Roy Halladay, Phils make eyes at one another

ST. LOUIS - Roy Halladay wants to play for a winning team. The Phillies won the World Series last year, and, of course, hope to repeat. Should the Phils try to acquire the pitcher many consider the best in baseball?

"If you're a team trying to make the playoffs, you would be stupid not to want him," Chase Utley said.

Halladay, who will start for the American League in tonight's All-Star Game, spoke at length yesterday morning about the possibility of being traded.

"There's a point in your career where you just need to take the chance and win," said the 32-year-old Toronto Blue Jays ace, whose contract gives him the right to approve any trade. "I think at this point, I'm ready to take the chance and try to win.

"I'm somewhere I enjoy being," the righthander said of Toronto. "I've spent my entire career here. I think there's a lot that goes into it. But I think as a player, there is that will to win and that will to do it in October. And basically that's all this has been about. I would like that chance. I'm not saying it won't be Toronto. It's what's going to be best for the organization, and are we going to be able to do that?"

The theory has often been repeated that, because so many Phillies players are in their late 20s or early 30s, the front office should seek any chance to win immediately. Yesterday, several of the players at the All-Star Game seemed to endorse that philosophy.

"I do think we have something special going on right now in Philadelphia," Utley said. "We have a lot of players in their prime. So now is a good time to win."

"I'm good with trying to win now," Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard said. "That's just me. Not to try to upstage anybody or anything in the front office. Obviously, they're going to make that decision. Whatever decision it is, when the dust settles, we live with it, we go on and we play. Hopefully, that's an addition we make. If not, we've still got to go out there and play. But I think if you ask everybody on this team right now, you would want to try to win now because you never know when you're going to get another chance."

Halladay's contract expires after next season, but he said he would not necessarily require an extension to approve a trade. "As a younger player, that's more of a concern," he said.

The pitcher stressed that he only wanted to be traded if the Blue Jays decided they could not contend next season. "Maybe we don't have that chance, and we take a step back," he said. "That's an opportunity to see what they could bring in and what would make them a stronger organization."

The Phillies are also looking to become stronger, but on the major-league level. Despite a potent offense, their inconsistent pitching has hampered the team at times this season.

According to New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who has faced Halladay many times, the pitcher would dramatically improve any team. "He's the best pitcher in the American League," Jeter said. "It seems like every time he pitches, he's throwing eight, nine innings. He throws strikes, he goes at you, he's got great control."

Halladay would like to use those skills on a contending team but does not yet know what will happen. "I'm still not 100 percent sure which direction we're going in in Toronto," he said. "If Toronto does decide to do something, it's really going to be something that helps the organization. There's going to be a lot of pieces; it's going to be complicated. I think it's going to be kind of 50-50."