Halladay: 'This is where I wanted to be'
Here are comments from new Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. during a press conference, announcing Halladay's arrival.
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."
wow, that was fast Murph, nice work— phairmount- Booo!— Mo Biggsley
- Don't like the fact that RAJ said they could have kept both of them, and used re-tooling the farm system as the reason why. Obviously he hasn't been following fan comments as that was what we all thought was the main goal, but couldn't "financially" do it. Lee stays this year, then leaves at the end of the year, he would have been a type A f/a, meaning two picks come back. If the Phils had the chance to keep both, nobody is talking about Boston's rotation as being the best, Doc / Lee / Cole would have been rated #1 unanimously. Dumb comment RAJ. Prospects are exactly that, "Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"...— Bleue
Comment removed.- You remember a day in Florida. The Best Pitcher in Baseball had invited his team's most promising prospects to join him for his pre-dawn workout. You heard later in the morning most struggled to finish it and some threw up from the effort. You smiled knowing this was part of the same routine the Best Pitcher in Baseball followed on almost a daily basis throughout the offseason. You admired his work ethic. You remember being asked one question after another about the Best Pitcher in Baseball. The one doing the asking was the Flame-Throwing Free Agent. "What's he really like?", he asked as you drove. Hard-working, dedicated, committed, you said thinking that even those words didn't properly suffice. "Does he really get up at 6 every day of the offseason?". No, you replied, he's already begun working out at that hour. "You watch", said the Flame-Throwing Free Agent. "I'm going to be like his shadow". He was true to his word. The two became fast friends, each pushing the other to get better. You watched this last fall as the Flame-Throwing Free Agent enjoyed his greatest success. You knew that success was shaped in large part by time spent with the Best Pitcher in Baseball. You admired his effect ....THIS WHY THE PHILLIES JUST GOT THE BEST PITCHER IN BASE BALL..WELCOME DOC— soliteryman
- I live in Toronto and can honestly say you have just got not only the best pitcher in the game ( i would take him over C.C. or santana any day) but also a true pro in every way possible! Doc is going to be great for Cole too....jusr look at what he did for AJ Burnett, and as a Jays fan i think i speak for most if not all jays fans in saying GO PHILLIES!!!! I hope you guys win the series!!!!— tcleary
- I guess we need to trust Ruben! Halladay's top notch, just hate to lose who we did in the process. Time will tell.....— SMOKEY811
- What's odd is that this was rumored to be a 3-team deal when it never was. it was 2 separate deals. TRADE #1- Three Seattle prospects shipped here for Lee. TRADE #2- We send 3 prospects to Toronto for Halladay and $6 million. Mr. Amaro Jr explained why he did what he did and that is that. He is a MLB GM. We are not. I'm fine with this. Hopefully Hamels will be Hamels '08, Blanton will pitch like he wants to get paid in '11 when he hits the market, and Happ will improve.— Ben Lee
- i think amaro was under some kind of time constraint to get this deal done that he hasnt revealed.. otherwise, why wouldnt he try to be patient and work a better deal with another team, like for instance the angels, who had just lost lackey to boston.. i havent seen any report that amaro discussed lee with anyone but seattle.. did he do that as a favor to gillick or something?— zwarte piet
gee RAJ, that still sounds like B.S. i love how he acts like all the farmhands were gone already. um, no they weren't. they were still here with Cliff. the ones we lost for cliff was very mangeable, and replaceable very shortly. now we have no big trade baits, or ANY minor league catchers. the phils are missing 7 of their top ten kids. they got 3 of the mariner's top ten kids, but that's the mariner's top ten, which could be in the phils top 20 equivalent. again. lee, taylor, drabek, a D would all still be here, and maybe cost less long term, if lee took a nice extension. 1. i hope halladay doesn't hurt himself geeked up with " i gotta impress and earn that 60mil" energy. 2.cliff comes back next year. 3. the wonder kids start paying off.— Evilvet- Maybe Halladay can teach Hamels how to throw a curve ball....nah!!!— mainstreet
- So he purposely downgraded the major league team to help the minor league team?? Isn't that backwards unless you're rebuilding?— dawk2020
- halladay plus lee = ws. they still might win it w/o lee, but... there was NO NEED TO TRADE LEE NOW. pursue other offers. had the Angels learned of our intentions with Lee - don't you think they would have offered more??— 2 is better than 1
The dream is $20 million-plus per season through 2012.— primo- Welcome Roy - hope to see you at the Link on Opening Day!!!— M60tanker
