Okay Angels fans, we’ve got a "good news, bad news" situation on our hands.
The good news: Word on the street is the Angels are again in the hunt for the great Roy Halladay.
The bad news: Word on the street is their offer might include Jered Weaver.
And that is very bad news, indeed.
To include Weaver in any trade is a stinker deal. Jered Weaver is a couple of seasons, at most, away from No. 1 status in a rotation. He’s a solid No. 2 right now. To trade him away, along with other talent, for Halladay is horizontal thinking rather than vertical thinking.
It’s not going to move the Angels forward.
The answer: Give Toronto the Ervin Santana hard sell. He’s young, he’s talented, he’s a proven winner, etc., etc.
And he can be all theirs.
Throw in whomever else you want. (To an extent. We all know the untouchables.)
Of course, rather than going after Halladay, the first choice is keeping John Lackey. He’s a big-game pitcher, tough as they come, and still young. I’d hate to see him put together 20-win seasons for another club. He should be an Angel for years to come.
If keeping him is not possible, then go after Halladay with a vengeance. Just do not, I repeat DO NOT, include Weaver.
We all saw in the 2009 playoffs what Weaver can do in pressure situations. He rose to the challenge, as expected.
I say as expected because he’s been rising to the challenge ever since he showed up on everyone’s radar. From Long Beach State to the infamous holdout to the rapid rise through the minor league, Weaver has excelled despite, or because of, intense pressure and scrutiny.
Weaver and Joe Saunders are the backbone of the Angels' future rotation. They fly under the radar of the "experts" (i.e. robotic thinkers who have to keep talking to justify their salary and say nothing but obvious and worn-out analysis). To those of us who see them pitch every fifth day, however, they are young stars.
Don’t take one step backward to take one step forward. If Halladay comes to the Angels, make sure he’s at the top of a rotation that wasn’t gutted to get him.
And that means keeping Weaver.
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