Hot Stove!

Big news Tuesday in baseball, pushing the basketball games to 2nd priority. The Twins have reportedly reached an agreement with the Mets to send the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana, to New York. There have been rumblings all offseason, basically since the Twins' season ended back in September, that Santana may be moved before the season because the Twins couldn't put up enough money to extend the 2-time Cy Young winner past this upcoming season. This trade is basically done, which means the Mets immediately become the favorites to win the NL pennant. Even more ridiculous was the fact that they kept Jose Reyes in the process. I can't really fathom how this could have happened, but it is great for Met fans to show up the Yanks and get the best pitcher in baseball all at once. This move makes the Mets not only the favorite in the NL, but a favorite in the whole thing. No doubt that soon we'll hear random articles from the east coast of another subway series... Onto basketball where there were 9 games on tonight. Here they are:

- The night started well with an OT game in Canada. Toronto hosted the Wizards, who were without Caron Butler, but still pulled out the win on Jamison's ridiculous 24pt/20reb game, making his case to be an eastern conference All-Star. Bosh and Calderon will both probably be All-Stars and were great in this game; Calderon with 23pts, 13assts and Bosh with 37pts, 12rebs. On the other side of the spectrum, Andrea Bargnani was back to his usual self, 3pts on 1-6 shooting in just under 17mins.

- Detroit won a tight one in Indy, 110-104. Troy Murphy reentered the starting lineup to matchup with Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess (both good shooters like Murphy) and had 18pts, 8rebs. Sheed was the man for Detroit tonight finishing with 24pts, 10rebs, 3blks. Kareem Rush came off the bench and had 9pts in 29mins. He's not a must keep player since he's streaky and only really contributes in scoring.

- Boston visited south beach tonight without both Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and still won by 30. The Heat allowed 20+pts from Leon Powe, Eddie House, Rajon Rondo AND Tony Allen and Paul Pierce only played 28mins in an off night, shooting 2-9 for 7pts. This game was out of reach so early that only 2 players on either squad played over 30mins, Leon Powe (36) and Tony Allen (33).

- The low scoring, crappy eastern conference game of the night goes to Milwaukee playing in the Meadowlands. New Jersey won the game at home, but Jason Kidd's recent comments and actions have been louder than what his team has been doing, which is losing a lot of games. Kidd has recently acknowledged the desire to be traded out of his present situation in New Jersey even if it isn't to a contender. If this is to happen, which I don't doubt it will before the February trade deadline, Marcus Williams proves to be a solid add. He hasn't shown anything this season since returning from his injury, but he's got talent and as long as New Jersey's losing, they might as well evaluate his abilities. The high scorer on either side was Richard Jefferson with 20pts.

- In Chicago, Minnesota was in for their one visit of the season. The Bulls won, but the Wolves got great news on their side with the return of Randy Foye. Foye came off the bench to play his 1st minutes of the season and scored 11pts in 17mins. It'll be interesting to see how Randy Wittman mixes up his young lineup with Foye's return. I would think Foye would be inserted into the starting lineup, but Telfair has been fairly decent starting this season, Jaric's been on and off and I don't think McCants will be the guy to lose his current forward spot. More than likely, Foye will be coming off the bench for a while, until after the All-Star break probably, before he begins to start. Chicago on the other hand got another huge game out of Hinrich (27pts, 6assts) and Joakim Noah got the start and did well (10pts, 13rebs) in Joe Smith's spot. The Bulls are just getting killed with injuries right now, but they did win.

- Houston was without T-Mac again tonight as they hosted and beat the Warriors. They were without Chuck Hayes as well, as Yao Ming returned to score 36 and rebound 19 (7 TO's as well). Luis Scola got Hayes' starting spot and scored 10pts in 25mins. Rafer Alston and Luther Head filled in for McGrady again for 17pts, 8rebs, 12assts and 20pts, 6assts, respectively. Stephen Jackson was hot for GS going for 25pts (5 treys), 6rebs, 7assts.

- Atlanta went into Phoenix tonight and ran into a brick wall. Phoenix won 125-92, with only Boris Diaw playing over 30mins (31mins), who got the start at forward with Grant Hill coming off the bench. Keep an eye on this if you've got Hill or have use for a potential all-around player like Diaw. If he gets more PT and produces, he's been known to produce solid numbers.

- Next one was the polarized game of the night at least before it started, SA @ SEA. The actual didn't quite play out the way it was expected however (with SA winning, at least the way I would have predicted it). Seattle played San Antonio's slow game and stayed with them the whole way. The young Supes eventually won behind their young star, Kevin Durant's 26pts, 7rebs and 5assts despite SA's current "big two" in Duncan and Ginobili. Tony Parker missed this game and will be out for a while so Manu got a rare start in this game and might keep starting considering how he played (29pts, 7assts and 4 treys). Duncan was great too (27pts, 12rebs), but quite frankly, the Spurs just didn't get enough help. Jeff Green has been terrible since Carlesimo put him into the starting lineup. Sure, every once in a while he'll put up a game of 15pts, but the hype surrounding his entrance to the starting lineup was that he'd be averaging that number, not putting it up as a good night. The point is, after he had 0pts on 0-4 shooting in 19mins tonight, you need to drop him and use his roster spot for someone else. Pick him up later on if he shows flashes, but he's virtually useless right now.

- The last game of the night featured the biggest market on the east coast against the biggest market on the west, the Knicks visting the Lakers at Staples. The game was actually a good one, but Kobe and the Lakers eventually pulled it out, 120-109. Kobe was the high point man in this one with 24, but he also had 11assts and 8rebs, close to a triple-double. The Knicks had 6 double-digit scorers, but it wasn't enough to beat the Bynum-less Lakers. Odom added 22pts and 12rebs in a solid game.