Musing on Doc Halladay

I can't tell you how sick I am of national baseball writers talking about how Blue Jay fans will be devastated if Toronto trades Doc Halladay.

Why do these writers continue to underestimate the intelligence of baseball fans north of the border? To them, it seems, you can't really understand baseball unless you've had a major league team since the turn of the previous century.

Guess what guys: Baseball has been around Toronto a lot longer than most of you think. Babe Ruth, in fact, hit his first professional homerun in Toronto, at Hanlan's Point Stadium while pitching the Providence Grays to a 9-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1914. Trust me, we're not all just puckheads up here.

We understand how difficult it is for Toronto to attract and keep top-notch free agents. It's why we had to overpay for guys like BJ Ryan and AJ Burnett. Hell, I remember when the Jays signed their very first significant free agent -- Dennis Lamp way back prior to the 1984 season. Yup, Dennis Lamp. The town was all atwitter. 1983, remember, was the first time the Jays had flirted with respectability and a pennant race.

Which brings us back to Halladay. I was at my monthly home poker game Saturday night, a group of guys fairly knowledgeable about sports. Not only was there unanimity on the topic of trading Halladay now, but there was also agreement that people would be ticked off if he wasn't dealt.

Jays fans understand we're not going to compete with Boston and New York and Tampa Bay this year, or probably next. And we don't exactly have the deepest farm system around: Travis Snider and JP Arencibia are the gems, with a whole bunch of mid-level pitchers and hitters like David Cooper and Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson. Sure, we could keep Doc until his contract runs out, but that would net us two draft picks in the 2011 draft, and at least three years past that when those guys would be thought about making the big-league team.

Doc's value will never be higher than it is right now, for the simple fact that teams get an extra two months of production out of him. Those who think the Jays will be able to get for more him after the season are suffering from a pretty big case of wishful thinking.

So let's get something done with Phillie or Texas or Boston. They seem to have the deepest farm systems. And when that's done, we'll talk about moving Rolen and Scutaro and Frasor, which is also something the Jays should be doing.