All I want for Christmas is Johan Santana

I'm a big fan of Johan Santana. The guy is among the best pitchers in the entire league and he's done it while playing for a relatively crappy team in Minnesota. They also have some unsafe bridges there, which I'm sure didn't help his pitching or the fact that he pitches in one of the worst parks in all of baseball. Johan was 15-13 last year, having pitched 219 innings with 235 strikeouts. I'm no math wizard, but that's about 1 strikeout for every inning pitched. He also had an ERA of 3.33. The guy will be 29 years old before the start of the 2008 season and I think the World Champion Red Sox need to do everything in their power to trade for this guy and then sign him to a long term deal worth $110-120 over the next five years. It's not my money so what do I care? Make it $140 for 6 years if Theo wants.

The Red Sox haven't had a quality left-handed starter since the days of Bruce Hurst and he wasn't even that good. Johan could be one of the best pitchers ever when all is said and done. Can you imagine a pitching staff with Johan Santana, Josh Beckett, Daiske Matsuzaka, Curt Shilling and Tim Wakefield. Yeah, Schilling and Wake are old and a bit unreliable at this point in their careers but they would also be your number 4 and 5 starters if you had Johan. Number 4 and 5 starters don't win World Championships- your number 1 and 2 starters win World Championships.

So, what's it going to take to get Johan from Minnie? They don't want established veterans so it will have to be a good package of young guys and I like this one:

Clay Bucholz
Jon Lester
An upper minor league outfielder to replace Torii Hunter, who recently fled the city to sign with the Angels of Los Angeles near the San Andreas Fault in California. I would also be fine if the Red Sox offered another minor league pitcher, perhaps Craig Hansen because we have absolutely no use for his services now that we know for certain that Jonathan Papelbon can throw 95-mph fastballs to close out games and make a complete fool of himself dancing.

I would even go for this deal:
Clay Bucholz or Jon Lester
Jacoby Ellsbury
Craig Hansen or another minor league reliever

Yeah, I know that Bucholz pitched a no hitter and has been compared to a young Roger Clemens but how many people over the years have been compared to Clemens? And throwing a no hitter is a total fluke thing. It doesn't predict greatness. Lester looks like he could be a good pitcher, too, but there might not even a spot in the rotation for him next year, not too mention the fact that he throws a ton of pitches. The biggest point is that Johan already is a great pitcher. I remember when people didn't want to trade for Pedro Martinez because they didn't want to give up Brian Rose, who was considered the best pitching prospect in all of baseball at the time. Yeah, how'd that work out for Rose? Truth is, we have no idea of knowing how good or bad Bucholz and Lester could potentially be but we already know how good Johan is. Loosing Ellsbury would stink because he looks like he's major league ready and perhaps the next Ichiro-type player (wicked fast, singles/doubles hitter who will steal 40-50 bases and play a good center field) but I could suffer through another season of Coco Crap if we had Johan. Do you notice I go by his first name only? He's that good, kind of like Cher or Madonna, only much better.

While you shouldn't make trades just to one-up your competitors, this is an instance where I would have no problem paying a little more to keep Johan away from the Evil Empire. I do not want to have to face him 5-6 times a year if he were wearing pinstripes. But if you have the chance to land an ace like Johan and keep him away from your only real competition in the AL East, then you have to pull the trigger on a trade.

So there it is, Santa. That's what I want for Christmas. I'll be sure to leave a few extra cookies for you this year.