Hump Day Review: Pass on Halladay for "Everyone" and more
After a week off during the dullest week in sports, it’s time for a Hump Day Review:
Week-in-Review:
The Halladay rush. Only in Philadelphia can a team be on a 10-game winning streak entering Wednesday’s action and have most of the city clamoring for a pitcher from another team. The next genius that calls up ESPN 950 to say how fast he’d give up J.A. Happ for Roy Halladay should be forced to stand at the corner of Broad and Pattison as every Phillies fan parades passed and calls him stupid. The Toronto Blue Jays are never going to trade Halladay for Happ. It’s been reported ad nauseam that it would take Happ plus every major league-ready prospect in the Phillies farm system.
How long did people bemoan the fact that the Phillies didn’t have a good farm system? No, I don’t know anything about how good the guys in the minor leagues are and neither does 99% of the people dying to give them away for Halladay. But I do hear a lot of people saying how loaded the Phillies are in the minors. I also know the Phillies just won the World Series and are cruising back to the playoffs, and that Happ looks pretty damn good lately. Plus, Halladay is 32 and only signed through next year.
Maybe people in Philadelphia just can’t conceive of winning over a long period of time, but I’d rather see the Phillies go for multiple championships instead of Roy Halladay for a year-and-a-half. The Jays are looking to replenish their organization by trading Halladay. Trading the Phillies future to win right now, when the team is already winning right now, doesn’t make sense.
Home Run Borefest. Has anyone else noticed that the Home Run Derby is just plain boring? Besides making Chris Berman feel like he’s still an important part of the sports scene while he tortures viewers with his ridiculous “back, back, back” call that he seems to think he invented, the Derby’s only purpose seems to be potentially messing up the swings of the best home run hitters for the second half of the season. To borrow the best home run call from a real baseball announcer, it’s time the Derby was “outta here.”
Lebron looks like a chump. Right after posting last time, I heard about videos of Lebron James being dunked on by a college player at a summer camp getting confiscated by Nike. Apparently the idea was that if no one sees it on YouTube it will just sort of be forgotten. It’s two weeks later and I haven’t forgotten. Maybe Nike can confiscate all of the video evidence of James NOT playing in the Finals, and just put their stupid little puppets of James and Kobe Bryant in a commercial as if they were competing head-to-head for the NBA title. And, not that I want to see more ridiculous litigation in this country, but if people were actually forced to give up their videos I’d like to know why there isn’t some serious outrage.
This is just pathetic. What’s worse is that the strategy will probably work in our video worshipping society. The guy got dunked on – it happens. But if he’s such a prima donna that he needs to have all video evidence of it destroyed, don’t look for him to be winning any pressure-packed playoff series any time soon.
Quick Shots:
-I’m a tad concerned Jeremy Maclin remains unsigned by the Eagles with start of training camp just days away.
-Apparently the West Coast doesn’t love Andre Miller as much as Andre Miller loves the West Coast. The 76ers free agent point guard remains unsigned as the calendar inches toward August. Whether he fills the role or not, the Sixers need a proven point guard this season.
Week-in-Review:
The Halladay rush. Only in Philadelphia can a team be on a 10-game winning streak entering Wednesday’s action and have most of the city clamoring for a pitcher from another team. The next genius that calls up ESPN 950 to say how fast he’d give up J.A. Happ for Roy Halladay should be forced to stand at the corner of Broad and Pattison as every Phillies fan parades passed and calls him stupid. The Toronto Blue Jays are never going to trade Halladay for Happ. It’s been reported ad nauseam that it would take Happ plus every major league-ready prospect in the Phillies farm system.
How long did people bemoan the fact that the Phillies didn’t have a good farm system? No, I don’t know anything about how good the guys in the minor leagues are and neither does 99% of the people dying to give them away for Halladay. But I do hear a lot of people saying how loaded the Phillies are in the minors. I also know the Phillies just won the World Series and are cruising back to the playoffs, and that Happ looks pretty damn good lately. Plus, Halladay is 32 and only signed through next year.
Maybe people in Philadelphia just can’t conceive of winning over a long period of time, but I’d rather see the Phillies go for multiple championships instead of Roy Halladay for a year-and-a-half. The Jays are looking to replenish their organization by trading Halladay. Trading the Phillies future to win right now, when the team is already winning right now, doesn’t make sense.
Home Run Borefest. Has anyone else noticed that the Home Run Derby is just plain boring? Besides making Chris Berman feel like he’s still an important part of the sports scene while he tortures viewers with his ridiculous “back, back, back” call that he seems to think he invented, the Derby’s only purpose seems to be potentially messing up the swings of the best home run hitters for the second half of the season. To borrow the best home run call from a real baseball announcer, it’s time the Derby was “outta here.”
Lebron looks like a chump. Right after posting last time, I heard about videos of Lebron James being dunked on by a college player at a summer camp getting confiscated by Nike. Apparently the idea was that if no one sees it on YouTube it will just sort of be forgotten. It’s two weeks later and I haven’t forgotten. Maybe Nike can confiscate all of the video evidence of James NOT playing in the Finals, and just put their stupid little puppets of James and Kobe Bryant in a commercial as if they were competing head-to-head for the NBA title. And, not that I want to see more ridiculous litigation in this country, but if people were actually forced to give up their videos I’d like to know why there isn’t some serious outrage.
This is just pathetic. What’s worse is that the strategy will probably work in our video worshipping society. The guy got dunked on – it happens. But if he’s such a prima donna that he needs to have all video evidence of it destroyed, don’t look for him to be winning any pressure-packed playoff series any time soon.
Quick Shots:
-I’m a tad concerned Jeremy Maclin remains unsigned by the Eagles with start of training camp just days away.
-Apparently the West Coast doesn’t love Andre Miller as much as Andre Miller loves the West Coast. The 76ers free agent point guard remains unsigned as the calendar inches toward August. Whether he fills the role or not, the Sixers need a proven point guard this season.
Comments
Well, I guess I am going to be standing on Broad and Pattison getting insulted. Remember Mike Grace? Remember Kyle Kendrick? Remember Brandon Duckworth? These guys started strong as well and faded.
Happ's a good pitcher - maybe. Teams have not seen enough of him yet. He basically has 1 pitch. I see him, in the long run, as a decent 3 or 4. A 500 or slightly above 500 pitcher. Not bad.
However, compare that to Halliday who is a certified stud. He averages 231 innings pitched per year and has a record that is unreal considering he has played for a pretty bad team for a long time.
As for giving up "blue chip" prospects, do you remember Joe Liz, Mike Anderson, Ron Stone, Dane Iorg, Bob Dernier, Rich Schu or Kim Baptiste? Maybe a little bit but none of them had distinquished MLB careers and they were all can't miss prospects.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with trading propsects for a proven stud even if it is only going to be for a year and a half. The prospects may or may not be all stars in the end. The point is that we know we are getting a stud who is a right handed starter. We desperately need that in the rotation. A starting rotation of Halliday, Hamels and Blanton will be formidable in the playoffs.
My philosophy is that you need to win the WS this year. I don't buy the fact that we are mortgaging our future. You will draft new players and develope them. The Phils are built to compete through 2011. Rollins, Howard and Hamels come due then. There should be new prospects by then and who knows what will happen.
We do know that Halliday makes the Phils a better team today. Make the trade.