Plunging into the negative

Hey, I know this is Minnesota and we can expect it to be cold in the winter, but are you kidding me? The thermostat in my Jeep said 14 degrees below zero tonight. The windchill is nearly 40 below zero. It was in the (plus) 40's yesterday!! Yeah, I guess that's Minnesota.

Speaking of Minnesota, the big news today is the trade of Johan Santana to the New York Mets. Heartbreaking news to any Minnesota Twins fan as we've seen this scenario all too often. It's a sad fact that small market teams just can't afford to keep a number of talented young players once their values rise above the team's payroll. Then it's the large market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox that benefit since they have money to spend, and spend they do.

It's really too bad for us that Santana couldn't find a way to accept the 4-year, 80 million dollar deal that the Twins were offering.

To play baseball.

I understand it's a business. I understand that players have a relatively short window of time to really take advantage of their value. I get it. It's just tough to watch your great players leave. First we lost Hunter, now Santana. Hopefully the young players we receive as part of the trade will turn out to be great players and the team and fans will benefit. Only time will tell.

Hey, at least we signed Morneau and Cuddyer last week. And the new ballpark is underway.

Did I mention it's cold? Brrr...