Some fresh news to report that involves a few names that may be of interest to Mets fans. On Friday, the excursive window that teams have to negotiate with their own free agents comes to an end. You can expect things to really start reaching a frenzied peak after that.

Today, Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post had an exclusive interview with free agent starting pitcher Jason Marquis who considers himself a perfect fit with the New York Mets. He recalls when Jeff Francoeur told The Post this summer that free-agent right hander Jason Marquis badly wants to be a Met in 2010, and now it seems Marquis has backed it up.

“It would always be nice to come back home and represent your hometown [as a member of the Mets],” said Marquis, who grew up in Staten Island and still lives there. “This is where I’m from, so to come back here and play in front of friends and family would be an honor.”

The 31-year old Marquis was 15–13 with a 4.04 ERA an 1.38 WHIP last season for the Rockies. in 216 innings pitched he struck out 115 batters. He has had double digit wins for six straight seasons.

According to Jon Heyman of SI.com the Yankees recently called the Blue Jays to express interest in superstar pitcher Roy Halladay. And while the Yankees made the very same call last summer with no hope of acquiring Halladay, this time they have a real reason to believe they may actually have a legitimate chance to make a blockbuster trade.

Wow, imagine a 1-2-3 of Halladay, Sabathia and Burnett. Toronto’s new GM insists that he would trade Halladay to his division rivals if their offers helped the Blue Jays more in their opinion. Heyman writes,

Here is the most obvious reason the Yankees (or Red Sox) may now finally have a legit shot to trade for arguably baseball’s best pitcher: New Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos is making it clear he is genuinely willing to consider a deal with either the Yankees or Red Sox, a sharp contrast to Anthopoulos’ predecessor, J.P. Ricciardi, who had GMs convinced he’d never make a Halladay trade with either the Yankees or Red Sox.
Heyman also says in his column that he doesn’t believe that the Mets will pursue Halladay because he does not envision the Mets paying $46 million a year on two starters in their rotation. It’s a point that Joe D. made in this post a few days ago. Also, a Toronto newspaper has confirmed that the Blue Jays will give a negotiating window to any team that ends up trading for Halladay. We’ll keep watching this for you, but there is now no doubt that Halladay has pitched his last game for the Blue Jays.