A Few Ill-Thought-Out Words On What Else?

As Parkes has already mentioned, there was an interesting piece of Twittering yesterday from Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman:

Turns out it’s bullshit—which isn’t to say anything of Heyman’s “reporting”, if that’s what we’re calling Twitter posts these days. After all, we have no idea how, precisely, it’s “bogus”, or whether there is a kernel of truth in it somewhere. Not being Mark Knudson, I don’t necessarily know how things work, but I’d imagine that a lot of names get floated around when these kinds of trades are being discussed, both internally and with the other team, or, if TV has taught me anything, I imagine there are various stages of gamesmanship going on throughout any negotiation.

Meaning, I kind of think—and maybe I’ll be completely wrong—that if Halladay is moved there is going to be a chain of events here, where a rumour grows into reality through a series of Tweets and posts on Scientology’s MLB Trade Rumors. For that reason—plus the fact that I think Halladay really probably isn’t going to be traded anyway—I just don’t know how ape goof I’m going to go for every single idea that comes out of somebody’s keyboard.

Now, on the surface—on the surface—it may seem that the opinion I hold 0n this makes it really convenient to be as lazy as possible in following this story. Well… yeah, OK, that’s true. Clearly I’ve turned into Richard Griffin…

(Ugh… sorry for a tangent here, but is it just me or is Doug Farraway not the Fan 590’s fucking Glenn Beck?)

Anyway… I don’t remember what my fucking point was, but I guess it’s mostly that I haven’t bought into how real they keep telling us this thing is—Heyman’s now Tweeting that a Halladay acquaintance says “he’s emotionally gone”, which apparently is supposed to mean something.

I guess I tend to agree with what Parkes—and others—have been saying: that because Halladay's value, with two years left, is so high, and teams value their prospects so much, nobody is going to up a package enough above what you’d be damned sure to expect to get next year, or in the off-season, to make it worth doing now.

It’s not like moving him is such an easy decision for the Jays-- even though a lot of folks seem to assume they have to. If they do move him, it means they give up two eventual first round picks, they give up on the chance to convince him to stay in the off-season, they give up the ability to retool and take one more crack with him next year, and then still get major value—though not as much—in return if it doesn’t work out, and, almost certainly, they’ll see their TV and attendance numbers go deeper into the tank.

Maybe those are only real concerns over here in fantasy land, but I don't know... shouldn’t it be enough to make a team like the Phillies wonder if the Jays really are going to blink and give in to a package that somehow doesn’t include their best prospects?

Incidentally, Heyman also reported yesterday that the Jays wouldn’t deal Halladay for Phillies prospects Michael Taylor, Carlos Carrasco and Jason Donald—that they would have to part with Kyle Drabek as well. Are the Phillies really going to pass on so dramatically increasing their chances for a three-peat just because they want to keep fucking Drabek? If that’s really true, and the Jays would do that deal, Phillies fans should be storming Ruben Amaro’s office with pitchforks—their future is now.

But anyway, yes, the Jays risk getting burned like the Twins on Santana if they wait too long. I just don’t think you can be afraid of that—CC Sabathia, with three months left on his contract, still hauled back Matt LaPorta, who I understand is only one guy, but is at least an elite guy. And I don’t think you can so completely discount—the way that all the ass-talkers who are so sure a deal is going to take place—the Jays ability to quickly retool…

Maybe I’m way too deep into thinking like a fan here, or maybe I’m just not thinking straight, and maybe they’ve even wanted to go this route, and have found no takers—though I find that hard to believe, if they're really willing to take back nothing but salary relief—but what if you move Rolen, Rios and Overbay for whatever possible, eating as little money as possible?

You have some cash freed up, plus the additional resources that Rogers continue to claim exist. Sign one free agent 1B and one DH/OF/3B to short-ish contracts—I’d like to pretend I’m thinking in the Pat Burrell contract mould here, but that’s probably not quite realistic— either re-sign Scutaro or otherwise procure a shortstop, then trade some depth pitching to fill the other gap. Or fuck, maybe you think you’ve got it covered with someone already in the organization, like Ruiz, Dopirak or Phillips. (Er… maybe not…)

Some of the upcoming free agents, according to Cot’s, that could fit those needs are Russ Branyan, Carlos Delgado, Aubrey Huff, Nick Johnson, Jim Thome, Miguel Tejada, Hank Blalock, Troy Glaus, Bobby Abreu, Jason Bay (yeah, keep dreaming on that one), and Mike Cameron.

I love Rolen, and am not nearly as down on Rios and Overbay as a lot of people, but those guys have got to have some trade value (not so much Overbay, but just go with me on this), and moving them gives you a chance to revamp the middle of the order—which might just be the ticket, even if it means giving up two stellar defensive players. Can it really be that hard to come up with a middle of the order that isn’t so goddamn toothless?

Granted, Rogers would have to part with some precious money in this scenario, but Rolen, Rios and Overbay are owed almost $28M combined next year—even if they’re eating a more than they’d like to, how much will it really take? They didn’t even have to eat half of Shitske’s salary to get Boston to take him, and he was fucking Shitske!

I dunno… again, I’m not Mark Knudson, I’m just saying… is the only road back to respectability the one where you have to trade Roy Halladay? I’m just really not sure why it is.

And speaking along these lines, I have a hunch Bob McCown is going to confront Pat Gillick with just such a scenario this evening—and the possibility of him being the man to do it—when the Jays’ ex-GM, representing the Phillies, joins him on Prime Time Sports.