aarondelahoya Unfortunately (I say that as a Yankees fan), these big market teams are still following the same old tired model of chasing the star at the end of his contract with a small market team. Sure, that makes for an occasional World Series championship, but it's not an automatic recipe for success.

Except for Yankees fans, "an occasional World Series championship" is a hell of a thing. There is no such thing as an automatic recipe for success.

We of big market team fandom are all too familiar with this exercise of buying up the big name talent. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn't.

But however many times it works, that's more time than it's going to work for Kansas City, right?

I'm skeptical that Santana will make the Mets any better than they are now because I've seen this plan crash and burn in the Bronx more than once.

I really can't remember the Yankees signing the game's best pitcher, in his prime, and having it not work out.

Anonymous My theory--that the MLB heirarchy decided that, in lieu of last season's epic collapse, something had to be done to pump up the Mets (the Red Sox and Yankees can take care of themselves, but the Mets, given their track record of dumbass trades and free agent signings, desperately needed a gift like Santana)--may come off sounding like a case of sour grapes, but I'm sticking to it.

Yeah, you stick to it. It doesn't sould like sour grapes. It sounds like tinfoil hat. The MLB heirarchy coming up with ... I'm laughing as I type this ... a PLAN? A devious, diabolical, secret plan? And making it work? And keeping it secret? These are the people who took four years to figure out what to do with the Expos, who couldn't figure out that using all players in an All-Star game by the 9th inning might someday result in an extra-inning game in which all pitchers get used up. You know that, right?

haplo53 The Twins may not be a "big market" team, but they hardly seem like a "have not." They just unloaded a dump truck full of money on Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer. They also offered Santana $100m to stay. Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to oversimplify the situation into baseball's class warfare.

Agreed. The Twins' dirty little secret is they could have afforded Santana if they'd wanted. As noted by Jackdaw.

Anonymous Ok, so this is big news in the context of baseball. But let's not forget that baseball is extremely boring.

Let's not forget that you're an idiot. Why do people waste their own time with stuff like this, never mind everybody else's?

Thank you for sharing. Please provide a list of all other subjects you happen to think are boring, so that we can all organize our lives around it.

Nulla Sallus How many MLB teams are in California? 5. Is every one of them a 'major market'? No, but that's not the driver toward success.

I don't disagree with your overall point, but actually, yes, every one's a major market.