As for Halladay, Will Carroll at BP makes the topical and very important point that health is a skill. I think it is reasonable to claim that a 32YO, All-Star-caliber pitcher who has that skill is a hotter commodity than a 28YO, All-Star-caliber pitcher who doesn’t. I would also claim that Halladay’s career has demonstrated that he has that skill. He may be the one guy out there that I would be tempted to move Walrus for, along with as many as two others of the top 10 prospects. I still don’t think Toronto would do it.

Remember, LaRussa’s contract is over after this year, so he may not even be back. I think if we go with a different manager (which I am for – I’m tired of the LaDuncan era) they won’t have a problem playing a bunch of rookies and letting them struggle until they finally get going — under TLR’s eye, usually once someone struggles they’re promptly shipped back down to AAA. I’d like to see them spend a month or two and struggle up here – if they’re obviously overmatched and there’s no hope for them then yeah they can go back down, but if they show signs of improvement or obviously haven’t been given a good enough opportunity, why send them back down?

I’ve seen Wallace play about half a dozen times on video from Memphis games. Whether you think that as enough to make an evaluation of his skills is up to you but I’ve come away baffled that the organization thinks he can play 3rd base. I hope he proves me wrong.

What I find funny is that Halladay is a “32 year old starting pitcher” or an “aging pitcher who’ll be vastly overpaid” as a characterization rather than the best pitcher in the big leagues over the last 3 years. As I’ve said before, I’m not as high on Wallace as others and I think the club should be doing more to build a core around Pujols.

Not sure what to say other than I think the writer of this column is possibly criticizing Wallace a bit unfairly, especially considering how small the sample size of his work is so far. Also, I have to wonder exactly how many times the writer has actually seen him play? I’ve read such widely different reports on his defense over the past few years that I truly don’t know what to believe anymore. But I do know that Wallace can absolutely rake and that is quite difficult to find these days. I don’t want to throw someone like that away for an aging pitcher who’ll be vastly overpaid in the not too distant future.

I will be more convinced that DeRosa is the solution to the Thurston problem when (A) he shows he’s healthy, (B) he gets his batting average above .250 as a Cardinal, (C) all of the other things he’s expected to fix as a super-utilityman are fixed (e.g. right-handed pop in the outfield), and (D) he shows he can play adequate defense at third. In my view, all of these are in doubt. Make no mistake: I would much rather have DeRo on the 25-man than Thursty Joe. That doesn’t mean I consider him a solution.