Mark Fox's Weblog

As the 2009 baseball season came to an end with the Toronto Blue Jays out of the playoffs and trade rumours concerning their ace pitcher Roy Halladay swirled, I kept a close watch on which games he would be starting. I was fortunate to attend his 5-0 shutout of the Seattle Mariners on September 25, which turns out with be his last game as a Blue Jay as it has been announced that Halladay has been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies as part of a three way deal also involving the Seattle Mariners.
Key pluses for Halladay are the chance to play for a team that has a shot at being playoff bound and has a spring training facility near his off season home. The Phillies’ wish for a contract extension is likely also a positive for the 32 year old Halladay.
For Toronto the key was more arms. Toronto Star baseball columnist Richard Griffin writes:

The highlight of the trade for the Jays would be the addition of two starting pitchers. The Phillies would send J.A. Happ, who went 12-4 as a rookie last season. He would join the Jays' major-league rotation while the Mariners would send Phillippe Aumont, a 20-year-old from Gatineau, Que., who has a chance to be a No. 2 starter down the road. Halladay would stay with the Phils and the M's would land Cliff Lee to pair with Felix Hernandez at the top of their rotation.

As part of a lengthy column answering readers’ questions Toronto Star sports reporter Geoff Baker pinpoints the time at which he believes Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi realized the Jays could not make the playoffs and decided against making any trades.

The flag actually came out more than three weeks ago, when Ricciardi ripped the Jays for their pathetic effort in the opener of a series in Kansas City. Ricciardi was savvy enough to see that the Jays had already frittered away the realistic part of their playoff hopes even back then. That's why his frustration boiled over to the point where he gave an unguarded interview that riled his players.

Baker gives his view of what Ricciardi was likely thinking.

The Jays were a half-dozen games behind the division-leading Boston Red Sox in the loss column by the all-star break. As we mentioned last week, that significant gap left them about a five per cent chance of making the playoffs.
To have narrowed that margin before the break, the Jays needed to go to Kansas City and take at least three or even all four of the games that series from the cellar-dwelling Royals. When the Jays lost the opener, the odds of that happening became slim and Ricciardi knew it. Once the second game of that series was dropped, it was clear.

And this was before the New York Yankees completed their three game sweep of the Jays.

Go Leafs?