FanHouse TimMarchman

The Johan Santana sweepstakes hasn't really heated up yet, though we do know of at least one team (the Yankees) actively working with the Twins to make a deal. The question that still lingers, though: is Santana worth the price of admission? Are three top young prospects too much to ask for a 29-year-old pitcher?

The answer is no, and Tim Marchman has the reasons why:

This gaudy résumé vastly understates how valuable Santana is. Among pitchers, he is by far the surest bet in baseball; he literally has no weaknesses.

Still in his early prime, Santana throws in the middle 90s, changes speeds masterfully, and has unrivaled control, and thus should be able to easily adjust when, years from now, he does lose a bit of his edge to age. He has never thrown more than 120 pitches in a game, and despite this has averaged 228 innings the last four years. From 25 to 28, he has pitched 912.1 innings, and his park-adjusted ERA has been 56% better than average. Since integration, two pitchers have done better at the same ages while pitching at least 800 innings: Martinez and Maddux. Roger Clemens's mark was exactly the same.

The only recent parallel for a pitcher anywhere near this young and this good being traded is Martinez. [...]

Considering Pedro Martinez went on to have some of the best seasons in the history of the game post-trade, that is lofty, lofty praise. Considering pitching prospects are a crapshoot, and Santana is Santana, there's no reason a team should shy away from making this deal. The question now is whether the Yankees and others will have the goods -- and will be willing to deal them -- to get as much of a can't miss thing as there is in baseball today.

In light of A-Rod's recent tear -- he hit six home runs last week and has 15 in the last 30 days -- questions about his future are bound to keep popping up. If the Yankees hold their position, there are only a few other teams that will be able to afford a $30 million man. Who will it be? Tim Marchman's answer is probably not music to any Yankee fan's ears:

Yankees fans aren't going to want to hear this, but the Boston Red Sox, the second-richest team in baseball, have an enormous amount of money to spend. Curt Schilling, Matt Clement, Mike Lowell, and Eric Hinske, among others, will all be free agents at the end of this year, leaving the Sox with few holes on their team and nearly $50 million to spend. After next year they'll be free of $28 million in obligations to Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek. In 2004, they demonstrated their willingness to go to near-absurd lengths to lay hands on Rodriguez, and of course little could be a more worthy expenditure than grabbing their top rival's best player to fill a position of need. It sounds sensational, but there truly isn't a better fit for Rodriguez, and the smart money looks to be either on him making his way to Boston, or on the threat of his doing so forcing the Yankee chieftains to relent and make a liar out of their GM. This will cause great glee for Sox fans either way.

While I'm not sold on the idea that Brian Cashman will somehow sully his good reputation by changing his mind and dealing with A-Rod -- that would just be solid business, after all -- the Red Sox truly do still seem like the frontrunner for Mr. Rod's services. Just how upsetting this would be to the Red Sox-Yankees equilibrium, and to both fanbases, would, at the very least, be incredibly entertaining. Please, please, please let it happen. Please?Sorry, No Photos

I know, I know, it sounds far fetched. There's probably no way, in this day and age, any front office would be willing to hand over the reigns of a team to a player-manager, even one as potentially admirable as Derek Jeter. But the New York Sun's Tim Marchman floated this idea today, and you know what? It ain't half bad:

He's a proven winner, a champion who knows New York intimately and has earned the respect and admiration of his peers; a man who's demonstrated complete and absolute mastery of the art of saying nothing of any interest whatsoever, so crucial for a Yankees manager; a man supported by all elements of the fractious Yankees bureaucracy; a man whose appointment as manager would not satisfy the organizational yearning for macho bluster but would be such a triumph of sentiment that it wouldn't matter. He's a man who can be groomed for the job starting right now, one who can be trusted to never embarrass the team or its fans, and one who could not only immediately surpass his Hall of Fame predecessor in the hearts of the faithful but easily manage the team for 30 years: The shortstop, the icon, the captain. Derek Jeter.

In comparison to the other candidates within the Yankees organization, Jeter actually seems like a viable option. That might have more to do with just how bad all of those options seem, but still: this could work. It used to happen all the time (Marchman references Frank Robinson) and if any player could pull this off in this day and age, it would be Jeter.

At the same time, Derek might be better off focusing on his own range a wee bit. The hitting's up this year, but that fielding ... yeesh. Maybe he and Torre should just switch positions outright, and Jeter can DH. Actually, maybe it's just time Jeter pitched. And played left field. And bat boy ...