Results tagged “cyyoung”

It may have taken a few extra hours, but the Mets finally got their man. The Mets and Johan Santana agreed to a six-year, $137.5 million contract, with a club option for a seventh year. When the Mets and Twins agreed to the trade on Tuesday, Major League Baseball gave the Mets and Santana until 5 p.m. Friday to reach a deal. With the deadline approaching yesterday, but no agreement reached, the two sides asked for, and were given, a two-hour extension. What's a couple of hours when you're working out the richest contract for a pitcher in baseball history? All that's left now is a physical for the players involved in the trade. Santana will take his today.

The big sports news of the day isn't the Super Bowl. It's the probable Johan Santana trade that the Mets and Twins agreed to yesterday. And from the reaction of the local papers and sportswriters, it seems like the Mets pulled a fast one on the rubes from Minnesota. If the Mets can sign Santana to a contract extension, it's likely that he will become the highest paid pitcher in baseball, surpassing Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants. It's believed that Santana and his agent Peter Greenberg are looking for a 6 or 7-year deal in the range of $20-25 million per year.

The Mets have finally landed a much needed arm to lead their rotation. USA Today is reporting that the Minnesota Twins and the Mets have agreed to terms for pitcher Johan Santana. The two-time Cy Young winner comes to the Mets at a high cost, with the Mets delivering outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins. Conditions of the deal include the Mets and Santana reaching agreement on a contract (rumored at six or seven year contract extension in the area of $150 million) and that Santana passes a physical. According to USA Today Santana and the Mets have between 48-72 hours to reach an agreement.

As if baseball didn’t have enough problems Curt Schilling has decided to weigh in on the Mitchell Report. Schiling, the never-shy pitcher for the Red Sox opined that Roger Clemens should either clear his name or give up his four Cy Young awards won after 1997.

"If he doesn't do that then there aren't many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and three Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using [performance-enhancing drugs]. Just like I stated about Jose [Canseco], if that is the case with Roger, the four Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners, and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations."

• Twins 6, Yankees 2: Beating Johan Santana is tough enough with an A lineup. Doing it with three reserves becomes nearly impossible. The Yankees tried and failed to beat the Cy Young Award winner by sending out Kevin Thompson, Miguel Cairo and Wil Nieves on the same day. Part of the blame goes to manager Joe Torre for choosing to rest everyone en masse, but part of the blame can rest on the Yankees' perpetual indifference to who is on their bench.
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With the Mets outfield still affected by injuries, Beltran needs to step up. His problem is his banged-quad, an ailment that is clearly affecting him at the plate. Who knows when Moises Alou will return? Shawn Green will likely see a decline after his hot start. Carlos Gomez has been all but useless. Why not try Ricky Ledee instead? The journeyman outfielder hit a home run to help his cause Monday. On Tuesday, the Mets face American Leauge Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana. Good luck with that.

When Carlos Delgado hit a three-run homer in the first inning, Fox might have started to think about which reruns to air next week instead of baseball. Much to the network's delight -- and the Mets' chagrin -- the Cardinals rallied to a 9-6 win over the Mets on Friday to even the best-of-seven series at one game apiece. With the scored tied at 6 in the ninth, Mets closer Billy Wagner came in and promptly gave up a solo homer to So Taguchi. He allowed two more runs before leaving with two outs in the ninth. His poor outing was one of several by Mets pitchers in a game in which the they couldn't hold leads of 3-0, 4-2, and 6-4.

After making quick work of the Dodgers in the division series, the Mets start a four-of-seven series against the Cardinals tonight. As they stand four wins away from the World Series, the Mets look across at a team that -- like the Dodgers -- could be vulnerable on the mound, especially in the bullpen. The Cardinals have been inconsistent all year, and their pitching has been a big reason why.

-Mets 6, Nationals 2: From the Mets' persepctive, the only notable part of this game was Cliff Floyd's return to the lineup. Bothered by a left achilles tendon injury, Floyd hit leadoff to get extra plate appearances. He'll know Monday if he'll play in Game 1 of the playoffs on Wednesday, but the Mets know they'll welcome the Dodgers, the wild card winner. San Diego's win clinched them the NL West; they'll play the Cardinals.

In a sad turn for Dwight Gooden, the former pitcher for the Mets and Yankees, admitted in a Florida court yesterday to using cocaine. Gooden was on parole for a DUI incident last August and told his parole officer last week that he was using cocaine. After taking a drug test and testing positive, Gooden was arrested. It is expected that Gooden will face some prison time after his sentencing on April 5th. He faces a maximum of 5 years for violating his parole.

The New York Post is reporting that Derek Jeter will win the Gold Glove today. The Gold Glove, presented to the best fielder at each position, will be Jeter's 2nd in a row. Jeter's .979 fielding percentage was good for 2nd best for eligible players in the American League.

For those of you who thought the low-point of the 2005 Yankee season was losing three out of four games to the Devil Rays, guess again. The Kansas City Royals, winners of only 26 percent of their games before this series, completed a three game sweep of the Yankees Thursday night with a 5-2 victory. For the series, the Yankees managed to score a total of six runs against a pitching staff with an ERA of 5.44.

The offense for the Mets was supplied by Cliff Floyd and his bat. After starting the season with a 23-game hitting streak, Floyd was in a 2-22 slump entering the game. One might say that changed with his two home runs last night off of Staten Island's Jason Marquis, who only allowed three hits in seven innings.

Clemens was welcomed with a chorus of boos that lasted the whole game, but again pitched well. The 42 year old, and reigning Cy Young award winner, pitched 7 innings, giving up only 2 hits and 1 walk, surrendering no runs and striking out 9. His Mets counterpart, Kaz Ishii, also pitched well. Ishii also went 7 innings and allowed 2 hits, 3 walks and had 5 K's. Control problems, Ishii? Nah.

Seems like the issue for the Yankees is their starting pitching. Mike Mussina and Jon Lieber are the probable starters for games one and two, but the other two starters remains a question until the Yankees officially file their post season roster and Joe Torre makes a decision on Orlando Hernandez's status. The NY Times reports that Jason Giambi will be left off the post-season roster and Javier Vazquez will pitch in long relief. Torre has yet to make an announcement as to who he will pitch in game three, but Brian Cashman says the Yankees are going to have 11 pitchers on the post-season roster. As they say, pitching wins the post-season. The Twins will start Johan Santana, a solid candidate for the Cy Young award, in game one followed by Brad Radke in game two. MLB.com is reporting that Hernandez is the tentative starter for game three, which considering his performance in recent outings is rather surprising. In his past two starts, both against Toronto, Hernandez has given up 10 total runs in 9.1 innings of total work. His surgically repaired shoulder has been acting up, but the Yankees may not have anywhere else to turn. Then again, the Yankees have had poor pitching all year and they've managed to win 100+ games.

In the cases of Clemens, Johnson, and Bonds, their rigorous workout regimens have helped them age better. Gothamist still sticks with our last entry on this subject, when we thought that if you can still play, you should. It's the people that aren't as good that should retire. You hear that JoePa?