Big Deals

There have been two big trades in the American Sports World this week and both were complete today. The first was between baseballs New York Mets and Minnesota Twins in which the Mets sent 4 minor league prospects to the Twins in exchange the highly sought after pitcher Johan Santana. Santana has arguably been the best pitcher in baseball for the past 4 years in which he has had 4 straight 15 win seasons and his highest era was last season at 3.33. Even though his era was up and his wins were down last season compared to the previous three season, Santana still managed 235 strikeouts and was still dominate almost every game. The Twins last year were plagued by early injuries and just never really got on the winning track the rest of the season, compared to winning the American League Central Division Title 4 of the past 6 seasons in which Santana played a huge part in that, if not the biggest. Santana will make a huge impact in the National League and now has the Mets in the driver seat as the team to beat. Already a team stacked with offensive talent the Mets last season lacked a strong starting pitching staff behind John Maine and in turn the Mets couldn't repeat their divison title. Johan Santana will get them back over that hump and the Mets really will be an amazing team and should finish with the best record in the NL. I also feel that he will lead the NL in wins and probably era. Its not a bold prediction what so ever, but a Cy Young should be in his hands by the end of the 2008 season. As for the Twins, they received 4 minor league prospects, 3 of which are pitchers. All have decent minor league numbers, nothing to turn our heads about just yet but the Twins have been very good about bringing players up from the minors and them having success in the big leagues. I can't wait to see how much Santana is going to get on his contract extension because he can definitely get above 7 years 125 million like Barry Zito got last season, and you know the Mets didn't do this trade without knowing what the cost was going to be.

The next trade was today in the NBA between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Mephis Grizzlies. I don't think the idea of this trade was ever surfaced and I really don't think fans saw it coming. The Lakers traded the 2001 number one overall pick center Kwame Brown, last years first round pick guard Javaris Crittenton and two future first round picks in exchange for center/power forward Pau Gasol. This trade is good for both teams but in much different ways. After losing Andrew Bynum to a knee injury on January 13th the Lakers have gone just 3-5 since. Kwame Brown has stepped but hasn't done much and has been criticized for not being nearly as atheltic as Bynum, I agree with the critics. Now, the Lakers look like they have a real shot at the NBA title this season, especially when Bynum returns. That will give them Bynum at center, Gasol and Odom at power forward, Derek Fisher at point guard, and of course Kobe Bryant at shooting guard. Now how is that for a starting five? I say best in the West. Is the NBA going to see two of the best NBA franchises of all-time meet in the NBA championship with the Lakers vs Celtics? Maybe its too early for me to bark something like that but I think it just might happen. Gasol has been a great player throughout his career but has just been on a bad team with the Grizzlies. Gasol is always around 20 ppg 9 rpg 3 apg and 2 bpg which are stellar numbers and any team would love to have him. Oh yeah, Gasol is 7 feet tall, just like Bynum. As for the Grizzlies, this trade was actualyl really good for them too if your optimistic because they are getting 2 future first round picks, and 2 previous first round picks, and it will open up some salary cap room. I'm happy for Gasol though because now he really has a good chance of winning a champioship before the end of his career. The Lakers are now in the elite teams in the west with the Spurs, Mavericks, and Suns.

**any stats used I borrowed from espn.com**