I listened to Jays’ GM Alex Anthopoulos explain the plan for the team (you can listen here if you’re so inclined) and here’s what I took from it: The man can talk. And I don’t mean in the he-gives-long-answers-to-simple-questions way (even though he does).

No, I mean he can talk in the isn’t-this-pile-of-crap-awesome way and be convincing about it.

Listening to him explain The Plan, I felt excited. Thinking back on what he said, I’m not so excited.

I won’t go into a full recap of The Plan, as others have already done a great of it — check the Jays links to the right if you’re interested — but there are two main points I want to address:

1. The team is going to suck for a while longer.
2. Roy Halladay is going to be shipped out of town.

By themselves, neither of these points would make me very happy; together, I think I can live with them.

If Anthopoulos is resigned to the fact that Doc’s “timetable for winning is different” than the team’s, he’s not going to let Doc walk as a free agent. Anthopoulos is going to have to trade him. While that will be painful for myself and every Jays fan, it will be good, for fans at least, in both the long and the short-term.

In the long-term, the return Toronto gets from trading Doc should mean that the team will complete its “building” phase and be competitive again much quicker. In the short-term, trading Doc will give Blue Jays fans something to cheer for while the Jays are rebuilding.

I’d prefer it if Halladay didn’t go to the Yankees or the Red Sox, but even if he does, I’ll be hoping for him to win. Doc is the best pitcher in the game and has given everything he’s got to Toronto for, let’s be honest, longer than the team has deserved. The man deserves to play for a winner.