What the national media is saying about the Halladay trade

The national media have expressed somewhat mixed reviews on the Roy Halladay trade. Some say the Phillies are a better team with the addition of the 32-year old righthander, while others imply the Phillies' stock hasn't improved that much with the loss of Cliff Lee. And others suggest the Phillies should have tried to crunch the numbers and keep both former Cy Young Award winners.

Here's Pattison Ave's roundup of various links on the deal:

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal writes about the idea of the Phillies having both Lee and Halladay in the rotation. However, Rosenthal goes on to explain how financially the Phillies would not be able to afford it in the long run.

Perhaps a team coming off back-to-back World Series should be in better position to budget for both former Cy Young Award winners. But the Phillies' owners stretched the payroll for '09 by extending the contracts of several of their own stars, signing free-agent left fielder Raul Ibanez and adding Lee at the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

CBSSports.com's Danny Knobler says the addition of Lee to Seattle's rotation makes the Mariners contenders in the AL West. But if the Mariners flame out and aren't contenders by next year's trade deadline, they could use Lee's value and move him to get something even bigger in return.

[W]hat if the Mariners don't get off to a good start in 2010? What if they don't see a real chance of signing Lee long-term, especially while they're also trying to lock up Hernandez? Well, with Lee headed for free agency at the end of the 2010 season, he could be one heck of a July trading chip again, couldn't he?

Joe Posnanski of SI.com talks about the unique nature of two Cy Young Award winners being involved in the same trade.

Well, you probably know by now that the three-way Roy Halladay-Cliff Lee-prospects-galore deal is utterly unique. It has never happened before that two Cy Young Award winners were in the same trade.

ESPN.com's Jayson Stark breaks down the Phillies' reasoning behind the Halladay deal, and the similarities between both Halladay and Lee.

They can't escape each other, apparently, these two Cy Youngs. They've been handed the same trophies. They've shared the same trade rumors. And then, on Wednesday, they were part of the same magnetic baseball force one more time, on the day the Phillies finally did trade for Roy Halladay …

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