More on Halladay

It seems as if everything I'm reading and hearing indicates that Roy Halladay won't be a Dodger. For now, it appears the Blue Jays asking price is so high that even the group of prospects I discussed in yesterday's post won't be enough to get a deal done.

Trading Billingsley or Kershaw would probably get a deal done, but as I wrote yesterday, both are too young, too good, too important to the future of the Dodgers, and losing either of them for a rental would not help the team's rotation depth. Trading them would also seemingly violate "The Dodger Way" of building from within, which should be important to some people.

It's not the end of the world if the Dodgers can't get Roy Halladay though, considering they enter today with the best ERA in Major League Baseball. They have a good enough team to compete in October.

Still, it's out of character for Ned Colletti to stand pat at the trade deadline, and I know he's going to be motivated to do something. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go after Cliff Lee. Colletti and Indians GM Mark Shapiro have a good working relationship, and I know that the Indians are thrilled to have Carlos Santana in their system after the Casey Blake trade last year.

Lee is not nearly as good as Halladay, but he's on par with Billingsley this year, and he would certainly help the Dodgers rotation. I'm not sure if the Indians are chomping at the bit to give up Lee though, so it might be tough to pry him away.

Another name that keeps coming up is George Sherrill. I should caution the Dodgers that just because a guy like Sherrill is a serviceable Major League closer, doesn't mean he's better than some middle relievers that could be acquired at a cheaper price.

Additionally, while some note the Dodger bullpen has been worked hard this year, they need to take a close look at the workload of relievers they could potentially trade for. I'm not as concerned about the Dodger bullpen as some others in the media. Their bullpen has been pretty darn good this year, and while they've worked a lot of innings, they've also had a lot of different guys pitch for them. The Dodgers have carried 13 pitchers most of the season, knowing that some starters don't go deep into games.