So trading him in the off season will land the Jays more eh?

Both “Dick” Griffin and “Bobcat” McCown have been beating the same idiotic drum for months. That trading Roy Halladay at the deadline last season would not have fetched as much as trading him during the off season.

Oh really?

I wonder then how they will react to this: Halladay wants deal done by spring

One of Halladay’s agent’s partners, Jeff Barry, has told the Jays that if Roy is not moved by the start of spring training, he will not discuss ANY move for the rest of his last season in Toronto. And since he has a full no trade clause, his word is the law.

Let’s leave aside for the minute that this asshole Barry is a complete scum bag for spouting off about Hallady’s situation to begin with…although that is admittedly hard to do, given the harm it does to the Jays.

Let’s instead think about the implications of this for the Jays. The rest of baseball now know that the Jays, if they want to trade him, must do so this off season and cannot hold out the hope of waiting till next year’s trade deadline. Do you think that gives the Jays more leverage or less?

And all this on the very morning when “I don’t care about value” Mr. Griffin pens yet again another hapless article stating, “The Jays were better off trading in July. Not true.” This is the same dinosaur who is obliviously contemptuous of the entire concept of Moneyball, of course getting it entirely wrong in the process, thinking it’s about rating OBP over stolen bases when all it’s about is finding undervalued assets, be they high on base percentage players, defensive gems, or as Billy Beane has recently pointed out, scouts! – and what is Anthopoulous doing right now? That’s right, he’s hiring a boat load of scouts (and using Tom Tango as a consultant…this guy gets it). Spending money wisely, what a concept. Alex rocks.

And let’s not forget McCown. Just last week, he, along with Shannon (who has been a massive disappointment as a guest host – his television insights being obviated by his inane attempts at commentary on other topics he has zero knowledge of…god help me, I almost miss Kelly…almost) was also reiterating his own clueless opinion that trading Halladay now would definitely land the Jays more in return. Specifically he said, “we talked a lot about this…before the trade deadline that the one interesting phenomena of the off season is that GM’s forget how bad they actually are…a couple of things here and there and all of sudden the market expands.”

McCown’s contention is that there are a greater number of potential suitors for Halladay now than at the deadline, because some of these new teams are able to delude themselves into thinking they are actual contenders and as such, will be looking to aquire a final piece of the puzzle like Roy.

Well here’s the thing, that premise (more teams interested) may well be true, but it does not follow that the Jays return increases. While there may be a higher quantity of teams now, at the deadline the fewer number of teams were far more motivated. I’d much rather have three highly motivated teams like we did at the deadline (Phillies, RedSox, Dodgers) than 8 only somewhat motivated teams now. And that is the position the Jays find themselves in. Plus of course to say nothing of the fact that by trading for him at the deadline you simply get more out of Halladay, an extra half season and a full extra playoffs. That simple fact alone all but guarentees that the offers the Jays receive now will be less. Because the team’s are receiving less.

I’ll try to put this into term’s that even Griffin could understand (although given the medifore I’m about to introduce, that’s doubtful):

Imagine you’re out at the bar and looking to pick up. When are your chances better? At 9pm with one of 10 completely sober young ladies, or at 2am with one of three bombed and horned up little tramps?

We had our chance to bend a hot coed over immediately in late July. Now we’ll have to be content to buy her dinner, listen to her witless banter, and probably not even receive any friggin tongue in return.

Christ.

Tags: Bob McCown, John Shannon, Phil Kessel, Richard Griffin, Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Maple Leafs