Phil Hughes Topic Page

Justin Verlander tallied 13 strikeouts as he cruised through 6 1/3 innings of scoreless ball on Thursday afternoon. After a Brian Buscher single and a Nick Punto walk, the game was handed over to the Detroit bullpen, who proceeded to blow it all in that one inning.

Jason Kubel delivered a double that, if it hadn't bounced over the OF wall, would have tied the game at five. Instead it left Justin Morneau trapped at 3rd base. Joe Crede, who started off the inning as Verlander's 13th strikeout victim, delivered the game winning 2-RBI single.

The Twins played their first game of the spring, facing off against the Concordia College Golden Bears. It more more or less a fun competition in which Rick Stelmaszek was the home plate umpire and Ron Gardenhire umpired first base.

Johan Santana is asking for 6 years and $150 million, which is apparently a ways away from what the Mets had in mind. The deadline for a deal is 4pm on Friday, so that gives them less than 24 hours to reach an agreement. It seems unlikely that they wouldn't agree by then.

There's a ton of talk in the baseball community online regarding the Santana trade. Today has actually been one of the top 5 traffic days for this site's history. I thought I'd pull together quotes from around the web to get a feel for people's reactions. Twins fans are pretty much on the same page with this one...it stinks.

Before I say anything, I just want to make it clear that the deal is still tentative. The Mets and Johan Santana will need to agree on a fat contract extension before Johan will waive his no-trade clause. It's pretty unlikely that they won't reach a deal, but we can still hope.