Santana was very human last year. He had five great games, 20 quality starts, and five bad starts. I knew that unless he got better, he would get crucified in New York with that contract. I thought he would get better because of the weakness of the NL. But I also felt that there would be days like this. I just hope there aren't too many more days like this.

he has over 150 million ways to make himself feel better.

yeah, that was kind of me of me.

He'll be just fine this year. His line will still look great. It's impossible to be totally invincible every time out. He's still got an ERA at 3-flat, and he usually starts slow. Despite him "throwing a lot of pitches" he is still totally unhittable when he's on, which is more and more often as the season goes on.

I also have to take issue with the idea that Santana "throws a lot of pitches." I've always thought one of Santana's strengths is his pitch economy. The numbers back this idea up. So far in this early season, out of 156 pitchers who have had starts, Santana ranks 13th in fewest pitches per inning with 14.3. The majority of the pitchers around him are contact pitchers like Chien Ming-Wang and Greg Maddux, not guys that spend extra pitches getting three strikes on hitters like Santana (though there are some notable strikeout names in his territory, such as Ben Sheets and Cole Hamels). In 2007, out of 302 pitchers with starts, Santana ranked 46th in fewest pitches per inning with 15.3. This was the worst year of Santana's career in pitch efficiency. In 2006, Santana was 23rd out of 303 in the same metric.

Much of this success is due to Santana giving up less hits and facing less batters than many pitchers. In 2007 (once again, the least pitch efficient year of Santana's career) Santana ranked 188th out of 302 starters in fewest pitches per plate appearance. In 2006, he ranked 152 out of 303 starters in the same metric. While that's much more middle of the road, I'd say that's not bad for a guy who's always among the league leaders in racking up K's. It's pretty tough to get a guy out with one pitch when nobody can put any bat on your changeup.

The fact is, Santana has racked up lots of innings while throwing a very small number of pitches in the process for his entire starting career. Saying he "throws lots' of pitches" is pretty unfair at best, and patently false at worst.

And without taking huge issue with it, I don't see how it's terribly accurate to say Santana throws lot's of 'balls and fouls' when he is clearly one of the best in the league at missing bats entirely and has carried an above average walk rate his whole career.

It was one marginal start. He'll be just fine. His line will probably look about as good or better than it has the last couple years. Quite frankly, New Yorkers are a bunch of douchebags for turning their back on him so fast, but that's no news. I hope he has a great year. I honestly hope he enjoys his new life in New York, on the big stage, with the big bucks. But I hope on nights like this, when he isn't perfect and the fickle New Yorkers turn their backs on him, that he'll remember with just a twinge of regret how much we loved and supported him in little old Minnesota.