And why? 

I live in Michigan now, although a grew up a Yankee fan in New York, and I had the discussion with a friend the other day about how there really isn’t one good sports columnist in the entire state. Michael Rosenberg, who writes for the Detroit Free Press, is proof of that. Here goes:  

So if you’re Brian Cashman, what is the worst part of this?

Nick Shlain: That the Tigers and Indians, teams the Yankees might be fighting for the wild card with, won’t have to face Santana this year? Na, that’s too logical of an answer.

That somebody else got Johan Santana?

That the Red Sox got Santana? Nope, didn’t happen…. Why is this bad again?

That the somebody else in question was the cross-city, tabloid-headline-seeking rival Mets?

tabloid-headline-seeking rival? What? There is another team in NY? Who cares about the chokey-Mc-choke-choke Mets?

That Hank Steinbrenner, who wanted Santana, will get increasingly agitated as Santana dominates the National League?

This makes no sense at all. How does Santana dominating in the Junior Varsity NL East prove anything? That in no way, shape or form shows that he’d do just as good in the AL East and that he’d be worth Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Melky Cabrera and  like $200M.

That you’re in the last year of your contract?

This didn’t all of a sudden happen. Even without the Johan trade he’d be in the last year of his contract. Sure, he might not be a Yankee next year, but there are 29 other organizations that would love to have a baseball mind like Brian Cashman’s around.

The answer is … none of the above.

Damn! 

No, the worst part for Cashman is that people will claim he should have gotten Santana, and they will be right.

Just like he should’ve traded for Eric Gagne at the deadline last year, right? The people who say Cash should’ve traded Hughes, IPK, Melky for Johan are morons. You don’t give up that kind of young cost-controlled talent for the right to pay a guy $200M. You just don’t do it.

Cashman could have had Santana. He should have had Santana. And he might really, seriously regret this.

No, he seriously won’t.

Johan Santana is the best pitcher in baseball. He is in his prime. He would have been well worth the price that Cashman would have had to pay, and here is why:

Oh boy, I’m giddy.

The Yankees, as you may have heard, spend a lot of money. Their 2007 payroll was $218.3 million. Some perspective: that is more than the combined payrolls of the Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. The Yankees will spend more on the left side of their infield than Florida or Tampa Bay will spend on their entire major-league rosters.

I think that’s more of an indictment of Florida and Tampa Bay than the Yankees, but point taken, they spend money like none other.

This is not another woe-is-baseball, why-do-the-Yankees-spend-so-much-and-can’t-we-have-daytime-World-Series-games rant. It’s their money. They can spend it.

Okay, what’s your point? That if they would’ve made this deal, you’d be writting a woe-is-baseball all-the-yankees-do-is-buy-championships column?

My point is that that kind of cash can buy all sorts of goodies. It virtually ensures that the Yankees will have one of the best lineups in baseball every single year. It means they can take a $40 million mulligan on Carl Pavano. It allows the Yankees to sign a setup man for closer-type money.

….So?

But that money cannot give the Yankees the most valuable commodity in the sport: a true ace. Not just a No. 1 starter, but an elite No. 1 starter — a guy who contends for Cy Young Awards more often than not. There are only a few of them out there, and they rarely become available before they hit 30. Santana turns 29 in March.

Hey Mike, the way to get those ‘true ace’ guys is not by trade or through free agency because then you have to pay way too much, like is the case here. The way to do that is scouting and the draft. Thanks to Brian Cashman and Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees already have Chien-Ming Wang in the majors contending for Cy Youngs along with two studs that project as number ones: Phil Hughes, who you are suggesting the Yanks get rid of, and Joba Chamberlain, perhaps you’ve heard of him?

Santana instantly would have been the most valuable player on the Yankees roster. Yes, more valuable than Alex Rodriguez, the best position player in the game.

WARP3 from 2004-2007

ARod 44
Johan 42

It’s close, but I wouldn’t say Johan.

Here is why: if Rodriguez left the Yankees, they would at least have a shot at making up for his production by improving at other positions. If A-Rod had left as a free agent, the Yankees could have signed, say, Mike Lowell, then used the leftover cash to upgrade another position. It wouldn’t have been ideal, but the Yankees could still put together a playoff-quality lineup that way. But there is no way to replace a No. 1 starter. You can’t just improve the rest of your pitching staff; it’s not the same.

What does Mike Lowell having a contract year have anything to do with ARod vs. Santana? Really how fucking off topic is Rosenberg right now? This column is supposed to be stupid reasoning about how Brian Cashman doens’t know what he’s doing, not an idiotic debate peice on Santana and ARod where the only criteria is other free agents. Jeez.

The Yankees should know this. The key to their 1996-2000 championship stretch was … drumroll, please … an abundance of TRUE YANKEES!

 Add the True Yankee tag. Done.

No, I’m kidding.

Damn, he’s not as dumb as I thought, but he’s close.  

The key was great starting pitching and dominant relief pitching.

Did it help that the Yankees never scored under 4.99 R/G in a season over that time? I thought the key was good starting pitching, dominant offense and Mariano.

In last year’s American League Division Series, nominal Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang gave up 12 runs in 5.7 innings over two starts. That, more than the infamous midges or Derek Jeter’s struggles, is what doomed the Yankees. Two miserable starts in a four-game series are almost impossible to overcome, especially against a great team.

Yeah, Wang was the biggest reason why the Yankees lost. But, it’s not like he’s some terrible pitcher the Yankees had to make their ace because their pitching sucks so bad. He has posted ERA+s in the 120s two years in a row.

Santana, meanwhile, has not give up 12 runs in any two-start span since April 2000.

Santana is better than Wang, so the Yankees should give away all of their prospects and all of the gold in Switzerland for him.

Santana is also a proven postseason pitcher; in his last three starts, going back to 2004, he has a 1.35 ERA. Over his career, Santana’s second-half numbers are significantly better than his first-half numbers.

Santana is very good, but he isn’t worth the price for the Yankees.

And why did the Yankees withdraw from talks? Because they didn’t want to trade Philip Hughes.

Yes, correct, bingo.

Now, odds are good that Hughes will turn into a consistent starter. He might be a top-of-the-rotation guy. But the chances of him being as great as Santana are extremely slim.

I wouldn’t say extremely, but that’s not the point any way. Hughes is a young player with 6 cost-controlled years left for the Yankees. So is Cabrera and so is IPK. The chances of Santana being worth the money (likely in the neighborhood of $150M) and the prospects given up are slim.

It would have been well worth it for the Yankees to use Hughes in a package to get Santana.

No it fucking wouldn’t.  

It should have taken Cashman 0.004 seconds to throw in Melky Cabrera, a nice player who is quite replaceable.

Who is going to replace Melky? He’s so damn replaceable that you didn’t name one damn replacement. 

I don’t see Brett Gardner as a regular on a playoff team, he’s not going to make the Yankees out of camp anyway. Mike Cameron is signed elsewhere. Johnny Damon is a disaster on defense. Hideki Matsui can barely still play left. I don’t even want to mention Bernie Williams. Brad Wilkerson is a free agent… Uh… Turns out Melky isn’t as replaceable as you may think.  

And since the Yankees’ farm system is deeper than the Mets’ by almost any measure, Cashman could have come up with a more attractive package than what the Mets offered.

Yeah and I’m sure he did, but the Twins weren’t willing to listen unless Phil Hughes was in the mix and the Yanks wanted no part of that, rightly so.

Yeah, they would have paid Santana a lot of money — a lot more than Hughes or Kennedy would get. So what? They are the Yankees. Hank Steinbrenner washes his armpits with hundred-thousand-dollar bills. The benefits of having a very good, cheap, young player are diminished for a team with such a high payroll.

You just poo-pooed spending $150M with a very disturbing image involving Hank, armpits and large quantities of money. Gross, please stop.

The Yankees are built to take their best shot at the World Series every single year. There is no better weapon in that quest than Johan Santana.

That is where you’re wrong. The Yankees aren’t built to take their best shot at a WS every year. They are built to take *a* shot at the WS every year while keeping the future in mind at the same time. Anyone who knows how Brian Cashman works would know this. A random national columnist who is bored, doesn’t understand/pay attention to baseball prospects and wants to take pot shots wouldn’t.

Thanks for playing Mike, I hope Johan gets hurt and Phil wins the AL Cy Young just for your sake now. Oh, and that Fox sports.com takes back the money you’ve been stealing from them the last few months.