Halladay to the Yanks Would Bring Destruction

Major League Baseball, as it has nothing to write about, has decided to provide pointless articles on such fascinating subjects as what Marco Scutaro had for breakfast and John Lackey’s favorite shade of blue. Needless to say, I wouldn’t advise reading this lame fan fodder. It’s the offseason, nothing is happening, and MLB.com is freaking out. But reading this unnerved me quite a bit: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091128&content_id=7724250&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Money can’t buy happiness, but for everything else, there’s Hank Steinbrenner’s DebitMastercard. If  Roy Halladay ends up a Yankee, the next four to five years would be awful. Think about what this would entail: The Yanks would have 2 6-7 win pitchers, plus AJ Burnett, Phil Hughes, and Joba Chamberlain.  Granted, pitchers are as a rule very injury-prone.  It’s possible AJ Burnett’s arm will spontaneously combust in mid-April, but even that wouldn’t leave a mark on the Yanks pitching.

Here’s why the Yankees cannot get Halladay; their rotation would look like this:

• Halladay —> 3.47 career FIP, worth over 7 WAR in 2008 and 2009, has pitched 220+ innings over the last 5 seasons with no sign of collapse. He’s essentially God, disguised as Roy Halladay.
• Sabathia —> 3.59 career FIP, worth over 6 WAR the last 3 seasons, averaged over 237 innings pitched over the last 3 seasons.  And he does all this while weighing 290.
• Burnett —> 4.07 career tRA, career 8.37 K/9, worth 8.6 WAR in total over the past 2 seasons.
• Chamberlain —> Overrated, but still good.  Career 9.11 K/9, with about half of his total innings coming out of the bullpen.
• Hughes —> Has the potential to be extremely valuable if the Yankees start him.  Otherwise he’s just a great reliever.  Still has a 4.44 career tRA, which no doubt will improve.

Oh, and did I mention that the Yanks are one of the (if not the) best offensive clubs in baseball?  That rotation plus a lineup featuring Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixiera, and Robinson Cano — and Mariano Rivera to finish off the ninth inning — is an absolute nightmare.

It’s all speculation.  I can’t say that enough.  Nothing is certain until it happens, especially in the baseball offseason.  But Roy Halladay donning pinstripes would be the worst thing since the iPod Shuffle for the American League.

Salary cap, please.