Tenorio: Red Sox should take a pass on Halladay

It’s natural for Boston Red Sox fans to believe that if their team can trade for Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay, the Sox would instantly be favorites to win the World Series. It’s also natural to believe the letters in your mailbox that say you may have already won a million dollars. Let’s hope the Sox front office shows a little more restraint.With about two weeks to go before the July 31 trade deadline, big-league baseball teams are showing more interest in Halladay than Harry Potter fans are in their hero’s latest film. On one level, it’s unsurprising – any self-respecting baseball executive would show interest in a guy with an 11-3 record, a 2.73 ERA, and 113 strikeouts in 132 innings ? especially if he’s pitching for a fourth-place team and his contract expires next year.But on another level, it really is surprising how many ballclubs and fans are willing to believe that if their team can just swing a midseason trade for One More Great Player, then everything will fall into place for a Fall Classic victory. Because history has conclusively proven it doesn’t work.Consider what happened about a year ago, when the Milwaukee Brewers, hoping for a playoff run, got CC Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians. The thinking was that Sabathia would provide the pitching spark the Brewers needed, and in the short term it worked – he went 11-2 to lead Milwaukee into the playoffs. Unfortunately, Sabathia’s playoff tenure with the Brewers lasted exactly one game, with Shane Victorino and the Philadelphia Phillies taking care of that.Maybe the Sox front office and fans are haunted by memories of past collapses, seasons like 1978, which seemed to prove the adage, “You can never have enough pitching.” Um, actually, you can have enough pitching. The Sox rotation, already strong with Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefield and Jon Lester, could get a further boost if John Smoltz improves and Clay Buchholz completes his comeback. Adding another starter, no matter how off-the-charts, could postpone the progress of Smoltz, Buchholz, or both.Instead of pursuing quixotic quests for unnecessary starters, how about the Sox addressing their real need – hitting? David Ortiz is still slumping with a .224 average, John Henry is paying J.D. Drew $14 million to hit .239, and Jason Varitek, at .234, is making us wonder just how much the Sox should have offered him this year – $5 million or $5.00.If you look at all those Sox postseason heartbreaks over the years, one common denominator you’ll find is that the offense went south. This was true in the 1978 playoff-game loss to the New York Yankees, when the Sox went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position. And it was true in 1995, when sluggers Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco went a combined 0-for-27 in a three-game sweep by Cleveland. If the current regulars are struggling to hit .250 against the entire American League, how much worse will they fare against top pitching in the playoffs?It’s true that an ace like Halladay can have a big impact for a team in the postseason. But all those scoreless innings aren’t going to make a difference if there aren’t batters in the lineup who can drive in runs. The Sox should take a pass on Halladay – and try instead to get players who can get hits off pitchers like him.Rich Tenorio is an Item sports copy editor.