Should the Philadelphia Phillies acquire Roy Halladay?
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and are the defending World Series champions. The Phillies are a member of the East Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. Since 2004, the team’s home has been Citizens Bank Park in the South Philadelphia section of the city. The Phillies have won two World Series championships (against Kansas City in 1980 and Tampa Bay in 2008) and six National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915. The franchise has also experienced long periods of struggle. The age of the team combined with its history of adversity has earned them the distinction of having lost the most games of any team in the history of Major League Baseball.[1] The Phillies are also the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of American professional sports.[2] The franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester. The team has played at several stadiums in the city,
Maximizing value: Halladay will have very high trade value for the Jays right up until 4 p.m. on July 31st. At precisely 4:01, his trade value will plummet, largely because of his impending free agency. Halladay’s priority is to go to a winning team and to a winning situation. And there are no indications that he would hold up a proposed trade before the deadline with some contract demands. If the Jays worked out a deal to send him to Philadelphia, Halladay seemingly would go along with it without complication. But if Halladay is not traded as of 4:01 eight days from today, he will be able to impact just one pennant race, rather than two. And if he’s not traded until this off-season, then his contract situation will become a much greater factor and a much greater concern for any team interested in acquiring him. We saw the salaries for free agents plummet during the winter of 2008-09, at least for players not named Teixeira or Sabathia or Burnett or Lowe, and the Players Association is
Last year, the Phillies were one of the top suitors for C.C. Sabathia. All the fans were saying that he was the missing piece to the puzzle. Rightfully so, he was the best pitcher available at the time. Philadelphia didn’t win the sweepstakes, and Sabathia went to Milwaukee. The Phils had to settle for Joe Blanton. Well, we all know how that turned out. The Phillies, with Blanton, went on to win the World Series, giving the Brewers the boot in the first round of the playoffs. Which brings me to the topic at hand this year: Roy Halladay. The Toronto Blue Jays admitted that they were going to listen to offers for him. That happened on July 7th. It has been 15 days since that became public knowledge, and every hour brought a new team into the mix. But from the get-go, the Phillies were deemed the favorite. Sources: http://bleacherreport.
