Yahoo! Sports' Gordon Edes makes the case that the time to deal Roy Halladay was last year.

But if that's true for Halladay, then it should be so for almost every high-priced player (particularly pitchers among whom he's the most reliable). While Dave Cameron puts Halladay's value for the next year and a half at $38 million above and beyond his salary, that analysis was based on recent market value ($5.5 million) for each extra team win a player is worth. If teams decide going forward they're willing to pay substantially less for each extra win, then as Edes argues, the Jays might not get the package they're looking for.

It's usually harder to make a deal while values are in flux because the two parties are less likely to see eye to eye on what their assets are worth. If that's the case, the trade deadline could be a dud, especially with many of the top 2010 free agents either playing for contenders (Jason Bay, Carl Crawford, Chipper Jones, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, Vlad Guerrero, Josh Beckett, Rich Harden, John Lackey), having a relatively cheap club option for 2010 which would inflate their trade value (Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez) or injured (Carlos Delgado, Adrian Beltre, Brandon Webb).