11
2009
Phillies Favorites For Halladay; Becoming Yankees Of The NL
An article by 
According to Tom Verducci of SI.com, the Phillies are emerging as the favorite to land Toronto ace Roy Halladay.
“They’ve been very aggressive,” one baseball source said about the Phillies’ pursuit of Halladay. “They’re putting together a package, even if they need another team. They’re trying to find the players [on other teams] the Blue Jays want to get it done.”
The Phillies, who already have the National League’s best offense, would arguably have the league’s best 1-2 pinch as well with both Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay atop their rotation.
The article includes a quote from Brewers GM Doug Melvin who called the Phillies the powerhouse of the NL and prompted Verducci to say,
After almost a decade in which democracy ruled in the NL, Philadelphia is becoming the Yankees of its league: the king who wants more. Already the two-time league champion, the Phillies, given their aggressiveness and stockpile of young talent, are emerging as the favorite to land Toronto ace Roy Halladay.
As most of you know, the Phillies worked tirelessly to get Halladay at last season’s trade deadline, but their reluctance to part with prized prospect Kyle Drabek was a deal-breaker. That’s no longer the case as the Phillies are now willing to part with Drabek who the Jays covet.
Halladay lives ten minutes from the Phillies spring training home in Clearwater, Florida, and the thought of that is very appealing to him. Halladay, who has a full no trade clause, has indicated that he would approve a trade to the Phillies.
One team that Halladay would not approve a trade to is the New York Mets. According to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, a source told him that Roy Halladay would reject a trade to the Mets.
One of the consequences of the two collapses and a season marred by injuries and dysfunction is that so many players have such a negative perception of the Mets. There’s a feeling of bad karma that most players would rather not get involved with. It’s something the Mets have had to deal with many times before in their history including as recently as 2002 – 2004. To overcome this, the Mets have had to frequently overpay for players, much like they did with Pedro Martinez.
We’ll see the Mets do a lot of overpaying this off season.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
Went to my first Mets game, a Mayors Trophy game at Shea, in '73. We beat the Yankees 8-4 and I was hooked. I marched in two Banner Day parades, and before the Grand Slam single, there was the "Hendu Can Do" grand slam - I was there. I've collected Mets memorabilia all my life and started Mets Merized Online to feed my addiction.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationals | 26 | 18 | .591 | - |
| Braves | 26 | 20 | .565 | 1.0 |
| Mets | 24 | 21 | .533 | 2.5 |
| Marlins | 24 | 21 | .533 | 2.5 |
| Phillies | 23 | 23 | .500 | 4.0 |
Last updated: 05/25/2012
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Write Your Own Mets Post
Amazing how no one wants to play for the METS now…. As much as I would like a pitcher like Halladay on our rotation, I dont want any player who doesn’t want to play here….
This is a very depresing commentary. Probably accurate as all-hell, but nonetheless, totally depressing. If the Phillies get Halladay, i think Met fans will do what football Giant fans do in the NFL East when the Gints play the Eagles, Cowboys, Redskins: pray for injuries.
i say that, IF this story is accurate, the Mets have got to do everything possible to get Halladay and prevent the Phillies from doing so. Overload the offer, with both quantity and quality. We cannot allow the Phillies to get Doc Halladay.
i dismiss reports that Halladay would refuse a trade with the Mets, because signings of Bay, Molina, Marquis, Sheets, Adam Kennedy, trading Castillo…would make the Mets appealing to Halladsy: he wants to win a title.
Am i wrong? Can we allow Doc to pitch for the (ugh!) Phillies?
BOB, THER’S WORSE TO GET DEPRESSED OVER; 2 ME ONE OF THEM IS NYM GETTING HALLADAY & THE PENNY PINCHING TO FOLLOW DUE TO 3 HIGH “FULL NO-TRADE” CONTRACTS TAKING UP SO MUCH OF PAYROLL LOCKED UNDER LUXURY CAP! I MAY BE NAIVE; BUT I TRULY BELIEVE ALL THIS FLAP REGARDING HALLADAY & PHILADELPHIA IS FEAR MONGERING BY THE PRESS WITH LITTLE TO WRITE ABOUT. PERSONALLY I PREFER TO ANTICIPATE SPENDING BASED UPON A CLUB’S HIASTORICAL TRACK RECORD. OOVER THE PAST 21 YRS THE PHILLIES HAVE NEVER PLACED HIGHER THAN 5th IN TOTAL PAYROLL, A COMMITMENT THIS LARGE WITH A LEE DEAL IN ’11 WILL CATAPULT THEM RIGHT BEHIND NYY INTO SECOND PLACE NORTH OF 150M(132% OF ’09 PAYROLL) TYPICALLY THE PHILS PREFER MIDSIZED PAYROLLS THEY PLACED BET 20-30 9 OUT OF 21 YRS, BETWEEN 11-19 7 YRS IN TOP 10 5 TIMES. IT’S UNLIKELY A TEAM WHICH PREFERRED TO PART WITH ROLEN & SCHILLING WHEN THEY WERE COMPETITIVLY CLOSE DUE TO PAYROLL WOULD OPT FOR THIS LARGE A MOVE WHEN THEIR FANS AREN’T CLAMOURING FOR IT & THEY ARE STILL WINNING AT LESSER PAYROLL ANOUNTS. DID ANYONE ELSE SEE THE QUOTES OUT OF PHILLY AFTER ACQUIRING POLANCO TO REPLACE FELIZ THAT STATED THEY WERE NOT SIGNIFICANTLY ADING PAYROLL AND WOULD CONCENTRATE THEIR EFFORTS ON REBUILDING THEIR BULLPEN FOR 4-6M & NO MORE? PHILLY IS NOT NY & THEY DON’T LIVE ACROSS THE STREET FROM DADDY WARBUCKS! NYM HAVEN’T PROVEN TO THEM THEY CAN SPEND WISELY, ATLANTA’S PAYROLL POSITION RELEVANT TO OTHERS IS CONSTANTLY DROPPING. WHILE IT MAKES FOR SCAREY FIRESIDE CAMPING STORIES IN NY, I WON’T BE WORRIED UNTIL THERE’S BEEF ON THE BONES OF SPECULATION. WHEN THE SPECULATION STARTED THAT LAA & PHL WERE ENTERING THE FRAY, SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF LAA’S OFFER WERE STIPILATED. PHILLY’S WAS LEFT BLANK. WE SHOULD ALL KNOW FROM THE STEVE PHILLIPS ERA THAT JUST BECAUSE THERE’S SPECULATED SO-CALLED INTEREST DOESN’T MEAN THE LOGIC APPLIED IS VALID. BOO!
Mets62, you make great points on the risk of our getting Halladay. As re Philly’s ‘real’ interest; they may biew itt as the way to bury us for a few years at least. Gettingto Lee in 2011 would be a decision at that time, hinging on his productivity then. But who know if this is accurate. We shall see. i did add that ‘alternatively’ to the Phillies getting Doc, the Mets might be ‘compelled’ to open the wallet ful tilt to get Bay AND Lackey + others, so as to NOT default to the Phils and risk our long-term ire. After all, the Mets have a very large ‘nut’ to kep humming: theie new ballpark and new network.
you deserve a medal for reading all that in caps… my brain began to hurt half way in and I quit lol
bob, leopards don’t changetheir spots. the press will always reportb negativly re. our nym & phils will always squeeze those nikels until the buffalo craps. i’m getting weary of the met fans’ gulibility & negativism. i don’t understand why, they’re rarely credited for constant reloading after failure insteadof like atl, packing it in & aiming for a w/c berth(schurholtz target declaration his last 2 yrs as gm) even the phightens discarded rolen & schilling after 2nd place finishes to atl rather than keeping & adding as we’d likely do. i blame the bullies across the st. too many young met fans apparentyly prefer being nyy lite. everyone com[plains about the lack of prospects compared to phl & atl; but no one sees how they never sacrifice a pick to get a key piece if classified a or b. no, we’re the only div team activly & regularly competing for those top f/a. the last one phl inked was thome yrs ago; but only in anticipation of inc revenues generated by openning “cigarbox park”
even the devil occasionally gets hgis due, why not us? of all the peer teams, expansion franchises of thr 60s & 70s we’re the most successful in post season opportunities,.
CAN’T HEAR YOU. PLEASE SPEAK UP.
Alternatively, if the Mets are unable to preventthe Phillies from getting Halladay, then the Mets MUST open the WALLET and sign Lackey and Bay, Kennedy or Hudson, Marquis or Sheets and prepare for the competitve tsunami in the NL East to be known as the Phillies. To do anything else would be to concede the Division to the Phillies for the next 4 – 5 years. Do you people agree or disagree?
If the Phils are able to come up with Halladay they will have a lock on the NL East for the next 4 to 5 years. The chances of the Mets coming up with the list of guys you enumerate is slim to none (as Ralph Kiner would put it). So count on it: Phils + Halladay = dynasty.
my friend, u certainly should’ve used largest font & capslock on that ‘if’ u started with. amarro already doing the steve phillips’ dance, errrr too valuable prospects, etc,etc. next should be 25-1 scenrerio lmao!
That may be right and I very much hope that Amaro won’t venture there.
mask, ny bubble-itis we’re the ‘big’ spenders in our div. off of espn team sites under roster/salaries u’ll find a suprising breakdown:
of the 25 rosters today…
phillies:
4 players @ 10m+ highest howard @ 15m total of 4 = 50.4m
15 bet 1m-10m
6 10m highest tied lowe & hudson @ 15m total of 4 = 51.5m
11 bet 1-10m
11 10m highest beltran @ 19.2m total of 4 = 62.1m
13 bet 1-10m
7< 1m
though the breakdowns by population in each bracket are similar, the methods for getting to highest is quite dissimilar 3 of phl 4 are homegrown howard,utley,myers, lone acquisition is lidge @ 12m
1 of atlanta's is homegrown, chipper @ 10m. other 3 are acquisitions hudson(15m),lowe(15m), vazquesz(11.5m)
none of ny's are homegrown in beltran(19.2m), santana(18.9m), delgado
(12m), perez(12m)
none of phl were acquired via f/a, 2 of atlanta's lowe,hudson. 3 of ny's were f/a acquisitions, delgado via trade.
u can draw your own conclusions, mine are that neither phl or atl are to be considered big ticket item shoppers on f/a mkt under normal circumstances. btw lowe is being heavily shopped by atl due to huddy signing. espn's 1-30 payroll team listing varies from cots' as espn lists phl # 8 @ 111m cots @ #5 w/128m & espn has atlanta @ #12 with 94.3m cots has atl #12 w/97.7m both list ny @ #2 cots has us @ 139.1m, espn @ 145.4m
neither philly nor atlanta has forfeited a draft pick by signing either a type a or b f/a to my recollection, thus increasing their prospect base to work with. a brief perusal of atl's roster only reveals 2 acquired free agents, lowe & kawakami. phillies similarly have only ibanez & scrapheaper cairo as f/a representatives on their roster though there could be more as i'm not a philly fan(obviously). as we all know since omar was presented with a fourth place roster & a depleted farm system there is an abundance of acquisitions on hand of all types with many f/a signings both quality & scrappers. i'm tired of pointing out how jeff's refusal to include contract assistance cash when fireselling with duquette doomed our pipeline to desert dryness. long before omar was hired. the contraints on draft signing bonuses is also strangling a potential source for top prospects, if we'd had gnats' pick last yr strassburg wouldn't be a met since gnats had to exceed commissioer's guidelines to ink him. all of this is being decided by fred & jeff, not omar, who has my pity for being suckered into a no joy situation. as a wilpon beard supposedly deserving of all blame just as the sny shills tell us repeatedly. i can't won't try to explain omar's incompetant public speakuing style; perhaps he should buy his own "teleprompter"lmao!
Phillies are on verge of dynasty and with their aggressive GM Amaro, you can expect a 10+ year run just like the Braves had. Mets are not even on the map when it comes to the Braves and Phillies, and have never been able to sustain more than a one year post season run, which they usually follow up by doing nothing and letting the other teams catch them the very next year.
The Phillies are built for now and for the long haul. Even their farm system was ranked 4th best in MLB by BA. They are the class of the NL and will be for years and years to come.
We’ll be playing second or third fiddle for a long time in the NL east. Thank you Omar.
While I’m not saying Omar is an innocent victim in all of this, I wouldn’t necessarily put him above the Wilpons as the main culprits in the Mets being a second class team in the NL east for what seems like eons now.
I think 2nd or 3rd fiddle is too optimistic. If Omar desn’t deliver some substance, the only contest the Mets will be in is to avoid the cellar.
whoa mask! in ’09 even losing more than 1,000 days of d/l time they weren’t in the cellar! please try getting a reality tint applied to those bacckened glasses. btw, understand amarro’s already doing a steve phillips rendition concerning halladay rumors. hate to say this; but, “i told u so!” actually that felt good! we better all realize the nl east isn’t the al east beast re. spending! philly has jettisoned stars in prime(rolen,schilling) rather then spend mkt value. i’ve lived near philly having worked in both cherry hill, nj & wilmington, de & can attest to philly not being in the same mlb frame of mind that ny & boston are. mlb doesn’t wind the sports clock in phl. nfl does. then nba, nhl with mlb one step ahead of arena football & soccer. the philly fans are convenient fans, verbal & noticed, only when contenders. of course, there are excptions; but by & large their fans don’t demand extordinary means being applied. same in atl regardless of all the old turner-hype their stadium didn’t sellout plaYOFFS AFTER FIRST COUPLE OF YRS MOSTLY DUE TO FEW ACTUAL HOMEGROWN FANS TO ROOT FOR THOSE SOCALLED HOMEGROWN STARS. having lived & woked in ga for yrs i can tell u atlanta is a very transitory city with a lot of transplanted residents moved in for job related opportunities. AT&T, IBM, DELTA are companies with large operations that move in employees who’s mlb loyalties are long established elsewhere. with a corporate ownership after turner being time-warner then liberty communications the owner interst stops at bottom line profitability not w% or standings. it’s very easy to track the braves ownership legaCY BY RESEARCHING THEIR STANDINGS IN THE PAYROLL COLUMN. under ted they typically ewere a top 5 salaried enterprise, since they’ve dropped slowly; but surely into mid-range 15-18 place. last yr’s investment uncharacteristicly advanced them to 12th place in payroll. comparatively nym have consistantly been top 5 for past 21 yrs with little to no fluctuation in position. as i’ve stuipulated in earlier posting philly has religoudsly avoide the top 5, preferring midlevel most often of the 30 franchises, over past 21 yrs the phillies were ranked bet 11-19 7 times, 20-30 9 times, top 10, 4 times. yop 5 twice. that was why i could tell their interest in halladay was a press creation since lee is a f/a after ’10 & a halladay deal would immediately jump philadelphia payroll to second highest behind nyy aka nosebleed territory! lmao!
62, I understand your comments regarding Philly and their historic spending profile, however if Amaro brings a new approach (and you don’t know that’s not the case) it could lead new to a new power. Right now they are positioned very well and if they add Halladay to their roster, the dynasty of the NL East will be set in place. We stood by and watched them sign Lee. A Halladay signing by them will be disaster for the Mets. We don’t know where Amaro will actually take them, but the risk is there. Right now the Mets season is totally dependent on the restoration of the injured players just to have a semblance of competitiveness. Pesonally, I think we have a lot of risk in that all the unknowns will most likely not work out well. I list in that the catcher position, Murphy, Castillo, Reyes, Wright, Beltran and LF. The only real solid expectation is Francoeur and he is more a complimentary player than a core piece. So the entire core needs to be reproven as well as most of the starting rotation from Santana’s comeback from surgery to Pelfrey, Maine, and Perez plus an unknown for #5. There are questions in the pen as well including Parnell’s development. Nearly the entire roster is questions including a bench of mostly retreads. I think we have to conclude many of those questions are not going to work out well. I don’t think the Mets currently have a prayer for the first 3 spots in the NL East. I think we are in a battle to keep #4. If Omar makes some key signings or deals, we may be able to battle for #3, but he’ll have to prove it to me first. I think this hole we are in will take 2 to 3 years to work out of. A couple key signngs this offseason will be the first step. Without those, we will have no mometum towards restoring competitiveness. That is my view and the reason for all the cynicism and negative views in my postings. I have not seen any real dedication or commitment from the Wilpons or Omar to get that done. The offer for Bay is a baby step in the right direction. I see the offer for Molina as basically meaningless, although I know you disagree. I don’t think a Molina signing alone will get us very far along the path we need to travel and actually may set us back on timing the team’s renewal. We absolutely need a minimum of 1 between Bay, Holliday, Lackey and Halladay and preferably 2 of them. Without that we are battling to stay out of the cellar in 2010 in my view given what is on board now and the number of questions that abound.
mask according to carlin on loudmouths last night, amarro’s already doing phillips’ two-step back from halladay rumors, somrthing like too many prospects, or too rich in talent needing surrender… they aren’yt in ny u’d certainly be best informed on actual spending habits & eventualities by checking out a site like:
http://content.usatoday.com/SPORTS/BASEBALL/SALARIES/TOTALPAYROLL.ASPX?YEAR=2005
The Phillies would probably not resign him since they will have to pay Lee big bucks too and he is younger. So the mets are not going anywhere next year. I son’t cry in my beer. Just take note, Wontpons. Watch how legit GMs do their business. Ask yourself why no one wants anything to do with your team?
You call yourselves Mets fans… where is the blind optimism?! We’ve gove far with a lot less that this. Halladay to the Phils would forcast doom for the Mets. I agree that they would have to try to outbid Phil for him. I don’t understand why Citi being a pitchers park is a bad thing for hitter and means nothing for pitchers. Halladay would be filthy in Citi. NL plus park effect. It would be a nasty 1-2 punch with Johan… I think he should have been the target from the get-go he is money is the bank (if you can say that about a SP)… lets also remember that Halladay said he would consider anytrade… there were rumors for awhile that he wouldn’t got to Ana. b/c he wanted to do spring training in FLA.
Echhhh!….What a bunch of mopey,pessimistic bastards some of you are on here. Already conceding that The Phillies will land Halladay (which most likely will not even happen) and run the NL East table for the next 10 years? Is that what the past few Met seasons have done to you? I hope I never get that bad!
The Amazin’s have been in the crapper before,several times. Nonetheless,they’ve always managed to crawl their way back out somehow. Now I don’t look at the team through rose colored glasses,but I certainly don’t have a fatalistic view of them either. The worm will turn eventually,get in off the ledge for now!
Btw,Tom Verducci is a fanboy homer in journalists clothing. Take anything he says with a giant grain of salt…
Let Halladay go, We don’t have what it takes to get him anyway. Overpay a bit for Lackey, get Garland, screw Marquis, get Sheets on the cheap. Sign Nick Johnson (prob. 285, 12-20, 400 OBP) and Josh Willingam (prob. 270, 15-25, 80-90 RBI) for real value, forget holliday and bay, and the Muckin Fets can win this thing….+ forget Molina 2, we have like 14 catchers now, let them each find out which pitcher clicks w/ who….and the Mets are right there…..BTW why not see what flavor Gatorade the Pirates want for Zach Duke come July.
I know it won’t happen, but neither will trading Castillo (w/o negative cash flow)