The saga of Roy Halladay is over. The Toronto Blue Jays finally made the move to trade there second best pitcher of the all-time.
Halladay, the Cy Young award winner for the Jays in 2003 and the ace of the staff has been dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies. In return the Blue Jays get three top prospects from the Phillies. The players they did receive are not names the average fan will recognize;
*C Travis d'Arnaud (from Philadelphia)
*RHP Kyle Drabek (from Philadelphia)
*OF Michael Taylor (from Philadelphia)
The Jays then immediately traded Taylor to Oakland for 1B/3B Brett Wallace (who the A's acquired in the deal last year that sent Matt Holliday to the Cardinals). For more details on those prospects check out Mop Up Duty.com
It doesn't look like any of these prospects will play in the majors next season, which will be a disappointment to fans who will feel the Jays didn't get enough in return for the "best pitcher in baseball". This is probably true, but in the end GM Alex Anthopoulos's hands were tied and hopefully a couple of these guys turn into major league players.
These however leaves Toronto in a bit of a bind. Who do Toronto fans cheer for now?
All of the professional sports teams that play in Toronto, have lost or will lose its major sports figures in a period of two years.
-> Toronto Maple Leafs - Mats Sundin gone
-> Toronto Blue Jays - Roy Halladay gone
-> Toronto Raptors - Chris Bosh - going in June
-> Toronto FC - Danny Dichio - gone
With the holidays around the corner, which jersey does a parent buy for a kid? There is no player currently on any of the Toronto teams that fans will feel comfortable walking around the city wearing that jersey.
Would you were the jersey of the overpaid and aging Vernon Wells? What about Alex Rios who tells fans to fuck off? Nope didn't think so.
What about the hockey team. They can't even name a captain, so who do you wear on your back? The jersey of the goalie that no one trusts (Toskala) or the one of the guy that won't play again because of his bad heart (the Monster).
Don't even get me started on the basketball team. The Raptors try to make the splash and sign a big name free agent in Turkoglu, but 20 games into his first season has been a disappointment and PLEASE don't get your hopes up that Bosh or another big name free agent (Joe Johnson, David Lee) will sign in Toronto.
In these situations, do what I like to do...go for the classics, buy a Sittler jersey, wear that Willie Upshaw jersey to the Dome this summer and by all means break out the Mugsy Bogues jersey.
In this day and age of free agency and "here today gone tomorrow players"...it's almost a must that you get a jersey of a 'classic' player, unless you have mountains of money to buy a new jersey each year.
ReplyDeleteHere's who I would take from my teams:
Vancouver Canucks - Richard Brodeur
San Diego Chargers - Kellen Winslow
Montreal Expos - Andre Dawson
Vancouver Grizzlies - um....maybe I'll pass on this one...though a #33 Pete Chillcutt would be pretty pimp.
Its not about getting a new jersey every year, the Toronto teams don't even have a player they can market on the back of jerseys.
ReplyDeleteFor example if you are a Cavs fan did you decide 4 years ago that LeBron wasn't going to stay around so you bought that 'classic' Craig Ehlo jersey? No, you bought the LBJ one because he is a superstar.
And yes, I just remembered that the Jays traded Rios last season, so you don't have to worry about getting that one...oops.