Monday smorgasbord, courtesy of Peter King

Gents,
As things have been a bit quiet recently, I thought I'd lob a few things in for your reading pleasure:

1) Vikes cut Erasmus James, which means that only one player from the 2005 draft is still around. You'll recall that this is the draft where we had two first round picks in exchange for dealing Randy Moss. From Peter King:

It should interest, or sicken, everyone wearing purple. The Vikings' two most valuable chips entering the 2005 off-season were Randy Moss and their first-round draft choice, the 18th overall pick. Imagine if I told you three years ago that the Vikings would have turned Randy Moss and the 18th overall pick in the draft into absolutely, totally nothing.

That's what's happened -- unless you consider the 27th receiver in the 2008 draft a bonanza.
In the Moss trade, in came linebacker Napoleon Harris and first- and seventh-round picks. Harris lasted two mostly undistinguished years, compiling 84 tackles and 3.5 sacks before moving to Kansas City in 2007 as a free agent. The first-rounder, seventh overall, was wide receiver Troy Williamson, who had three touchdowns in three totally undistinguished years. He's one of the biggest busts in the top 10 in recent years. The seventh-rounder, cornerback Adrian Ward, never played a game for the Vikes. And last Friday, defensive end Erasmus James, the injury-plagued first-rounder from 2005, was waived. He gave the Vikes all of five sacks in three years.

This is what the Minnesota Vikings have left from Randy Moss and a first-round pick in 2005: Jaymar Johnson, a wide receiver from Jackson State. The Vikes dealt Williamson to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick in March, and Johnson -- yes, 26 receivers went before him -- is the flag-bearer for one of the worst first rounds a team has had in recent history.

2) King spends the first page of MMQB talking about T-Jac. Nothing super-insightful...but gives me mild to moderate optimism going into next season. Check it out at the link below.

3) Interesting tidbit from King about the Santana trade that never happened with Boston: Found myself thinking the other day about the aborted Johan Santana trade to the Red Sox, which the Sox didn't do because it was too rich for their blood. Minnesota wanted, if you believe the reports, either Jon Lester or Jacoby Ellsbury, along with minor-leaguers Justin Masterson, a pitcher, and Jed Lowrie, an infielder.

Lester threw a no-hitter last week. Over his past five starts, he's thrown 34.1 innings and allowed 18 hits and six earned runs. Over his past five starts, Santana has pitched 32.1 innings and allowed 37 hits and 13 earned runs. I haven't even mentioned Masterson -- who, in two emergency-duty starts after being called up from Double-A, is 1-0 with a 1.46 ERA -- or Lowrie, who beat Minnesota with a homer May 10 before being sent back to the minors.

Here's the link to the full MMQB:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/peter_king/05/25/mmqb/index.html

Hope everyone is still in one piece after the holiday weekend.

A couple good links

I haven't found Bill Simmons all that funny lately (in fact, I think he's either lost his touch, or his material has become old and over-used - another topic altogether, I guess), but his playoff awards are pretty good, partially because he too alludes to Peter King's overt man-love affair with Favre.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080122

Also, here's a good update on the Johan trade talks. Very interesting. Although a trade with the Mets wouldn't give us major league-ready talent, I kind of like the idea of getting him out of the American League. It also alludes to the fact that the Yankees are very unlikely to just sit on the sidelines if things heat up again.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jon_heyman/01/23/scoop.Jan23/index.html?eref=T1

Who can it be knocking at my door?

As the Santana sweepstakes heats up over the next 10 days, Twins fans are holding their breath to see what Bill Smith has up his sleeve. Twins Territory was sent into a quasi tizzy last week when it was announced that Torii Hunter had signed with the Angels. Despite the feast on Turkey day at least this Twins fan was left feeling empty inside. The focus is back to Santana as the Twins front office attempts to avoid letting another big name go without major compensation in the form of talent. At a local watering hole on Wednesday night (pre-Hunter deal) I was involved in a long discussion with an area Twins fan that we'll call Sam. Sam, who was a few beers into his night, pulled me close and whispered "I have it on a good source that Hunter won't be re-signed, the Twins are gonna trade Johan and get 2 or 3 starters they can add to the roster with immediate impact, and the Pohlad's are loosening the purse strings for guys like Morneau, Cuddy, Mauer and an other free agents in an effort to win now." While Sam was drunk and his "source" about as reliable as me or you, you could at the very least hear the desperation of an entire state in his voice to not come away from baseball's winter meetings empty-handed.

When the dust finally does settle, Twins fans won't forget two things: Santana's 93-44 record, career 3.22 ERA, and 2 Cy Youngs and "who we get" for him. Very soon we'll at least know the names, considering the size of talent in Santana "who we get" will have to be better than the steals we have seen in the past in the Lirianos, Nathans, Guzmans, Miltons. Whether it's coming from the Yankees lead by Joba Chamberlain, the Mets lead by Jose Reyes, or some other team, the names will be burned in your memory for good or for bad. Two years from April when the snow is flying at "Best Buy Field at Target Stadium at General Mills Grounds" we could be swooning over a team of lovable characters who are in the midst of something special or cursing the fact that we let the best pitcher in baseball go and got nothing in return.

This Blog is Fucking Bad-ASS!

Unlike the state of affairs for our teams. Honestly, does it get much worse? Yesterday's drubbing was the first time EVER that the Vikes have been skunked by the fudgepackers. How does Childress explain this? How does he keep his job? He took a fucking 9-7 team and ran them into the ground! Thank goodness for the Purple Jesus - oh wait - he's now out indefinitely (not season-ending? I have my doubts). Would Donavan McNabb consider signing with us? BTW, sorry for the profanity, but a) I'm bitter about the Vikes and the injury, and b) most of the good bloggers out there seem to effortlessly integrate the f-bomb (and words like "cockgobbler") into their prose.

Oh yeah...the Twins are about to trade away the best pitcher in baseball and not re-sign the most popular player of the decade.

Thank goodness for Tubby Smith. Yes, I know it was only Army, but how many times did that mannequin Dan Monson squeeze 80+ points out of the squad in his miserable 7 years?