Comments on: For eight lucky winners, their UmpBump fantasies now reality

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:21:22 +0000

Hey, I just noticed that I’m the last pick. This makes me that kid from the playground picks back in school.

You know that last kid no one wants but they have to take just to even up the teams.

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By: caitlin grace

caitlin grace — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:07:55 +0000

thanks for selecting me, looking forward to it, keep me posted on the details

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By: Kirk

Kirk — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:01:29 +0000

Thanks for recognizing the wisdom of booing Dusty Baker.

Say, what are the settings for this league. I would like to prepare a little.

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By: Paul Moro

Paul Moro — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:21:46 +0000

You’re a good man, Doug.

By the way, I’ve also been known to do great impressions of Frank Caliendo. Immediately recognizable and unmistakable.

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By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:18:32 +0000

And here I was thinking I got in because I was a commissioner of a 12 team league.

Thanks for the invite…

oh I’m a Mets fan!

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By: Ania

Ania — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:29:40 +0000

Thanks for your first edit, Sarah. It’s not like i *don’t* root for the phillies, after all. Which brings me to your second edit, to which i can only respond, back off! find another team for your insulting similes.

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By: Zvee Geffen

Zvee Geffen — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:17:14 +0000

Nick and Melissa, you raise interesting points about the draft picks. Certainly, if they had any faith in their scouting system, they could have come out remarkably well with the picks they would have received for losing Santana—no worse than they did in the trade, at least.

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By: melissa

melissa — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:53:35 +0000

Nick, I agree with your whole concept of “can’t afford” Santana. I think you are correct about the Twins not wanting to afford him more so than not being able to afford him. I also remember the Twins offering him a deal and the years were more of an issue than the dollars. They were willing to give him $20 million per year but only for 4 years. I also agree that they may have been better off letting the year unfold and taking the draft picks if they couldn’t come to an agreement with him. He may have been willing to resign after he saw that the Twins were going to spend the money to resign other young stars. They are also probably going to have to move Mauer to first or DH him before long. That does tend to make me question why they would throw all of that money at Morneau and basically give Santana away.

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By: Paul Moro

Paul Moro — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:46:00 +0000

What baffled me most about the Santana trade is not that they made the trade, but that they traded him for mostly pitching. By all accounts the Twins have are more loaded with solid pitching prospects than any team besides the Tampa Bay Rays.

Of course, there is the maxim that you can never have too much pitching, which I generally agree with, but what the Twins really need more than anything right now is some position players, especially at the crucial “up the middle” positions of shortstop, second base, and center field, which are currently projected to be manned by Adam Everett, Brendan Harris, and a question mark.

While it’s true that Carlos Gomez is a centerfield prospect, he has yet to show any ability to get on base at a high rate and at best should spend a few more years in the minors. If the Twins rush him to the majors this year, I think that will only cramp his development and hurt his value, and even if they are more patient, I’m not sure Gomez is going to be all that awesome. Meanwhile, the Twins added a bunch of pitching prospects which all project out to be 4th-starter types.

If the Twins were going to trade Santana, they should have traded him for some blue-chip position players, even if it was only one or two of them, for example Santana for Ellsbury straight up, or something, which I bet the Sox would have taken. I think the feeling that Bill Smith had to get quantity as well as quality ultimately hurt the quality he got.

And if the Twins couldn’t have found a deal for good position players, I actually think they should have just played out the season with Santana, or even signed him to an extension for whatever the cost would be. Because I’m not so sure that the value the Twins could have gotten out of another year of Santana plus two high draft picks wouldn’t be better than what they got out of the Mets, and I’m also not sure that the Twins truly can’t afford Santana, although obviously that was something they never even considered.

Because this is a team that is about to get a new stadium, and baseball is also flush with cash right now. What does it mean to say that the Twins “can’t afford” Santana? It really just means that Carl Pohlad, one of the richest men in America, doesn’t want to afford Santana. If the Twins had just said “let’s do this thing” and signed Santana, Cuddyer, and Morneau, would it have been the end of the world for them? No, it would not have, because of the new stadium, the Advanced Media kickback, revenue sharing, and the fact that the rest of their team is all young and super cheap. And they would have had three great young players locked up as the core of a contender for several years.

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By: Zvee Geffen

Zvee Geffen — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:21:04 +0000

I was wondering about the possibility of a hometown discount. I didn’t see it happening, especially since the Twins probably couldn’t have kept Morneau if they’d kept Santana. It seems like not only did he want a ton of money, he also wanted to play for a team that could contend. If he’d stayed with the Twins, those two things probably would have been mutually exclusive.

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