So now we can finally move ahead to counting the days until pitchers and catchers report and actually know where the best pitcher in baseball (IMHO) will be hanging his uni this spring.

Do I think the Twins got the best package that had ever been on the table? No. Do I think they got the one with least return? No, again. (Strictly based on the names we'd seen bandied about since November/December I think the Yankees probably offered the most at one point but I still like this better than any Red Sox deal that did not include either Jacoby Ellsbury or Clay Buchholz).

(Frankly, I still think the best package of prospects given up this off-season was the sextet the Diamondbacks sent to the Athletics)

The Mets did what they had to do after an inactive off-season and a momentous late-season collapse. There is no way they couldn't have made this deal and kept the fans happy, even if they had to give up so much they would have gone into 2008 with only three full-season Minor League teams instead of four.

And they won't be the first team to try to contend for post-season with virtually no elite reinforcements ready to step in should the 25-man roster falter.

I think a lot of eyes will be on Carlos Gomez. He's got a ton of talent though he's flown under the radar somewhat since the acquisition of Fernando Martinez ... I'm not sure the organization didn't inadvertently do him a disservice when they skipped him past St. Lucie and right from Hagerstown to Binghamton in 2006 though. I wonder if he could have used an extra full-season at more of a high development to work on the little things. As it is now, he may end up learning on the job in center field in Minnesota.

And meanwhile, I think the Twins picked up some nice depth to add to an already interesting bunch of young arms (remember they should be getting Francisco Liriano back soon, and keep an eye on rookie Nick Blackburn). While 18-year-old Deolis Guerra was the key to the deal, Kevin Mulvey could be a sleeper wild card in this deal with much more immediate impact.

Here is a link to more info on the quartet picked up by Minnesota. -- Lisa

I always know that another baseball season is right around the corner when all of the new baseball publications start popping up and showing up in my mailbox. With that in mind, I thought I'd start a little mini-series here on the ATM blog about books with a Minor League bent to them. Today, I'm going to focus on two sitting on my desk as we speak:

Minor League Baseball Analyst
By Deric McKamey

As the description states, McKamey is able to combine sabermetrics and "traditional" scouting to analyze over 1,000 Minor League players. It's a must-have for all fantasy players, in my opinion, and fans of prospects in general will find it incredibly useful. McKamey provides capsules on all of these players -- mini-scouting reports, if you will -- along with a stunning array stats and indicators  fans of Baseball HQ (and the general Jamesian set) have come to appreciate.

The Newberg Report
By Jamey Newberg

Texas Rangers fans are undoubtedly familiar with Newberg's work, but I must admit this is the first time I got his Bound Edition. If you want a volume that covers one organization as much as it humanly can be covered, this is it. Newberg is all over the Rangers from top to bottom and he's even got a blog going on MLBlogs. Reading through all the information in this Report makes me wonder why there aren't 29 others like this for every other organization. Maybe Newberg should tackle that for his next project...

The A's got six players in return for Dan Haren before the holidays, aclear sign that a rebuilding effort was underway. It continued just three days into the new year when they sent Nick Swisher to the White Sox for a trio of prospects, all of whom could have an impact in Oakland in the future.

The A's may be starting over, but they're doing it the right way. While perhaps Oakland fans may not be thrilled with what's going on, you should feel good that the organization is getting top value in return. A once fairly weak system is now chock full o' talent. Here's a closer look at the three players the A's got from Chicago for Swisher:

LHP Gio Gonzalez: The White Sox just don't want to hang onto this guy and I can't for the life of me figure out why. The southpaw is No. 24 on MLB.com's Top 50 list prospects list, yet he's been traded three times in three years. The first was back in December 2005 when the White Sox sent him to Philadelphia in the Jim Thome trade. After one year away, he came back to Chicago as part of the Freddy Garcia deal. In 2007, Gonzalez led all of the Minors with 185 K's in just 150 innings. Southern League hitters managed just a .216 average against the hurler, who didn't turn 22 until the middle of September. The White Sox's supplemental first-round pick back in 2004, Gonzalez has always had the ability to make hitters swing and miss, with 577 strikeouts in 492 1/3 career Minor League innings. Over the course of his career, opponents have managed just a .221 batting average against. He put it all together in 2007, with vastly improved command to go along with plus stuff. He can throw three pitches for strikes with a pretty good fastball that tops out around 93 mph to go along with a pretty good feel for a changeup. But his bread and butter is his breaking ball. Gonzalez has one of the best curves in the Minors and there's a chance A's fans could see it in Oakland's rotation right from the get-go this season. I could see him competing with newly acquired Greg Smith for a spot.

RHP Fautino De Los Santos: The 21-year-old righty made his U.S. debut a memorable one in 2007. He spent most of the year with Kannapolis in the South Atlantic League and made hitters there look silly all year. The South Atlantic League All-Star finished ninth  in the league with 121 K's (against just 36 walks), despite throwing just 97 2/3 innings there. His 2.40 ERA in the circuit would have placed him fourth had he stuck around long enough to qualify. The league hit just .148 against him before he moved up a level and posted a 3.65 ERA over five Carolina League starts (racking up 32 more K's in 24 2/3 IP). He has the kind of stuff that could eventually play at the top of a rotation with four pitches -- fastball, curve, slider and changeup -- that all work. He did some relief work with Kannapolis and if for some reason his development as a starter stalls, he's definitely got a future as a short reliever, with a fastball he can crank into the upper 90s and a plus slider to go along with it.  He gave up a run on a homer to Justin Upton in the Futures Game, but he also blew away two hitters (one of them Red Sox postseason hero Jacoby Ellsbury) in an inning of work, perhaps a sign of things to come.

OF Ryan Sweeney: Perhaps a change of scenery is just what the doctor ordered. It may seem like Sweeney has been around forever, but the truth of the matter is he'll play the 2008 season at the ripe old age of 23. For all of the talk about how he hasn't developed power, there's still plenty of time for that. The White Sox pushed him aggressively from the get-go, moving him to the Class A Advanced Carolina League in his first full season at age 19. That put him in Double-A at 20 and put him in position to spend two years in Triple-A to give the appearance of being stuck. He's gotten a couple of tastes of the big leagues, but never truly long enough to get into any kind of rhythm. He still has a sweet swing from the left side of the plate with a pretty good approach. He's probably best suited for right field, but he's shown the ability to handle center if needed. He should be given every opportunity to win an outfield job this spring and could blossom into the kind of player people have been waiting for ever since he made a splash in big league camp as a teenager back in 2004.

I know the White Sox got a pretty good -- and fairly young -- hitter in Nick Swisher, but I in my opinion the A's easily got the better end of this deal. What's most amazing to me, though, is that it wasn't that long ago that Chicago GM Ken Williams threw his then-senior director of amateur scouting Duane Shaffer under the bus for not overseeing more successful drafts. It led to Shaffer's leaving the Sox after 35 years of service (fortunately, he's now with the Mariners). Miraculously, though, there were three top-notch players, two from Shaffer's drafts, to trade for Swisher. Who is Williams going to blame this year when he looks at his farm system and doesn't see anything there? He'll have to look in the mirror for that one.  -- Jonathan

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In case anyone is interested, I went on Fantasy 411 with Mike Siano and Cory Schwartz on Thursday to break down the trade. You can watch it right here.