Halladay no longer a Jay? Not today and for the future I say nay.

Perhaps I rhymed too much there but I felt it was necessary since I am proud to say I was right. Everyone and their dog told me that by this time Halladay would no longer be a blue bird, I from the beginning, said no.

What two things do we know about JP Riccardi's somewhat unproductive reign as Toronto's GM?

1) He never trades. Up until now the biggest trade in his tenure is likely the Overbay trade which while it stands up as a decent trade is not resume worthy when you are saying how good of a dealing GM you are.

2) He signs mediocre athletes to ridiculous contracts and ridiculously good athletes to mediocre contracts. See Vernon Wells for the former and Roy Halladay for the latter.

Upon review of these points it should come as no surprise that JP stood pat come his self-imposed trade deadline for Halladay. Look at it from JP's point of view he had four options;

1) Try and trade Halladay to a poor team who could come back with quality picks and young players. While it seems easy Halladay would only waive his no trade clause to a contending team removing all but say a dozen teams from the mix, few of which had the shopping list JP was desiring to pick from.

2) Try and trade Halladay to a team that is a contender. Again now you come accross the opposite problem, many suitors but no dowry. Except for Philadelphia, the Dodgers, and to a lesser extent the Angels any competitive team likely does not have the blue chip prospects warranting JP's attention. Throw salary restrictions into the mix and only Philadelphia could reasonably swing a trade, and trust me the folks in Philly know this and have likely been low-balling JP with JP high-balling creating no middle ground since both teams feel they have the advantage in the supply vs demand model.

3) Trade Halladay to either of the LA teams or to Philly for two crap shot draft picks and a proven major leaguer. Too me this is the option that has the least logic, why would you eat the salary of an everyday player who would have to be good enough to warrant a 10 million plus salary when you had the best pitcher in baseball to start off with. Except for Josh Hamilton in Texas I don't think there is a player in baseball that could provide a positive upside high enough to warrant such a move.

4) Don't trade Halladay. Let him play out the season and likely win the CY Young or come agonizingly close and still have a 20 win or close to it season. You then have the option to trade him in the off-season with his value just as, if not higher. Once you can assess the free-agent market and locate a suitable replacement for less money therefore justifying trading him for a bag of balls come next year's deadline. Also, this gives him the chance to see how things play out when you have the most experinced rotation and quite possibly the most talented in baseball under 32 come the 2010 season.

To me it's simple. Inaction is the norm for JP and this situation is no exception. There was no need to push the panic button as the best deal that came accross JP's desk likely had a high failure probability and would have been just another excuse to pin another bad trade on JP. I say the fans who were pushing for a Halladay trade aren't really Jays fans at all, just people who wanted to see JP fail yet again and were willing to negotiate the hostage that is the Blue Jays future.

I am glad cooler heads prevailed.