Halladay: 'This is where I wanted to be'
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Halladay: 'This is where I wanted to be'
Daily News staff
Here are comments from new Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. during a press conference, announcing Halladay's arrival.
Roy Halladay
"I'd like to start by thanking everybody in Toronto, the fans, the organization, the people. It's been a big part of my life and something I'll never forget. I enjoyed my time there. I'm also extremely excited about a new chapter and having this opportunity to be a part of such a great organization and somewhere that my family and I are really looking forward to being a part of." Halladay also thanked his agents and his family for their support.
"This is where I wanted to be. That was the bottom line for us. It was an easy decision. Once the opportunity came up to be a part of this it was something I couldn't pass up. I think there are things not only in business but in life that are worth it. For me, this is one of those things. There are so many positives to this for me and my family. I just couldn't pass it up."
"This is a dream come true. The longer you play in your carer the more important (winning) becomes. I've been able to establish myself, achieve things. The more I play, the more I realize how important that is for me. To see a team do it in back-to-back years and have that success says a lot about the players in the clubhouse and people that are putting the team together. It's not an accident. I want to be a part of that. I've heard great things about the people and great things about the organization. That is big for me."
"The biggest thing is having a chance to win and hopefully do it a couple of times. For me, that was the biggest factor."
"During the season, I felt it was important that I keep my focus where it was [with the Blue Jays] and not put too much into it."
Ruben Amaro Jr.
"Being able to acquire one of the finest pitchers in all of baseball is something very special to our organization. To be able to lock him up for four years, and possibly five, is something we're very, very, pleased about."
"I don't know if I want to get into some of the things that went on at the trade deadline, but I will say he is a pitcher we have coveted for a long time, one of the best pitchers in baseball and pitching in one of the best divisions in baseball and having great success ... This is a baseball decision that we felt would make our club better now and for the future. While we did give up a trremendous amount of talent, it doesn't come around very often that you have a chance to bring a player of this caliber to your organization."
"We could have kept both of them (Lee and Halladay), but it was a baseball decision for me and our organization and the people in the organization. We could not leave the cupboard bare. If we had just acquired Roy and not moved Lee, we would have been in position to have lost seven of the best 10 prospects in our organization. That is not the way you do business in baseball ... There are a variety of reasons to make this move, but more than anything else this is a baseball decision."
"Clearly, it was known that Alex was considering moving Roy. I did make contact with Alex during the GM meetings. We had some preliminary discussions then and things kind of snowballed after that."
"I don't know if I ever said anyone was untouchable. What I said was someone was more touchable than others. To acquire someone of this caliber, you are going to hurt your system and it should. That's part of the business ... .We are not able to make these moves unless we have one of the best farm systems in baseball. [Assistant GMs and scouting staff] deserve a lot of credit for bringing in players in our system and develop them to acquire this caliber player. It's difficult for us to pass up when you've got an opportunity to make ourselves this much better and get this caliber of player."
"I would love to have both of them on our club. My job is to continue to have this club be a championship caliber team not just for 2010, 2011 but for many years beyond that. To that end, you have to have players in our system that will help us get there ... We did acquire some outstanding players from Seattle in a trade for Cliff Lee. Cliff Lee did an outstanding job for us. There is nothing negative that I can say about the things Cliff Lee did for us and for our club for the half year he was here. This was an opportunity to get one of the best pitchers in baseball and bringing him here for several years."
Comment removed.
Man they gave Doc #34 - Cliff's old number - That's cold.— F. Harry Stowe- No one in his right mind would trade Cliff Lee for a handful of maybe's. Amaro's lying. Trying to fake out the fans with some excuse other than the truth which is, "We didn't want to spend the money". So we are no better off now than we were last year when we lacked the starting rotation to win the WS.— Rajah
- Dawk, you cannot say that he "downgreaded" the big league squad with this deal. At worse, it is a lateral move.— The Reddgie
Still dont understand the rush to move Cliff.I dont think Ruben had the final say.If he had to move Cliff--he could have gotten much more. A nice holiday present for Gilick.The rockies and a few other teams caught a break.When is the last time in baseball that 2 fairly current CY winners were pitching on the same team?— HO HUM- Awesome...I'm feeling a Triple-A championship in 2010. Thanks Ruben! Considering this is the first time since '83 (1883 that is)that the Philiess have been in this position, it would have been nice to go for broke. Guess I'll just have to wait for 1175.— kid philly
- Look at the big picture all: A week after WS RAJr told Philly media " Third base, bullpen, bench." So far he's done a dang-good job upgrading 3B and bench--AND secured the best starter in the game. Yes I wanted to see them spend more $ and keep Lee through 2010...but that's their money, not mine. Bullpen is next--and from what MLB network guys just said (Wild-Thing Williams) the kid coming over from Seattle has good enough stuff to pitch this year. One more thing: I'll bet the farm Phils WS opponent in '10 will be Red Sox or NYY....AND guess who murdered Phils in WS who signed elsewhere?...with the Angels (who Phils will NOT meet in WS '10) : Matsui!
- I agree with the majority of posters here who think we should have kept Lee for at least another year and seen where it went from there. Prospects can be hit or miss, but with Lee we had a proven commodity. And I agree with F. Harry Stowe about giving Halladay #34. A damnatio memoriae of Cliff Lee if I have ever seen it. At least I can just use masking tape and a sharpy marker to make good use of my Cliff Lee jersey for the next few years!— DCexpat83
- Did everyone forget that we won the series without Lee or Halladay? Let's just be happy we got the best Pitcher in baseball! How quickly we get greedy! This is the best sports "dynasty" in Philly for as long as i can remember and i'm 39. Enjoy it! Merry Effen Christmas PHILLY!— Girth Brooks
- Ben Lee, they considered it a three team deal because 1 trade couldn't happen without the other. I agree 100% with you, Ruben is MLB GM and he knows more then we do about the situation. I think it was a good move and Go Phillies.— Jason White
- Deinitely want to wish Roy luck with the Phils, he is the consumant professional, truly high talent, humble and hard-working. I think he can help the other pitchers, Hamels and Happ, and most importantly, he wanted to be here. He knows the talent on the offensive and defensive side of the table, and will DESTROY NL opponents this year...this years Cy Young is now in Philly....— Bleue
- It's a real shame we lost Lee. Ridiculous salary for this guy too. Way overpaid. Just wait until he's on the injured list. Then what?— Delcoholic
- Looking forward to this Doc doing what the original Doc did - bring a title to Phila.— KMoreland2772
- Question for M60tanker: why would you see Roy at the LINK on Opening Day? Phils play at the Bank.— Jrod00
- Comment removed.
