Santana situation shows exactly what's wrong with baseball? Really!?!

The Bleacher Bums contends that the "Santana Situation shows exactly what's Wrong with Baseball." I'm just not buying it.

I have a few questions for the folks over there. If the tables were turned and the Yankees, Mets or Red Sox were the "SMTs" with Santana and the Twins were a "BMT," would the Twins trade Mauer and Slowey, plus two lesser prospects for Santana -- a player who is undeniably great but who is at best in the middle of his prime? If you were the Twins' GM would you sign off on that deal for one year of control of Santana plus the exclusive right to sign him to a deal in the range of 7 years and $150M prior to the start of the 2008 season?

Whether its Cano and Hughes, Elsbury and Lester or Mauer and Slowey, the team trading them away would be giving up an excellent player at a premium position (middle of the field) and a starter who is at worst a #3 and at best a #1, plus two guys who represent a roll of the dice. All those players are controllable for at least 4 years each at least into the prime of their careers at reasonable amounts of money.

This is simple economics. Trading Reyes, Cano or Ellsbury, along with the existing packages from the Mets, Yankees and Red Sox for Santana would be a terrible deal for each of those teams.

And there's nothing wrong with baseball. Baseball has gone from a $1 billion dollar industry in 1990 to a $3 billion dollar industry in 2000 to a $6 billion dollar industry in 2007. If there is something wrong with baseball, its that fans believe these teams are poor despite the record growth in earnings and the rapid increase in the value of each club (Pohlad purchased the Twins in '84 for $44M and in '07 they were valued at $288M).

I understand that Twins' fans are angry and/or upset that management has made a decision that Santana is not worth the kind of money he is seeking, but to divert that anger to other teams who believe he is not worth that money PLUS sacrificing outstanding players who are under control for reasonable amounts of money makes no sense.

My advice to the Bleacher Bums. Stop whining about other teams and place your own team under the microscope. The "Santana Situation" has been created by the Twins, not by the flaws of baseball or BMTs exercising an unfair advantage. The Twins created the "Santana Situation.: An organization that, on the one hand, has determined that Santana is not worth the money to keep him in a Twins uniform while simultaneously telling other organizations that they should place an even higher value on the man to get him in their uniform.

And finally, this is not about the Twins not having enough money to keep Santana. The Twins offered 4 years and $80M and 5 years and $93M. $12M just came off their books from Torii Hunter's departure. Of that $12M in savings, they spent $3.82M to sign Monroe, $3.3M to sign Mike Lamb, and $2.8M on Adam Everett. If Santana is worth so much to the Twins, why don't they take that extra $2M and tack it onto each year of their previous offer and add a year. In essence, they would be telling Santana -- "hey, we understand you want 7 years and $150M and we offered 5 years just south of $100M, but why don't we split the difference."