A gift of making others better
Santana and Martinez. That's a really good 1-2 combination at the top of the Mets' rotation. They'll be followed by two 15-game winners from last season, Oliver Perez and John Maine. The fifth starter could be veteran Orlando Hernandez or the young Mike Pelfrey. The Mets will certainly have an array of arms to combine with their potent offense and sound defense.

Santana has a way to communicate with the other starters in the rotation -- especially the younger ones -- to help make them better. Santana is one who leads by example not only with his pitching but with the way he conducts himself and with the way he prepares himself for each start. His work ethic, his presence in the clubhouse and his pitching are all so positive that his teammates can't help but feed off of it.

National League hitters have a big headache coming their way as Santana has had much success in interleague play while pitching for the Twins, posting a 16-4 record. Against the Mets he is 3-0, including a four-hit shutout last summer that actually cost me my hair when I lost a wager with Santana. The Mets had the best hitting team in the National League and the Twins weren't giving Santana a lot of run support so I bet him if he threw a shutout against New York, he could shave my head. I guess that proved to motivate him even more. Santana loves to have fun and on this occasion he had plenty of it at my expense.

No demise on the radar
Santana went 15-13 last year and some considered that to be a potential red flag. He lost seven of his last 11 decisions, and some of his numbers where not Santana-like. His ERA climbed from 2.60 to 3.33 and he allowed a career-high 33 homers -- the most in the AL. When he met the New York media for the first time since the trade he basically called what he experienced late in the season a slump for which he really didn't have an answer.

As a Twins' broadcaster I didn't see one sign in Santana's pitching at any point last season that signaled to me he has lost any of his brilliance. Santana may not have pitched his best at points last year, but he was also hurt by a lack of run support. And early runs, which are such a big factor for starting pitchers, didn't come Santana's way very often last season.

He dropped to 15 wins after chalking up 19 victories in 2006, but most of his numbers were pretty much the same as they were in the three seasons previous to 2007 -- and in two of those years he won the AL Cy Young Award. So all the numbers were there last year for another 18-20 win season, but he just didn't get the support he needed offensively. No Santana hasn't slipped. He's still as good as he's ever been and Mets fans are going to find that out to their delight this season.

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