Let's wait for this to shake out. I think Rube is going to surprise us - I have faith in the smug.

so we get possibly the best pitcher in baseball, for a below-market value contract, which allows him to be with jimmy/chase/popo/wertz/choochtober/vic through their being as old as derek jeter is now, and i'm supposed to be sad? i don't want to go there.

Stark sYs we are getting ms top two pitching prospects back

Can we have Morrow, please?

ek wrote:stark says we are getting the top 2 pitching prospect in seattle's organization plus an OF that is equivalent to Taylor

Gillies = Taylor? Not buying that.

ek wrote:stark says we are getting the top 2 pitching prospect in seattle's organization plus an OF that is equivalent to Taylor

Then why not trade them to Toronto and keep our own prospects

Top two pitching prospects are supposed to be Ramirez and Aumont. I guess. That's the deal. I do think Gillies is going to be a solid leadoff man.

So here's something else that doesn't make sense:

supposedly the whole reason Seattle got involved was because they had prospects that Toronto wanted. The two Ms farmhands we keep hearing about, Aumont and Gillies, are Canadians. Anthopoulos reportedly wants Canadian players. Why then would the Phils make a bad trade to dump Lee for Canadian prospects if not to package them for the Jays?

Tyson and Phillippe

I am definitely not knowledgeable about Mariners minor league prospects - but what is special about Juan Ramirez? Not a particularly impressive strikeout rate, and he got rocked a bit in high A.

HillMD wrote:Top two pitching prospects are supposed to be Ramirez and Aumont. I guess. That's the deal. I do think Gillies is going to be a solid leadoff man.

I mean dude was only 20 this year and hit .341 in high A with 44 sb's and a 916 ops

dajafi wrote:So here's something else that doesn't make sense:

supposedly the whole reason Seattle got involved was because they had prospects that Toronto wanted. The two Ms farmhands we keep hearing about, Aumont and Gillies, are Canadians. Anthopoulos reportedly wants Canadian players. Why then would the Phils make a bad trade to dump Lee for Canadian prospects if not to package them for the Jays?

This is what is bothering me too. If none of the M's prospects are going to Toronto then I would be on the phone with Texas right now, they are loaded.

dajafi wrote:So here's something else that doesn't make sense:

supposedly the whole reason Seattle got involved was because they had prospects that Toronto wanted. The two Ms farmhands we keep hearing about, Aumont and Gillies, are Canadians. Anthopoulos reportedly wants Canadian players. Why then would the Phils make a bad trade to dump Lee for Canadian prospects if not to package them for the Jays?

I'm still waiting for the "Oh, now that makes sense" moment too

Until traded, I still don't believe that Drabek is going anywhere. Yesterday, all we heard was that Aumont was off-the-table. Now, he's apparently in the deal. His presence makes zero sense if Drabek is involved.

Rube is clearly trying to get Halladay without trading away the farm and staying within the budget.

The "twist" may be that by including Drabek, Rube can get Toronto to throw in $5-7m in cash for this year. Combine that with say a renegotiated 2010 salary for Halladay and perhaps this is Rube's way of creating some space in his budget to get a backend of the bullpen pitcher.

I think the whole notion that the Canadian team wants Canadian players is overblown. I think that is something that sportswriters speculate about.

If Seattle's not sending anything to Toronto, then just get rid of Blanton somehow, trade him for nothing and keep Lee.

PSUPhilliesPhan wrote:

dajafi wrote:So here's something else that doesn't make sense:

supposedly the whole reason Seattle got involved was because they had prospects that Toronto wanted. The two Ms farmhands we keep hearing about, Aumont and Gillies, are Canadians. Anthopoulos reportedly wants Canadian players. Why then would the Phils make a bad trade to dump Lee for Canadian prospects if not to package them for the Jays?

This is what is bothering me too. If none of the M's prospects are going to Toronto then I would be on the phone with Texas right now, they are loaded.

Are you assuming that didn't cross Amaro's mind?

He either likes the M's prospects or there's something we don't know.

bleh wrote:If Seattle's not sending anything to Toronto, then just get rid of Blanton somehow, trade him for nothing and keep Lee.

Or we could have just non-tendered Blanton, if Rube knew this deal was in the works.

The Savior wrote:Until traded, I still don't believe that Drabek is going anywhere. Yesterday, all we heard was that Aumont was off-the-table. Now, he's apparently in the deal. His presence makes zero sense if Drabek is involved.

Rube is clearly trying to get Halladay without trading away the farm and staying within the budget.

The "twist" may be that by including Drabek, Rube can get Toronto to throw in $5-7m in cash for this year. Combine that with say a renegotiated 2010 salary for Halladay and perhaps this is Rube's way of creating some space in his budget to get a backend of the bullpen pitcher.

We sell out every game and sells gobs of merchandise. We shouldn't essentially be selling our top prospect for $6 million.

dajafi wrote:So here's something else that doesn't make sense:

supposedly the whole reason Seattle got involved was because they had prospects that Toronto wanted. The two Ms farmhands we keep hearing about, Aumont and Gillies, are Canadians. Anthopoulos reportedly wants Canadian players. Why then would the Phils make a bad trade to dump Lee for Canadian prospects if not to package them for the Jays?

I was thinking something along these lines: Amaro initially thought he was just going to give up Lee. Anthopolous agreed to it at first, receiving these Canadian prospects. Halladay and his agent flew to Philadelphia, Amaro is ecstatic that the love of his life is going to be a Phillie. Anthopolous calls and turns Amaro's world upside down. He says "We don't want to do this anymore. We're not getting enough. Seriously. I don't care, I'll keep him unless you give me your prospects instead of Seattle's." Amaro, in the midst of negotiating a contract with Halladay, begins to panic and absolutely has to make the deal work now that he is so immersed into everything and doesn't want to tell Roy and his agent that there's no deal after all. He agrees to give Toronto the prospects they wanted all along, and ends up having to take the prospects that were supposed to go to the Blue Jays in an effort to somehow avoid depleting the entire system.