Tweet
Santana deal rocks Cubs
Cy Young winner puts Mets way ahead of North Siders, who must get Bedard to have any hope of a World Series
January 31, 2008
BY GREG COUCH Sun-Times Columnist
If you haven't heard the buzz, Johan Santana already has won the National League Cy Young Award, and the New York Mets have won the pennant. Everyone gets so worked up when a big trade is made, but they still have to play all the games, nobody wins anything on paper and you never know what might happen.
That's what the Cubs are going to be saying, anyway. But forget all that garbage. I agree with the buzz. The Mets get Santana, the best pitcher in baseball, and the Cubs get a 100-year anniversary.
ยป Click to enlarge image
Johan Santana
(AP)
In New York, there is fallout over why the Yankees didn't get him and why the Mets did, as if those are the only two teams. In Chicago, both teams are short on starting pitching, and no one ever talked about Santana coming here.
The Mets traded a bunch of prospects to Minnesota for Santana, and a few details have to be worked out before it's final. Santana and the Mets have to agree to a contract extension, which they will.
The White Sox are happy because a pitcher who kept humiliating them is no longer in their division or their league. The Twins probably wouldn't have traded him to the Sox anyway, not wanting to help a division rival. But that's no excuse for the rotation the Sox have put together.
Whatever, they just jumped Minnesota and now are a third-place team, somewhere around .500. Two more starting pitchers, a center fielder and a leadoff hitter by Opening Day, and who knows? They can compete for the wild card.
Take the next step
The thing is, this trade kills the Cubs.
Kills them.
If they want to have a chance at getting past the Mets and into the World Series without a miracle, they have to answer back.
And that means grabbing Erik Bedard from Baltimore. I called for this two weeks ago, but now the problem is much bigger.
The Seattle Mariners are trying to get Bedard out of Baltimore, but Orioles owner Peter Angelos has a way of flipping out just before making a trade. This wouldn't be a bad time for the Cubs, with all their prospects and revenue streams, to muscle in and make a big offer. Felix Pie, Rich Hill and Sean Marshall all can go.
Bedard is a No. 1 pitcher, a lefty starter who will turn 29 in March. And suddenly, something is holding up the Seattle trade.
''We continue to talk,'' Orioles president Andy MacPhail, who could do more for the Cubs right now than he ever did when he worked for them, told the Baltimore Sun. ''We've had some other clubs chime in, as well.''
None of the rumors include the Cubs.
You're going to see a million stories this year about the Cubs' anniversary. As you know, they last won the World Series in 1908. We'll hear about who the president was back then, what was the price of milk. Stuff like that. We'll get a history lesson on the Cubs and their failures. People will think it's cute and call them the Cubbies. We'll hear about curses and goats and Bartman.
And when people ask whether Cubs fans believe in curses, I hope they'll say this: I believe in Johan Santana. I believe in Erik Bedard.
The Cubs spent decades not even trying to win. It's different now. The front office is trying. They spent all that money last year, and this year they've already gotten outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.
But they don't seem to realize how far they were last year from being a success. They barely beat a bunch of small-market teams to win a weak division in a weak league, and that doesn't count. Then they were swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Falling farther behind
Don't the Cubs realize the whole season was a flop. It wasn't just a bad week in the playoffs. The Cubs aren't good enough. And now, with the Mets getting Santana, they're even farther behind.
Sure, they're good enough to win that division again this year. They probably will. But that means nothing.
The Mets have better starting pitching than the Cubs, a better closer, better hitting, better balance.
The Cubs are going into spring training with the strange concept that having a whole bunch of mediocre starters at the end of the rotation is the key to success. Keep in mind that whoever the No. 5 starter is, he won't make the postseason roster.
In the playoffs, you need three top starters. The Cubs don't have that.
If they truly accepted that last year was a failure, then they would see that this team isn't ready to break any 99-year slump. Especially now that the Mets have decided to win, sneaking in and grabbing Santana when there was never any discussion about him here.
Oh, well, you can always blame the goat again.
Cy Young winner puts Mets way ahead of North Siders, who must get Bedard to have any hope of a World Series
January 31, 2008
BY GREG COUCH Sun-Times Columnist
If you haven't heard the buzz, Johan Santana already has won the National League Cy Young Award, and the New York Mets have won the pennant. Everyone gets so worked up when a big trade is made, but they still have to play all the games, nobody wins anything on paper and you never know what might happen.
That's what the Cubs are going to be saying, anyway. But forget all that garbage. I agree with the buzz. The Mets get Santana, the best pitcher in baseball, and the Cubs get a 100-year anniversary.
ยป Click to enlarge image
Johan Santana
(AP)
In New York, there is fallout over why the Yankees didn't get him and why the Mets did, as if those are the only two teams. In Chicago, both teams are short on starting pitching, and no one ever talked about Santana coming here.
The Mets traded a bunch of prospects to Minnesota for Santana, and a few details have to be worked out before it's final. Santana and the Mets have to agree to a contract extension, which they will.
The White Sox are happy because a pitcher who kept humiliating them is no longer in their division or their league. The Twins probably wouldn't have traded him to the Sox anyway, not wanting to help a division rival. But that's no excuse for the rotation the Sox have put together.
Whatever, they just jumped Minnesota and now are a third-place team, somewhere around .500. Two more starting pitchers, a center fielder and a leadoff hitter by Opening Day, and who knows? They can compete for the wild card.
Take the next step
The thing is, this trade kills the Cubs.
Kills them.
If they want to have a chance at getting past the Mets and into the World Series without a miracle, they have to answer back.
And that means grabbing Erik Bedard from Baltimore. I called for this two weeks ago, but now the problem is much bigger.
The Seattle Mariners are trying to get Bedard out of Baltimore, but Orioles owner Peter Angelos has a way of flipping out just before making a trade. This wouldn't be a bad time for the Cubs, with all their prospects and revenue streams, to muscle in and make a big offer. Felix Pie, Rich Hill and Sean Marshall all can go.
Bedard is a No. 1 pitcher, a lefty starter who will turn 29 in March. And suddenly, something is holding up the Seattle trade.
''We continue to talk,'' Orioles president Andy MacPhail, who could do more for the Cubs right now than he ever did when he worked for them, told the Baltimore Sun. ''We've had some other clubs chime in, as well.''
None of the rumors include the Cubs.
You're going to see a million stories this year about the Cubs' anniversary. As you know, they last won the World Series in 1908. We'll hear about who the president was back then, what was the price of milk. Stuff like that. We'll get a history lesson on the Cubs and their failures. People will think it's cute and call them the Cubbies. We'll hear about curses and goats and Bartman.
And when people ask whether Cubs fans believe in curses, I hope they'll say this: I believe in Johan Santana. I believe in Erik Bedard.
The Cubs spent decades not even trying to win. It's different now. The front office is trying. They spent all that money last year, and this year they've already gotten outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.
But they don't seem to realize how far they were last year from being a success. They barely beat a bunch of small-market teams to win a weak division in a weak league, and that doesn't count. Then they were swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Falling farther behind
Don't the Cubs realize the whole season was a flop. It wasn't just a bad week in the playoffs. The Cubs aren't good enough. And now, with the Mets getting Santana, they're even farther behind.
Sure, they're good enough to win that division again this year. They probably will. But that means nothing.
The Mets have better starting pitching than the Cubs, a better closer, better hitting, better balance.
The Cubs are going into spring training with the strange concept that having a whole bunch of mediocre starters at the end of the rotation is the key to success. Keep in mind that whoever the No. 5 starter is, he won't make the postseason roster.
In the playoffs, you need three top starters. The Cubs don't have that.
If they truly accepted that last year was a failure, then they would see that this team isn't ready to break any 99-year slump. Especially now that the Mets have decided to win, sneaking in and grabbing Santana when there was never any discussion about him here.
Oh, well, you can always blame the goat again.