July 8 -- AMARO WON'T BET FARM ON HALLADAY

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Will the Phillies stop at nothing to get Roy Halladay?

Not according to Ruben Amaro Jr.

With the Blue Jays confirming yesterday that they'll listen to offers for Halladay -- and with the Phillies making a well-stated, aggressive push for another starter -- Amaro spoke to the media for nearly 20 minutes in the Phillies' dugout. Now, Amaro isn't allowed to discuss specific players on other teams' rosters, so he wasn't able to comment directly about Halladay or anybody else. But the biggest revelation to come from the Q&A session was that there are certain playerse in the farm system that the Phillies absolutely won't trade.

"There are some untouchables in our system," Amaro said. "We feel like we're building a pretty strong farm system, which puts us in a decent position. That said, we have to be prudent about what our future's about. It's important for us to win now, and we have to understand the importance in that. But that said, there are players that we'd like ot keep for our future, and I'd say they're not as touchable as others."

So, if Amaro was faced with acquiring, well, the best pitcher in baseball, are there prospects he wouldn't trade?

"There are," Amaro said.

Charlie Manuel, whose in the business of winning immediately, is less hesitant to mortgage the farm system, but even he has limits. "It'd be tough for me to trade Drabek," Manuel said. "I like Drabek because he's strong in his legs and his hips and he's a drop and drive kind of pitcher. I'm not a pitching coach but I like his mechanics and I like where he comes from and he's a strong-bodied kid, like a Tom Seaver-type or a Bartolo Colon, and he's got that kind of stuff. And he's young, and I think he has a big upside to him."

Later, Amaro added, "As Paul Owens said and Dallas Green after that, they are prospects, and if moving one of them can help us improve our club to help get us in the playoffs and perhaps make a run at winning another championship, then we have to keep the lines open."

A few other highlights:

--Amaro didn't divulge much information on special assistant Charley Kerfeld's reports on Pedro Martinez's simulated game yesterday in the Dominican Republic: "I don't really want to comment much about it other than that we're trying to do what we can to add to our club. If we feel at the end of the day that Pedro is going to help us, then we'll make a run at him. ... I think if Pedro were to be on our club it would be more as a starter than anything else."

--The Phillies' payroll stands at a club-record $133 million, and they already have $95.5 million invested in 11 players for 2010. "We have some flexibility," Amaro said. "A lot of it depends on the player that we're talking about. But we have some flexibility. It's not unlimited."

--Amaro said he tends to agree with Pat Gillick's philosophy of not giving a pitcher more than a three-year contract. (Halladay, a free agent after the 2010 season, may be seeking an extension before he waives his no-trade clause, although Halladay's agent, Greg Landry, hasn't returned calls from Philled In today.) "I think that any time you get past three years, especially with free-agent pitchers, you put yourself in position where the productivity will drastically change the ability for that player to be productive or healthy," Amaro said. "Some teams have had success with that. Some teams have been burned. When you start talking about real long-term contracts, one of two things happen: You either get less production than you hoped, or the player feels like he wasn't paid enough for the production that he has. There's plusses and minuses for doing long-term deals, and then, there's times when maybe you have to bend your rules a little bit."

--Entering last night's games, 17 teams were within five games of a wild-card spot or a division-lead. But Amaro said he has seen the trade market begin to take shape, with buyers and sellers falling into their various roles. "There's just not going to be that much movement," he said. "That's just the nature of the beast. It's just too hard to make trades."

--Regarding the elusive search for another right-handed bat for the bench, Amaro said it may be possible to fill that need after the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline. Remember: Last year, the Phillies traded for Matt Stairs in August.