Six Thoughts on Suddenly Sizzling Stove

Monday was one of those Hot Stove season days that make you forget all of the other ones when we are sitting around and pondering the significance of Pedro Feliz. The MLB landscape shook, with signs pointing to the movement of three top-of-the-rotation starting pitchers, and one over-the-hill-but-interesting outfielder/designated hitter.

There are still some physicals to be passed and an extension to be reached, but it looks like Roy Halladay is going to the Phillies in a three-team deal that will send Cliff Lee to the Mariners and prospects to Toronto; Meanwhile, John Lackey will wind up with the Red Sox and Hideki Matsui to the Angels.

Some of the names of the prospects being moved in the Halladay-Lee deal have yet to be confirmed, but we can still draw a few conclusions from the day's big headlines.

• The Mariners and Rangers have now taken a big step past the Angels in the AL West. Before this deal, the Mariners had already thwarted the Angels by taking spark-plug Chone Figgins away from them, and now they added Lee on the same day the Angels lost Lackey. That's a big swing.

Now Seattle can boast a 1-2 punch of Felix Hernandez and Lee, which is as good as it gets in the American League. Even Texas, which essentially turned Kevin Millwood into Rich Harden, Chris Ray and a pile of cash, has accomplished more so far this offseason than the Angels.

"I think there's been a significant shift," said a scout who covered the AL West last year. "Right now I think it's Texas, Seattle, Anaheim. ... I think what Texas did is brilliant. ... The Angels have a bunch of No. 3 starters. Jered Weaver is a No. 2 on a good day."

The Angels had disavowed interest in Bay and Matt Holliday, but you have to wonder if they'll reconsider now.

• The Red Sox got a fair price for Lackey, signing him for five years and $80 to $85 million, depending on which reports you believe. It's almost the exact same deal that the Yankees gave A.J. Burnett last year, and Lackey has a similar track record.

Honestly, I was surprised to see that their ERAs were both exactly 3.81 at the time of the deals, and Burnett had a slightly better WHIP 1.284 to Lackey's 1.306. A couple years ago, you would have said that Lackey was much more durable, but he's missed part of the past two seasons, so now it's less clear.

In any case, Lackey was the No. 1 dog on the free-agent pitching market this year, so there was some thought that someone would overpay for him. That doesn't seem to be the case.

• With Lackey, Halladay and even Randy Wolf off the pitching market, it looks like the eyes of teams desperate for someone to put at the top of their rotation are going to turn to Atlanta. The Braves have Javier Vazquez and Derek Lowe. Teams wanting a short-term answer might be more interested in Vazquez (who has one year and $11.5 million left on his deal) while Lowe (three years and $45 million) offers more long-term help.

• The Mets may wind up as winners, in a weird way. They have an offer on the table for Jason Bay, and now two of the most serious competitors for Bay (Boston, Seattle) are all but out of the market because they just added big chunks of salary for 2010. The Mariners, though, are only committed to one year for Lee, so it's possible they could still make a run at Bay.

• The Yankees are either winners or losers, depending on your perspective. The optimist says that they got Halladay out of the division and saw the Red Sox absorb a five-year commitment to a starting pitcher for a big chunk of change, and those deals often look bad in years four or five.

Of course, the other side to that is that they missed out on the two best pitchers available, and they still need some help in their rotation. Yes, they won the World Series, but remember, they did it with just three starters, and two of those are Andy Pettitte (not getting any younger) and Burnett (4.06 ERA over the past two years). It's likely that one of those two will be worse in 2010, which means they are really going to need something big out of Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes unless they can get someone else like Lowe or Vazquez.

• Finally, how did young Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopolous do in his first trade? We can't really tell right now, since we don't know exactly which prospects the Jays are getting and even when we do, it'll take a couple years to know how good they are.

If the Blue Jays end up getting even close to the type of packages they were offered last July, it's a victory for Anthopolous.

Gotta give him credit for getting something done in a timely fashion, though, rather than dragging this story into the New Year (a la the Johan Santana situation in 2007-08).