What's up? Doc!

On those days when I know I want to blog but I don't know what I want to blog about, it's rare for something big to come along.

Today, that wasn't the case.

Sports Illustrated was the first to report that the Jays, Phillies, and Mariners have agreed in principle to a three-way trade which would see Roy Halladay end up in Philadelphia. In return, the Jays will get prospects from both teams.

I'm not here to judge the merits of the trade - I don't know the prospects well enough to comment, and predicting how prospects will end up is an exercise in futility at the best of times anyhow - but rather to give my thoughts on Doc leaving town.

My earliest memories of the Blue Jays are from the 1994 season - Darren Hall emerging as an unlikely closer, Carlos Delgado's huge April and subsequent fall off the face of the Earth, Shawn Green and Alex Gonzalez making their first attempts at being real big-leaguers. Unfortunately, despite retaining pitching standouts Juan Guzman and Pat Hentgen, plus all of WAMCO sticking around, the Jays never again reached the glory of the 1992 and 1993 World Series teams.

So from my perspective, the Jays have always been trying to recapture the magic (and popularity) they had before my time. And they've never done it. Roger Clemens' two years came close, especially when paired with Dave Stieb's unlikely comeback. Tony Batista caused a mild stir in 1999. And Carlos Delgado was always appreciated, even if he never got the sort of reactions his place in Jays history deserved.

Then over these last few years - but far more pronounced in 2009 - Roy Halladay did it. He got people who normally need the Jumbotron (and/or fireworks) to cheer without any sort of prompting. He got non-Jays fans to be, at the very least, Roy fans.

He was the best pitcher we'd ever had, and everybody knew it. So what if the rest of the team sucked, so what if Roy got the lowest run support of any pitcher anywhere, so what if a comet fell from the skies and struck the entire infield dead. Roy would still find a way to win us the game.

I have two specific memories of Roy's time in Toronto. Back in September 1998, in only his second major-league start, Roy came within one out of no-hitting the Detroit Tigers (damn you, Bobby Higginson). Finally, it was looking to Jays fans that the days of marginal pitching 'prospects' like Huck Flener, Edwin Hurtado, and Jeff Ware were over - we had this Halladay kid, plus Chris Carpenter and Kelvim Escobar who were both a little further along (all three did in fact become very good pitchers).

The other memory is from this year - I usually only make it to one or two games a year in person, and I always miss Doc and get stuck with a Ted Lilly or (then-average) Shaun Marcum. But on July 19, 2009, it was Toronto against the Boston Red Sox, with me in the house and Doc on the mound.

The Sox countered with a tough pitcher of their own in Jon Lester, and a formidable lineup that included Dustin Pedroia (who can't hit a high-inside fastball), David Ortiz, and Jason Bay.

Halladay was more than up to the task - even though the Jays only scored three runs of Lester, Roy held the Sox to one run on six hits.

Congratulations, Philadelphia fans. You're getting the best pitcher in the game today, and a future hall-of-famer. Enjoy him.

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I know I said it's an exercise in futility, but I was curious. The Jays have (in my opinion) never traded away a player this good at this close to the prime of his career, but I took a look at other times they've traded stars in my lifetime.

December 1990 - Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff are sent to San Diego for Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar. This was a different sort of trade - stars for stars, with Toronto's reasoning being that the team needed a personality transplant. It worked, but it's hardly comparable to this.

July 1995 - David Cone, himself a very good pitcher, is sent to the Yankees for highly-touted pitching prospects Marty Janzen, Mike Gordon, and Jason Jarvis. Janzen is the only one of the three to ever make the major leagues, and he never does all that well before ending up in Tampa Bay via expansion draft. This is the worst-case scenario for losing Roy.

January 1999 - Roger Clemens' demand to leave Toronto results in him going to the Yankees for David Wells, Homer Bush, and Graeme Lloyd. Wells is a strong pitcher but no Clemens, Bush is the best second baseman the Jays had in the nearly-ten-year-stretch between Alomar and Hudson, and Lloyd is a serviceable middle reliever. But other than maybe Bush, none of them could be classified as prospects, so again nothing to learn here.

November 1999 - Shawn Green also asked for a trade, so he was sent to Los Angeles with Jorge Nunez for Raul Mondesi and Pedro Borbon. Mondesi was a disappointment, and Borbon did exactly what was advertised, but that wasn't enough to make it a good trade.

January 2001 - After two seasons, it's time for David Wells to want out of Toronto. In exchange for sending him to the White Sox, the Jays get proven major league starter Mike Sirotka, backup outfielder Brian Simmons, mediocre pitcher Kevin Beirne, and minor leaguer Mike Williams. Sirotka turns out to be hurt and never threw a pitch for Toronto. One of the worst trades in franchise history.

So overall, the Jays have not had success trading great players. Hopefully this turns out to be the exception.

--Ryan