Oh, so you want to talk about crazy trades...

SARASOTA, Fla. — OK, here's one for you...

What if the Phillies traded both Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer to the Mets and got back Johan Santana? Huh? How's that one grab you?

Alright, that doesn't sound fair. Let's say the Phillies throw in some cash, too. Why not? Maybe then they could flip Santana to Seattle to get back Cliff Lee.

Then we'd be getting somewhere.

Look, as far as outlandish and ridiculous ideas go, the Kendrick, Moyer, cash, and Santana for Lee deal I just proposed is not any crazier than the one ESPN put out there when they floated the always mysterious "sources" rumor that had the Phillies dealing away Ryan Howard to St. Louis for the game's greatest player, Albert Pujols. Actually, my idea is a lot less crazy than the Howard-for-Pujols bit because at least it makes sense. No, neither deal is ever going to happen.

Never, never, never, never.

In fact, Phils' general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. called the very notion of it, "irresponsible," on the record to Insider, Jim Salisbury.

So there's that.

But what the hell... at least my idea is reasonable.

Let me explain:

You see, to a team like the Mets — one that stinks and is going nowhere, post-haste -- a pitcher like Santana is a luxury. Better yet, it's like living in a trailer park with an Escalade parked out front. Those are some mixed up priorities and financial irresponsibility. If the Mets can remove Santana's salary quickly, it would be wise.

That doesn't mean they'll do it, though. Wise and baseball GMs are two terms that rarely appear in the same paragraph, let alone right next to each other.

Kendrick makes barely above the minimum and Moyer gets a nice salary so that's what the cash is for. Essentially, the Phillies would be doing the Mets a favor in all aspects. And since the Mariners appear to be spending some cash and rebuilding their roster, maybe they’ll go for the Santana for Lee deal, too.

See how easily that came together? Now someone take me to Bellevue. I want the ESPN suite/

Oh yes, there are many reasons why the Howard-Pujols idea is nuts, and most of them are quite obvious. Yes, Howard was born and raised in the St. Louis suburbs and is revered like a hometown hero. When the season ends Howard goes home to Missouri to hang with his friends and family and uses his home base for his off-season workouts before heading to Florida.

Here’s the thing about that… Pujols is from Missouri, too. Sure, Howard is a hometown hero, but Pujols is a hometown god. Not only is he the best player in the game right now, but he might be the greatest Cardinal ever, too. That’s saying something since Stan Musial (the man who should have gotten the same hero worship and publicity for being one of the greatest hitters the way Ted Williams has) is synonymous with the organization. Just nine years into his career, Pujols is poised to own every major hitting record if he doesn’t get bored with it all. Last spring after the Cardinals visited Clearwater for a Grapefruit League game, I asked hitting connoisseur Charlie Manuel his take on Pujols and he dropped a line on me like he was Yoda or something.

“He can be whatever you want him to be,” Charlie said. “Home runs, ribbies, slugging, average, he can do whatever you want.”

Yes, that was the manager’s way of saying Pujols can do it all.

Look, we know Pujols is really, really good. No needs Charlie Manuel’s explanation to see that. Just watch the guy, for Pete’s sakes. If there is one snake the is out of the can of peanut brittle it’s that maybe the idea of trading Howard (and Pujols, too) means the Phillies see a day when they won’t be able to afford him. Coincidentally, Howard and Pujols have contracts that expire after the 2011 season. By then, of course, both men could have another 100 home runs and 300 RBIs tacked onto their stat sheet.

Even scarier, both players will have their Hall-of-Fame credentials stamped and ready for induction despite the fact that they will just be coming into their athletic prime. Imagine that… born months apart in 1979 and 1980 (Pujols is two months younger), both sluggers are on an unprecedented path and they just now are beginning to enter their prime.

Wow.

But with that kind of talent comes a high price. Howard gets $19 million in salary this year and $20 million in 2011, while Pujols gets $16 million for the next two years. In fact, he’s not even the highest paid player on his team.

Sure, Pujols already has more money than he’ll ever be able to spend, but there is pride, ego and all of that stuff. Maybe at the end of his deal Pujols will want to cash in for all the years he was a relative bargain for the Cardinals. Shoot, if Howard is looking for a deal in the A-Rod range (an average salary of $27.5 million over 10 years), what’s Pujols worth?

Does the treasury even print that much money?

Now try this out—and understand we’re just riffing here… maybe the Phillies might believe that if they have to pay upwards of $30 million per season for one player, why not go all in and get the best guy out there. Hell, if you’re already spending $30 million, what’s another $5 million?

Could that be the logic in all of this?

Who knows? Chances are it was just a way to get a few extra clicks on the ol’ web site and to get people talking about baseball again. Certainly there is no harm in that, is there?

Still, the idea of Howard and Pujols both with expiring contracts looming and the potential salary both men could command is quite intriguing. What makes it even more interesting is the notion that if the Phillies can’t afford to keep a guy like Jayson Werth beyond this season, how in the world are they going to be able to afford Howard and/or Pujols?

Encore!

So the big Cole Hamels vs. Johan Santana matchup was kind of good. It wasn't one of those transcendent matchups like we always heard about when Bob Gibson took on Robin Roberts or Sandy Koufax and all of those other great pitchers from a generation or two or go, but that's not the fault of the pitchers. There just aren't enough great pitchers to go around to have those classic matchups the way they used to.

Nevertheless, Hamels likely will square off against Santana again this season and it has already pitched in a much-hyped showdown against Roger Clemens during his first season in the big leagues. Of that outing Hamels wasn't so much geeked up about pitching against Clemens as he was about hitting against him. In fact, the single Hamels rapped out was the only one Clemens surrendered that day.

Hamels didn't get any hits against Santana last night, but for the first seven innings of the game most of his teammates didn't either. Santana was crafty and sneakily good against the Phillies. He allowed a just one hit through the first six innings before Chase Utley led off the seventh with a solo shot into the bullpen in deep right-center. More impressively, Santana got 10 strikeouts against the first 23 hitters he faced.

The impressive part about that was Santana threw just 14 first-pitch strikes to the 26 hitters he faced. That's just OK... if that. It certainly wasn't as good as the first-strike ratio Hamels posted (22 for 28), which means a couple of things. One is Santana was sharp until he reached the 100-pitch plateau and a second is that the Mets were up there hacking early at Hamels.

Hamels noticed that. After the game he said it seemed as if the Mets' book on him was to get after him early in the count to avoid falling into a hole and putting the young lefty in position to use his batting-average destroying changeup.

"Because I've been around for two years there's plenty of video on me," Hamel said. "Hitters are swinging early in the count and not waiting for my ‘out' pitch."

As a result, the Mets forced the Phillies error-prone defense to make plays. When they didn't (misplays by Jayson Werth and Ryan Howard proved costly), Hamels' frustration showed.

"Some things caught up with me tonight," Hamels said. "I definitely showed my emotions on the field, dropping my head a few times going, ‘How did that happen?' But I'll see these guys again, and I'll make the adjustments."

Perhaps he'll even see Santana, though Hamels claimed he would be more prone to get caught up in the hype of the rivalry if he weren't pitching. When he's on the mound, Hamels says, the focus is on the Mets' hitters and not the opposing pitcher. The new-age Carlton-Seaver/Phillies-Mets matchup was almost lost on Hamels, who was more concerned with the four hits David Wright got than anything else.

Still, Hamels tipped his hand that he had some idea that Santana was stringing up the goose eggs on the scoreboard. For as much as he downplayed the big-time matchup, deep down Hamels knew Friday night's game was different.

That can explain the uncharacteristic displays of frustration on the field after a few plays.

"There definitely isn't much margin for error," Hamels said. "He's always going to be able to have success. When you go into a game, you know it's going to be low-scoring and you hope you're on the right side of it. He has phenomenal stuff that he can get away with mistakes."

Any way you slice it following the first installment, Hamels v. Santana could turn out to be baseball's best pitching duel in one of its better rivalries.

2008 Phillies: Playing for 2nd place

It could go down that Johan Santana was involved in two of the most lopsided trades in baseball history. In addition to landing with the Mets from the Twins for a pile of potential prospects, the two-time Cy Young Award winner was once traded from the Marlins for a dude named Jared Camp. That was after the Marlins plucked him away from the Astros in the Rule 5 Draft.

So yeah, there are a lot of smart baseball folks that missed the boat on Johan Santana. The Mets, however, are not one of those "smart" teams. Instead of feeling the knee-jerk blather from fans, pundits and Billy Wagner regarding the dearth of wintertime moves, the Mets now have the best pitcher in baseball at the top of the rotation.

We'd get into the analysis of how good Santana is with his statistics and all of that stuff, but what's the point? He's a lefty, he's nasty and he's better than everyone else in the game. Go look up the stats yourself, though I will give one warning before you click on the link - they should make Phillies fans a little sick in the stomach.

Out here in the hinterlands I really don't get the full affect of the Philly sporting press's deconstruction of the Santana deal, but then again who needs it. After all, it's not the balance of power in the NL East that shifted with Santana's arrival in Queens - it's the balance of power in the entire National League that shifted.

Playoff baseball at Shea one last time, anyone?

The big question, of course, is what does it all mean for the Phillies. Well, for starters the Phillies will have to root for an even bigger and more epic collapse from the Mets down the stretch. They also have to root for an injury to Santana, though the guy hasn't missed a start since 2004. In that regard the Phillies might be better served with a voodoo doll.

More concisely, facing Santana a handful of times in 2008 will have a profound effect on the Phillies' lineup. That's especially the case when one notes that Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Geoff Jenkins are all lefty swingers.

It is worth noting that switch-hitters Jimmy Rollins hit .321 against lefties in 2007 and Shane Victorino went at a .291 clip. But then again, Santana has been just as tough on righties (.220) as lefties (.223) during his career.

Here's what else Santana-to-the-Mets means for the Phillies:

It means they should go out and make an offer to a pitcher like Kyle Lohse or Livan Hernandez and hope they sign on...

Before the Mets get both of them.