Toronto happy with Drabek's progress

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Kyle Drabek won his final two May starts for the Double A New Hampshire Fisher Cats last season, allowing just 10 hits and two runs in 15 innings. Not too shabby.

In between, though, Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game for the Phillies.

Drabek, 23, threw a no-hitter against New Britain in July and went on to make his major league debut with the Toronto Blue Jays before the regular season ended.

Halladay, 33, no-hit the Cincinnati Reds in the Division Series opener and went on to win his second Cy Young Award.

And so it goes.

Drabek was the Phillies' top prospect when he was traded, along with catcher Travis D'Arnaud and outfielder Michael Taylor, to the Blue Jays for Halladay in December 2009. Their names will be forever linked for that reason, whatever the kid accomplishes being instantly measured against what one of the very best pitchers in baseball is doing.

So it figured that the two righthanders, ghosts of Phillies past and present, would be lined up to face each other in today's exhibition at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. At least they were until Drabek was scratched yesterday with a stiff neck and pushed back to Saturday.

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who pulled the trigger on the megadeal, understands why the pitchers will be forever linked.

"But, to be fair, one guy is just starting his career and the other guy's a Hall of Famer," he said. "Everyone likes to point to Kyle because he's the first one of the three who's up and he's a starter. But I like to say that, as much as we like him, he's a third of the trade. For me, there's no player in baseball you trade for Roy Halladay one-for-one. He's that good. Any time you give up Roy Halladay in a trade, you talk about winning or losing a trade, you're not winning the trade."

After Halladay's perfect game, Athopoulos texted his congratulations.

The reality was that Halladay was going to be a free agent after the 2010 season, that he had already told the Blue Jays he wasn't coming back, that he hinted strongly that the Phillies were the only team he'd waive his no-trade clause for.

Given those restrictions, the Blue Jays are pretty doggone happy with what they got in return. And Drabek, who went 14-9 with a 2.94 ERA in the minors, was clearly the centerpiece of the swap.

While Halladay can focus on getting ready for his Opening Day start, Drabek is competing with Jesse Litsch, Scott Richmond, Brad Mills, Robert Ray and Marc Rzepczynski for a spot in the rotation.

"Kyle's made unbelievable strides," Athopoulos said. "We really stressed the importance of the changeup. Everybody knew he had the great fastball, curveball, as young as he was. We told him we wanted him to go to New Hampshire and work on that changeup. And it's become a plus pitch for him right now.

"The other thing is his fastball was pretty straight when we got him. We worked on that and the life on it is incredible. He's just going to keep getting better and better and he's going to throw more strikes. He's really just starting his career. He's got a promising career ahead of him, but he's going to have to go through his learning curve, his ups and downs. I like to point out that [Boston's] Clay Buchholz came up and made a splash early and had a no-hitter, then he was sent down for the next 2 years before he finally came back up.

"So, as much as we like all of our young players, we always temper our enthusiasm."

A year ago, Drabek made his first exhibition start against the Phillies. Before the game, he said that his father, former big leaguer Doug Drabek, told him to treat it like any other game. Asked if that was really possible he laughed.

"Absolutely not," he admitted, with a laugh.

Things have changed since then, he said.

"Last year in spring training, I felt a little different than this year. This year, it's kind of more relaxed and I'm not as nervous," he said. "I'm fighting for one of the jobs. There are a lot of pitchers fighting for the same spots that are real good, so the competition is going to be hard. But I'm up for the challenge."

Making those three starts last year gives him a little head start on 2011.

"That was exciting, a dream come true. It was everything I've wanted since I was young," he said.

If all goes according to plan, Drabek will make a lot of starts and win a lot of games for the Blue Jays.

What they won't ask him to do is become the next Roy Halladay. That just wouldn't be right.