Halladay Trade Finalizing

Well it happened. Not quite the way I wanted but it happened. Roy Halladay will be wearing pinstripes next season and until 2013. Unfortunately those pinstripes are red. If your not following the Phillies have traded for Roy Halladay. If your first thought was wow thats gonna change things, you might want to hear the rest of the trade. Roy Halladay will be traded to the Phillies in exchange for prospects. The only wrinkle in the trade is that most of the prospects are coming from the Mariners in exchange for... wait for it... Cliff Lee. So essentially what the Phillies have done is trade away Cliff Lee for Roy Halladay, making them the same team as before the trade. They have not improved their rotation even though Roy Halladay is a better pitcher than Cliff Lee because, at this point in their careers, this trade is like trading Sandy Koufax for Bob Gibson there is no point. This trade makes no sense because the whole point of getting Roy Halladay was to have him and Cliff Lee pitch together.

Lets get down to the reason I'm mentioning this. This could have been the Yankees. Earlier I mentioned that trading for Roy Halladay would be easier if a third team was involved. Apparently I was correct because that is just what happened. If the Yankees were willing to deal either Joba or Hughes, I'm starting to lean toward Joba, to the Mariners and Jesus Montero to the Blue Jays they might have been able to pull off the trade pending details. However Halladay to the Phillies is better than Halladay to the Red Sox.