Everybody wants Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay(notes) on their roster but the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim appears to be one of the few teams who is trying to do something about that, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Anaheim tried to snag Halladay this summer and probably tied the Philadelphia Phillies for being the closest to getting a deal done. But former J.P. Ricciardi drove too hard a bargain for both of those teams and so they went without and did pretty well anyway.

The word is that Anaheim will need to give up a slew of prospects along with one of three pitchers -- Jered Weaver(notes), Ervin Santana(notes), or Joe Saunders(notes) - to get the Blue Jays to open that little window for the Angels to negotiate an extension with the 32-year-old Halladay and finish off the trade.

Halladay has supposedly informed the Blue Jays that he isn't going to re-sign after next season.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Teams have till Friday to get their own free agents signed before anybody else can offer them any dough and it's not looking good for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to get third baseman Chone Figgins(notes) and pitcher John Lackey(notes) re-signed before then, according to the Los Angeles Times.

There's a rumor floating around that the team (along with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees) is waiting to throw more than $100 million at outfielder Matt Holliday(notes), who hit .313 with 24 home runs and 109 runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals this past season. But GM Tony Reagins is saying that no such thing is true. "Our focus is not on him right now."

It is extremely doubtful that Reagins will get Figgins or Lackey to sign anything before Friday. Both are highly coveted on the free-agent market and would likely get paid to play more elsewhere. "They have earned the right to see what their value is," Reagins said.

Lackey supposedly wants to sign a deal worth more than $100 million and has interest from the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, and New York Yankees. Figgins is likely to sign a deal for half of that and his suitors supposedly include the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Hideki Matsui(notes) put on quite an offensive show in Game 6 of the World Series as his New York Yankees made the final push past the Philadelphia Phillies to become champions. And the Boston Red Sox appear to want a piece of that, according to the Boston Globe.

The Globe reports that a Japanese sports Web site is saying that the Red Sox would love to have free-agent Matsui come to their team. According to the Japanese site, Nikkan Sports, the Red Sox are ready to offer a multi-year deal to the 35-year-old designated hitter.

Matsui has made about $13 million a year for each of the last four, but he is apparently ready to lower his price for his next deal to $8 million annually. Couldn't be cheaper, right?

There is plenty of doubt in Boston that this story has any truth to it, but it's always fun when a Yankees or Red Sox player switches sides.

Source: Boston Globe

The National League champion Philadelphia Phillies have a big hole at the hot corner right now since the team declined the $5.5 million option it held on Pedro Feliz(notes) for next season. There are several players the team is interested in to fill the slot (and it could end up being Feliz again in the end), but Sports Illustrated is reporting that Chone Figgins(notes) is at the top of the list.

Along with Jimmy Rollins(notes) and Shane Victorino(notes), that would give the Phils three leadoff-type hitters. Perhaps the team has some triple-steals in its future?

Meanwhile, the team has been rumored to be in the hunt still to bring in Roy Halladay(notes) via trade with the Toronto Blue Jays but MLB.com is reporting that that scenario isn't highly likely. The team still doesn't want to give up all the talent that it wouldn't give up in July when talks broke down with Toronto just before the trading deadline.

One person that definitely won't be involved in that trade is former team ace Cole Hamels(notes), according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. There's a rumor floating around that pretty-boy Hamels, who had a relatively crummy 2009 for the team but GM Ruben Amaro Jr. says he is sticking with Hamels in 2010: "We have no thoughts of trading Cole Hamels," Amaro said. "I don't know where those rumors are coming from, but that's exactly what they are. Cole Hamels is our pitcher and we're keeping him, and I'm glad to have him."

Amaro apparently expects Hamels to bounce back next year. Phillies fans sure hope so because Amaro doesn't want to add a whole lot to the payroll, which is another indicator that Halladay isn't likely to come to Philly: "Our payroll is not a bottomless pit. There are limits. If I can't put together a championship-caliber club at $140 million, then that's my fault," Amaro said.

Source: Sports IllustratedMLB.com

The Philadelphia Phillies tried to trade for Roy Halladay(notes) of the Toronto Blue Jays right up until the trading deadline in July and then settle for snagging Cliff Lee(notes) from the Cleveland Indians. He turned out to be a pretty good snag, giving the team an incredible performance through the postseason.

Now it appears that the Phils are right back in the hunt for Halladay, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Halladay just has one year left on his contract and the folks in Philadelphia would like him to spend it wearing red and white.

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos is ready to listen to offers for the 32-year-old Halladay, who ended up with 17 wins, a 2.79 ERA, and 208 strikeouts in 239 innings pitched.

"Philadelphia is into winning now, and Halladay fits that," said a front-office worker of a rival to the Phillies.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

The National League champion Philadelphia Phillies have declined the $5.5 million option on its third baseman, Pedro Feliz(notes), who served the team well with excellent defense and solid offense: He batted .266 with 82 RBI and 12 dingers.

Of course the team could still re-sign Feliz but GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and his gang will be looking into a few different options at third for 2010 that have a little more pop in their bats, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer: Adrian Beltre(notes), Chone Figgins(notes), and Mark DeRosa(notes).

Rumor has it the team could also try long-time shortstop Miguel Tejada(notes) at third. He's a free agent and is supposedly open to playing third base.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Godzilla crushed a city last night. It was New York Yankees designated hitter Hideki Matsui's(notes) six RBIs pounding at the walls of every Philadelphia Phillies fan home and favorite bar. But this could be Matsui's last call as a Yank. His four-year contract has now ended (as has Johnny Damon's)(notes) and the talk has been for some time that the team won't bring back both, according to the New York Daily News.

General manager Brian Cashman has apparently been saying that he'd like the team to get younger and more athletic and more versatile (and you'd hope cheaper), so paying Matsui a load of dough to DH doesn't seem to fit that mold. Damon is at least out in the field.

Catcher Jorge Posada(notes) will turn 39 next season so he may want to DH some. Alex Rodriguez(notes) may be getting some hip surgery this off-season so this team isn't getting any younger. Though they sure looked like a bunch of 6-year-olds bouncing up and down after the last out last night.

So Yankees fans may want to spend a little extra time cheering for the Series MVP Matsui when he floats by during the parade. Word has it he could be moving to the Great Northwest to play for the Seattle Mariners.

Source: New York Daily News

The Philadelphia Phillies are obviously feeling pretty down today, but there are plenty of signs of hope for the former world champs and one of them is pitcher Cliff Lee(notes), who was an unstoppable force in the postseason.

And the Phils have him for the relatively cheap price of $9 million next year. But there have apparently been discussions within the organization of trying to get a long-term extension done this off-season, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Clearly, it's on our minds, but we haven't made a decision if we will yet," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said before Game 6.

While Lee was incredible in the postseason and pretty dang good in the regular season since joining the Phils, going 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA, one never knows what will happen so there are some in the organization who apparently want to wait and be sure Lee doesn't turn into the next Cole Hamels(notes), who was the MVP of last year's NLCS and World Series and then a disappointment during the regular season this year and even bigger one in the postseason.

Lee will likely want some kind of similar deal to the one his best friend and former teammate with the Cleveland Indians, CC Sabathia(notes), got last off-season from the New York Yankees: seven years for $161 million.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Clint Hurdle got canned early in the season as the Colorado Rockies' manager. That didn't stop the team from rolling to 92 wins and the wild card before getting stopped by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round of the playoffs.

Now it's looking like Hurdle may join the Texas Rangers as the hitting coach, according to MLB.com. Hurdle had the same job with the Rockies from 1997 to 2001. The Rockies were at the front of the National League pack in runs scored for three of those seasons and only two runs off the lead during the other two. Hurdle also helped guide Larry Walker to the 1997 Most Valuable Player Award. Walker, Vinny Castilla(notes), and Todd Helton(notes) also won Silver Sluggers under his watchful eye.

So the Rangers appear to want a little bit of that magic. First thing they might want to do is find a way to thin out the air at their stadium.

Will be interesting to see if Hurdle has any interest in bringing Milton Bradley(notes) back to the Rangers, which some team execs supposedly would like to do since the Chicago Cubs want to unload him and the Rangers lacked a certain punch without Bradley in the lineup this past season.

Source: MLB.com

Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino(notes) is not happy with one of the team's former managers, Larry Bowa. Not happy one little bit. Bowa apparently said that the Phils are sign stealers and the New York Yankees apparently agree with him. That would explain why Jorge Posada(notes) is using seven billion signs even when nobody is on base.

Last night, Victorino let it be known that his team isn't cheating and that Bowa has no idea what he's talking about, according to the New York Post. "I guess he knows something that I don't know about, obviously," Victorino said. "You know, everybody makes excuses. Everybody is going to find a reason. For Bowa to come out and say something like that if he doesn't know what he's talking about, if he doesn't have cold, hard facts, he shouldn't say something like that.

The New York Mets actually had the sneaking suspicion that the team was stealing signs back in 2007 and even using a video camera in center field to do so. The Mets went so far as to ask the league to investigate, which ended up going nowhere.

Plus, if the team was cheating and stealing signs, they sure aren't doing a good job of using the info. As Victorino points out, it didn't exactly help them win Games 3 or 4.

Source: The New York Post