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We’re past the torture! Johan Santana has finally been traded. No more speculation about who’s going to get him, for how much and most annoying, when. The New York Mets won the bidding war.

Now the question, with real fantasy baseball implications, is how well will Johan pitch as a Met. We have a few more months to argue about that, but Nate Silver, over at Baseball Prospectus, just took an early shot at what Santana’s numbers could look like in Shea Stadium versus the Metrodome.

An extra win and a 0.38 drop in ERA should excite Met’s fans and fantasy GM’s. Santana is already valued as the top fantasy pitcher in baseball. His current Average Draft Position at Mock Draft Central is 17.20 and he’s gone as early as #3 and as late as #26. I’m not sure that the trade to the Mets will increase his draft position, but it does make him a bit more valuable for owners who already drafted him or would normally draft him early on. It will be interesting to keep an eye on his ADP over the next few weeks to see what kinds of changes occur.

Welcome to the National League, Mr. Santana.

• UPDATE, 1-30-08 at 10:28: Mike Harmon thinks that Johan Santan’s line could look like, 21 wins, 2.55 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 254 strikeouts. Wow! That’s crazy talk man…
• UPDATE, 1-30-08 at 10:38: This should probably be looked at in a post of its own, but Eric of Fake Teams fame looks at the other winner in the Santana deal. Could Carlos Gomez really steal 40+ bases? We’ll cover that later…

Take a look at the top 20 National League fantasy outfielders as they head into the 2008 season.

1. Matt Holliday | Colorado Rockies
2. Alfonso Soriano| Chicago Cubs
3. Carlos Beltran | New York Mets
4. Carlos Lee | Houston Astros
5. Adam Dunn | Cincinnati Reds
6. Eric Byrnes | Arizona Diamondbacks
7. Chris Young | Arizona Diamondbacks
8. Hunter Pence | Houston Astros
9. Cory Hart | Milwaukee Brewers
10. Brad Hawpe | Colorado Rockies
11. Andruw Jones | Los Angeles Dodgers
12. Jason Bay | Pittsburgh Pirates
13. Shane Victorino | Philadelphia Phillies
14. Juan Pierre | Los Angeles Dodgers
15. Jeff Francoeur | Atlanta Braves
16. Ken Griffey Jr. | Cincinnati Reds
17. Matt Kemp | Los Angeles Dodgers
18. Pat Burrell | Philadelphia Phillies
19. Aaron Rowand| San Francisco Giants
20. Jeremy Hermida | Florida Marlins

Here are the top 20 American League fantasy baseball outfielders heading into the 2008 season.

1. Carl Crawford | Tampa Bay Rays
2. Grady Sizemore | Cleveland Indians
3. Ichiro Suzuki | Seattle Mariners
4. Vladimir Guerrero | Los Angeles Angels
5. B.J. Upton | Tampa Bay Rays
6. Alex Rios | Toronto Blue Jays
7. Curtis Granderson | Detroit Tigers
8. Magglio Ordonez | Detroit Tigers
9. Manny Ramirez | Boston Red Sox
10. Bobby Abreu | New York Yankees
11. Nick Markakis | Baltimore Orioles
12. Torii Hunter | Los Angeles Angels
13. Vernon Wells | Toronto Blue Jays
14. Hideki Matsui | New York Yankees
15. Nick Swisher | Chicago White Sox
16. Jermaine Dye | Chicago White Sox
17. Delmon Young | Minnesota Twins
18. Johnny Damon | New York Yankees
19. Jacoby Ellsbury | Boston Red Sox
20. Raul Ibanez | Seattle Mariners

Here is the ranking list of National League third basemen for 2008.

1. David Wright | New York Mets
2. Ryan Braun | Milwaukee Brewers
3. Aramis Ramirez | Chicago Cubs
4. Garrett Atkins | Colorado Rockies
5. Chipper Jones | Atlanta Braves
6. Ryan Zimmerman | Washington Nationals
7. Kevin Kouzmanoff | San Diego Padres
8. Edwin Encarnacion | Cincinnati Reds
9. Troy Glaus | St. Louis Cardinals
10. Ty Wigginton | Houston Astros
11. Mark Reynolds | Arizona Diamondbacks
12. Pedro Feliz | Philadelphia Phillies
13. Andy LaRoche | Los Angeles Dodgers
14. Jose Bautista | Pittsburgh Pirates
15. Jose Castillo | Florida Marlins

As soon as the Giants figure out who will replace Pedro Feliz at third base, we’ll insert that person onto this list. The front runners are Kevin Frandsen or Rich Aurilia.

Today’s pitch count is 5.

1. Buster Olney thinks that the Yohan Santana sweepstakes winner could be announced as early as today (Tuesday). We could only hope…
2. The Nationals signed catcher Johnny Estrada to a $1.25 million dollar deal and swear that’s it’s not in reaction to Paul Lo Duca’s injury. Yeah right!
3. If rookie Cameron Maybin makes the roster out of Spring Training, Manager Fredi Gonzalez is leaning towards batting him in the leadoff slot and letting Hanley Ramirez hit third.
4. Craig over at Fishstripes is thinking that Scott Olsen can pick up some of the slack created by departing Dontrelle Willis and pitch 200+ innings in 2008.
5. Tim over at RotoAuthority thinks that if George Sherrill is traded to the Orioles in the Erik Bedard deal, he could become their closer.

When the Detroit Tigers acquired Miguel Cabrera a few months back, Brandon Inge realized that his time playing third base with the Tigers was over. And since the team hasn’t dealt him yet, they decided to ask him to report to Spring Training with the pitchers and catchers. Inge agreed, and not only will get some time backing up Ivan Rodriguez, but he’ll also fill in for multiple positions in 2008.

“The Tigers want Inge, if he remains with them, to spend some time catching, so that he could be used behind the plate, as well as at various other positions.”

It remains to be seen how many at-bats Inge will get in 2008. If he can sneak 300 at-bats in he may reach 10 home runs and approach 10 stolen bases while hitting .250. If that happens, he can be a serviceable backup. The more positions he qualifies for, the better.

Today’s pitch count is 6.

1. Hey Twins fans! Do you remember 2006 and a guy named Francisco Liriano? Same question to fantasy GM’s. According to the man himself, Liriano is 100% healthy from Tommy John surgery.
2. DRaysBay takes a look at every player who is invited to Spring Training and tells us who’s going to make the team and who’s headed to the minors. I’m intrigued with their take on everyones favorite 3B prospect, Evan Longoria, and the fact that his roster status is still up in the air.
3. Geoff Young, over at Ducksnorts, projects the 2008 numbers of 1B Adrian Gonzalez. I disagree with his .294/.357/.506 prediction being too conservative. If anything, it may be too generous (at least the average and OB%). However, you can expect the power numbers to be better than ‘07. Gonzalez should do better than 30/100 in 2008.
4. Redlegs Rundown talks about Cincinnati Reds 1B prospect Joey Votto and their expectations of seeing him as the opening day first baseman as well as an All-Star for years to come.
5. Washington Nationals catcher, Paul Lo Duca is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow morning on a torn meniscus, but could still be ready for Opening Day. Some folks feel that we may not be hearing the entire story on how Lo Duca hurt his knee.
6. Many sources are reporting an Adam Jones for Erik Bedard trade. But neither the Orioles or the Mariners have confirmed the deal (which at least one M’s blog feels is a bad move) yet.