Simply put, no.

Patterson plays great D in CF. He has fantastic tools but constantly throws away AB's due to his poor plate discipline. Pitchers would just challenge Womack. Patterson gets himself out. But his plus output at a premium defensive position, superb base running ability, and decent power, make him way, way better than Womack. Womack couldn’t even turn the double play pivot, for Christ’s sakes, and never had the tools to be a top ten prospect. Immerse Patterson in a professional lineup, with coaches diligently working on his approach at the plate, and his big time talent could pay dividends. Think about it: Has Patterson ever been in an organization that legitimately sought to improve his weaknesses? Mr. “walks clog the bases” Baker handled him terribly. And the Orioles are so totally lost that, by my eye, they don’t even have an organizational philosophy.

I have the distinct suspicion that this is all still happening. Just a feeling that Santana will be pitching for the Yankees on Opening Day, Patterson batting ninth and playing center, replacing the departed Melk man.

Hope the dude at “Save Phil Hughes” doesn’t have a heart attack.

Johan Santana for Jon Lester, who has the stuff but hasn’t displayed the command to be an elite pitcher, a shortstop with a solid bat but and promising patience, but very limited fielding ability [Lowrie], and a one dimensional sinker ball specialist with a very shallow ceiling due to lack of secondary pitches [Masterson] 

Wow.

Ellsbury is excellent. He has a swing tailored toward finding holes in the defense, similar to Jeter in that regard. That’s just a fantastic, natural ability. He’ll always have a high BABIP, personifying the old Wee Willie quote “to hit ‘em where they ain’t.” [Interestingly enough, I got into a shouting match with a Red Sox fan at a bar after Jeter beat Papelbon last season with one of his fist floaters into right. He was raging about Jeter being lucky, but when you have a swing like Jeter, or Ellsbury, it’s just a beautiful thing where contact will yield a high number of hits, with some simply bound to be ugly duck snorts. It’s unexplainable, but completely verifiable. Luck is the residue of design, when it comes to these guys]

But he too, has a limit to his value, because he’ll probably never hit for much power.

So, well done, Bill Smith. If you can take the package that doesn’t include Ellsbury, you have just made one of the worst trades in Baseball history. There’s really nothing the Yankees can do about this. If the Twins truly believe the Red Sox’s inclusion of Lester equals Kennedy [who has way better control and command than Lester] AND Jackson [who could be the Yankees’ CF by 2009] than he is simply being unreasonable, and hurting his franchise severely. Scarring it in fact. My God… if the Twins don’t get Ellsbury, this is positively nightmarish, a preposterously disastrous trade. So atrocious, it’s almost mind bending. I hate to be a jerk, but if this happens, I hope the Yankees run it up on the Twins when they play next season. When Lester is out of the game in the fourth inning after allowing three hits and four walks, and Masterson, the mop-up man, emerges from the bullpen, well, it’s going to be on… it’s going to be on… every time, cause we don’t play…