Comments on: Red Sox should forgo Halladay for Holliday

By: James Maynard

James Maynard — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:03:59 +0000

I respectfully disagree. Pitching wins championships, and as of right now, I’m not happy with the rotation as set after Beckett and Lester. We don’t know if Dice-K is feeling better and is back up to snuff (although his return looked good, the sample size was small). Plus, Wakefield has not finished the season for the last two years, and at his age is probably better suited to middle relief (plus, can you imagine batters having to go from Lester heat to Wake’s knuckler in the same game?). Buchholz’s .421 is OK for a #5 in the AL east, but would I trade him for Halladay? Darn right I would. Then, I’d resign Bay (who is proven in the AL East) for $5M less than Holliday would get and you have a nice chunck of change saved for the Doc acquisition.
All of this is my humble opinion, of course. :O)
JM

By: lude

lude — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:40:34 +0000

no way that works.
1. if the jays do nothing, they get two 1st round picks. the package has to be clearly better than that, or there’s no reason to trade him.
2. there are going to be multiple suitors, so if you want him, you have to outbid the others.
3. the jays have said they would allow a window to negotiate an extension with Halladay, so you are trading for the right to own him for three to five years depending on the extension.
4. the risk in doing nothing is that the Yankees could step in, and you don’t want him in NY for the next several years. the yankees don’t really have the pieces to match a reasonable offer from the Red Sox (or perhaps others), but if their offer is best, they’ll be able to tie him up for years. if no team makes an offer the jays like, he becomes a free agent, and he again probably ends up in NY, because no one’s going to outspend them.
5. if Boston wants to compete with the Yankees over the next three or four years, they need to seriously consider making the best offer.

By: JBerardi

JBerardi — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:40:47 +0000

I’m not sure where this notion that the Red Sox definitely have to give up Buchholz AND Kelly to get Halladay is coming from. It only took one blue-chip prospect to get Santana. Ditto Sabathia. Kelly + one of Reddick/Kalish and maybe a few other minor pieces is a more logical starting point, IMHO.