Bill Conlin: Halladay trade talk has ripple effect

The new ownership brought back Blue Jays former president and later MLB president Paul Beeston, an Ontarian, to serve as interim CEO. It is widely believed that Beeston, who plans to step down himself, will fire Ricciardi as his final act. The GM seems to have been caught in a strange contradiction where he did his best work in Toronto when strapped for cash - in "Moneyball" mode, as it were. And when given

real money to spend, he has made poor trades and lavished ruinous contracts on the likes of recently released closer B.J. Ryan and handed $140 million in future salary to underachieving Wells and Alex Rios.

When Ricciardi was quoted the other day that he would entertain no offers for Halladay before the July 31 deadline for nonwaiver trades, he created a nightmare scenario for potential suitors. What if Ruben Amaro falls into the Jim Thome trap? After GM Ed Wade proudly wrapped his biggest deal with the red ribbon of a 6-year, $85 million contract, it turned out Jim never got an offer from the Cubs. Ed had bid against himself.

So what if Ruben shrewdly packages, say, J.A. Happ, Kyle Drabek, just-promoted Michael Taylor, Antonio Bastardo and Anthony Gose and BlackBerrys the deal to Ricciardi? And the Blue Jays' lame-duck GM takes it and runs.

What if . . . What if it turns out the Phillies were the only bidder? *

Send e-mail to bill1chair@aol.com. For recent columns,

go to http://go.philly.com/conlin.