by Bruce Bostwick

Created on: November 04, 2010

Johan Santana is a Major League pitcher that is pitching for the New York Mets. He previously had pitched for the Minnesota Twins. In fact, he was best known for that organization but only time will tell how he will be remembered and for what franchise. The same could be said for who he pitches for next either once his contract expires or he is traded to another franchise. His career has been seen as very successful but the only thing missing on his career is a World Series ring. He has been to the All Star game four times, with three being with the Twins and has only pitched in the post-season for the Twins as of the end of the 2010 season. Of course, that could change and he could pitch for another team in the post-season.

His career begins with the Twins when it appeared to be a case of figuring out where they want to put Santana at exactly. Was he destined to be a starter or a member of the bullpen? All that it came down to would be just how he would respond. The 2004 season did see Santana begin and stay as a starter and that would turn out so good that he would wind up taking the Cy Young Award for the American League. The next year, he did not get it but in 2006, he would obtain the Cy Young Award again. He pitched his last season with them having a record that was barley above .500 record but did have a good ERA so it wasn’t like he was pitching horrendously.

He would be traded to the Mets and the media would go nuts claiming he was the savior and was going to lead the Mets to the World Series. That did not happen, however. While he has been effective, he hasn’t had the support so it appears that Minnesota got the better end slightly on the grounds of still making the playoffs while the Mets have collapsed on more than one occasion. He has dealt with injuries and may not be expected to return until the second of 2011 making the big contract look not as good but you never know for sure.

As far as his post-season career, it has seen him only make it to the ALCS just one time and it was when the Twins played the Angels in 2002 and it did not look good. His life-time pitching in the post-season has been a 1-3 record, which isn’t good, but as far as earned runs, he has gotten better but still more post-season experience would do the trick. He hasn’t been giving up a lot of runs but just the run support hasn’t been there, which happens from time to time.

Regarding Johan Santana, there is no question about his talent and what he can do. He is one of those players that just does well when he is healthy. Time will tell on what will happen with his career. Will he get a World Series ring? Nobody knows for sure until it happens.

Source: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/santajo0 2-pitch.shtml

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