…Directly to the Philadelphia Inquirer daily sports poll. Today’s queston is a chip off the old stupidity block and the responses are as ugly as Medusa giving birth to the Elephant Man. Q: “Should the Phillies give up J.A. Happ as part of a trade for Roy Halladay?” A: 50.7% no, 49.3% yes.

In typical homer fashion, the majority of fans who voted “no” are affected by exposure to Happ’s productive season here in Philly. This year Happ is 6-0 with a 2.90 ERA, pitching in the 5 spot. He has beaten Washington 3 times, Toronto once, San Diego once and the Pirates once which, despite his good numbers, means he is yet to win a game against a team over .500 this season. For his career, Happ has appeared in 31 games and is 7-1 with a 3.38 ERA, a WHIP of 1.27 and a strikeout-walk ratio of 1.92 for a team that won the World Series last year. He is off to a very nice start to his career.

This season Roy Halladay is 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA, pitching in the most difficult division in baseball. He has beaten the division-leading Angels twice, the division-leading Tigers once as well as the New York Yankees (other wins include K.C., the White Sox twice (.511), the Orioles, the Twins (.506) and the Indians). For his career, Halladay is 141-61 with an ERA of 3.47, a WHIP of 1.20 and a K/BB ratio of 3.19 and has played his entire career for a team that has never been good enough to make the playoffs.

At 32 years old, Halladay has thrown 43 complete games, appeared in 6 All-Star games and won one Cy Young award. In as much as it’s possible to say this about someone who probably needs a few more seasons (and some playoff appearances, though the lack thereof certainly isn’t his fault) to be considered, Halladay is on the fast-track to the Hall of Fame.

For as nice a start as J.A. Happ has had to his career, retaining him in a scenario where he could be traded for Roy Halladay would be simply foolish. Roy Halladay has been one of the top-5 pitchers in baseball for the past 7 seasons and (as the trajectory of his career stats indicate) has at least 5 seasons left in him. There is a reason they call players like Happ prospects: because their promise is not only to their own clubs’ futures, but in their value as trade pieces as well.

Think about it this way: if the Phillies face the Giants (Lincecum and Cain), the Cardinals (Carpenter and Wainwright), or the Dodgers with Billingsley and Kershaw in the playoffs, which top two Phillies pitchers more effectively oppose these tandems, Hamels and Happ (assuming Manuel is comfortable enough to put Happ in the #2 spot by then) or Hamels and Halladay? What if they make the World Series and face the Red Sox? Is there anyone out there who seriously thinks the Hamels/Happ duo would be better than Halladay/Hamels against Josh Beckett and Jon Lester?

Folks in this town need to start thinking about the prospect of a trade for Halladay for what it is: a chance to put a product on the field that is as good a contender for its second World Series ring as any other team out there. The inclusion of Roy Halladay on this team at the expense of J.A. Happ is no indictment of the latter, merely a recognition of what a more dangerous pitching staff this team would have if Halladay were a part of it.