The latest buzz is that the Blue Jays will entertain offers for Roy Halladay. Certainly the price will be high on a starting pitcher of his caliber. So much is made of a young prospect, I started to wonder how many of the actually pan out. Remember everyone, Lastings Millidge was an un-tradable prospect at one point in the Mets organization. His status put holds on deals that could have brought a Roy Oswalt or Barry Zito in for the stretch run of 2006, the organizations last legitimate shot at a World Series title.
Heres a list of the Mets top prospects by year for the last ten years.
1999-2001 – Alex Escobar
2002 – Aaron Heilman
2003 – Jose Reyes
2004 – Kazuo Matsui
2005-2006 – Lastings Millidge
2007 – Mike Pelfrey
2008 – Fernando Martinez
Impressive isn’t it? I think it’s safe to say with the exception of Reyes and Pelfrey, that’s a list of players no Mets fan would ever miss. Is a pitcher like Halladay, more importantly, a one two combo like Santana and Halladay, more important or impressive than any three players on that list combined? Yes I’d say so.
I personally think that the Mets need offense more than pitching, but you can’t deny this is an interesting idea. The Mets should especially get involved in this race because the Phillies may be emerging as one of the front runners if such a deal actually goes through. C-blocking the Phillies should still be a priority even if the Mets have no real interest. Think back to the Santana deal. The Yankees and Red Sox bid each other into the ground and the Mets swooped to make a deal. Omar, Keep Halladay out of the NL East unless he dons a Los Mets jersey at all costs.
Kaz Matsui was really a top prospect? Good thing I don’t remember that!