Santana exception to rule

The next time you're inclined to dismiss baseball's Rule 5 draft in December as an exercise of little consequence, remember that Johan Santana, the pitcher Pedro Martinez said reminded him of a younger version of himself, only with better stuff, was a Rule 5 pick five years ago.

It's a remarkable story: a triumph for the Minnesota Twins, who wound up with Santana; a worst-case scenario for the Houston Astros, the team that lost Santana when it gambled and did not place him on the 40-man roster; and a miscalculation for the Florida Marlins, who could have had him but guessed wrong.

Santana, who after dazzling New York last week was called as good a pitcher as the Bombers have seen in some time by Yankees manager Joe Torre, is on a remarkable 11-2 run in his last 14 starts. He's sixth in the league in wins with 13, first in strikeouts with 196, first in opponents' batting average at .205, and second in ERA at 3.23. In August, the 25-year-old lefthander has beaten Martinez, Oakland ace Tim Hudson, and Yankees ace Mike Mussina.

Five years ago, Santana was an obscure lefthander in the Single A Midwest League who had an 8-8 record and an unimpressive 4.66 ERA for Michigan. The Astros knew he had promise -- he was sandwiched in the Michigan rotation between future Astros ace Roy Oswalt and future starter Tim Redding -- but in a decision they still agonize over years later, they elected to leave him off their 40-man roster. He was, at worst, ranked 41st in the organization. Their hope was that he'd pass unnoticed.

But they weren't counting on Jose Marzan, who was managing Quad Cities, Minnesota's entry in the Midwest League. He urged the Twins to consider taking Santana. Minnesota had become enamored of him after he pitched in the Venezuelan winter league. Maybe if he had skipped Venezuela, the Astros feel today, they might have gotten away with keeping him.

He ended up with the Twins, and it didn't cost them a penny. The Twins were picking first in the Rule 5 draft, the Marlins second. They earned those picks by virtue of their last-place finishes in their respective leagues the previous season. The Marlins had their eyes on a big righthander in the Indians system, Jared Camp, and were afraid the Twins would take him first. So they cut a deal with the Twins: You take Camp, we'll take Santana, we'll swap the players, and we'll pay the $50,000 fee a team pays for each pick in the draft.

Done. The Twins got Santana, and though he pitched sparingly, they kept him on their major league roster for the 2000 season, which they were obliged to do if they intended to keep him. The Marlins returned Camp to the Indians before the end of spring training, and after making it as far as Triple A, Camp was out of baseball after the 2002 season, having never pitched in the big leagues.

Santana, meanwhile, dramatically improved his changeup to go with his mid-90s fastball and slider. He was disappointed, after Eric Milton was hurt last year, that he didn't get the chance to start, as the Twins got veteran Kenny Rogers instead. But there was little doubt he would be in the rotation this season, and he has dominated. He couldn't beat the Yankees in the playoffs last season, but they know they'll have their hands full if they draw the Twins in a first-round assignment again this October. "Probably your best chance to hit him is if you're Hank Aaron up there," an admiring Torre said last week. "He would try to hit off something in the middle and hope he would catch up to the fastball."

Going through the motions of The Waive

Yes, the Red Sox claimed Roger Clemens when the Houston Astros placed the Rocket on waivers this month. What you may not know is that the Yankees claimed Andy Pettitte when the Astros placed him on waivers the same day. And neither one of those events was of any consequence.

The Astros, one of those teams that tends to put their entire roster on waivers during this period as a procedural exercise, pulled back both players after they were claimed, and never discussed a trade with the Sox or Yankees involving either pitcher, according to a source with direct knowledge of the process.

Any trade would have had to be completed within 48 hours of the waiver claim. Once a player is pulled off waivers, he cannot be placed back on for 30 days. That would mean September, meaning neither player would be eligible to be placed on a postseason roster, which must be set by Sept. 1.

Astros owner Drayton McLane said without equivocation at the All-Star break that under no circumstances would he part with Clemens.

Meanwhile, Pettitte has been hurt all season and this past week finally consented to undergo elbow surgery, a course of action Clemens said last month that he had been urging Pettitte to undertake.

As for reports that the Clemens "trade talks" broke down over Kevin Youkilis, the Sox did indeed throw out Youkilis's name to the Astros, but that was last year when the target was lefthanded closer Billy Wagner. Houston's respect for Youkilis has certainly grown because of his performance this season, but he still wouldn't rank as a centerpiece in any potential deal.

The Bud system has worked pretty well

Here's perhaps the most relevant reason major league owners voted to extend Bud Selig's contract another three years, through 2009, when Selig will be 75: On his watch, the industry's gross revenues have increased from $1.6 billion to $4.1 billion in 13 years.

Selig, who 10 years ago looked like he would be tainted forever by the cancellation of the World Series during the '94 strike, is building a compelling case for being remembered as one of the game's greatest commissioners, with labor peace, revenue sharing, successful innovations (the wild card and interleague play), and record attendance all part of his legacy.

The Expos' situation remains a mess, and the proposed World Cup will have to be delayed at least a year, which will have the effect of putting it in the same calendar year as soccer's World Cup and the Winter Olympics, when baseball had hoped to have an exclusive window next season.

And the sternest test of Selig's leadership remaining is drug testing. But for the first time in memory regarding a contentious issue, there is a belief that some consensus can be reached between the union and ownership on the subject. And that in itself is a tribute to Selig, who no longer hears taunts of "Bud Lite."

Etc.

He wasn't an average Joe Baseball fans of a certain age can remember when one of the joys of subscribing to The Sporting News when it was the "Bible of Baseball" was to read Joe Falls's column. Falls seemed to know all of the greats and wrote in an authoritative yet conversational style that made more than one small-town kid feel he was getting the straight scoop from the inside. Falls died recently at the age of 76 after covering more than 5,000 baseball games and 50 World Series. My favorite stories about Falls, the longtime columnist for the Detroit News, took place not at a ballpark but in Sarajevo during the 1984 Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia. This is the kind of guy he was: In the three weeks or so we were all there, he had become such good friends with the local women who answered phones in the press center that they took his laundry home and washed it for him. Even better was the time he walked out of the press center, flagged a cab, and asked to be taken to the famous Princips Bridge, where the Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, an incident blamed for the start of World War I. Arriving at the bridge, Falls was puzzled when the driver refused to accept payment -- until he discovered the car wasn't a taxi at all but belonged to a local only too eager to do a good turn for an American. Falls was an original.

Down the stretch they come
After the Sox play the A's in a three-game Labor Day series, do you realize that 18 of their last 24 games are against teams that began the weekend a combined 68 games under .500 and a combined 90 games out of first place? Outside of six games against the Yankees, the other remaining partners on the Sox dance card are the Mariners, Devil Rays, and Orioles. The other contenders for the wild card -- the A's, Rangers, and Angels -- have it a lot tougher over that stretch. The Angels have seven games left with the Rangers, six with the A's, and their last 10 games are against either the Rangers or A's, with their last three in Oakland. The A's have seven with the Rangers, six with the Angels, and three with the competitive Indians. The Rangers have 10 straight games from Sept. 13-23 with either the A's or Angels.

Touched by the Angels?
With rookie Robb Quinlan the latest Angels casualty (he is expected to miss a month with a torn left oblique muscle), Shea Hillenbrand's name has surfaced as a possible solution at third base. The Angels are holding out some hope that regular third baseman Troy Glaus may be back next month from shoulder surgery and so far have been reluctant to promote slugging prospect Dallas McPherson (17 home runs in 46 games at Triple A). Hillenbrand has cleared waivers.

Snakebitten
Al Pedrique, who was hired as Arizona's interim manager when Bob Brenly was fired, has the worst record in modern baseball history through his first 40 games, 7-33. The worst record in history belongs to Charlie Gould, who was 6-34 with Cincinnati in 1876. One of those wins for Pedrique was recorded by former Sox lefty Casey Fossum, who had lost six consecutive decisions before becoming the only Arizona starter besides Randy Johnson to win a game this month. Fossum (3-12) has shortened his stride in an effort to improve his velocity. He remains a work in progress; even in victory, he gave up a 452-foot home run to Jason Kendall of the Pirates.

Etc.
The spin is that it was Sammy Sosa's idea that he be dropped to fifth in the Cubs' order last week, just days after reports that he and manager Dusty Baker had clashed about keeping Sosa at cleanup. "Sometimes a guy has to fail for a time before you will see things a little differently," Baker said. "I was very impressed that he had been thinking about it for some time." What's there to think about? Sosa came into the weekend hitting just .190 in August and .216 in 102 at-bats in the cleanup spot. The majority of his ABs had come in the No. 3 hole, now occupied by Nomar Garciaparra, who remains a prime topic of conversation in Chicago. Ted Cox of the weekly Chicago Reader on Garciaparra: "His beak of a nose, combined with the nervous, flittering tightening of his batting gloves before he steps into the batter's box and the rhythmic tapping of his toes as he awaits the pitch, makes him seem like an exotic bird doing a mating dance in a National Geographic video." Betcha Nomar never heard that on the whiner line . . . If you're wondering what happened to Freddy Sanchez, the Sox second base prospect traded last year to the Pirates in the Scott Sauerbeck deal, he is finally playing after being sidelined nearly a year with ankle woes. Sanchez is batting .246 in 29 games for Triple A Nashville, including 19 starts at second base . . . What would you expect from the wife of a guy nicknamed "Scrap Iron"? Astros manager Phil Garner said his wife, Carol, is OK after being struck in the right wrist by a bat that went flying into the stands. "She just got a bruise," said Garner. "Just sore. She's never been able to go on the DL." . . . Rockies manager Clint Hurdle's latest motivational gimmick? Hurdle took a jersey with his No. 31 and had the name "He Hate Me" stitched on the back. "I will hang it in the guy's locker who's not in the lineup who thinks he should be," Hurdle said. "He can just point to it." . . . On his 44th birthday, the last on which he would play for the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski doubled in the go-ahead run off Doyle Alexander of the Blue Jays and was walked intentionally in what would be a 4-2 Red Sox win in Fenway Park. Today, the Hall of Famer turns 65. Happy birthday, Yaz.