What the Redsox and Yankees should do
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What the Yankees and Red Sox should do.
For weeks now, the Red Sox and the Yankees have been in a trading war with the Minnesota Twins,trying to acquire Johan Santana.
Santana is without doubt the best pitcher in major league baseball, winning Cy Young's, and being the strikeout king in the AL.
The Twins asking price has been steep, asking for young potential superstar prospects from both teams.
The Twins have asked for: Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, or Jon Lester from the Red Sox; and they have asked for Melky Cabrera, Phil Hughes, and other prospects from the Yankees.
Thus far, both teams have refused to part with their young stars until now, as the Red Sox are offering Ellsbury and Buchholz, but not Lester, saying you can't have Ellsbury with the other.
And the Yankees have included favorite Phil Hughes in their offer to the Twins.
But is this smart?
Santana is without doubt the best pitcher in baseball for the past four years, and if the Yankees or Red Sox acquire him, they would have higher chances of wining the World Series for sure, but if they trade away such valuable young prospects their fans,and future as a dominating team could be at stake.
Yankee fans across New York and New Jersey, have been calling for Cashman and Hank to not include Hughes in the trade proposal, because Hughes is a great pitcher, and that the Yankees should for once focus on their farm system, instead of picking up a bunch of stars,and making the series --- and winning it once or twice.
The Yankees should focus on their farm system, so in four years when all their prospects are superstars, they can dominate for years.
The same goes for the Red Sox: if they give up great pitching talent such as Clay Buchholz, and a young promising playing such as Jacoby Ellsbury, people will think of them as the new Yankees as some people have called them, and they possibly forfeit chance of being a dominating team.
Without doubt the rotation of Dice-K, Beckett, Schilling, and Santana sounds pretty dangerous. But let's remember, Schilling is getting old, Dice-K didn't have a wonderful season last year, Santana wasn't his-self, and Beckett was the face of baseball.
If this occurs, and the Red Sox perform badly, they will be dubbed the team that spent the most money on four pitchers, and came with the worse result in baseball history.
What these teams should do:
The Yankees and Red Sox should both withdraw their offers for Santana,and instead invest in younger players,that won't come at such a price.
The Yankees should trade for Athletics pitcher Dan Haren, and the Red Sox should trade for Brewers pitcher Ben Sheets.
Santana has said that he will not waive his no trade clause for anyone except for the Yankees and Red Sox, and that during the regular season he will not waive his no trade clause at all.
If the Yankees and Red Sox were smart, they would both pass up Santana this off-season, and go after him next off-season when his contract runs out with the Twins, and everyone knows the Twins won't be able to afford his contract.
