Roy Halladay says he will pitch 320 innings if it means winning a World Series

Some more good stuff from Roy Halladay's press conference today. He was asked if he is concerned at all about his workload given the fact that he will likely be a free agent after this season.

Not surprisingly, the veteran righthander said he was not worried.

"I'm playing to win a World Series," Halladay said. "That's why I'm playing baseball. For no other reason. Period. However we get to that goal, to me, that's the bottom line. If it takes 320 innings and I can throw that many, I'm going to throw it. That's the reason I'm here. For me, that's it. I'm not worried about next year, I'm not worried about two years, three years from now. I'm worried about trying to win a World Series."

Halladay is in the final year of a three-year, $60 million contract that will expire as long as he does not pitch at least 259 innings, which would trigger a vesting option.

Still, Halladay says he can't envision himself going back on the open market, despite the fact that there has been no dialogue between him and the Phillies.

"I think if I have my druthers I would be here until I'm done," he said. "As good as they've been to me, I think they realize that I would be as good to them as I could be. So going forward, if that that was the case, I really can't see myself playing anywhere else. I don't want to play anywhere else. I feel like you want to play somewhere as long as you can where you feel like you are wanted…I don't want to play anywhere else."

Halladay, as usual, was thoughtful when he pondered his own mortality. He talked about some conversations he had with Chris Carpenter on their annual fishing trip in early December. Last week, news broke that Carpenter was facing possible retirement because of a nerve problem that will likley prevent him from pitching this season.

"We really kind of had both had the same mindset," Halladay said. "I know when he came back and he played for St. Louis, he thought he was done after he had the surgery in Toronto. He didn't know that he was going to play again. So the five years he got there, I think, was a blessing for him and I think he never took that for granted and I think he was satisfied with what he put into the game and I feel the same way. You never know when it is going to go away, but you don't want to have that regret that, man, I wasted this year or this year or whatever. I think that's the biggest thing for both of us. Neither of us knew when it would end for either of us, but the big thing is, we talked about doing things the right way and having no regrets. He has none and I know I have none, and hopefully I'm not sitting here anytime soon saying I'm done playing, but I think that's a big thing in this game, you never want to look back and wish you would have done something different."