gone awry. From surgery on his pitching elbow in 2009 to his now shoulder surgery in 2010, something bad is brewing.

Whether that means the Mets training staff is incapable of preventing injury or Santana stopped using some sort of performance-enhancers, it appears the 31-year-old’s body is breaking down rather quickly. Losing velocity on all of his pitches and breaking down year after year has me losing my faith in the ace of the staff.

Johan is nowhere near the pitcher that made him the highest paid pitcher in MLB history (for a year until CC Sabathia’s contract in 2009). His dominance: Extinguished. The Mets need to start looking for a new ace because I think Johan’s time has expired.

I just hope that his body is breaking down through natural wear-and-tear and not because he was injecting himself with needles earlier in his career. Maybe the Mets training staff just sucks.

Either way, Johan is not the same pitcher from 2004 or 2006 and frankly, that scares me.

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Johan Santana: Another Season, Another Surgery—Mets Need a Durable Ace

The New York Mets have announced that Johan Santana will need surgery to repair a torn capsule in his shoulder and that his season is done. Such has been his life with the Mets.

Santana arrived in the winter of 2008 from the Minnesota Twins and was lauded as the ace that would bring the Mets to respectability after the epic collapse of the 2007 season.

At the end of the 2008 season, Santana needed to undergo knee surgery. Last year he had bone chips removed from his elbow, and now he needs shoulder surgery.

While he has pitched well, he has not lived up to the ace label except for about five to 10 games per season. He has been victimized by the Mets offense, which struggles to score runs for him, but this is team-wide; no Mets pitcher has received ample run support on many of their outings.

Late-game bullpen meltdowns have also contributed to a less than stellar record, but again, that has been the case for just about every Mets pitcher.

The Mets have now had four extremely disappointing seasons, and things will likely take a drastic turn this fall and winter, where no manager, coach, or player will feel completely safe. That is part of the business side of baseball.

It’s simple—WIN. If that is not the bottom line, changes will be made until the combination is found that will bring at least postseason play to Queens.

Injuries are no doubt part of the game, but to have three consecutive seasons end with news of impending surgery is a red flag, and the Mets need to address that this winter.

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Breaking a Promise

I usually keep my promises and I think I did a good job on this one but I have finally broken down and decided it was time to make my comments about my beloved New York Mets.

The promise was a simple one I made in Spring Training because of the major conflict I was having about my rooting status for this team. You see, I spent the entire 2009 season bashing the manager of this God forsaken club, Jerry Manuel, because, although he might be a great guy and a wonderful manager to play for, I really believe he may be, along with Art Howe, one of the worst managers not only in Mets history, but in all of baseball.

I spent article after article clearly pointing out his misuse of the pitchers, his inability to make a starting lineup where players would find themselves playing everyday, and most importantly, his in game decisions that have cost the Mets no fewer than 10 games last year, and subsequently, at least that many or more this year.

My promise however has not stopped me from watching every single game they’ve played this year from the first pitch until the last one but also attending road games in San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Phoenix, Colorado, and Philadelphia. I will not let anyone tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to the Mets.

Manuel must share the blame of this team’s failure to be consistent and win on a regular basis. Omar Minaya, hopefully in his last year as the General Manager, has once again shown that he reacts to situations rather than take the initiative and make decisions regarding players prior to the disasters that happen constantly to this team.

I’m not going to rehash what should have been done after the fact because that has already been beaten to death by more qualified writers than myself. I’d like to address what to do from this point of the season with less than 30 games left to play.

Time has run out on both Manuel and Minaya. Why bother to let them finish the season? Do they deserve to? I think not. If John Ricco is or is not the new Mets GM for next year, give him the interim title right now. It’s not that he could do anything in the final 3 weeks of the season anyway, but it would give him a head start on the winter meetings and the hot stove arena which he will be thrust into. If he’s not the man for the job, it’s no big deal as a title means nothing if you’re not able to accomplish anything anyway.

They should say “bye, bye” to Jerry as well. Lets bring Wally Backman or anybody else to be the interim manager. My reasoning for this is that we have brought the main club our top players from AA and AAA for this final run to nowhere, and personally I’d rather have anybody else for their induction into the big leagues than Jerry Manuel.

In addition to those two firings, (finally) I would shut down, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Johan Santana immediately. Reyes and Santana are easy ones. They are still hurt to some degree and despite their competitiveness, they are susceptible to re-injury more than any other player on the team. As for Beltran I’m not as concerned for him to re-injure himself, as I am to see what some of the new guys can show during the final weeks of the season. Besides, Beltran must be made accountable for waiting so long to have the surgery on his leg, thus keeping him out for the first half of the season. He is a lame duck center fielder for the Mets next year unless he decides he will need to play his ass off in his final contract year. Having the next three weeks off should give him something to think about for the winter.

Maybe somebody should make the decision on Bobby Parnell one way or the other. He’s either your full time closer or he’s not. Make up your mind already. For me, if I have a guy who hits triple figures on the radar gun, I want him as my closer. That why Bard will be the closer in Boston next year and Papelbon will be pitching somewhere else.

A number of things are for certain. Attendance is way down and you can’t blame that only on the economy. We could have had Halladay and we chose the wrong guy. Enough money could have kept us Billy Wagner who would have been our 8th inning answer and the replacement when Francisco went bazonkers on his girlfriend’s father. Castillo should have been released and Jenrry Mejia should have spent the entire year learning how to start in AAA, but I promised not to dwell on the past.

Do I feel 2011 could be a turning point year? Well maybe a little. I see 2012 being the year we will actually be back in the hunt. Next year our new manager and GM will have to be on the same page, and the ownership who has spent money foolishly needs to lock up their key players, and show confidence in their personnel and try to sell the team so we can stop hearing about the money Madoff cost them. How about Mark Cuban? Now he would be a breath of fresh air and we would have a championship flag flying above Citi Field.

Vegas Rich is officially back!

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RA Dickey or Johan Santana- Who Is the True Mets Ace?

When Johan Santana was brought to New York in the winter of 2008, it was with much fanfare that he would be the savior that brought the Mets some respectability after the collapse of 2007.

During Santana’s tenure as a Met so far, they have not won anything, in fact they are actually a worse performing team than they were in 2007. 

I am not blaming any one player or coaching staff member, but the fact is he is not the “Ace” that he was lauded for being when he was on the Minnesota Twins.

Much is written about the lack of run support that Santana receives during his starts, which is fair, but one thing is for sure, every time he takes the mound, some sort of drama ensues, and to be honest, the pitching effort he puts forth is not worth the drama that surrounds him.

Santana has an ERA of 2.98, which is respectable and for most of the summer that number was lower, but with the season-long struggle that has been the Mets offense, he was the victim of many no-decisions.  

Fair or not, these things happen, but the “innocent victim” label that many fans have given Santana is not earned either, he is part of a team; they win as a team and lose as a team.

Last season, Santana’s ERA was 3.13, so even though he does not have as many wins as he should have, his pitching has not been dominant enough to warrant the “Ace” classification.

He is a Cy Young Award winner, but to be honest, in his case along with other trades and transactions, you do have to wonder why the Minnesota Twins were so willing to let him go in exchange for five relatively unproven prospects.

During his post game interviews he is not afraid of letting the press know that one or more of his teammates did not get the job done and that is why they lost. He does not show an accountability that comes with being an “Ace.” 

He calls his own game, does not want his manager or teammates to talk to him on the mound, even if there is a strategically sound reason, this shows me that he is not a true team player.

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New York Mets: Santana Trade Shows Minaya’s Record is Not All Bad

All I hear is people bashing Omar Minaya for signing Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo to contracts they probably didn’t deserve. But where is all the praise for the positive additions that he has made happen?

I bring this up because yesterday Philip Humber of the Kansas City Royals won his first MLB game.

Humber, Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra were the four minor league prospects that were traded to the Twins for Mets ace Johan Santana. Looking back at this trade three years later, it’s obvious that Minaya committed an act of highway robbery.

Out of the four players Carlos Gomez has had the most MLB playing time. He is a pretty solid fielder and has a lot of speed, but he can’t hit a lick. He has never had an OBP over .300, lacks any power, and has a career .242 BA in almost 1,300 ABs.

Philip Humber, on the other hand, hasn’t had an extended chance at the Major League level to prove himself. Maybe that is because he has a 4.48 career ERA in the minors. At 27, this former third overall pick has little chance of amounting to anything at the Major League level.

Like Humber, Kevin Mulvey hasn’t got much of a chance at the Major League level. In 27+ innings pitched, he has recorded a 7.90 ERA with the Twins and Diamondbacks. He was the weakest of the four players of the trade, and at 25 his future isn’t promising.

Deolis Guerra is the only player involved in the trade that is still with the Twins organization. At 21 years old he still has plenty of upside, just like when the Mets traded him three years ago. He has struggled at the higher minor league levels, posting a roughly 6.00 ERA in AA and AAA combined.

Looking at where these players are now, the Twins actually have nothing to show for one of the best pitchers in baseball.

They would have been better off letting him go in free agency and receiving the two compensatory picks, since he would have been a Class A free agent. That is the thing, when you trade a proven player like Santana for prospects—you never know what you are getting in return. It ends up being a total crap shoot.

In the end, Minaya was able to obtain a top 10 pitcher in baseball for what looks to be a bunch of minor league talent.

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