Johan Santana. Metropolitan at Large.

My original intent of this post was to break down the pursuit of Johan Santana by the Red Sox, Mets and Yankees. But seeing as how Omar Minaya went and ruined the surprise ending, I'll just go ahead and start off with a short editorial and go from there.

HELL YEAH.

Ok, there's that out of my system. So what happened? It seems like there were two major story lines as to the give and take of what the Twins were looking to receive and what the three major players were willing to give. What analysts (and most likely Twins management, for that matter) were trying to figure out was whether the Twins were primarily seeking "Major League ready" talent or prospects that were still one or several years away from the big leagues.

The Yankees led the charge with Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera. Cabrera is an established Major Leaguer with a nice resume. Hughes, though in a relatively small sample size, fared pretty well in his debut season with the pitching-decimated 2007 Yankees. However, from most reports, the Twins were seeking the services of Ian Kennedy as well, a top pitching prospect with a successful cup of coffee with the big league club.

The Red Sox offered up two packages; one featured centerfield phenom, Jacoby Ellsbury, and the other featured 24 year-old starter Jon Lester, both deals including several prospects. Their deal seemed to be a median of Major League talent and high value prospects. The snag for the Twins again appeared to be greediness, as they sought a deal that would include both Ellsbury and Lester.

The Mets had been mentioned as an afterthought early in the offseason, being generally regarded as short on tradeable talent. It had been clear from day one that the Mets were unwilling to trade the likes of Jose Reyes, and would stick to a package of minor league prospects, seen as a weaker proposal by most critics.

Three distinctly unique offers were on Minnesota's plate. Some have argued that a strong recent history of small market dominance through the nurturing of farm system talent indicates that the Twins were not pressed into accepting an inferior deal. Other, maybe more cynical, critics argue that the Twins had run out of options since the Red Sox and Yankees had pulled their offers from the negotiations. I'll dissect the latter of the two arguments next post in the second of a 238 part series tentatively entitled, "Johan Santana: Baseball Angel Sent From God, Apparent Mets Fan"