Krause: Time to revisit the idea of trading for Halladay

Idle chatter while waiting for something big to happen ?Two weeks ago, colleague Rich Tenorio presented all his arguments against the Red Sox trading for Roy Halladay. Usually, if Rich says black, I say white. If he says tomay-to, I say tomah-to.But on this we agreed. I think he almost had a stroke, to tell you the truth.That was two weeks ago.Since then, Tim Wakefield went on the disabled list, Clay Buchholz looked like last year’s model down in Texas, and it became even more obvious that the John Smoltz experiment, if it isn’t a total failure, will be fraught with more valleys than peaks as we go forward.And, of course, that old, very tired, but very true, baseball adage just came roaring back to the surface. So, repeat after me: You can NEVER have enough pitching.There is one reality that I think the Red Sox have to face: They are not a good enough offensive team to hit above-average pitching night after night. Oh, they can rake in runs against the weaker teams in the league. But put them up against anyone with a decent staff, and they’re at a disadvantage. By and large, they’ve won because of their pitching.The pitching, even as it is now, will probably get them into the playoffs, or have them contending right up until the end. But once they go up against other teams with good pitching, that’ll be it.So, perhaps we need to rethink this. There obviously aren’t enough good bats out there for the taking to restock an entire lineup. The team is weak offensively in too many key spots to expect that to happen.So if you can’t outhit them, then you’re going to have to outpitch them. There’s no other way around it if you want to win – which is supposed to be the management’s stated mission.I think they’re going to make a push to get Halladay.In 1994, the newly-revamped Babe Ruth facility opened on O’Callaghan Way in Lynn. For almost a decade after that, the facility was THE place to be on a summer night, especially in July and August when it hosted state tournaments; and on weekends, when just about every important softball event took place on Rogato Field.That’s why it was great to see the place hopping this past weekend, with the state 15-year-old tournament happening as well as the New England Regional U16s going on, both at Rogato Field and the hastily-redone Callahan School diamond.It takes a tremendous amount of work on the part of a tremendous number of people who put their lives on hold so that the city can showcase this type of youth baseball talent. And I only hope that their efforts aren’t taken for granted.The same can be said for the folks who worked feverishly Friday in the rain to get Reinfuss Field at Wyoma ready for the state Little League sectionals.Sadly, Lynn gets a bad rap sometimes. But when you see the likes of the Wyoma Little League and Lynn Babe Ruth crews working as hard as they do, it makes you see the other side just a bit more clearly.Finally, this Friday night at Marian Gardens, the championship game of the Lynn Youth Basketball League will be played at 4 p.m.The league began in June as part of an idea that came out of last year’s Lynn Summit. It has received backing from a lot of prominent members of the Lynn community, including The Item, and has been run ably by English girls basketball coach Fred Hogan, English boys assistant Simmie Anderson, Marshall Middle School teacher and coach Jeff Byrd, Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano, School Committeeman John Ford, and many others.Hats off to them. I dropped by last Friday night and there was some great basketball action – mainly, I suppose, because it resembled an NBA all-star game (all offense, little, if any, defense). Very entertaining.Expect to be similarly entertained if you go to Marian Gardens Friday.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.