Would You?

Since I am unoriginal, I am stealing another topic from local sports talk radio. I felt it was interesting. Would you mortgage the future and trade Gamel, Escobar and Parra or some combination of one or two of them, to get Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee for basically a half year or year and a half?

In order for this to make any sense, you have to assume that the player in question would waive a no-trade clause (not sure if Lee has one), and would stay through the end of the contract. Halladay has a year left (although there is some sort of CBA mumbo jumbo that may let him out) and there is a club option on Lee for next year. So let's just assume you get a year and a half from both.

Right now the Crew is in 4th in the Central, but is only 2 games out. And 7th in the Wild Card, 4 games out. So they are still in the thick of things. This is an extremely complex question to answer, and I'm going to do a shitty job of giving my opinion.

If you could guarantee me a playoff birth, I think they should do it, as long as Parra isn't involved.

The team has been to the playoffs once in 26 years. Other than Braun and Yo. I don't think anyone is guaranteed to be around much longer than next year. As weird as it sounds, the window is quickly closing, at least while it can be done relatively cheaply.

I certainly don't think it is a guarantee that Prince will be gone, but at the same time, you have to wonder how much the Crew would be willing to spend on a good to great hitter, and how much time they would give him. If Escobar goes, I wouldn't be opposed to signing J.J. long term, even though he has his limitations, I don't think he would be that expensive. Gamel might be hard to replace. Hart is the only other young guy, and he can fucking go.

We have no decent young pitching besides Yo and potentially Parra. If we let Parra go, I think it is a deal breaker. He has all the talent in the world, he is young, and he is under our control for four more years. Maybe he never puts it together, but he has shown flashes that would lead me to believe he could be great.

So the bottom line is that I think this year and next are our best chances to get to the playoffs, and while we may not be fucked afterwards, inevitably there will be some type of transition due to money constraints that face the Crew. Small market teams only get a few years to put it together before they have to rebuild from within. Some teams can put it all together (see Florida), while some get close (see Oakland and Minnesota). If Escobar and Gamel were that good, and so indispensable, they would be starting right now. And we have to hang onto any young pitching we have. I would rather have Halladay than Lee.

Feel free to tell me what a moron I am.