SteveSilver.net

Thoughts on the Halladay Deal

The deal is now (just about) final; a few scattered thoughts:

- The Phils get arguably the best pitcher in baseball, for 4-5 years, for less money than they would have had to pay for him in free agency. So barring injury, they're assured of a sure ace for all of that time.

- Wednesday and Thursday were fun, fun days on Twitter and MLBTradeRumors, as scenario after scenario flew through the air- I think about 50 different players were mentioned as being part of the deal at one point or another.

- I love that Halladay wanted to sign with the Phillies because his house in Florida is near their spring training facility.

- Fans in Philly are upset that Cliff Lee had to be traded in the bargain. Well first of all, the question isn't "who's better, Halladay or Lee?" It's, "what's better- one year of Lee, or five of Halladay?" The answer to that should be obvious.

- Yes, losing Lee sucks for the Phillies. Should they have traded Joe Blanton instead, dumped his salary, and kept Lee for one more year? That would have been preferable- but apparently there was next to no interest in Blanton, and they couldn't have gotten prospects for him.

- It would have been awesome to have a front of the rotation of Halladay/Lee/Hamels, sure- but the Phils won the World Series in '08 with a top three of Hamels/Myers/Moyer- next year's front line of Halladay/Hamels/Happ (plus Blanton and possibly Pedro) is considerably better than that. And don't tell me they "can't beat the Yankees" with that rotation- who the hell knows? The next World Series is in ten months; we don't even know who will be in it, who will be good next year, who will or won't be injured, etc.

- If I were running the Phillies, I'd feel a lot worse about losing Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor than about Lee- they both look like studs, who are under control for a long time. Plus, the team is quickly getting older (I believe 7 of 8 regulars are 30 or older), and they need a farm system to step in once the current run is over. Then again, Taylor was quickly flipped to Oakland, and knowing the A's, if he's any good he'll be back on the trade market again in 2-3 years.

- Another byproduct of this- the return of the "Phillies are cheap" meme! Sure, they gave a $60 million extension to a superstar pitcher, bringing their payroll to $140 million- those penny-pinching jackasses! Yes, people are going to be upset when a move has to be made to get under a budget- but it's a very, very high budget. Like, Top 5 in baseball.

- And yes, Philly phandom has spent the last several days (and really, the last several months) debating whether they'd rather have Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay. As a Twins fan- or really, as a fan of just about any other team- I'd LOVE to have that problem.

- Then again, it seems pretty clear the Jays got a better haul of prospects for Halladay than the Twins got for Santana. I bet the Blue Jays make the playoffs again before the Mets do.

- Phuture Phillies had by far the best analysis of the trade that I've seen.

Posted by Stephen Silver at December 16, 2009 01:36 PM