Jays ace Halladay keeps pitching — and waiting
Pitcher happy to stay in Toronto, but wants chance at title if he's dealt
 Nick Laham / Getty Images file Roy Halladay said he hasn’t starting taking inventory on where he’d like to play, if the Blue Jays do decide to deal him. |
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ST. LOUIS - Roy Halladay could’ve talked about starting the All-Star game. Or about possibly getting to meet President Barack Obama.
Instead, once again, the Toronto Blue Jays ace was inundated with questions about a potential trade.
“It’s definitely different. I can’t say I anticipated it working out this way,” Halladay said Tuesday, a few hours before the first pitch.
Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi recently said he would listen to trade offers for the 2003 AL Cy Young Award winner. Halladay is signed through 2010 and would have to agree to a deal.
The deadline for making trades without waivers is July 31.
“It’s the perfect storm, I guess,” he said.
Halladay said he hasn’t starting taking inventory on where he’d like to play, if the Blue Jays do decide to deal him. Saying he was fortunate to be in good financial shape, he put one factor at the top of his wish list: a chance to win the World Series.
“I know what I’m looking for,” he said.
Halladay got a big ovation from the crowd lining the red-carpet parade route to Busch Stadium. Many fans chanted “We want Roy!” as he sat on the back of a vehicle and waved.
If there is no deal, Halladay said that would be fine.
“I do like Toronto. I’ve been there forever. I know everybody. I know the guys working the elevator,” he said.
The 32-year-old righty is 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA. This was his sixth All-Star game — and first chance to start.
Halladay said he’d prefer not to know the daily details on trade talks. He said he’s always gotten along well with Ricciardi, and figured the GM would brief him when necessary.
“I’ve never been a person who has to be wooed,” he said. “I’d hate to put cart too far in front of the horse.”
Smooth sailing
There was one thing Zack Greinke was dreading about the All-Star game: that glitzy parade through town, with players propped up in the back of pickup trucks as fans line the closed-off streets.
“That’s the only thing I want to avoid,” the Kansas City pitcher said Monday. “The red carpet sounds like the most miserable time of my life.”
Greinke is still uneasy about being the center of attention. An elite prospect when he arrived in the majors five years ago at age 20, he walked away from baseball for two months in 2006 and was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, which causes an irrational fear of social situations.
Medication eased Greinke’s anxiety and he started to enjoy pitching again. Now, he’s one of the top starters in the game.
“The Royals stuck with me. I’m surprised they did. I probably tried to get traded a couple of times back in the day, but they decided to keep me anyway,” Greinke said, adding that he’s happy about that. “I really like it there.”
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Greinke is 10-5 with an AL-best 2.12 ERA. Still, he was passed over by manager Joe Maddon for starting honors Tuesday night in favor of Toronto ace Roy Halladay.
“I would have liked to have started, but it’s not a real big deal,” Greinke said. “I think he made the right decision, just because he’s done it forever and I’ve done it for half a season.”
Turns out, the red-carpet parade on Tuesday wasn’t so bad, either. Greinke rode in a truck with his fiancee and said he actually enjoyed the experience.
“It was definitely way better than I thought,” he said. “I thought it was going to be longer. The weather wasn’t bad. There were a lot of fans yelling, but it was all positive stuff. I had Emily there to talk to, so it wasn’t that bad.”
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