Oye Como Va

I was all prepared to mix up the sports theme of this blog with a post about “The Millionaire Matchmaker,” a new reality show on Bravo that I have recently become fascinated with.

But then the Mets went out and acquired the best pitcher in baseball, and I figured that since baseball is kind of my “thing” and I’m a Mets fan, I should probably weigh in.

Before I progress, I want to make it clear that I am aware that this trade could fall through if the Mets can’t reach a contract agreement with Johan Santana in the next 72 hours, but I have a feeling Los Wilpones will open the check book wide for the two-time Cy Young award winner. Therefore, YIPPEE.

After I heard about this trade I recalled my feelings on July 31, 2004, when the Mets made the ill-fated Scott Kazmor-for-Victor Zambrano swap, and I decided that today’s emotions were pretty much the exact opposite of that.

I am normally opposed to four-for-one trades like the one the Mets made to get Santana because I believe strongly in building through the farm system. But I also believe that there’s a time to pay big, and that’s when truly elite talent is available. It’s why the Mike Piazza trade made sense, it’s why the Carlos Beltran signing made sense, and it’s why this Santana trade makes sense.

And having ranked the top 30 prospects in the Mets farm system in the 2005 and 2006 Baseball America Prospect Handbook, I feel qualified to speak about the four prospects the Mets gave up with some degree of authority.

I’m not going to list the merits and faults of Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey, Phil Humber and Deolis Guerra, but I will say that I don’t think the Mets gave up any future stars. Gomez and Guerra have that potential, but they are far from being locks. I’ve always seen Gomez’ ceiling as being comparable to Alex Rios, and Guerra’s lack of a breaking pitch (and the fact that he is barely old enough to go to R-rated movies) makes it hard to truly project him.

As for Mulvey and Humber, their ceiling is probably as a No. 4 starter. I could be wrong about this, but even if three of these guys reach their ceiling (which is unlikely), the Mets will still be getting a few seasons from the best pitcher of this generation in the midst of his prime. I’ll take it.

The only downside to this trade that I see is Rafael Santana having to relinquish the title of best Santana in Mets history. But hey, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes.

Being the dork that I am, I threw “Meet The Mets” on my iPod today as I left the office. And if you saw me walking across 34th Street, you saw me beaming ear to ear as I strutted to the Mets theme song and visualized a day in mid-May where I’ll be at Shea watching Santana on the hill as 50,000 orange-and-blue faithful rise to their feet every time the Venezuelan reaches two strikes on some helpless foe.

And when you think about it like that, it’s hard not to be ecstatic.