Halladay Shopping

Baseball is back! But not really, it's just big-name players are signing with teams and being traded. Last week, the defending world champion Yankees traded for All Star centerfielder Curtis Granderson. Yesterday, the Red Sox signed John Lackey, an All Star in 2007. Today, the defending National League champions and 2008 World Series champion Phillies picked up Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay. Philadelphia has been trying to get the 2003 AL Cy Young Award winner and 6-time All Star all year long. Tomorrow, there is a great chance the Mariners will pick up Cliff Lee. It's that time of year where baseball teams begin their holiday shopping, and some of these teams have already put themselves in a position to contend for a title next October.

In this recent deal, everyone benefits. The Blue Jays get the young talent they want, the Phillies get the guy they've wanted for a while and the Mariners (might) get an elite lefty pitcher who they can throw into the starting rotation with Felix Hernandez, who finished second in the AL in Cy Young voting this past season. As of right now, I would put the Mariners as the AL West front runners. They picked up speedy Chone Figgins from their division rivals, the Angels. The Angels lost Lackey as well to the Boston, as I said earlier, and on ESPN I heard that Vlad Guerrero might be on his way out too. The AL West should be very interesting this year. As for the opposite side of the country, the NL East seems to have the Phillies as the team in front for now. This is just the beginning of what should be a very interesting MLB off season.