Johan Santana, Small market baseball

It would be nice to see Johan Santana pitch for someone other than the Yankees or Red sox next season. The Twins will trade him to the team that gives them the most talent in return and that could very well be the Yankees. If they are going to trade Santana they almost have to get one of the Yankees young pitchers in return or the deal would not be worth it. The same thing is true if they were to trade him to the Red Sox and I think the Twins organization is smart enough to realize that. They are very few teams that are better at scouting and developing young talent. It will be crushing for Twins fans to see Santana go but they shouldn't become totally hopeless. They have Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau two of the best young hitters in baseball and when you combine that with a healthy Fransisco Liriano and their other up and coming young pitchers you have the makings of a team that could once again contend if they avoid injuries. The worst thing about this situation is the fact that the Twins are like a lot of other teams in baseball they scout and develop great young talent who go on to star for big market teams when they can no longer afford them. I would like to see more of a balance of power in baseball because it makes the game more exciting. Sometimes these "Small market" teams will develop so much talent that they will win the World Series before their players become too expensive to keep around. The 2003 Florida Marlins are my favorite example of this, they had a lot more talent on that team than most people realized and they really shocked the baseball world. I happened to live in Miami at the time and I can tell you that they took the city by storm. It was a fun thing to watch. The one thing about that team that set it apart was Ivan Rodriguez and the Marlins had to spend some money to get him. The Twins don't look like a team that is ever willing to spend extra money to get that type of a player the kind of player that can put a young team over the top.